[Unicorn]

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and may have lived in houses with asbestos in them, and lead pipes.

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 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, most TV's were black and white too.

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,

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.

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.


PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore
 

[cameldairy]

Love it!!

[JulieS]

Brilliant!   

[sandy]

  tooooo true!!

[little blue]

funny.... even to an eighties child
(Hey hey! Baby on the way,
Eighties mothers really tried (They rambled),
"No drugs,Wrap yourself in rugs
Eat your own placenta fried
(Or scrambled)." 

(thanks Victoria Wood for the lyrics!)

 

[Farmer]

Oh Unicorn...howtrue...how true...and we were/are all the better for it!

I remember it all and come from a time when RESPECT was something you gave willingly, usually to someone older and wiser...not a shouted demand from some young thug who thinks the world owes them a living!

Where did it all go wrong?

Farmer (feeling very nostalgic)
 

[JD]

Hi Unicorn thanks for bringing back those happy memories. 
Hi Farmer, lots of thugs , young and old, back then too!
JD 

[Farmer]

True JD...perhaps my memory is a little too selective these days...but there does seem to be more violent, drunken and loutish behavour now than there very was back then. Yes we had 'Teddy Boys' and later on Mods & Rockers...but they at least had the decency to dress in uniforms that made them easily recognisable and therefore avoidable...its hard to tell who the bad guys are these days!

farmer 
 

[Unicorn]

So what was you Farmer ?

Teddy bear sorry boy
Mod
or
Rocker

[sandy]

I was a MOD, left School to take over a Cafe with my mum, it was a MODS haunt, I used to run it alone on Sundays and play the top 20 that I had recored on a reel to reel tape from the week before, also had a Juke Box and as I have said before, sold Northern Soul......good times

[Unicorn]

Yeah I hanged out with the mods listening to Northern Soul too

Those were the days

[sandy]

Wigan peer had a big fire and put a stop to that for a while, then I grew up!!!

[marigold]

Good times eh?
Would you go back there?
Would you wish your experience on your kids or grand kids?
I wish they weren't victim to soooooo many adverts but I 'm really glad that they don't get vesta curries as an exotic treat.
 :yum:C

[Roxy]

As a 60's child, I can relate to this post!!  And I am still here, no ill effects.

I look at friends children, who have every gadget going, and never stir from the chair, and wonder.  I wonder what they would have done if they had grown up when I did, in the 60's and 70's.  They would have done what we did, coped!!  We knew no different, so made our own entertainment.

I never remember any fuss about what foods were dangerous to eat, or sell by dates.  We had no fridge, so stuff was kept in the pantry!!!  We had no central heating, so just put more layers on, and extra blankets on the bed.  The inside of the window would be iced up many winters morning - but we came to no harm!!!

I do sometimes think back to the innocence we had as kids growing up.  Nowadays they seem old before their time, and miss out on the childhood fun we enjoyed.

I certainly would not want to grow up in this era.  I have happy memories of my childhood, and thats what is important.

[Unicorn]

Wholeheartedly agree Roxy.

So glad that we live half way up a mountain in the middle of nowhere and that our child is
outdoors most of the time with her animals, or playing in the woods with the dogs.

We have tried our best to make childhood as it should be, and its great to see how happy kids
can be without all the games etc - the whole generation will probably have to wear glasses by the time they are in their late 20's from all the game and tv watching, no wonder their already worrying about obesity
in children - we were always running around outside - not couch potatoes like today

Here's to the good ol days