[oldie]

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, liver pate and didn't get tested for diabetes.


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.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun.


We drank water from the garden hosepipe 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 cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop 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. 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 99 channels on cable, no DVD's, no MP3's no surround sound, no mobile phones, no text messaging, 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 played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out any eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

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!

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

The past 50 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, tell it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Oildy

[katonca]

Thanks for bring back the memories

[Chicon]

Hi oldie,

Good post ! It brings back to my mind some souvenirs, both joyful and painful.

Originally Posted by oldie

We played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

Not only I've played with worms but I ate one of them just to taste !

Originally Posted by oldie

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

I WAS ALWAYS OUTSIDE DATING!! There were a lot of girls.

Originally Posted by oldie

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

Sure, I learned ! Probably more outside than inside a class room.

[Blackmirror]

My poor mother in the summer months had to hunt for me and my 2 brothers.. we went miles .... woods beach duckpond yes in the duckpond catching baby ducks .. she never knew where we were but we were safe

[DarqueMist]

that was a nice trip down memory lane .... thanks oldie

[iltos]

great post, oldie

there is one other consideration, however....it's also that same age group that are now the lawmakers, lawyers, and overwierd parents.....the one's who developed and marketed the things that keep their kids inside, and who have empowered youth with "style" and tv shows designed just for them

an ongoing social upheaveal, disguised as culture

[Pistoff]

Originally Posted by oldie

no 99 channels on cable

And if the President was on, it was on all three channels..
This post takes me back
Thanks

[lexmarks567]

now you can't do any of that. Everyones so afraid. If johnny falls out of timmys tree johnnys parents sue for not watching the kids. its a crazy world out there now

[AKA Arizona]

I remember all of that We had about 8 channels but the tv was NEVER turned on until after Dad watched his 6:00 news

[TOGG]

I was useless at climbing and so had to be lookout while others nipped over fences, climbed apple trees and pinched the fruit - desperate criminal behaviour which, if the owner had caught us, would have earned us a smack from him plus another from my mum! It was called 'scrumping' but I have no idea why.

So wicked was I that, when bonfire night came around, I and a few accomplices would prowl the streets putting bangers under metal dustbin lids to amplify the noise and throwing jumping jacks around. I now appreciate that that was a bad thing to do because nervous animals and humans would have suffered, but so would I if I had been caught.

Although we had a 9" screen one channel TV for the Coronation in 1953, it soon broke down and repairs were much too expensive for a one parent family. If I didn't play out or read, my entertainment came from the 'wireless' and Saturday morning cinema.

I have no doubt that the passage of time has added a rosy tint to these memories but it's true what they say, nostalgia isn't what it used to be!

[wordsmith]

After reading all the posts, I have mixed feelings. In some ways I had a lot more freedom than my children did. But I was also abused and no one believed me. I paid more attention to where my children went and expected them to call me when they got there. I also knew the parents. I just found out that my son, a single parent, gives his daughter more feedom than I ever gave him. I am wondering if others here find this seesawing events happening in their lives.

[Couriant]

that's funny, I just got the same exact thing in an email today...

[AKA Arizona]

Originally Posted by wordsmith

After reading all the posts, I have mixed feelings. In some ways I had a lot more freedom than my children did. But I was also abused and no one believed me. I paid more attention to where my children went and expected them to call me when they got there. I also knew the parents. I just found out that my son, a single parent, gives his daughter more freedom than I ever gave him. I am wondering if others here find this seesawing events happening in their lives.

Absolutely our kids grew up in the 90's and 00's different times, I tried to raise my kids in a similar fashion as my parents raised me but the day my son came home from his 4th grade class asking me to take one of my guns to school so the boy with the knife would quite picking on him was the day everything changed.

[Blackmirror]

Now its like trying to round a herd of sheep up...
in and out here and there up and down
i lose track of where i should be .at what time. to pick who up. from what friends ..
Nightmare on Elm Street

[lexmarks567]

Originally Posted by Pistoff

And if the President was on, it was on all three channels..
This post takes me back
Thanks

we had 3 channels and if the presidents on your night was shot. you would run through the house THE PRESIDENTS ON!! HES ON EVERY CHANNEL!! WERE GOING TO MISS FLIPPER