This is for all of us who grew up in the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's.

We survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank whilst they were pregnant with us.

They took asprin, ate blue cheese and brie, ate tuna from a can and never got tested for diabetes....not to mention cleaning out cat boxes.

After our arrival, our cribs and rooms were decorated with lead based paints.

We had no childproof medicine bottles, no latches on cabinet doors, no outlet covers.  When we rode our bikes we did so sans helmets.

We were allowed to ride in cars with no car seats or air bags, and some of us even rode without seatbelts.  A ride in the bed of a pickup truck was a real treat on a warm day.  We even hitchhiked and made it to our destination in one piece.

We drank water from the garden hose and we shared soda cans and bottles with our friends...and no-one actually died from doing so.

We ate cakes, candies, sugar and real butter, we drank sodas...and not many of us we overweight because we were always playing outside and burning calories off.

We would leave home in the morning and be outside all day...coming home when the street lights came on.  We were unreachable all day...but we were okay.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps of wood, only to find half-way down the hill that we had forgotten to add brakes to our machines.  After we ran into the bushes a few times, we learned to fix that problem.

We did not have Playstations, X-boxes or Nintendos; we had no cell phones or pagers; there were no 99 cable channels.  We didn't have computers or the internet or chat rooms...we made friends by going outside and finding them!

We fell out of trees, we fell off bikes.  We got cut, we broke bones and we knocked out teeth...and no lawsuits resulted from our injuries.

We had BB guns, we made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and although we were told it would happen, not many of us actually put out our eyes.

We had sports team tryouts and not everyone who tried out made the team.  They had to learn to live with their disappointment....imagine that, huh?

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.  In fact, if we got arrested, jail was probably the safest place for us to be......

We learned about freedom, success, failure and responsibility...we learned how to deal with it all.

We survived.  We made it.  We should be proud of ourselves.