Those were the days!!

Bebi · Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:02 am Post subject: Those were the days!!

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's, 60's, 70's and even 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 child-proof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pots and 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 air bags - 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... strange how water tastes just like ....well ...water! 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. Your mother MADE ice pops out of dilutable orange drinks. 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 had forgotton the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times we learned to solve the problem (dock leaves). 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 and no Internet chat rooms. We had friends - we went outside and found them. We played football and rounders every summer, and sometimes that ball really hurt! We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no lawsuits. We had full on fistfights but no prosecution followed from other parents. We played knock-on-the-door-and-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us. We WALKED, yes 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 (kinda like a cape, looked cool when you went really fast). The idea of a parent 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.

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. Check this out!

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 You are always surprised to see small children playing comfortably with computers.
4 When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.
5 You remember watching Dirty Den in East-Enders the first time round.
6 You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good old days, repeating again all the funny things you have experienced together.

And finally, remember - you are not old - just fortunate!

_________________
It is those who are perfectly sane who are driven the maddest by an insane world...

There is method behind my madness