For older readers... we had it tough!

[Boneman]

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE WHO WAS BORN IN THE 40's,50's, 60'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 only opened on Saturday morning, 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 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 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, and didn't kill anyone, or grow up obsessed with weapons.

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!

FOOTBALL, 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 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' and 'Chardonnay'.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL !

And if 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...

[The Ace]

Well, we wore shoes and it was the belt, but you've pretty much summed it up.

[blacknorth]

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

Speak for yourself - my worm is coming along nicely after all these years.

[Anne Lyle]

Cane for the boys, slipper for the girls - ah, the good old days

OTOH I have no problem with boys having pierced ears. If it was good enough for the Elizabethans...

[Teresa Edgerton]

Where I grew up, beating schoolchildren with canes or slippers would have been considered barbaric, and yet teachers managed to exert authority. Now they couldn't do it with thumbscrews and boiling oil.

And the bullies have retreated to the internet and text messaging, where their abuse can be deadly.

[The Ace]

Of course beating children is barbaric. It's also effective.

[mosaix]

I think the key to Boneman's post is the first few words:

"First, we survived..."

Of course WE did, the one's who didn't aren't around to read it.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by The Ace

Of course beating children is barbaric. It's also effective.

I don't believe that. The ones it would influence can be managed otherwise, and the more difficult children will take their beatings and go back to doing what they were doing.

[Jade44]

Originally Posted by The Ace

Well, we wore shoes and it was the belt, but you've pretty much summed it up.

Shoes? You had Shoes!

[Vladd67]

It has to be posted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eDaSvRO9xA

[Starbeast]

Originally Posted by Vladd67

It has to be posted

Excellent Vladd67, I love that "4 Yorkshire Men" sketch, and the one you posted was an early version I've never seen with Marty Feldman, very cool man. A good companion piece would be the "Cocktail Bar" sketch. I remember seeing the "Bar" sketch on tv long ago, but I think it was pulled off the air for being too gross. Heh heh, those wild and zany Python guys still make me laugh.


Anyway, thanks for bringing back some wonderful memories Boneman, I read your post few hours ago and I just floated away on my pleasent and harmless fun rememberance of yesteryear.

Playing outside all day, staying up late on Friday and Saturday nights watching old sci-fi movies and horror shows while chowing down on tons popcorn and drinking soda pop.

Reading comic books and monster magazines, buying (my favorite candy) huge pieces of bubblegum, watching cartoons, sleeping over friend's houses, playing board games, walking all around the city and to Lake Michigan to swim in it for hours.....(sighs)...

Makes a person want to wish for a time machine which also turns you back into a child again.

I dedicate this tune to everyone who has fond memories of the simple days of the past when we were innocent children.

[Highlander]

I remember at school one teacher at the start of term pulled out a brand new belt and told us all that he would use it if he had to. We persuaded him to try out the belt on the class (it was a light slap only)

Rumours then went round the school that he had belted a whole class and I think he got into a bit of trouble - he he!

I also remember sticky Black-jacks (1/2d each - remember before we had decimal money), sherbet fizz and gobstoppers.

Later when I was at University you could buy 6 pints of beer and still have change from £1 !

[RJM Corbet]

We had a French teacher at school: Sid Jones, of all possible names. He kept order with a little pottery witch. If you made any trouble in his class, the witch landed on your desk, and when someone else did, you passed the witch on to him with grateful relief, because the last one left holding the witch when the bell went, got cuts.

It worked. We liked Sid, he was fair. The teachers who gave us an inch had a really rough time of us, the poor sods ...

[bedlamite]

Ah, great days they were, great days.
Three channels on the tv.
Actually being terrified of our headmaster in junior school. Terror level intensifed x 1000 the day when I unleashed a Roy of the Rovers screamer of a shot using one of those cheap lightweight footballs and it hit him square on the side of his massive bald bullet of a head.
The town where I lived, swarming with people when the factory let out the day shift.
Carrying a ton (a ton!) of coal to the shed from the front of our house.
The phone only to be used for emergencies so severe you were probably in no condition to dial.
Calling to the local sawmill (every town, even most small ones had them!) for sawdust for my rabbits, and the foreman letting me jump in the dust pit to get it; one time shouting down to me to crouch as he had to rip down a length for a customer.
The general state on people; I looked at a picture of a family gathering from the 70s the other day - my uncles all looked like serial killers/adult movie stars who need to work out.


My favourite of all the above recollections is the phone. I would love to time travel and tell my 70s dad that I was phoning a friend to update him of my status. The conversation would go:

Just going to use the phone, Dad.
- Why? What's wrong with you. Are you sick? -
No, just going to ring Byron and tell him what I'm up to.
- Eh? Are you mental? Just walk to his house and tell him, that'll cost nothing. -
Well, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing then, would I?
- What if someone was to phone us when you were phoning him? -
Like who?
-Your gran could have fallen down or something. How would she be able to let us know? Besides, it's not what you're doing now that you should be worried about; it's what you'll be doing in ten minutes that you'll look forward to -
What will I be doing in ten minutes?
- Getting the coal in. Go change into your scruffy clothes. -
God, this house is like a prison! (stomps upstairs)
- No it's not. They're allowed phone calls in prison. -

[chrispenycate]

And if anyone was far enough away that you actually needed the phone, rather than sticking your head out of the window and shouting, it wasn't a local call and you had to get the girl on the switchboard to connect you. The hospital had one telephone line, so you had to wait your turn to fall ill (and if a patient absolutely had to talk they trailed this massive extension lead round the wards).