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Kids of yesterday

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I had this sent to me via e mail the other day, and thought I would share it with the " older " members out there.
I know people have either seen this or heard something similar but, I thought it was very good and some of it I fondly remember.
Maybe others would add to it with their own memories?
KIDS TODAY
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's, 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because... Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.
When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent clackers' on our wheels. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags -riding in the passenger seat was a treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.
We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one actually died from this. We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us all day and no one minded. We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, and no Internet chat rooms.
We had friends -we went outside and found them. We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again. We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue we learned to get over it.
We walked to friend's homes. We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate live stuff, and although we were told it would happen, we did not have very many eyes out, nor did the live stuff live inside us forever. We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of a parents’ bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and 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.
Could not agree more..this was the premise for my dissertation. By not allowing kids to do what we did are in fact causing the youth problems of today...food for thought
Mich
xxxx
Nostalgia aint what it used to be.
Theres a whole body of research into why folk look back over their lives and seemingly remember how wonderful everything was.
From that starting point its an easy if misguided step to assume that current society ills are down to the fact that things were better in the good old days.
Quote by benrums0n
Nostalgia aint what it used to be.
Theres a whole body of research into why folk look back over their lives and seemingly remember how wonderful everything was.
From that starting point its an easy if misguided step to assume that current society ills are down to the fact that things were better in the good old days.

Your talents are wasted on here. wink
Statistically, the incidence of child abuse and stranger danger type incidents have not changed over time. Apparently as the population expands, the proportion of paedophiles expands in proportion. The risk only appears amplified because of the media.
What is an increased risk is that none of us allow our kids out on their own until secondary school which has caused a vast amount 11 year olds with no concept of road safety. This has caused a rise in road traffic accidents.
Mark s news at ten
Blimey.......a happy bunch of soldiers.
I am accused of being a misery guts but.....even I pale into insignificance. bolt
Well Keny my lovley....ive seen this before, and I love it!.......so what if it takes you back to 'rose tinted spectacle' times....
I'd rather look back with nostalgia and happy thoughts of all those things that look back and wonder what the hell I did with my bland childhood!
I loved the fact we were out all day every day, playing in the fields, making dens and getting amusement out of hopping over a tennisball in the toe of a stocking tied to my ankle, or a home made toy, or even a washing line tied to a lamp pst with 10 kids (including lads) all skipping over it....and taking turnsies to be the rope turner.......
ripping the roof of yor mouth open on jublies....dressing up in your mums clothes and high heels at nursery.....apparently thats not allowed now for health and safety reasons....
thanks for a post thats made me feel all happy and cosy and glad to be how old I am!!!
I am not sure that all parents restrict their kids in the way that we imagine. the opportunities are still there but I think kids are just not as robust as we were. We had to walk or cycle everywhere. We had to eat liver and onions etc. Now kids can get away with so much more, so they are occupied with different types of things,which usually don't involve much physical activity or getting dirty.
Quote by Bonedigger
Well Keny my lovley....ive seen this before, and I love it!.......so what if it takes you back to 'rose tinted spectacle' times....
I'd rather look back with nostalgia and happy thoughts of all those things that look back and wonder what the hell I did with my bland childhood!
I loved the fact we were out all day every day, playing in the fields, making dens and getting amusement out of hopping over a tennisball in the toe of a stocking tied to my ankle, or a home made toy, or even a washing line tied to a lamp pst with 10 kids (including lads) all skipping over it....and taking turnsies to be the rope turner.......
ripping the roof of yor mouth open on jublies....dressing up in your mums clothes and high heels at nursery.....apparently thats not allowed now for health and safety reasons....
thanks for a post thats made me feel all happy and cosy and glad to be how old I am!!!

