Watertown High School

Class of 1956 ~ 55 Years of Ripening

 

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Things and Stuff are about the same.

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Carol DeVetter received this while I was in Watertown for the "committee" meeting.  I asked her to send it to me so we could include it.  I have asked myself this question many times.  Enjoy!

People Over 35 Should Be Dead!

 According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or even maybe the early 70’s probably shouldn't have survived. 

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.  We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)

 We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 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. No cell phones. Unthinkable!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, videotape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms. We had friends! We went outside and found them.

We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.  We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home 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. 

Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Horrors! Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. (However, we also did many incredibly stupid things as teenagers, which we would rather not admit to, that luckily we either did not get caught doing, or the consequences did not catch up with us - at least I did!)

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and 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. And you're one of them! Congratulations.    Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good..

 

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It seems that part of any conversation seems to come around as to how much computers and email have contributed to our loves.  Here is something I saved one time that puts a different spin on things. Wes

 

THERE WAS LIFE BEFORE THE COMPUTER

 

An application was for employment

A program was a TV show

A cursor used profanity

A keyboard was a piano!

 

Memory was something that you lost with age

A CD was a bank account!

And if you had a broken disk,

It would hurt when you found out!

 

Compress was something you did to garbage 

Not something you did to a file

And if you unzipped anything in public 

You'd be in jail for a while!

 

Log on was adding wood to a fire

Hard drive was a long trip on the road 

A mouse pad was where a mouse lived

And a backup happened to your commode! 

 

Cut- you did with a pocket knife

Paste- you did with glue

A web was a spider's home

And a virus was the flu!

 

I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper 

And the memory in my head

I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash 

But when it happens they wish they were dead!