Nostalgia.....

[alferret]

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

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.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun.


We drank water from the garden hosepipe 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 cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but
we 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 O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride 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 did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no text messaging, 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 played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out any eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

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!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

and while you are at it, let your kids see this so they will know how brave their parents were.


Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!


PS -The BIG type is because your eyes are shot at your age


I know some of you may have seen it before, but its oh so close to how it was in my day.

[joglynne]

Reading alferret's post has made me feel that I was very lucky to grow up in an age of innocence and that to-days children will never be able to experience that same freedom.

The results of each generations childhood experiences must flavour the adults it produces. We seem to be cosseting our young to-day to the point of isolating them from the world at large and I feel that we are not doing them any favours by doing so.

What I did as a child would rightly be classed as foolhardy in to-days world but a balance must be found.

End of introspection.

[Halcyon]

Ah the good old days.
I can actually remember making a go cart out of an old pram and racing it down hill.
Those were the days.

[joglynne]

I was the proverbial tom boy. I've still got a scare on my chin from the experimental braking system I tried on my bogie.(our name for go carts in my area when I was a child)

It had a set of pram wheels but the original brake had snapped so I set off down hill and before I reached the bottom I jammed 2 sticks in the front wheel spokes. Not my brightest idea. The sticks disintegrated a splinter catching me under the chin and Dad confiscated my bogie.

[TheBlueRaja]

Brakes on bogies? Nah - that's what the soles of your gutties (trainers) were for.

[joglynne]

Originally Posted by TheBlueRaja

Brakes on bogies? Nah - that's what the soles of your gutties (trainers) were for.

Nah. Steel studs on my clogs made breaking that way a hazard.

[alferret]

I know my kids have missed out on a lot of the more "fun" things in life.
There was a hill behind the local libary where we used to slide down it on bread trays and traffic cones, I dunno how fast we used to go but it sometimes scared the crap outta me. I still have a 4" scar on my right leg from coming off at great speed.
Opposite my house was a car park, over the back of that was a small wooded area, we built one of the greatest tree houses ever 30ft up that tree. If my mum reads this, thats where I used to go when I bunked off of school mum, its ok though I wasnt alone, Pete, Kelvin, Barry and the 2 Marks were there most days too

[Hugh]

Aye, lad, we had things then that we don't have now.



Like rickets, diptheria, and Hitler...........

You try telling that to the kids of today - they'll just laugh at you.