for those that were born before 1986?

Question

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids
in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived....

Because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint
which was promptly chewed and licked.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or
cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and
fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding
in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted
the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in
it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one
actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top
speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.

After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the
problem.

We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we
were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one
minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all.

No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile
phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt!

We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law suits.

We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

We played knock-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners
catching us.

We walked to friends' homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or
daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of...they
actually sided with the law.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and 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, those of us who
have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government
regulated our lives, for our own good.

The majority of students in universities today were born in
1986........they are called youth.

They have never heard of We are the World, We are the Children, and the
Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel. They have never heard
of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda Carlisle.

To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't imagine
how this fat guy could be a god of dance. They believe that Charlie's Angels
and Mission Impossible are films from last year.

They can never imagine life before computers. They'll never have pretended
to be the A-Team, Red Hand Gang or The Famous Five. They'll never have
applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You?

They can't believe a black and white television ever existed. And they will
never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone.

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam.

And Michael Jackson has always been white

Answer 1

Very True!!!
I was born in 1971, the year everyone had to learn all over again what everything was going to cost them! (decimalisation).
I would wear slippers to run around outside in, much faster than Nike, Reebok's and the like...
Water fights were the norm every summer, but not with water cannons they have today but 2litre Coke bottles with a hole punctured in the top, or a squeezy washing up liquid bottle, which always still had some in it...
War games involved sticks or cricket stumps with loud noises coming from the players.
And it seemed to snow every year at Christmas, snowman on the front lawn, and snowball fights galore...
I wouldn't dare let my kids outside like I was allowed at that age, unfortunately a sign of the times we live in.
Thanks for the memories...

Answer 2

Well done i enjoyed that , it's all true but things have changed like some say.More people, more cars,more technology. The world has got to change but the memories are good and we all felt so much safer then.As far as technology ,i couldn't turn a computer on 5 months ago ,now i'm an addict.Didn't want a mobile phone,now i text all the time and i've even got a ps2 and love Lara Croft.Not bad seeing i'm 60 in 2wks!I do understand what you mean though but maybe growing up a real kid and going through a lot of what we did,i't's time i got my share of what i missed.I love it! Take care.

Answer 3

I was born in '81 and although I have no idea some of the people you were talking about or some of the games ect. I agree it was always home before the street lights came on and have fun. but I think the world has changed to much for this now. to many people hurting children and have to admit I am now one of those parents who takes their child to school and knows where they are at all times but I think that is just the world we live in now and it it will only get worse in the future so I say make do with the way things are today and still let your kids have fun long gone are the days of yester year.

Answer 4

Here's the thought. From 1965 vehicles on the road had tripled. People in all areas have doubled. As time goes on it's much more dangerous because of all the people. More safety procedures must be followed to secure our safety. Sure, we shared bottles of drink with one another, back then, the germs we hear of today was not in existence. Not many cars on the road back then, why spend money on air bags. Let's face it.....there's too many people in the world today to make life a little more difficult.

Answer 5

This has got to be old. Your average freshman right now was born in 1993 and your average senior was born in 1990. Most 86 births still in college are going after their Ph.D right now, the rest are part of today's working force. But there have been lists like this out for years. I remember when they had a list out about kids born in 1974 (I think 1974 was the first birthyear to have a list like this made about it) back in 1992 but were floating around Usenet. They were just as silly, too. Some items on that list were similar to this like about the color TV. But it focused more on stuff from earlier decades, like how they wouldn't remember "I'd walk a mile for a camel", "de plane boss de plane", or "pepsi cola hits the spot, twelve full ounces that's a lot". It also had stuff like "Those born in 1974 don't remember life before the VCR" and "To them, everyone always had an answering machine". And a real gem was "Pong was always an old video game". And how about "They had never heard of Ed Sullivan, let alone knew that he had a show until the early 70s". And "The Doors, Stones, and Beatles were always classic rock" as well as the similar "50s and 60s rock and roll has always been oldies". Or how about "Bottle tops have always been screw off, they'd never heard of a church key before". And it went on to talk about how they wouldn't even know that old shows ever existed on the radio and how they wouldn't know life without remote control, stuff like that. The lists have been like this, modified a little every few years with some things added, and a few omitted (some of those things that the adults reading the list wouldn't even remember at that point like the one about Jimmy Durante saying "Goodnight, Mrs Calabash, wherever you are"), with some of the "facts" on the lists about 93 births being horribly out of date. EDIT: Sorry, but thumbs down don't change facts.

Answer 6

All perfectly correct, yes,but didn't our parents compare our childhood with theirs in much the same manner.
I seem to remember that they only had slates to write on, they bathed once a week in an old tin bath which three older brothers had already used (and peed in) and they went to work at the age of 13 for a few shillings a week.
By the way, I was born in 44 and we didn't have running water, electricity or gas or drains and my Dad had to empty the Elsan toilet down a hole at the bottom of the garden. Oh yes, and who was it who fell into the hole and has been in the S.H.I.T. for most of his 62 years?

Answer 7

born 1979, I'm now 27, i have 2 young children.

this email made me smile, its amazing how times have changed, i had that great childhood, but am now like everyone else, not confident about my children wandering too far from home.

the worst part is that the dangers that are now very clear are not new but only something that was overlooked or would never happen to someone you knew or most importantly, kept secret. I'm sad to say that sometimes im glad that my children are hear playing video games or watching TV.

Answer 8

Those were the good old days. Born in the 60's. Grew up in the 70's. Lived through the 80's. I agree with everything you said.

Answer 9

Ticked off all the memories. Also no mention of those silly girls, coz we didn't really know how to converse with them and anyway they were hopeless at the best games. Sisters were educational though.

Answer 10

and life goes on.
i was born in 74 and agree with all the points (and find them nostagic) but in 30 years time a baby who is born today will pose the exact same question on a similar forum to this talking about stuff that we dont even know about yet!!!!!