Friends

21 June 2012

WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER!


Congratulations to all who were born n the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s and early 70s!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smokesand/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon ad 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 brightly coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles or childproof doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention the risks we took hitch-hiking.

As children we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Takeaway food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, curry shops or Subway.

Even though all shops closed at 6pm and didn’t open at weekends, somehow we didn’t stare to death! We shared soft drink with four friends form one bottle and no-one actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner shop to buy toffees, gobstoppers, bubble gum and some bangers. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in them, 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 were back when the street lights came on. No-one was able to reach us all day, and we were okay. We would spend hours building our go-karts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with Matchbox cars. We did not have play stations, Nintendo, Wii, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on Sky, no video/DVD films, no mobile phones, personal computers 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 only Easter eggs and hot cross buns at Easter time!

We were given air guns and catapults for our 19th birthdays. We cycled 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.

Rugby and cricket had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn how to deal with disappointment. Imagine that! Getting into the team was based on merit.

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bullies always ruled the playground at school. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of… if they, did it was an embarrassment.  Anyway, mostly they actually sided with the law.

Our parents didn’t invent names for their kids, like Kiora, Blade, Ridge or 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 had the luck to grow up as kids before lawyers and the Government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you’re at it, show it to your kids so they know how brave their parents were.
PS ... and we had better weather in those days! If it gets much wetter here the island will float and I will shrink. 

13 comments:

  1. All so true. We are a hardy generation. :)

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  2. smiles...hope the sun finds you a bit today...it was a different world and in my opinion a whole lot better...i think tech has brought with it many of its own problems...

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  3. Oh yes.....and we had two/three party lines for phones, television watching was reserved for evenings IF we were inside with the parents and we went to movies on saved up milktop lids.

    LOL It's a wonder any of us are upright, breathing and on the right side of the grass, huh? ;-)

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  4. What a fantastic post...
    loved every word....

    It is amazing that we all turned out
    so well..... :-))

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  5. How true, Pearl.

    Brian, we are stuck with this awful weather untl net week. It's not a bit like summer. You are right about technology... progress doesn't always produce peace of mind.

    Mel, lol'd at all you said.

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  6. I was a sailor Val. I didn't have much choice about ear piercing, but I'm not a poof! The word gay meant something entirely different when I was a kid.
    Lovely reading all this.
    "Give us a scoof of yer Tizer."

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  7. Was it really that different? My goodness, yes your're right. I think things were better then but I'm 60 so I would wouldn't I. The summers were hotter and longer and I didn't concern myself with worries over paedophiles or dangerous dogs.
    Can I copy your post to my Facebook page please? I've got a few friends on there who would be interested in those reminiscences.
    ps I now have my new Blog up and running. Please visit me from time to time at:
    http://cottagelifeinengland.wordpress.com

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  8. AMEN and ALLELUIA!

    Faaaaaaaaaabulous post, Valerie, and I love that cartoon!

    It's ironic because it seems that the more health conscious and paranoid the world has gotten about doing everything RIGHT (eating, exercising and working out), the more unhealthy the world has become.

    And as far as technology goes, I'm caught somewhere in the middle of loving it, but also seeing it's ability to alienate us in certain ways.

    Again, GREAT post!

    Have a terrific Thursday, dear lady!

    X

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  9. Ron, it is said that we have become too clean. There's nothing left to kill the bugs. I think I'm at the midway position, too.

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  10. Hi star. So that's where you are. I'll pop in to see you as soon as possible.

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  11. Smiling. So true! Loved this post.

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  12. I think that kids nowadays are more insulated. The internet has replaced physical friends. Video games have replaced playing outside. The world is also a much harsher place, with more people willing to do harm to others. Kids are easily jaded. Heck, with exposure to the internet and all of the negative things that entails, I think being a "kid" ends way too early.

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  13. I can relate to much of that.

    Thinking back, I didn't have a computer class until I was a senior in high school. Now, my 5 year old grandson is using an iPad. I don't even have one of those.

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