Inspiring!!!

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 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.

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 government 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, Nena 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 or Why Don't You.

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!!


UkModelMale

This was great, thanks for sharing. And yes, I'm smiling.

It was wonderful! Thank you!
Yes , we are getting old but do not want to admit that

Brilliant! and I did most of those dangerous things and survived. Plus I made bows out of willow tree branches (using a sharp knife to fashion the end) and arrows from reeds (that had been peed on by rats of course!)

Sad thing is, it is people of my generation that are causing children not to have a childhood like I remember.

well, in Romania i lived my childhood like this too... and i am 19 years old.... all those look so familiar to me ( except all those names cause i lived some comunism years and those names didn't get to our ears ). I did all those and even more. And i am still alive Here only after 2000 children began to change, being called the pokemon generation ... So here the generation that is now in universities is still after the ' old style'. And i guess this doesn't mean that we are getting older .... yet... :-S

im laughing, my dad bought coloured plastic to put on the screen of the tv to make it look colour and we got our clothes from jumble sales, anyone remember stingray?

And thunderbirds are go!! You could always see the strings, but still thought it was real! What about Bonanza - anyone remember that? The wobbbly scenary and the echoy voices - UKmalemodel, you have certainly got us going ..................... Who went fishing? and did you make slides in the winter in the playground? Did you have snowball fights? Anyone old enough to remember the cold winters in the 60's? I learnt to ice skate on the river at the front of my house and there used to be skating competitions in the Fens (only (some) English folk will know this one).

Nice post UKmodelMale I don't think nostalgia is what it used be I probably predate most of you as I spent most of my childhood during the second war and sweets etc. were rationed and I was 11 before I saw my first banana! Television was unheard of in those days but we always seemed to find something to do.

mcowans chews, flying saucers,mojos, black jacks, arrow bars, fruit salads, uncle joes mintballs, marina i had a crush on her, saturday morning pictures,, free school milk!