A good friend of mine on FB posted this this morning. I think it’s solid gold. I hope you get as much enjoyment out of it as I did.
If you were born in the 40’s, 50’s or 60’s
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.
Then af…ter that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored 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 some of us took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a Ute on a warm day was always a special treat.
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 Red Rooster.
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 Fruit Tingles and some fire crackers to blow up frogs and lizards 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 scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in creek beds with matchbox cars.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape or DVD movies, no surround sound, 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…….no really!
We were given BB guns and sling shots for our 10th birthdays,
We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic testing at Maralinga in 1956.
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!
Footy had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather straps 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 got married before they had children and didn’t invent stupid names for their kids like ‘Kiora’ and ‘Blade’…..
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 70 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?
sanoptic says
My childhood was exactly as written Phil ,these days the parks are mostly empty after school hours most kids are in front of their computers now.
I fondly remember my father building push bikes out of second hand parts back in the day & we rode around everywhere,we learned how to fix flats & put the chains back on.I was a skinny as a rake back then [ unlike now …lol] from constantly playing sports after school & all weekends.
In my school days its was very unusual to see an overweight kid or adult for that matter unlike today!!
Kids these days are wrapped up in cotton wool & will never experience a real childhood which is a real shame.
Old fashion values like respecting your elders are mostly gone as well.
Such is life!!
cheers
jeffb says
Many thanks, Phil. Have read and seen similar lately and they all give me a huge smile! Cracker night- so much fun (but better in the morning when you could find the ones not set off and see if you could light it then throw it before the small wick ignited the bunger!)
Many would say technology has brought us ‘freedom’ ! What rubbish. Mobile phones (remember when you were told a time to be home and you were! Or you’d use a public one without coins and get one or 2 words out before it locked itself!)
I could go on- still , without computers how would we get these fun times remembered then passed on.
Get Well so you can get out and enjoy that great outdoors again.
Jeff
Phil Hall says
Couldn’t agree more. Definitely worth posting. Improving by the day, mate. Cast and splint come off on 1 December!!