[Merged] Getting Older

[ian@huth]

An email doing the rounds makes you wonder if us oldies should still be around. Makes you think about how life today is so different to what it was in our youth. Apologies if it has all been said before.

Do you feel old? According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's 60's and 70's probably shouldn't have survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans. When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescentspokey dokey's' on our wheels. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it Tasted the same. We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one actually died from this. We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went Top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded. We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms. We had friends - we went outside and found them. We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt! We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law suits. We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents. We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us. We walked to friends' homes. We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on Mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of...They actually sided with the law. This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and 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're one of them. Congratulations! Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good. For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to Read about us. This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might put a smile on your face: The majority of students in universities today were born in1986........They are called youth. They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and The Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel. They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda Carlisle. For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam. AIDS has existed since they were born. CD's have existed since they were born. Michael Jackson has always been white. To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't Imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance. They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are Films from last year. They can never imagine life before computers. They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, RedHand Gang or the Famous Five. They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You. They can't believe a black and white television ever existed. And They will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone.

[Russ]

Oooohh youngsters today!!!

Not at all.....

I just look it a lot of the time

And thanks to kronas for reminding me whenever he can that i AM older than him........ but then i'd rather have beauty and intelligence over youth every time..... especially if Kronas is the youth in question

[paul11974]

hold on .me milk is boiling over and i need my horlicks

[kronas]

Originally Posted by marina

And thanks to kronas for reminding me whenever he can that i AM older than him........ but then i'd rather have beauty and intelligence over youth every time..... especially if Kronas is the youth in question

nah, you know im joking, i feel old, i feel like i have seen it all, nothing gets me excited anymore, so yes life is boring at the moment

but im still young(ish) age figure wise.

still love ya, even if you dont call or text

[punky]

All that shows you what a ridiculous over-ageration most PCness is.

[cookie_365]

Originally Posted by ianathuth

They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and The Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel. They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda Carlisle.

Lucky things !

[Maggy J]

Bah!

I'm teaching children who were born in 1992.Now that is depressing as I began teaching in 1974.

However I still think I was born at the right time and in the most exciting century of them all.

[kronas]

old fogey

[ian@huth]

The one thing about being an old fogey is that you can appreciate more the advancements made in the past half century or so.

[kronas]

Originally Posted by ianathuth

The one thing about being an old fogey is that you can appreciate more the advancements made in the past half century or so.

i would agree with that, then watch how civilisation goes downhill

Yes, when I was young people knew how to use paragraphs...!!!

<Grumpy old man in training!>

[Rob]

Do I feel old? Well yes, given that my body seems to be trying to reject me at the mo. But then I if I admitted to that, I might have to submit myself for a driving test http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=19273

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by kronas

old fogey

Young fogey!!!

[orangebird]

Even though I nodded my head through all of that, I don't feel old - I feel incredibly lucky to have had such a varied and happy childhood.