Only for UK residents over a certain age?

Question

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

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, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking .

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun.

We drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop 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. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no text messaging, 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 .
We played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out any eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, 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!
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?!

Answer 1

I'm in work - skint - stressed after Christmas hype - it's pissing down,

and you my friend have have put a whopper smile on my face!

Nice one!

Answer 2

Wow, what a great life that would be!! Am only 21 and had about 40% of what you've written. Back in the days though my Mum said everyone knew everyone, and they'd always peer out of the window and check that the kids were alright!!

It a shame to all the youngsters that a childhood cant be like that any more! And it the parents that lived like that helping to provent it!!

Too much bad stuff happens in this world.


What an excellent read!!

Answer 3

Yes,that was so true, you could also crack jokes without being called a .....ist.You could leave your key in the door and it(and everything in your house)would still be there when you got back. If you went home from school and told your
mum or dad ( yes there were TWO parents ) that you'd been clipped around the ear by a teacher for swearing/insolence..you were given another one to remind you NOT to do it again.
You could sit in a classroom and learn,without any yobs disrupting the lessons.If any did they were caned or expelled(this is when someone is ejected from school-rare nowadays) .Those expelled were n't provided with expensive home tuition for free.
We could spell simple words (and more complicated ones too without a spell-checker),could read BEFORE we went to school because our mum/dad read with us.NEVER used the word innit.Were n't pushed drugs in the playground.
We could do fractions well BEFORE leaving primary school.
Yes we were very lucky....must have been those expensive Christmas presents we were given (NOT).
Thanks for that piece of nostalgia. All the best.

Answer 4

oh those memories all come flooding back those were the days no trouble you had respect or you knew you would get a clip round the ear or your dads belt would come off
if you cut your hand you put a plaster on it and carry on not like nowadays the wosses catch an ambulance because they have cut their little finger makes me cross thinking that the world is creating losers like this

Answer 5

This is all true and I miss those days. However lets not forget, we are also the ones who have created ( or allowed ) this present day way of life. Its up to us to stop the lawyers and governments turning our lives into something like the 1984 scenario, use your vote, or you have no right to complain. Bring back decent society.

Answer 6

OH yes, I remember it well!!!

Riding my Raleigh Chopper bike. Summers were warm, winter had snow that lasted for weeks rather than hours.

Really true. Good posting.

Answer 7

Thanks for this Bill. Put like this, I don't know how we survived either.

I had a whole stable full of horses.......made from sweeping brushes and mops. And me and my sister used to walk to school on our own. I was 7 and in charge !

Happy New Year.

Answer 8

And if we misbehaved at school we got a clip round the ear - and if we went home and complained about it our folks used to say 'Well you must have done something to deserve it then'. And they were right!

Answer 9

Yes fateful, and I was born during the war, started school at 4 years old and no school buses, we walked the 3miles there and back with holes in the shoes. Happy days !!!

Answer 10

on top of all that,i got out of bed at 4 AM helped with the milk round,back home at 8.15 for breakfast then walk to school,after school done evening paper round,then bed at 9,in time for next day milk round,,aye full of energy,and without fear.