1945-1975

[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 lorry 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 cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank fizzy pop 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 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 sky/Freeview TV, 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!

Young footballers 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 60 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 schools 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?

Have a great day xxx

[kallis3]

I have fond memories of my childhood - I was always out playing and if it was raining we went into our shed and played in there.

Don't ever remember being bored and I had no TV or anything like that in my room.

I do remember when parents had a stereo and I had their old record player in my room - I was in 7th heaven.

Listening to Radio Luxembourg (complete with interference) on the transistor was brilliant, and I can remember the day Radio One started.

Those were the days.

[Skippy]

I was born in 1975, but some of those things were true even in the 1980s when I was growing up.

I can remember taping the top 40 on a Sunday night and trying to cut out the DJ talking, going out on my bike all the time (and I survived falling off!) and not wanting to tell my mum if I'd done something wrong as I was scared of her!

[kallis3]

I had many a good hiding when I was a kid and been really naughty.

I never did whatever it was again - it certainly taught me a lesson.

I used to do the same with the top 20 (as it was in my day!). I also used to tape certain television programmes so that me and my two friends that were mad on them, could listen to them over and over. No pictures, just sound and it was on a big old fashioned Grundig tape recorder.

[Shining]

Oh the good old days. I remember the freedom of childhood well...

[MrsKnight]

I was born in 77 n totally agree with you Skippy[:)]
I remember recording the top 40 n trying to cut the DJ too[:)]

Endless days out on my bike[:)] - though I did fall off n my bike handle went into my throat, I was that shocked I peed myself[:I] - but got a bigger shock when I ran home n looked in the mirror, n found I had slit it open[:0]. Had to go to A&E n they found it was that deep it nearly cut my vocal cords[:0] N had to be stitched up!
Then again I built my own tree swing in some nearby woods - it snapped on my go, n I ended up crashing into the tree trunk, slit the back of my head open n took all the skin of my spine[:0] Road all the way home screaming n covered in blood - another trip to A&E n stitches for me n my parents[:0][:D] I was a tad accident prone[:D]

[Skippy]

So was I Lyns (and Dave would say I still am!)!

I split my lip open when I fell out of my dolls pram. That didn't need stitches, but when I tripped on a neighbour's carpet and smacked my mouth on their metal door step I had 4 stitches in my top lip. It still splits in cold weather now!

I've got a scar on my eyebrow where I ran into the living room and the wooden arm of the chair went into my eye. That didn't need stitches but I can still remember the nurse telling me off for crying!

I fell off the garden wall and nearly ended up in the fish pond and I've got a scar on my knee from tripping over a football on the same day!

The thing is we just got on with it in those days.

[MrsKnight]

Actually coming to think about it - I believe I still am too! [:D]

Day before my first day of primary school - I went hurtling after my sister down a our hilly street on my bike, fell of n broke my arm[:(]

I was thinking about getting my bike sorted n get cycling again, I might have to think again! [:)][:D][:)]

Yeap the good old days! [:)]

[Skippy]

Touch wood, I've never actually broken anything, only shed blood and ended up with scars!

When I started school I leaned back on my chair, it slipped and I cracked my head on the cast iron radiator.

I can remember being at junior school and standing by the classroom door as we all waited in line to go off to do 'music and movement', not realising that my fingers were in the hinge side of the door frame. The teacher slammed the door, I screamed and there was blood everywhere! I suppose I was lucky not to lose a finger!

[MrsKnight]

Skippy![:I][:)] I think your worse than me! [:D]

Has this accident prone side to you calmed down now![:D]

Last few things (as an adult!) Ive done is slipped on Ice n smashed my face n my annoying nose on my door step [:D] Without getting chance to put my hands out to protect myself - ended up in A&E again with a very swollen face n to double check I had not broken my cheek bone![:I]
Slammed my fingers in a safe n ended up in A&E again - no feeling left in index finger on right hand now![:I][:D]

Not good is it![:D] xxxx

[Jan01]

Funnily enough I was having this very conversation at work today with a lady born in the early 70's I am a child of the 50's the 20 somethings were horrified that we had so much freedom and we survivied.

I was also saying when was the last time you saw a baby out in its pram in the garden? Mine were always out come rain or shine tucked up against the weather and they survived!

We were fit and healthy and didn't anti bac everything thst moves or stands still.

The good days in some ways they were.

Jan

[kallis3]

I tripped over a football (when I wasn't allowed to play ball in the street!) and split open the bit between my nose and lips. No stitches but I had to have a plaster on so it looked as though I had a moustache!

I was relatively accident free as a kid.

[Shining]

Like you Jan I was relatively accident free, fractured my arm and broke my nose once falling down some stairs in the same incident but nothing much else. x

[lukeofyorkshire]

(In Broadest Yorkshire) Ee by gum when I was a lad.......haha love, cos it's so true and I grew up the early 1980's but remember how things started to change mid-1980's.

[Wizzzard]

For Luke

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye, very passable, that, very passable bit of risotto.

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah?

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
You're right there, Obadiah.

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh?

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
A cup o' cold tea.

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Without milk or sugar.

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Or tea.

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
In a cracked cup, an' all.

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.

etc...