Congratulations to all the kids born in the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's! First we survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank while they carried us. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored, lead-based paints.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. 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 and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but weren't overweight because...we were always outside playing!

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 out of scraps and then ride downhill, only to find we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video taped movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no internet or internet chat rooms...We had friends and we went outside and found them.

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

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.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, 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 are one of them. Congratulations!