Ty Bone.
I thought it would make some people smile. But some have always something to bleat about.
Still I remember " the good old days ", for that is how I remember them.
Days when you could leave your back door open without the fear of some scum bag coming in and knicking ya telly.
Days when no matter what happened you was in for tea on time, even though nobody had a watch...a strange one that. lol
Well I am glad it made you happy for that was my intention on this topic.
Ah jubilees..........you can still buy them in the shops ya know. wink
Quote by flower411

They were all out jobbing for the Krays wink
Yep I done all that and I survived. I talk about it to my kids.......then tell them if I catch them doing it I will bat them.
It is rose tinted glasses time. I remember it all fondly. I remember sitting in the front of a Hillman Hunter with no seatbelt.......I also remember burying a friend at 9 years old who had gone through the windscreen as well. Those of us that got away with it do look at it fondly..............those that didn't say thank feck times change. Very similar to people like me who had an ace time in the forces. It was the best time of my life......but I know of others where the forces was nothing more than a place where people were bullied, beaten and . Depends on what you were exposed to is how a person will remember it.
As an email post it is informative to show the youngsters what we got up to......but it wasn't ideal.
As to how did we get home on time for tea without a watch? Well my mam used to shout and my name was relayed down the street by all the other mams, then me mates used to say "Your mam is calling". Not a trick from the seventies.......it was loud mouthed mums lol
And she still yells at me in the supermarket ffs
Dave_Notts
I had a Hillman Hunter. It was a really really fantastic car. I remember it used to cost me half a groat for fully comp and it did 0-60 in 7 seconds and about 80mpg and never rusted. I have always wondered why they dont still make them instead of these unreliable modern eco disasters.
Quote by benrums0n
I had a Hillman Hunter. It was a really really fantastic car. I remember it used to cost me half a groat for fully comp and it did 0-60 in 7 seconds and about 80mpg and never rusted. I have always wondered why they dont still make them instead of these unreliable modern eco disasters.

You are joking of course? :shock:
I can only imagine what kind of emmisions those old cars used to chuck out.
The newer " eco disasters " chuck out far less than the cars of old.
My car is fitted with one of these as are most newer cars....it helps ya know.
Quote by flower411
We didn`t have anything worth nicking ...that`s why we left our doors unlocked lol
What a strange answer.
Maybe you should ask anyone of that generation about what people were like in the 50's and 60's and to be fair most of the 70's.
People were far more honest. They had time for their neighbours, and they looked out for each other.
Unlike today where even I do not know who my neighbours are 5 doors down.
I asked my Father who is now 76 about burglars when he was a kid. His answer was very simple " there were not any ". It did not happen. He never heard of anyone in the 40's or the 50's that was burgled.
I shall take his answer with a bit more importance if you don't mind. smile
In edit..... My objection was to make people laugh with this thread, and that objective was complete by making one person happy.
So on that basis my job is done, no matter what others say. It was a lighthearted e mail that made me smile.
Quote by kentswingers777
We didn`t have anything worth nicking ...that`s why we left our doors unlocked lol
What a strange answer.
Maybe you should ask anyone of that generation about what people were like in the 50's and 60's and to be fair most of the 70's.
People were far more honest. They had time for their neighbours, and they looked out for each other.
Unlike today where even I do not know who my neighbours are 5 doors down.
I asked my Father who is now 76 about burglars when he was a kid. His answer was very simple " there were not any ". It did not happen. He never heard of anyone in the 40's or the 50's that was burgled.
I shall take his answer with a bit more importance if you don't mind. smile
In edit..... My objection was to make people laugh with this thread, and that objective was complete by making one person happy.
So on that basis my job is done, no matter what others say. It was a lighthearted e mail that made me smile.
It is the motor car that is to blame.
I remember a copper talking about the illusion of less crime. He said it has always been there but there was a major difference. If a crime occured then the local bobby would usually know who it was by the facts of the case. Each person would have their own way of doing crime, so it was easy for them to spot. Everybody used to know each other in the street and be able to look out for each other.
Once the car came into being then people no longer lived where they worked. Commuting became the norm and people lost the knowing each other. Plus the criminals didn't need to rob on their doorstep.
I have left my door unlocked and my car unlocked in this day and age.........is it safe? No I have just been lucky I guess
Dave_Notts