Tuesday, December 28, 2010

I Survived... And so have you!...

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE


 1940's, 1950's,and 1960's

First, we survived being born to mothers who drank and sometimes smoked while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon, nuts 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 or walking for miles along the railway tracks.



 
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags or air conditioning. If you were hot you wound the window down. But only if Dad said so..

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle...

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, and real hamburgers with beetroot. No pizza shops, Plastic cheese burgers, Fried Chicken or Foot long rolls.


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 Penny 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 Billy-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill... only to find out at the bottom we forgot the brakes.


 We built tree houses and cubbies 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!

FOOTBALL 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 straps and canes 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 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.

PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore


I recieved this as an Email Author unknown

6 comments:

  1. I love this; my early life. If we got a new car (or a new used one) we played in it for hrs., even sitting in the garage. If we got a new frig. or stove we had a huge box that became a fort or hideout for days. Our "gang" didn't involve tats or killing or maiming someone to be a member. We had the freedom to wander all over town and be safe.

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  2. I was born in the very late 70s so I didn't have ALL of that but most of it was just like that.

    How about naming your kid Apple or Nnena or Tree? I'm shocked.

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  3. Very true. It teached a basical belief or confidence in oneself.

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  5. I was a child of the 70's. I used to enjoy the flagellation at school but only if administered by a male teacher. I was once "Slippered" by Mrs Ware for a minor misdemeanor. I got my own back on the old cow by lodging a potato in her car exhaust pipe.

    I've once witnessed a young mother with bleached blonde hair (with no toner!) call out to her brown daughter... Nokia to "Get back in your buggy NOW! you fucking little bitch" The unconditional Mother's love is so spiritual it almost made me cry.

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  6. Oh so true. For the sake of her sanity my mother would occasionally make us go out and instruct us not to return until sundown. That naturally led to several broken bones from falling out of trees. Times have changed.

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