We survived .....

[moggssue]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's,60's,70's and 80's !!

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, liver pate 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.

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 DVD's, no MP3's no surround sound, no mobile 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!

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, forward it to your kids 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

[scared55]

... and unless my family was unusual, which I doubt, no TV, telephone, fridge or car until the 60s were almost upon us.

KK

[Polly Fouracre]

I used to tell my children when I put them in the back of the car"Sit back,right back" as if this would have saved them in a crash.I believed it would have and so did they!!
Get your point though.My childhood was one of absolute liberty.What happened to change all that,more traffic,faster roads,more "strangers" coming into your town/village,more media coverage of crime??
What do you think?

[terrier]

I escaped the lead paint. When I was a baby, we were so poor my parents couldn't afford a cot so I slept in a cardboard box from the co op. At school I didn't get tested for daibetes, I did the eleven plus instaed! Now all the lettres on my keybaord are all mixed up......NURSE...........

[Palustris]

Ah, but who produced the generation which we are suffering from now? We did!

[scarey55]

I escaped the lead paint. When I was a baby, we were so poor my parents couldn't afford a cot so I slept in a cardboard box from the co op. At school I didn't get tested for daibetes, I did the eleven plus instaed! Now all the lettres on my keybaord are all mixed up......NURSE...........

" Luxury! "

[Snadger]

I escaped the lead paint. When I was a baby, we were so poor my parents couldn't afford a cot so I slept in a cardboard box from the co op. At school I didn't get tested for daibetes, I did the eleven plus instaed! Now all the lettres on my keybaord are all mixed up......NURSE...........

Apparently I slept in a pulled out bottom drawer! Slept in worse places since, I suppose!

[Snadger]

I used to tell my children when I put them in the back of the car"Sit back,right back" as if this would have saved them in a crash.I believed it would have and so did they!!
Get your point though.My childhood was one of absolute liberty.What happened to change all that,more traffic,faster roads,more "strangers" coming into your town/village,more media coverage of crime??
What do you think?

My kids used to make me park around the corner when I took them to school!
Never could work out whether it was me or my car they were ashamed of!

[scared55]

Our daughter begged me not to take her to discos and clubs. I don't know whether it was the Lada or my loudly enjoining her to kiss Daddy goodbye when I pulled up right where her friends were waiting for her.
The Lada caused us a small issue when someone broke into our garage and climbed over it to nick my mountain bike!!
Ahhh memories!

KK

[terrier]

Apparently I slept in a pulled out bottom drawer! Slept in worse places since, I suppose!

We were too poor to have drawers, we put our clothes in tea chests donated by the Salvation Army!

[cottage garden]

I agree with Palustris, we are producing this generation and its up to us to make sure the old values are not lost and that our children learn to play properly outdoors and not rely on computers.

I may be oldfashioned but my children spend no more than a couple of hours a week on computer or watching telly.This is not a rule but just how it works out. I invite friends, camp,take them to the woods, make the garden an inviting place to play, have loads of pets and generally make life outdoors so interesting that they won't want to sit indoors.
I worry that a lot of parents are so busy working these days that quality family and fun time is forgotten with the alternative ease of letting them watch telly.


and..Scared55....You were not alone.... I grew up without a television, car etc I was 15 (1985) before my mother bought a television. Boy, did I want one though!

[rustylady]

I have seen something similar to this before, but this version is definitely better - AND SO TRUE!!! The nanny state is doing no-one any good at all, when will people start to take responsibility for their own actions, their own future and the health and welfare of their children? The attitude nowadays seems to be "It's not my fault, it's not my responsibility, someone else should sort out my problems for me". I worry for my grandchildren, what sort of society will they grow up in?

[Sue]

Yes
I remember all this, also remember the last of the gypsy caravans - proper wooden ones and I remember two murders of girls too in our area, all the dads went to help the police do a major search in wasteground for one of them, the other one, the poor girl was thrown into a small fenced off electrical substation place at the bottom of our school fields.
Remember too, men exposing themselves when we were out playing in the local park, remember too a boy at school losing an eye from being stuck with that metal thingy you drew circles with.
I think it depends on where you lived, on the edge of London, in a school where lads of 15 were already revered for having attended court, carried knives etc (it was a grammar school!) and in my last year, two girls sat watching the sports day, heavily pregnant.
We were certainly allowed more freedom, lots of gangs and groups, Mums seemed reassured if there were lots of you together playing on street, in parks etc. And of course hardly any Mums worked and shock horror, one girl in my class had divorced parents.
No car, no TV till I was about 16 etc etc. The thing I remember with most affection is Kew Gardens, we lived two bus rides away and it cost one old penny to get in, a ridiculously low figure even then, I've just checked, it costs an adult £12.25 to get in now, no way my parents could have come up with an equivalent sum in those days, we used to go at least twice a month, more in summer with picnics, it was a wonderful introduction to plants and trees - acted almost as a very superior back garden for us children.
Sue

[Alice]

There never were any halcion days Moggsue. Some things were better, some things were worse. It's all what we make it. We really do live in the world we create and are prepared to accept. I think the adage says - if you want to change the world, start by changing yourself.

[scared55]

Many years ago in The Times there was a series of articles about the social problems at the time - many of them the same as we face now. At the end of each article was the question, “What’s wrong with the world?” One reply given was “What is wrong with the world? I am. Faithfully yours, G.K. Chesterton.”

KK