The Last Generation To Live on the Edge

摘要

My parents are part of what has been labeled the Greatest Generation. I hail from a great generation as well. That's because my peers and I, the oft-maligned baby boomers, came before seat belts, bike helmets and all things plastic protected children from the hazards of everyday life. We were the last Americans to grow up without a childproof safety net. I know that many of today's protective gadgets prevent kids from getting seriously injured. Looking back, I sometimes wonder how my friends and I survived childhood at all. But I believe that we experienced a kind of freedom that children who came after us have not. I was born in November 1954 and whisked from the hospital during a violent California rainstorm, not in a car seat but in my mother's arms. Since our car didn't have seat belts, we drove commando.