~Congratulations if you were born before the early 70s!

[OllieMartin]

Sorry- it would appear my account was hacked briefly there!

Of course, as a parent you get to watch them go through all the cool stuff. The cycle continues...

And it's an excuse to relive it with them.

Every Christmas I love watching my nephew open his presents and his Dad gets just as excited as he does. Most of the presents his dad gets him are the kind you can see he wants to have a go with himself!

[Sue]

I'm a fifties child and grew up on a small housing estate near Hounslow - used to be market gardens which I just remember when I was tiny. It seemed to be an era of men/raincoats/exposure and there were two murders of young girls not far from us I remember one when all the parents had to go out for the search party - but our parents still let us out to wander and play.


Although I do remember my mother going spare when my friend and I - we must have been about 11-12 getting home really late from a day in London on our own - we'd got lost.

I also loved going to our local shops, although on parental instructions I had to wait and let the greengrocer see me across the road. He'd also interpret my mothers list for me and tell me where to go. This must have started when I was about six as my mother had my youngest sister then and was laid up for a while.

Supermarkets didn't hit until I was in my teens so it was always great fun to buy things in all the small shops, I was an extrovert child so knew everyone. Still got a bakers dozen of cakes at the bakers, vinegar from a barrel in the greengrocers and biscuits loose in tins, and butter and cheese still cut with a cheese wire. Lovely blue packets for dried fruit too.

I did go back once and the saddest thing? Still finding the penny slot in the toyshop doorpost. Nobody would now know that you could put a penny in at any time and a marvellous train layout in the window would spring into action. The shop was now selling karate costumes!

Sue

[Jeanied]

Reading through this thread has reminded me how free we used to be! I grew up in a village and would regularly go off walking for hours on my own - that's how I learned about trees, plants, birds and animals. Wouldn't do it now though! (Maybe I need to start...)

[bluemoon]

I remember mum was driving and the traffic had been heavy, we'd been lost and us kids were getting a little fractious. She called into a shop to buy us pop because we were complaining of thirst, but quickly scurried back to the car without buying anything, locking the door as she got in. It seemed we had inadvertently ended up in one of the less inviting areas of a strange city. How did she know? "The boys had closely shaved heads and the women were not wearing tights!!!" she said, horrified.

[Two_Sheds]

how free we used to be... regularly go off walking for hours on my own

I used to go off on my bike all day as a teenager, with no map, no mobile, and no food or drink

When we were about 11, my brother and I used to go off all day on the common (which is now under sheltered housing) looking for snakes and gypsies and stuff. We once fell in a stream and someone's welly got sucked off in the mud.
We knew what "weirdoes" were though (now called paedos) and had the common sense to stay safe

[Dobby]

It was heaven can we go back to the good old days.

oh We just might with the oil running out

[kernowyon]

I used to go off on my bike all day as a teenager, with no map, no mobile, and no food or drink

When we were about 11, my brother and I used to go off all day on the common (which is now under sheltered housing) looking for snakes and gypsies and stuff. We once fell in a stream and someone's welly got sucked off in the mud.
We knew what "weirdoes" were though (now called paedos) and had the common sense to stay safe

as a kid I grew up in a village that had three other villages within a mile of each other, we used to meet up and then cycle to other villages picking up more and more 'mates' for a day out. sometimes we had more than 20 kids of varying ages, then we would all go off somewhere like the downs to make camps and bike tracks or if we were particulary brave we would go to the beach (about seven miles)

the only provision was to be back before the street lights came on

[weekendwellies]

I was born in the mid 60s. Didn't learn to ride a bike until I was 16. But I remember always wanting one from the age of about 4 and being very jealous of those who had bikes.
I loved my Tiny Tears doll.
Had lots of other dolls too, most of which had eyes that came loose and got lost. Also had a gollywog and was totally unaware of any racist connotations, it was loved and cherished like the rest of my dolls.
We swung on swings without the need for adult supervision. The boys climbed trees whilst the girls stood underneath shouting 'be careful' because a boy nearby had fallen onto a stone wall underneath and crippled himself.
We put big old 2pences onto rail tracks, so the trains would flatten them
Dogs wandered the streets, and park, and never attacked anyone.
If we were outside someones house too long they came and told us to 'booger off', and we went somewhere else without backchat and never considered revenge.

[Rhona]

Personally, I'm extremely glad that about half the things on the original list aren't true anymore and things HAVE changed!

I did most of my growing up in the 1980's and it was fab. I think whenever it was, it was our childhood, and that's why it was (mostly) great and we were free, and our memories are so kind to whatever was going on at the time. I'm sure many of today's kids will look back at their childhoods with just as much joy, but it will be a different set of memories.

One of the biggest scrapes I got into was finding myself alone, about 10 tears old, clinging to a low cliff face with a thundering whirlpool and the tide coming underneath me. I was sooo scared and really, really wished I HAD told my parents exactly where I'd wandered off to! Climbed up and away in the end though. And never told them in case they put me on a leash after that...

[Hilary B]

The accounts of how bad health matters were (and some other things).. are not really relevant, because THAT WAS NORMAL THEN.
What worried me is the things we know as 'not good' that maybe young folk today are growing up seeing as NORMAL. The violence, the greed, the self-seeking, and some of the PC over-protectiveness (in so many ways).

[Pete C]

Those halcyon days will forever be with me. I still try to adhere to the way of life that seemed forever filled with flying down hills on a plank with pram wheels attached, making Dutch arrows and firing them at each other, and evenings sat in park swigging cheap cider and trying to get Tracey Cahill to let me look up her skirt.

Now, for some reason, these childish pleasures mark me out as a weirdo, especially the looking up a school girl's skirt bit.

Ah, I wonder what happened to Tracey Cahill?