WE SURVIVED – BORN BETWEEN 1930 AND 1979?

No matter what our kids and the new generation think about us,
WE ARE AWESOME!
OUR LIFE IS A LIVING PROOF!!

To Those of Us Born during
1930 - 1979


TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
1930s, 40s, 50s,
60s and 70s!!!

We were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cots covered with bright colored lead base paints.

We had no child proof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no caps or helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and some times no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.

We ate cup cakes and other sweets made with Butter & white sugar but were not over weight.

WHY?

Because we were always outside playing....that's why!

We would leave home in the morning, go to school mostly on foot and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. There were no cell phones, not even land lines and, we were OKAY.

We would spend hours building our go carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem

We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround sound or CD s, no cell phones, no personal computers, no internet and no chat rooms.

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 these accidents.

We would get punishments like caning, spankings with sticks, or just a bare hands and no one would call child services to report abuse.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best managers, risk takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. What can kids today do besides push buttons.

We had freedom, failures, successes and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, share it with your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.

Green Beret is not the original author of this work.

IVAN, THE LENDL – A CHARISMATIC PERSONALITY

Ivan Lendl has been one of my most favourite players of all time. Born on 07 Mar 1960 in Ostrava, former Czechoslovakia, Ivan inherited lawn tennis from his parents. He turned pro in 1978 at the age of 18 when he set pace on a long and illustrious tennis career. With a very strong forehand, Ivan dominated the world tennis for 16 long years and remained No. 1 for a record 270 weeks. He was among the most dominating tennis players from late 70s to early 90s. Towering 6 ft 2 in, Lendl has also been one of the most humble and lovable players ever to grace the game of tennis. He reached at least one Grand Slam final for consecutive 11 years and captured a total of eight Grand Slams in his career out of 19 contested. He had first garnered the world attention in 1978 when he won Boys' Singles titles at both, French as well as Wimbledon.

In 1983, during the apartheid era, Ivan played three exhibition matches in South Africa and was expelled from the Czechoslovak Davis Cup team and fined by the communist regime, an action resented by him. He had already started living in the US from 1981 onwards and now he applied for the Green Card and eventually became a US citizen in 1992.

Ivan Lendl has been a paragon of hard work and fitness and his most famous quote is: "If I don't practice the way I should, then I won't play the way that I know I can." 

Ivan was a clay expert and grass was his weak turf. The one title that always eluded him was Wimbledon. He played Wimbledon 14 times and came close to winning the title twice but lost to Boris Becker in 1986 and to Pat Cash in 1987. He was the all time prize money champ with $21,282,417 when he quit. An avid golfer, he now lives in Vero Beach area, Florida.

Since I have been a great admirer of Ivan, I still feel particularly bad to think that one of the greatest and most powerful tennis players of all time was unable to win Wimbledon.

But he will always remain one of the most graceful and magnificent tennis stars of all time.

 

LET'S GO BACK IN TIME

Are you a person from the 50s, 60s, 70s or even 80s? If your answer is yes, then you are my generation. Our generation has been great in every sense of the word. We were born and brought up rough and tough with hardly any technology and facilities. We suffered hardships and sailed through real rough weather. But we kept the momentum on and that is why our generation has produced some of the most capable scientists, managers, soldiers, athletes and artists ever. 

We had few options as far as career was concerned. We had fewer streams or disciplines of education, fewer conveniences, fewer facilities but far greater time at our disposal. And that is one thing which the generations those followed us, have been having in ever smaller proportions.

Well, I intend posting some memories of 'good ole times' on this very blog here. If you want to share your experiences, anecdotes or feelings, do contact me. Together we can write, read and share one another's experiences. When we share, we learn. Learning never stops. Moreover, it is completely necessary to take out some time for leisure from the busy schedule of today and relive 'better and best days' of our past.

 

OH MY GOD, WHERE ARE YOU?

I have often wondered where does the God live? What does he do? How does he do whatever he does? I, for one, am a non believer. But I care enough for other people; other people who care enough for God! The most baffling thing about God is that there are so many of them. Books preach that all those revered figures are the forms of but one God. How? I don't really know and I don't really believe. All saints we have had in the past were highly learned and enlightened persons who were, even during those times, far ahead of others in matters of spirituality. But they were as human as all others. They came into this world, lived simple, meaningful and virtuous lives, imparted teachings to public and died. Simple teachings, straight from the heart. But people have misunderstood the very concept of religion and spirituality. Most of us do not understand religion, if at all we need religion in today's times. How is it that there are no more miracles which took place in distant past? How come there are evils? Do we require evils? How come all bad things imaginable happen in our world? Why do good people die early and violent, dishonest, selfish, wicked people live long and comfortable lives? Why do villains command the society and real heroes go unsung, serving under the evil command?

There are no answers. No one can offer an explanation. If someone does, we need a proof; enough of this invisible stuff. This is where science scores; it shows, and how! Science does, religion doesn't because it cannot.

Why do people believe so easily the things which aren't? An Urdu poet said:

"Shabash ae buton (statues), taraqqi isko kahte hain,

Na tarshe the to patthar the, jo tarshe to khuda thahre!"

An ordinary dead stone becomes God overnight just after an artist has chiselled the stone into an idol and the idol is worshipped by believers!

How many well meaning intellectuals have been valued by us? The world is strange.