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People over 40 should be dead. Here is why

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, and 60's should not have survived. Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets. When we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.) As children, we would ride with no seatbelts or air bags in our 55-57 Chevy's. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this. 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. But, after running into the bushes a few times, we learned how 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 PERSONAL CELL PHONES! Unthinkable!
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes (No video games at all), no 99 channels on cable, videotape or DVD movies, surround sound, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms and no Fifties Finest Web Page. 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, broke bones andteeth.... But 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 notput 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 did not had to learn to deal with disappointment. Some students were not as smart as others, so they failed a grade andwere held back to repeat the same grade. Horrors! Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of a parent bailing usout 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, problemsolvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and welearned how to deal with it all. 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?

Try your hand at this quiz

1. Who designed the octagonal Stop Sign?
        a.) A policeman in Detroit MI
        b.) The United States Department of Transportation
        c.) The National Bureau of Standards & Measures

2. Where was the first traffic signal installed in the United States?
        a.) New York NY
        b.) Suisun City CA
        c.) Detroit MI

3. When was radar first used to catch speeders?
        a.) 1955
        b.) 1960
        c.) 1965

4. When was the only highway connecting Alaska to the lower 48 states built?
        a.) 1942
        b.) 1952
        c.) 1962

5. In which horse-drawn carriage (later a major auto maker) did President
    Lincoln ride to Ford's Theatre?
        a.) Ford
        b.) Lincoln
        c.) Studebaker

6. Who received the first patent for a fast-running combustion engine fueled
    by a petroleum product?
        a.) Walter Chrysler
        b.) Gottlieb Daimler
        c.) Henry Ford

7. How much did the first Model T Ford cost to the consumer?
        a.) $850
        b.) $1,850
        c.) $2,850

8. When was the first uniform traffic code for the nation created?
        a.) 1906
        b.) 1926
        c.) 1946

9. How did Genevre Delphine Mudge make driving history in 1898?
        a.) The first woman to start an auto manufacturing company, the Delphine
                DeLuxe Automobile Company.
        b.) The first woman to drive a car.
        c.) The inventor of the "Mudge Rim," the modern steel wheel.

10. What was the first state to require a driver's license?
        a.) New Jersey
        b.) Florida
        c.) Rhode Island

11. When was the first "vanity" license plate issued and where?
        a.) Connecticut in 1937
        b.) California in 1957
        c.) New York in 1967

12. How many licensed drivers are there in the U. S.?
        a.) 80 million
        b.) 185 million
        c.) 280 million

13. Where was the nation's first full service gas station?
        a.) Pittsburgh PA
        b.) Los Angeles CA
        c.) White Plains NY

14. Where is the Museum of Automobile History located?
        a.) Syracuse NY
        b.) Detroit MI
        c.) Omaha NE

15. When was air conditioning first offered in a car?
        a.) Packard in 1941
        b.) Cadillac in 1950
        c.) Lincoln in 1956

16. In what year were the first restrictions imposed on auto emissions?
        a.) 1963
        b.) 1969
        c.) 1973

17. When was the AAA (automobile club) formed?
        a.) 1899 in Garden City NY
        b.) 1902 in Chicago IL
        c.) 1947 in Los Angeles CA

18. Which U. S. President launched the construction of the interstate
    highway system?
        a.) Truman
        b.) Eisenhower
        c.) Kennedy

The year is 1906 ... one hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some of the U.S. statistics for 1906:US Population 85,450,000
The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 48 years.
Kellogg started selling their most famous product, Corn Flakes, in 1906.
Only 16 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
Only 9 percent of the homes had a telephone.A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.While you may remember the image of a telephone board from a 1940s or 50s movie, they were totally unlike what operators had to use in 1906. The boards back then were tall, having 200 and sometimes more connections, that the operator was expected to be familiar with so she could instantly put the calling party in touch with the person they wanted. In order to qualify for the job, girls had to have long arms, so they could reach the top of the board.
Qualifications in general were rigid, and sexist. Girls had to be between the ages of 17 and 26, and remain unmarried. But then, they didn't take women of Jewish or African descent, either. Your operator had to be above reproach, since she was privy to the business and conversations of everyone whose calls she connected. But for the most part, they themselves were ignored, treated as an extension of the family servants by rich families and businesses, who at that time, were the only ones that could afford the new service. The pay was a munificent seven dollars a week, small potatoes even in those hard times.
In the USA there is one car for every 800 people There were only 107,000 cars in the U.S., and only 340 miles of paved roads.
When you bought a car in 1906, you were responsible for putting your license number on it. Some people went to the hardware store and bought house numbers that they nailed to a board and attached to the car.
The fancier license plates were made of leather. Some people hired a house painter to paint scenery on the license plate. Others painted their number right on the car.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.
With a mere 1.4 million residents,California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
The average wage in the U.S. was 23 cents an hour.
The average U.S. worker made between $300 and $500 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, adentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.
Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education.Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemnedin the press and by the government as "substandard."
Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering thecountry for any reason.
The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis3. Diarrhea4. Heart disease5. StrokeThe American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico,Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30.
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
Two of 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all
Americans had graduated high school.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counterat corner drugstores.
According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clearsthe complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least onefull-time servant or domestic.
There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S
Moreover I putting this on the Fifties Finest wed page, without typing more then 5 wordmyself, and sent it all over the world in a matter of 1/1000 of a second!
Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years???

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