CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's, 60's and 70'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 and we went round the streets on Go-carts made from old pram wheels & bits of wood.

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 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 catapults for our 10th birthdays,

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!

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 bully's 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, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

^^^ not really, it was also the people born in these years which implemented the changes they like to complain so much about now.

Is that like "Congratulations, you are one of the lucky few to survive" or "Congratulations, you had the luck to live well"?

Also, what's wrong with eating tuna out of a can?

i do alot of these things


technology has ruined most of em

You forgot:

And when wearing Ug boots meant keeping your feet warm and was not regarded as high fashion.

Yep there is indeed something wrong when primary schools suspend kids for doing cartwheels in the playground. Its all about duty of care, liability, insurance and cowardice.

The root difficulty seems to be that its much easier to see the harm in a broken limb than the harm in a stunted spirit. Lawyers and bureaucrats, bean counters, and budgets - what evil has man wrought.

Sook

I dont think I couldve expressed the same feelings as Mikeys so well.
Spot on bloke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i am so happy someone is speaking the truth!

im 17 so i happen to be one of the kids born in the early 90's and i can honestly say that i've missed out on so much

i grew up watching movies from the 70's and 80's and it seems that the people born of my generation dont have any freedom compared to previous decades.
my generation are scared s***less of everything because we grew up being told that everything will kill us. and yes there are some things that we should be warned of but we should be able to figure most of it out ourselves
we learn from mistakes yeah? well how can we learn if we are forbidden to do anything that might actually force us to make a mistake

im sorry to all you older more experienced adults but for god sake, we aren't a bunch of idiots who are gonna run into walls or set fire to everything we see

release the bloody leash you have us on and stop the bubble wrapping
let us have some fun. we only get one childhood to form what we will grow up to be

ranting over. my 2 cents in

cheers

The Grinch said...

If you were born in th 40s,50s, 60s and 70s.....

YOU'RE OLD!!!!

We can count. What's your point?

After reading this post I was pretty happy to come home yesterday arvo to hear that my 12 year old had been out playing with her friends and they had gone exploring in the bush near the beach. She had a few scrapes and cuts from falling over and the odd shrub. She was so happy and had a blast as she told me.
No sooky la-la crap, just plain old fashioned make-your-own-fun and not worry about the consequences.
If I am old (born in the 60's) then at least some of todays youth are doing exactly what we did as kids. Beats the s*** out of sitting in front of the TV or computer!!

Know how you feel Mark.
As for your description of the athletics carnival I was at my daughters Zone meet yesterday and thank goodness it was all normal. Proper big heavy shotput, starters pistol, spiked running shoes etc. The kids were having a blast.
I overheard a couple of young blokes saying to each other that its no big deal if you dont win and when a competitor fell and resumed racing or limped off they were clapped off by the crowd. Lots of good sportsmanship as well.
Refreshing to see. All is not lost.