This is Aaron Scott Horton......my first great-grandchild and to him I welcome you into our family......I held you today and it was love at first sight! I don't know how long I will be in your life but I think you should know a few things about your Grammie Betty......who seemed to be born and grow up in a different world than you will be raised in......
Children born in the 30's-40's-50's survived being born at home......I was born in my grandmother Goff's bedroom by a mother who took aspirin, ate blue cheese, tuna from a can and did not get tested for diabetes.
Then after the trauma we were put to sleep on our tummies---in cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paint....... and heaven forbid we had no child-proof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode bikes we had no helmets on our heads.
As infants and children we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, cars with bald tires and sometimes no brakes.......we even got to ride in the back of pick-up trucks. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends and from same bottle and no one actually died from it. We ate cup cakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank cool aid made with real sugar and no one was over weight.....WHY? because we were always outside playing and on the move......
We could leave home in the morning and play all day as long as we came home when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us and that was ok.......we learned to think for ourselves.
We did not have play stations, Nintendo or X boxes.....No videos games, no DVD movies, no CD'S, no cell phones, or Ipads or Computers, no Internet and no chat rooms......or TV with cartoons........ We had friends and went outside to find them to play. We climbed trees and fell out of them, got cuts and bruises and even broken bones but there were never laws-suits because of this. We rode bikes or walked to our friends houses and went up and knocked on their doors and spoke to them when we wanted to do something......no texting!
Teachers were allowed to discipline us and most parents punished us at home......not school......and just so you know.....these generations produced some of the best problem solvers, innovators, risk-takers. idea people and inventors in the world. Our role models taught us constructive thought and value of cooperation.
Your generation may feel sorry for those in the past but the world let kids be kids and sometimes learn a lesson the hard way that we never forgot......but we SURVIVED! I am sure you will look at my life as I do the pioneers that came before me......and smile.
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