BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS »
Amreekia Min Bab Al Sharayah

That was the name of my old blog. Translated, it means an American woman from the old, poor and rundown district of Bab Al Sharayah in Cairo. I was given this nickname because although I was born in the USA, my mentality is more ghetto Egyptian. I'm a curious mixture of east meets west, and dont care if you call me balady!

I'm going to slowly bring some of the old posts from Amreekia over here (see archives), basically to give new readers some background. I hope you'll enjoy the old and the new and join me on this fascinating expat journey!

Monday, September 21, 2009

These really were the good old days!




Here's to US!!!!
No matter what our kids and the
new generation think about us,
 WE ARE AWESOME !!!!
OUR LIFE IS LIVING PROOF !!!!

To Those of  Us  Born  
1930 - 1969

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
                   1930's, 40's, 
               50's, and 60's!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who 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.
 
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep
 on our tummies in baby cribs covered
with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles,
locks on doors or cabinets and
when we rode our bikes,
we had baseball caps
not 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 sometimes 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 cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon.
 We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar.
And, we weren't overweight..   WHY?

Because we were always outside playing...that' s why!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day,
as long as we were back when the streetlights came on..
No one was able to reach us all day. 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 DVD's, 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 spankings with wooden spoons,

switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand
and no one would call child services to report abuse.

We ate worms and mud pies
made from dirt, and
the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
made up games with sticks and tennis balls and,
although we were told it would happen,
we did not put out very many eyes.

 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.

 Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn't had to learn
to deal with disappointment.
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
risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion
of innovation and new ideas..
We had freedom, failure, success 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, forward it to your kids
so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.
 
Kind of makes you want to run through the house
with scissors, doesn't it ?

3 comments:

on the edge said...

Ok , Queenie !You gotta stop all this changing blogs all the time , you hear ? I am getting dizzy just trying to find you !

Love the blog and HOPE YOU STAY HERE A WHILE !!!! BTW ... hope the Eid was kind to you and yours . Eid Mubarak to you and the family ! Blessings , OTE

Angie Nader said...

Hi Queen,
i was born in 1976...and i even though i dont fall in the time frame..i'd have to admit that it does sound like my childhood.
things are so different now for children and especially teens. they have access to instant gratification, and things are easily accesible the way they werent before. especially the internet has given kids of today access to information they would like to reasearch.
homework must be much easier now :)

on the edge said...

Things were really much simpler back then huh ? Try to raise your kids that way now and Child Protective Services will probably take them away from you .