Read this if you were born before 1986.......

I am not usually one for posting the sort of email like the below, but it made me laugh to a point then 'Oh! s**t!' at the end!

This may have been posted before, which I am sure MB will correct me about.

Enjoy....

Nick

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who
were kids in the 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 'spokey dokey's' 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 chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice
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 could play all day, as
long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach
us 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, no DVDs, no Internet chat
rooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really
hurt!

We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no
law suits.

We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from
other parents.

We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the
owners catching us.

We walked to friends' 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.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

The idea of a parents bailing us out if we broke a law was
unheard of...They actually sided with the law.

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.

And you're one of them. Congratulations!

Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real
kids, before lawyers and governments regulated our lives, for our
own good.

For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like
to read about us.

This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might
put a smile on your face:

The majority of students in universities today were born in
1986........They are called youth.

They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children,
and the Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel. They
have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Neneh Cherry or Belinda
Carlisle.

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one
Vietnam.

AIDS has existed since they were born. CD's have existed since
they were born.

Michael Jackson has always been white.

To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they
can't imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance.

They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are
films from last year.

They can never imagine life before computers.

They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, RedHand Gang or
the Famous Five.

They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It
They can't believe a black and white television ever existed.
And they will never understand how we could leave the house without
a mobile phone.

Now let's check if we're getting old...

1. You understand what was written above and you smile.
2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a
night out.
3. Your friends are getting married/already married.
4. You are always surprised to see small children playing
comfortably with computers.
5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your
head.
6. You remember watching Dirty Den in EastEnders the first time
around.
7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the
good Old days, repeating again all the funny things you have
experienced together.
8. Having read this mail, you are thinking of forwarding it to
some other friends because you think they will like it too...

Yes, you're getting old!!

Them were the good old days eh?!? [smiley=icon_lol.gif]

Unfortunately this is all true. ?Whatever happened to the good old days when life was so much more wholesome, safe and liveable?

I know the younger generation go on about us wrinklies, but we are the ones who actually lived in those days and remember them well and with fondness. ?We also know how things have deteriorated since because we have something to compare with, whereas they don't. ?

True, modern technology has come on in leaps and bounds and makes life more comfortable for us, but is it worth the price we're paying by having kids growing up now that are lacking in respect or social graces, that make demands on their parents which can be financially crippling and they have no idea how to entertain themselves without all the electronic gadgetry that?s about now? ? It really is the end of the world if they can?t have the latest gear like their mates have. ?And it?s not just about kids, it?s the fear that lurks in every parent?s mind when the kids are out of their sight for any length of time. ?There?s so many real weirdos out there now. ?

Life isn?t for living any more, it seems to be governed by the need to acquire possessions and status. ?Everything revolves around money, whether it?s the need to make it or the need to spend it and some big companies are prepared to go to any lengths to make it and to encourage people to spend it. ?Wasn?t that salesman a really nice guy? ?No, he was just putting on an act to get you to buy something. ?He doesn?t give a damn about you once you?re out the door. And this is how it is today in a lot of areas in life. ?The ?nice? people aren?t always quite so nice once they?ve got what they want out of you.

Anyway, enough of the ramble and rant. ?I could go on and on. ?Thanks Nick for the trip down memory lane. ?All I can say is I really wouldn?t want to be bringing up children in this day and age. ?Good luck to you all. ?You certainly need it.

I kind of agree with most of what has been said. [smiley=icon_sad.gif] Health and safety regulations were virtually non existent in 'the good old days'. Parents were also ignorant about paedophiles and 'dirty old men' - even though they did exist and child murders were just as common. I suppose the lower traffic levels also made children playing in the streets more viable.

I suppose it's down to what era you were born in as most people always prefer and feel more comfortable (i.e. happier) in the era when they had their childhood/adolescence. I look back on my own childhood as being idyllic; as a child and teenager I was very naive and unaware of what was happening in the wider world. I guess I looked at the world in a rather more idealised way when compared to now.

Interestingly, I've always found small islands/sparsely populated countries/regions have a more carefree/trusting attitude to life - even if they are, perhaps, not justified. I don't know if this is true, but that is what I have always perceived to be the case. Perhaps it is because the local population are not bombarded with media images of child murders/crime stories every second of the day! [smiley=icon_biggrin.gif]


Tottefan.

It's also weird cos' the tv programmes I have watched have always portrayed the 1960s/70s/80s as being a rather seedy, hedonistic and self-centred age where an increasing emphasis was placed on liberating sexual attitudes and weakening already threatened institutions. I've no doubt that such portrayals are probably unfair and inaccurate, but perhaps there is some truth to these claims. [smiley=icon_confused.gif] I seriously doubt it though.

