Anonymous wrote:

Several things: First, you are completely wrong when you say no one knew about DDT. My father knew, and went to the county mosquito spraying program and insisted that they not spray in front of and our behind our house. So, the truck would stop spraying at our property line, drive 100 feet, and start spraying again. We were the ONLY family whose house was not sprayed, and we as children were teased by our friends because our father was so "crazy" for not getting our house sprayed. After each spraying, we saw lots of dead birds on the street, and my father would pick them up and show them to the neighbors. Robins, bluejays, cardinals, and more. Oh, they said, huh? After a while, people on the street started paying attention, Since Silent Spring appeared, and then our whole street refused to be sprayed, thanks to my father.

Second, I do remember playing with mercury from broken thermometers, BTW, and it was fun. But that's not the same thing as saying it didn't harm me. Perhaps it did, I just don't know (yet).

Third, back in the 1960s, the number of chemicals we as children were exposed to through food, clothing, automobiles, pesticides, household products, furniture, building materials and so on was a tiny fraction of the number of chemicals our children are exposed to today, even before they are born because many of these chemicals reside in our (their mother's) bodies. About 80,000 chemicals have been introduced in our country since the early 1960s, most of which have never been tested for toxicity.

I feed my children organic food, and keep their exposure to toxins to an absolute minimum because I know they are bombarded by toxic substances in their every day lives. They breathe in chemicals that didn't exist when I was a child. It is not possible to compare my children's childhood to mine -- the world is so very different, and yes, more chemically toxic.

BTW, would you want to go back to a world with no car seats, no airbags, no bicycle helmets? That's how I grew up, but I don't want that for my children. Many things were better when I was a child, but many things were worse. Do you want to live through the Civil Rights era again? A woman's place was in the home, and blacks were "the help". I say "black" but actually when I was a child, African Americans were called "negroes" or "colored". Do you really want your children growing up in that environment?

I do remember feeling safe when I went outside to play. My mother rang a bell or yelled for me, and I came home, or she called around to my friends' houses to find me. There was no hovering from her, and I'm sorry my kids to not have that freedom. We used to go out in the woods to play, build forts, castles, wander, and no one worried. We came home when we got hungry. I also agree that technology is a mixed blessing. Kids don't need FB or ipads, cell phones, whatever electronic junk is to come next week.

Also, OP, a lot of the food you ate as a child WAS organic. It only wasn't labeled as such. It was just food.