Motorcycle Riders Born 1940 - 1979…We Survived

Just for all us bikers and motorcycle riders who survived being born in the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!  Oh yeah, we made it.

First of all, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank or smoked weed while they were pregnant with us.

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 motorcycles, 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 or on the back of Dad’s motorcycle 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 you may ask, 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 OK.

We would spend hours building our go-carts and mini-bikes 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 Station, Nintendo and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 500 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.  Life was pretty simple, we had friends and we went outside and we found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

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. Those 40 years were 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!

0h…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.  Just look what they are doing with motorcycles!

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 ?

Jay Leno, a fellow motorcycle rider and enthusiast says:

‘With hurricanes, tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of killer viruses and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?’

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Tagged as: born, Janis Joplin, Jay Leno, we survived