A fun viewpoint about our lives as kids

Discussion Open Forum
1

Received this email from a friend and thought I’d share it.
A few points made me smile. :thumbsup:

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1920’s, 30’s 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/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 and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs 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 or shoes, 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 Bakkie on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds or KFC.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn’t open on the weekends, somehow we didn’t starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Chappies, Wilson 's Toffees and Wicks Bubble Gum.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks 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. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on DSTV, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, 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 ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time…no really!

We were given pellet guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays!!

We rode bikes 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 to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT AND NOT DUE TO BLACKMAIL, THREATS AND GUILT FROM THE PAST… strange but true!

Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather staps and bully’s always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.

They actually sided with the law!

Our parents didn’t invent stupid names for their kids like “Kiora” and “Blade” and “Ridge” and “Vanilla”

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 70 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.

PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore

2

Nice one. I relate completely to those sentiments. :thumbsup:

3

A little bit of critical thinking would show that all these statements are misrepresentations of how things really were.

It’s the same old nonsense about the “good old days” or “the golden age”.

4

[quote=“lemur”]A little bit of critical thinking would show that all these statements are misrepresentations of how things really were.

It’s the same old nonsense about the “good old days” or “the golden age”.[/quote]
Mr Lemur I agree with you that some of that stuff is utter bollocks, but the post is specific to South Africa. I was born in the 60’s and a lot of that is completely accurate. Remember, we whites lived in a police state where those sorts of privileges were enshrined. I doubt the OP’s post would pertain to black South Africans, though.

5

[quote=“lemur”]A little bit of critical thinking would show that all these statements are misrepresentations of how things really were.

It’s the same old nonsense about the “good old days” or “the golden age”.[/quote]

You should be more tolerant of old people and let us reminisce every now and then. Like my parents used to say: ‘you were never at Woodstock, so what would you know’.

6

Pretty accurate if you ask me. I grew on the outskirts of a prarrie town. We would ride our bikes out of town and get on our horses. No saddle, no bridle, just a horse that knew it’s way to the river. Nobody knew where we were 80% of the time. In the winter we’d be out playing hockey till 9PM every night. My older brother used to steal mom’s 63 chevy impala to deliver the newspapers when it was really cold. Twenty bellow zero, four o’clock in the morning, and he was eleven years old. We used to go camping and there was one spot that was a bit spooky because a farmer used to shoot at us with his twenty two. Never hit us but was definitley letting us know not to cross THAT fence. A twenty two might not be much of a gun but at ten years old a twenty two shell rocketing past your head is no joke either. It is odd to be at this age and to have had the world change so much under your feet. Younger people these days have literally no way to understand except by us telling them what it was like. I don’t think I’d trade it for the life they lead.

7

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY XBOX 360! :notworthy:

8

Atavistic claptrap.
What, the real good times stopped in the 90s, or in the 2000’s?
People are people in any time frame. Sure, there are the techno addicts, whose life revolves around same, but one can find true salts of the earth all over the plane. One might have to dig a little deeper, which essentially means getting out of the shitty.
Same as it ever was.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
:grandpa:

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[quote=“lemur”]A little bit of critical thinking would show that all these statements are misrepresentations of how things really were.

It’s the same old nonsense about the “good old days” or “the golden age”.[/quote]
I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s in Texas, USA and except for changing some of the terminology I guarantee you it’s mostly accurate.
My parents didn’t smoke or drink or have asbestos around, but the real dangers of asbestos weren’t widely known until the 70’s. And we played with mercury in 8th grade science class.
I did have McDonalds, pizza, and KFC though.
I got my butt busted in 8th grade math class (in the 70s) and was afraid of my parents finding out because I’d get another when I got home.
When I was in 11th grade, my school had a cutting edge computer lab with 5 Apple computers that operated on DOS.
The first Atari game box with Pong came out when I was in 9th grade and only a few homes had them.
And none of my African-American friends had names like Shaquisha, Latongela, or Shaqualin.
So no, it’s not just looking back with rose-colored glasses.