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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 8:36 am
by Wizzzard
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cots 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, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose 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 fairy cakes, white bread with real butter and drank lemonade made with sugar, 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 bogies out of planks, boxes and old pram wheels 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 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or 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 ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given air guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Under 10's Football League 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!

These generations have 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!

If 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 do-gooders and the government regulated so much of our lives For our own good

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 8:46 am
by nepensioner
I remember all of this[:D][:D]

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:59 pm
by Shining
[:D]

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:31 pm
by kallis3
[:D][:D]

I remember it all as well!

I also remember making slides in the playground when it was icy and throwing snowballs - nobody ever quoted Health and Safety then!

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:26 pm
by nepensioner
For me it was playing conkers and the dog kissing me better when I was bleeding!!!!

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:41 pm
by howard07
Real memories and i can relate to all of them. How sad that the kids of today are missing out.
I remember when i was a kid in the late 60's and 70's if it was raining and we couldn't play out my face was like a wet weekend. My dad fixed it for us though, he got a garage built in the garden, so we played in there when the weather was bad. it was that good we wanted it to rain so we could play in the garage.

My favourite memory was when i used to try and get to bed without my mum seeing the dirt tide marks on my neck and ankle, i didn't like having a bath, well i was a 10 year old lad. It was easy to do when my dad was on nights, but a bit more tricky when he was at home.

Happy days........

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:42 pm
by kallis3
[:D][:D]

Hubby always went scrumping, hoping the local bobby didn't catch you and give a clip round the ear!

He also remembers going to the Saturday Matinee, coming out and going to the chippie and getting a bag of chips and a piece of fish alll for 6pence (2.5p now) and it was proper salt and vinegar as well! It was served up in old newspapers and you walked home eating it from the paper with your fingers - no wooden or plastic forks then!

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:47 pm
by Foggy
and the fish tasted of fish -- not the watered down cotton wool it tastes of these days (can't find bacon that tastes like it used to either ... might be me !!! )

We use to go to the chippy and beg for scraps (the loose bits of batter they keep scrapping fromn the top of the fryer)

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:47 pm
by jessicarabbitgirl
oh those where the days, bring em back please! :-)

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:54 pm
by Foggy
I remember the tin bath at Gran's .... in front of the fire in the living room (which was actually called the kitchen --- even though what we call a kitchen these days was at the back of the house and was called the scullery).

It was always red hot one side ( facing the fire) and stone cold the other! And the neighbours used to just walk in ( front doors were never locked) leaving you to frantically grab for the flannel for a bit of decency !!!

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:59 pm
by kallis3
Hubby can remember the tin bath (I'm not quite that old!) infront of the range, which had to be black leaded once a week, and then when he had the proper bathroom put in you thought it was wonderful until you had to get out of the bath in the winter and it was freezing!

There was no central heating, no carpet on the bedroom floors - it was lino and the inside of the windows froze. He says that sometimes the arm sometimes fell off the bed covering (the arm of the greatcoat used on the bed!)

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 5:26 pm
by Foggy
LOL --we even had the outside loo (and at the far end of the garden was the original "outhouse" with a hole, a bucket, a plank, and two holes ... must have been the family model). Ours would only flush if you "took it by surprise"!

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 5:43 pm
by olympic_torch
Milk straight from a cow.
Sweet cigarettes.
Just one thing, whatever happened to dried white dog pooh?

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 5:47 pm
by kallis3
Hubby reckons it was because the dogs were fed on scraps and bones!

I never did the outside loo but hubby did!

I'll pass on milk from the cow (council estate me!) but loved sweet cigarettes!

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 6:07 pm
by olympic_torch
The nights were so much clearer then, i remember looking up at the stars thinking, "i must get a roof on this outside khazi"

Copywrite Les Dawson c1978