CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 1940's, 50's, 60's and early 70's ! First, we survived being born to mothers who drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.... 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 or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle... Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds , KFC, Subway or Nandos. Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death! We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks 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 old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY, no video/dvd films, no mobile phones, 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. Only girls had pierced ears! We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time... We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays, We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet! RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully's always ruled the playground at school. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla' We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TODEAL 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. PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore!
Brung up proper I think politicians were born out of the free love era and believed that everyone was equal in brains, ability and knowledge and if one was short of any of those attributes, then some other person who had more attributes would willingly give up some of theirs in order to help the others, in other words the magic of creating wealth by dividing it and increasing debt in order to become wealthy and if can't pay it back, why worry.
As someone who spent a lot of time in the collection business I'll say that attitude actually came about in the 80's and was perfected in California. So the politicians were actually born in the 'I like Ike' era.
K1W1, Good post! How good was it really? GREAT. No argument from me there. Freedom to be kids, rifles at 10 y.o., swimming pool was the storm drains we blocked up and filled with a hose, game fishing on a leaky timber 30ft boat in the Mozambique channel, no life rafts or jackets (no point, the sharks would get you before you could drown), getting bitten by a snake trying to catch it, running home and asking my mum if I would die and being told, “ well, if it was a Mamba it would have killed you by now!!!” Yet as much as I and many of the generations you mention agree with "ah, the real good old days!" let’s not forget that every generation looks back once they hit the age of common sense and think it was better way back. Since the days of Aristotle this has been written. We also had doctors recommending which brand of cigarettes were GOOD for the throat, we killed off many species of creatures, poisoned pristine rivers, forests and oceans, killed all we caught, or shot for display (ever seen side tables made from Elephants limbs?) etc. etc. At the end of the day, we are also free to be the parents we want. During the floods here in January, thousands of young people queued for hours to catch buses to the affected areas to work their guts out for others, and I suppose there is examples of this everywhere. Those young troops in war zones from all over the world are not doing it for the money…..But that is politics too so I will stay clear of that.
And, K1W1, to add to your list, no kid in our neighborhood ever had their eye put out in a BB gun fight.
Yeah, but I sent a bully running with a well paced BB shot in the butt ! What about snowball fights, marbles, skinny dipping with your pals, male and female. Played pickup with any kind of ball available. Although baseball took a bat, or at least a stick and almost any kind of ball wound do in a pinch . Gloves were saved for when you played little or pony league. Making the team really meant something special... If you didn't make practice you didn't play. No matter how good you were. and what ever happened to really great scary ghost stories...like the ones we heard at summer camp. and I was very proud of every merit badge I ever earned as a Boy Scout.. I never saw anything locked up until I went into the Army in 1964. Stealing a watermelon with my pals was probably the worst thing I ever did ,but it sure did taste good.....guilty pleasures..... Anyone else ever name, and paint that name on the chain guard of you bicycle ? If you was lucky enough to have one.... Life was, and is good !
Ah, the childhood memories. Remember putting a playing card on your spokes held on by a clothespin? In my Miami neighborhood we had seasons during the summer. Yoyo season, kite season, balsa airplane seasons, etc. My mom would make a pitcher of Kool-Aid and bring them out in colored aluminum tumblers and all the kids would say thank you. A special day would be going to Crandon Park in Key Biscayne early on a Sunday morning. My dad would load up the ’63 Chevy II station wagon and we would spend the entire day there. My mom gave us a dime to take the tram to the zoo. We would also take a couple of screwdrivers to peel coconuts. We would put them in the steel cooler and then pop a hole and drink them. Now I have a 6 year old granddaughter and I’m the grandpa. I am teaching her important things like how to jump in puddles, catch a fish on the beach, and how to climb a tree. All in all, it’s like my brand of television; Life’s Good
.jpg&contenttype=jpeg "Click for Abeking")