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Culture, community mesh during International Fest at Mountain Top church

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Pop punk band All Time Low holds signing at Wilkes-Barre Gallery of Sound

<p>Sometimes, we come across things that are just too good not to share. Case in point &#8211; a video we saw on Facebook recalling all the things Baby Boomers have survived. Sharing it with you is ironic, to say the least, since Facebook, not to mention the internet itself, is something Baby Boomers grew up without.</p><p>Here it is &#8212; straight from the internet &#8212; to all you Baby Boomers out there:</p><p>&#8220;First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked or drank during their pregnancy. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn&#8217;t get tested for diabetes.</p><p>&#8220;Then, after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright-colored lead-based paints.</p><p>&#8220;We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and, when we rode our bikes, we had on baseball caps, not helmets.</p><p>&#8220;As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, on bald tires and sometimes no brakes. Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.</p><p>&#8220;We drank water from a 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.</p><p>&#8220;We ate cupcakes, real butter, white bread and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And we weren&#8217;t overweight.</p><p>&#8220;Why?</p><p>&#8220;Because we were always outside playing.</p><p>&#8220;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.</p><p>&#8220;We did not have PlayStations, Nintendos or Xboxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround sound, no CDs, no cellphones, no personal computers, no internet, no chat rooms.</p><p>&#8220;We had friends, and we went outside and found them.</p><p>&#8220;We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from those accidents. We would get spankings from wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.</p><p>&#8220;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 birthday, (.22 rifles) for our 12th, rode horses, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.</p><p>&#8220;We rode bikes or walked to a friend&#8217;s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.</p><p>&#8220;Little League had tryouts, and not everyone made the team. Those who didn&#8217;t had to learn how to deal with it, part of life.</p><p>&#8220;The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!</p><p>&#8220;These generations have produced some of the risk-takers, problem-solvers and inventors ever.</p><p>&#8220;The past 50 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovations and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. It was a different world, and we were lucky to be part of it.</p><p>&#8220;If you are one of those Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1970, be grateful. We lived through some really cool stuff back in the day.</p><p>&#8220;We survived!&#8221;</p><p style="text-align: right;"><em> &#8212; Times Leader</em></p><style>
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Our view: Baby Boomers survived some great times