Dear Editor, How did we ever survive the ‘good old days’?

How did those of us born between 1939 and 1980 ever survive?

First, we were born to moms who smoked and drank a beer or two while they were carrying us in their womb. These same moms took aspirin; ate blue cheese dressing and tuna from a can. They didn’t get tested for diabetes, either. But we were still born healthy.

We were put to sleep on our tummies in a crib covered with bright colored, lead-based paints. We drank boiled milk and dad skimmed the fat off for his coffee. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and, when we rode our bikes, there were no helmets.

We knew the difference between a real and “play” gun. We rode in cars without car seats, booster chairs, seat belts or airbags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was a special treat, and we drank water from the garden hose… not a purified bottle.

We shared a soft drink n maybe even two or three n between friends and no one died as a result of it. We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and even drank Kool-Aid made with real sugar and did not get overweight. Why? We were always OUTSIDE playing.

We got “high” by pushing the swing over the bar at the playground n then we came down by jumping off the swing.

We left house in the morning and did not return until the street lights came on. We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down a hill. Sometimes we forgot about adding brakes; however, it was a lesson we quickly learned after hitting the bushes a couple of times. Afterward, our legs were red with the stain of mecurocrome.

There were cuts, broken bones, lost teeth… but, again, we lived.

We didn’t have PlayStations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, video games or computers. We enjoyed ourselves the primitive way n with real, live friends. There were no video movies, multi-channel networks on TV, DVD or surround sound. We had 78 rpm records and, later, 45s. We even got to listen to Hi-Fi.

There were no cell phones, Internet or IPODs. Our chat room was the clubhouse we built in a nearby tree.

Our game equipment was made from sticks, an old tire and perhaps a tennis ball n parents warned us about getting our eyes put out, but luckily it never happened.

We rode out bikes or even walked to a friend’s house. We never rang a bell n the house was open and, after you announced yourself and then walked right on in.

We got punish work from school and twice as much when we got home.

If you dared to talk back or wear a hat at the dinner table, you got a quick lesson in manners; one that made it unable to sit without a pillow.

Despite all the shortcomings, we managed to survive. I wonder how?

Today, spank a child and risk getting arrested. We send our children to schools that have to be guarded by police. Kids’ vocabulary is limited to four letter words that even “ladies of the evening” wouldn’t say in our day.

Children today are taught to add, subtract, multiply and divide with a machine instead of their head. Prayer has been removed from our schools and God from our government.

It makes me wonder what life will be like when those of us who remember a better time are simply a memory.

Forest A. Travirca III

Lockport