I find that whenever I despair at humanity, I remind myself of how much worse life was pre-20th century. Although, the 2oth and 21st centuries have not been without their problems, I am truly grateful that I was born in the last 100 years. [smiley=icon_biggrin.gif]


Tottefan.

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who
were kids in the 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 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels. As children, we would
ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the
passenger seat was a treat.

I always hate those 'in the good old days before we knew what killed ya' e-mails ... they usually come from my Republican 'friends.' ?I think most people who forward them to me don't know that:

1. I grew up poor and though I was lucky, lots of kids who lived in the houses I grew up in got lead poisoning ... I'm also a teacher, so I know just how many of our inner-city kids who end up in Special Education in school are there because of lead poisoning (and so cost taxpayers tons more money than it would have to fix the problem in the first place). ?

2. My cousin is brain damaged after spending 6 months in a coma when he was 4 because of a bicycle acident when he was riding on the handle bars of his brother's bike. ?A helmet would have made the difference between a concussion and lifetime of developmental disability. ?

I appreciate the humor of the rest of the post, but anything that suggests that we'd be better off without child protection laws generally gets my finger on the 'delete' button pretty quickly.

* off soapbox*

To me, the tone was more wistful about how we didn't obsess about the dangers in our lives as much as we might now. - Though my grandparents were sure I'd be kidnapped, raped and murdered anytime I left their house without an adult or mob of children around me.

I enjoy laughing at myself as I think about 'back when I was a kid...'. I know my elders thought much the same about my generation as I do the most recent. I would have preferred to have been part of my grandparents era in many (but not all) ways.

If I was part of my grandparent's generation, statistically there'd be a good chance that I'd be dead by now. [smiley=icon_cry.gif]

It's weird cos' every older generation since the beginning of time prefers their childhood era. I was reading a Charles Dickens novel the other day, and in it the old people were compalining about the present period and were pining for the 'good old days'. Strangely enough, 'the good old days' is one of the oldest phrases in the English language. [smiley=icon_biggrin.gif]

I also don't think that I could stand the racist and sexist attitudes of the pre 1960s. I look at the way the Maoris, Aboriginees, Native Americans were treated before the 1990s, and I think it reflects rather badly on the people at the time, to be honest. [smiley=icon_confused.gif]

Tottefan.

I always hate those 'in the good old days before we knew what killed ya' e-mails ... they usually come from my Republican 'friends.' I think most people who forward them to me don't know that:

1. I grew up poor and though I was lucky, lots of kids who lived in the houses I grew up in got lead poisoning ... I'm also a teacher, so I know just how many of our inner-city kids who end up in Special Education in school are there because of lead poisoning (and so cost taxpayers tons more money than it would have to fix the problem in the first place).

2. My cousin is brain damaged after spending 6 months in a coma when he was 4 because of a bicycle acident when he was riding on the handle bars of his brother's bike. A helmet would have made the difference between a concussion and lifetime of developmental disability.

I appreciate the humor of the rest of the post, but anything that suggests that we'd be better off without child protection laws generally gets my finger on the 'delete' button pretty quickly.

* off soapbox*

I agree entirely. Do we really want to return to the days when thousands in manual jobs died because of poor health and safety regulations? Do we want to return to an era when beating women was not only accepted in many cases, but also not seen as a good enough reason to justify divorce? Or education only for the wealthiest members of society i.e. the aristocracy?

I must admit that health and safety legislation has gone too far recently, but changes over the years have saved many lives. Unbelieveably, despite the lower level of traffic in the 1970s, there were statistically more fatal accidents. This can be explained by two things: improved car safety and seat belts. Surely it would be madness to ignore any improvements which can be made. Likewise with child safety - child protection laws were strengthened in the 1960s for a reason!!!!!!!!!


Tottefan.

I must admit that when I first read the 'email' first posted on this thread, I thought 'yes' - they were really good times. Like most kids today, mine do spend too much time on the PC and watching tv instead of going out, exploring and playing like kids are supposed to.

Then I remember what I got up to. There were many nostalgic days of collecting caterpillars, fishing with nets in steams, making 'dens' in copses of woodland, cycling around the town etc. I also remember falling from a barn we had been climbing and going home covered in cuts and bruises, of being pushed into a fast-flowing stream, being knocked off my bike twice, being chased by cows, my sister being trapped in a building site trench, a boy down the road broke his neck falling from a tree, another drowned in an open water tank. I am sure there were more instances of the dangers we faced, overcame and were the better for the experience ... but equally, we could have been one of the unlucky ones.

Perhaps it is the realisation of the possible dangers we faced then that we are so protective of our own children today ... well, one of the reasons anyway.

[smiley=icon_neutral.gif]