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11-07-2009, 09:05 AM
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I wonder how we survived
Hope this makes someone smile
 CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 1940's, 50's, 60's and early 70’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 cots 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. 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 , KFC, Subway or Nandos. 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 Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with. 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 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 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 Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY , no video/dvd films, 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. 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 Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time... We were given air 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 Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes 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' 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 
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11-07-2009, 09:14 PM
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Well said Lez
I was born in 1957 - Reading this, how did I ever survive !  You are quite right. No mobile phones...in fact, not many phones. Even in the 1960's I would sit in the front seat of my dads car (Austin A30, later Austin A35, even later and getting very up-market a Triumph Herald) WITH NO SEAT BELT ! And as for no shops being open at the week-ends....Well, that would never do today, would it.  Nice one Lez 
__________________
Regards Eddie 
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13-07-2009, 08:42 PM
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I have to say, all this stuff also applies if you were born in 1980 (like me) and had parents who were quite poor but had a lot of common sense between them and didn't wrap their kids up in cotton wool! I trained as a primary school teacher a few years ago but later decided against being a teacher as education and schools are a bit of a joke these days! I plan to have children myself before too long, and my partner and I both hope that we'll be able to bring our children up to have common sense, if that's possible these days, and for me to be able to be a stay at home mum (why is this looked upon as such a strange thing to want to do nowadays?!?!)
Anyway, thanks Lez for a post that made me smile and think! And by the way, when I have kids, they will NOT have mobile phones, at least not until they can work to afford to buy them themselves!!
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14-07-2009, 12:48 PM
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What a great post!!!! I am so relieved that i'm not the only person in the world that thinks the same as you!!!!! I do try to let my boys be boys but am bound by a lot of red tape as I am a foster carer!!! Still - I do my best to encourage the sort of play that I saw my brothers do when they were young. One of them loves nothing more than a piece of wood, a box of nails and a hammer - or a piece of wood and a saw!!! They have a treehouse and an old shed that is their 'den' and we've given them chairs and table and stuff like that to put in it. AND - it is exactly because of wanting to teach them about how life can be without all the technology - that we have started to grown our own flowers and veg!!!! At least they will understand how things grow etc. If more people did it (and i'm sure things are going that way now) then we may actually be able to turn things around a bit and perhaps in the next 10 - 20 years there will be a new generation of gardeners??
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14-07-2009, 03:21 PM
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great to hear there are some like minded people about. mobile phones are annoying but as a tool very good. but thats it, a tool, if needed in emergencies. ie:kids, women on their own etc, there are some wierdos out there. I was half way up snowden once and someone's mobile went off. how annoying is that. some advances are great. think about records and look at an I pod, I admit to using an I pod as I can get umpteen songs on it and listen down the garden (totally chill). remember todays fiction tommorrows fact. when did you last open a door to walk into a shop? automatic now (star trek) it amused me to watch a door that was broken one day and the amount of people who stood there all confused was suprising. all you do is push. perhaps we are loosing the battle of using brains aswell. oh well I use the putor for a bit fun and can communocate with hundreds rather than maybe two at once. good luck all.
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14-07-2009, 07:24 PM
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hi lez....what a funny thread lol
so many valid points in everyones posts...but common sence is the biggest,me and my partner have 4 children ranging from 13 yrs to 18 mths all have grown up to be great kids through hard work & sometimes a lot of determination....ok ok i mean bribery lol............ i trully believe bounderies are there to be kept and although both me and my partner love our kids to be kids there always needs to be rules for children to work by..if us parents dont teach our children this how will they survive when they turn to adults that have to hold down jobs/careers & have to adear to even more rules & regulations within life the whole world has gone bonkers with the "doogooders" of life and where has it got anyone.....ill leave that one to you,but id say no where fast,technology and the way today life is,has turned ppl soft young and old alike again gardening is a great way of getting adults & kids in touch with the world again Nik
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