Today I’m reaching back into the Hometown View archives for an oldie but goodie that I wish was an original but it’s far too creative for me to come up with.

A mother checking that her baby's crib is secure circa 1956:
A mother checking that her baby's crib is secure circa 1956: (Photo by Jacobsen /Three Lions/Getty Images)
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It’s aimed at those born when times were simpler and while today’s young people may disagree in this case “the good old days” really were.

• We survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn’t get tested for diabetes. We were put to sleep in baby cribs covered with brightly colored lead-based paints. We did not have child-proof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets AND when we rode our bikes, we wore baseball caps and not helmets on our heads.

• As infants and children we would ride in cars with no seat belts, booster seats or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat and likely legal.

• We drank water from a garden hose and not from a designer bottle. We shared one soda with four friends from one bottle and nobody got sick or died. We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar and we were NOT overweight. Why?

• Because we were always outside playing. We would leave home in the morning and play all day, often until it got dark. Mom or Dad could not reach us but that was okay. We would spend hours building things and playing games. We did not have PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo Wii and there were no video games, no 300 TV channels to choose from, no smart phones, no laptops and IPads.

• We had friends and we went outside and found them. We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were NO lawsuits from those accidents. We would get spanked or hit from time to time and nobody called child services to report abuse.

Kool-Aid Man
Kool-Aid Man (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)
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• We were given BB guns as birthday presents, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and didn’t have to keep score. We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell or just walked in. Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who did not learned what being disappointed was all about. It was part of growing up.

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