CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's, 60's, 70's & 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 cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets. 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 crackers to blow up frogs.
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 okay.
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 videos or 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 rifles and catapults for our 10th birthdays.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door, rang the bell or just yelled for them!
Mum didn't have to go to work to help Dad make ends meet!

Footy 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 bullies 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, show this 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

Amen brother .

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If it ain't broke, fix it till it is!

Very true

Mind you, now I'm just another paranoid Mum - always screeching at the kids to wear their helmets & be back home by tea time etc

We lived in a simpler time then but lets not pretend that everything in the past was better, things tend to seem a lot better when looking through rose tinted glasses.

I seem to have missed what the joke about this is....

anybody have a clue?

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So Long and Thanks for All the Files
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Beware of the big 3 insurance companies in Texas! Read your policies carefully (maybe you'll need a lawyer) Allstate, Farmers & State Farm are overextended and their 'coverage' is worthless...a true waste of your money Read This

No joke, just nostalgia versus realism.

oh...I know....my comment was my way of making a joke about it all....being 46 I definitely fit into what the post describes

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So Long and Thanks for All the Files
_____________________________________________

Beware of the big 3 insurance companies in Texas! Read your policies carefully (maybe you'll need a lawyer) Allstate, Farmers & State Farm are overextended and their 'coverage' is worthless...a true waste of your money Read This

Back in the day most toys did not require batteries; we had to use more imagination.
A rock and a string - that was your toy!

I am so glad that I grew up at a time when success had to be earned. The kids who grew up without competition, ("We don't keep score; everyone who participates is a winner!"), have no work ethic and can't figure out why their half-arsed efforts aren't good enough. My friend will not interview job applicants who are below the age of 30. He says the younger ones have no sense of responsibility.

People

There are good and bad things about the past just as there are about the present, just like then as it is now you have to make the best of what you've got.

That is the human condition.