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.
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.
