According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 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 pots and pans.
When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent 'clackers' 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.
We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop 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 play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us all day 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 Internet chat rooms. We had friends - we went outside and found them.
We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broken bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again.
We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue we learned to get over it.
We walked to friend's 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 and ate live stuff, and although we were told it would happen, we did not have very many eyes out, nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.
We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!
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.
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 between 1983 and 1985........ 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 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 just new films out last year.
They think that N-Trance "set you free" is an Old Skool song. They can never imagine life before computers. They've never heard of Pac-Man or Space Invaders or BBC computers that have Bat n Ball games.
They'll never have thought Jazz was the sexiest aftershave ever. They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, Red Hand 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 don't even know how to switch on a TV without a remote control.
And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone.
Full Version: How did we survive
Oh wow - life must really suck for them - I am glad I was a part of it! 
Being born in 1982 I'm not sure I'm old enough to comment, but I think you've perfectly highlighted the difference between me and my younger brother.
I too walked to school which was over 3 miles and with my little legs took almost an hour, I never wore my safety helmet, I would frequently disappear for hours but my parents never worried and I played on BBC computers at school and remember being pretty good at something called "Logo" whereby you enter in directions for an icon on the screen in order to draw a picture.
I do remember the Berlin wall coming down but only because I watched it on Timmy Mallet!
My brother however, 5 years my junior weighs in at 4 stone more, doesn't own a bike, does walk to school but it's not even a mile and he stops at his friends on the way because it's too far in one trip, and if a conversation doesn't include the words "Playstation 2" he's really not interested.
And that's what's wrong with the world today!
I too walked to school which was over 3 miles and with my little legs took almost an hour, I never wore my safety helmet, I would frequently disappear for hours but my parents never worried and I played on BBC computers at school and remember being pretty good at something called "Logo" whereby you enter in directions for an icon on the screen in order to draw a picture.
I do remember the Berlin wall coming down but only because I watched it on Timmy Mallet!
My brother however, 5 years my junior weighs in at 4 stone more, doesn't own a bike, does walk to school but it's not even a mile and he stops at his friends on the way because it's too far in one trip, and if a conversation doesn't include the words "Playstation 2" he's really not interested.
And that's what's wrong with the world today!
I'v read this before, but I'm glad I did again...makes me feel proud to be born in 1970 where I spent my youth running around barefoot with the rest of the council house kids, playing Knock on ginger, Drinking Homemade Ginger Beer, eating Space Dust, riding my mates yellow Chopper Bike, Scrumping apples, head banging to "The Osmands...Crazy Horses"...Oh and I wrote to " Jim'll Fix It"
4 TIMES!!!! and I never did get to sing " In the Brownies" with Billy Connally!
..My kids don't know what it is to be alive!
4 TIMES!!!! and I never did get to sing " In the Brownies" with Billy Connally!
..My kids don't know what it is to be alive!
Flash back. I was born in 1973.
I had a green buddgie (and it wasn't a bird), I was too small for a chopper.
I remember playing run outs everyday with all the other kids in our street, I think this was the precept to playing kiss chase which followed on a few years later, then spin the bottle (just a bottle not a board game as it is now! do kids have no imagination left???), then clubs and etc, etc, etc......
I went to the brownies, swimming club, ballet classes, tap classes and music school - hmmmm me thinks my parents were trying to get rid of me....
We had only one tv in the house and that was strickly controlled by my mum.
We had bed times that were stuck to.
We also had 3 meals a day none of which consisted of chips.
I remember when having a Mcdonalds was a treat to be had very rarely.
And I also remember I sent a picture in to Take Hart for the gallery but it didn't get shown
I'm proud to say my parachute pants got me thru the 80's with flying colors!!! 
"Take off my Van Halen shirt before you jinx them and they break up" - The Wedding Singer
"Take off my Van Halen shirt before you jinx them and they break up" - The Wedding Singer
| QUOTE (Mystic Mog @ Jan 9 2004, 10:55 AM) |
| We had bed times that were stuck to. We also had 3 meals a day none of which consisted of chips. I remember when having a Mcdonalds was a treat to be had very rarely. |
Same here Mystic Mog, and even going out for pizza was a RARE treat too.
I was born in 1966 and raised by my grandparents. Having lived on farms for the first 16yrs of my life, freedom was great. I could roam the woods or fields for hours and my grandparents were never worried.
I used to walk to my friends house, over a mile away, and never had to worry about being hassled by strangers. Neighbors knew each other back then and looked out for one another.
Meals were homemade and concisted of meat and potatoes. We raised our own veggies and animals. One pig and cow was slaughtered every fall to stock our freezer for the winter, and if my grandfather was lucky durring hunting season, we also had deer in the freezer too. We never went hungry and never had outragous grocery bills.
I think my kids would freak if they had to live like that today, working on a farm.
My entertainment then was reading, writing, and going for long walks. My kids entertainment is TV, computers and Sony Playstation. I never even owned a game system till after I was with my hubby for a number of years. I think we bought it in 1991, it was an 8 bit Nintendo, and we still have it.
I got this in an email the other day, and boy, is'nt it great to remanisce. 
I was born in 1962, Kennedy was still alive, John and Bobby, and we hadn't landed on the moon yet. The Beatles were still in Europe, and Viet Nam was just heating up, I remember all the things mentioned above, and wish I could go back and relive them all, life was simple back them, we had our problems, but life was good.
Oh! I remember when it was an extremely special treat to RENT a VCR and a movie for the night/weekend! And yes I said RENT! VCR’s were much too expensive back then! HOME MADE pizza every Friday night along with watching wrestling before it sucked.....
I remember playing outside without shoes on and coming inside looking like I lived in dirt! We loved catching lightning bugs and rolling down our hill!
We picked rocks out of the vegetable garden and helped plant. And boy when it was time to harvest potatoes you’d thought I’d died and gone to heaven - I loved it! We dried October beans and shelled them til you thought we’d had enough to feed an entire country. And oh stringing beans.....can I like grow down instead of growing up?
I remember playing outside without shoes on and coming inside looking like I lived in dirt! We loved catching lightning bugs and rolling down our hill!
We picked rocks out of the vegetable garden and helped plant. And boy when it was time to harvest potatoes you’d thought I’d died and gone to heaven - I loved it! We dried October beans and shelled them til you thought we’d had enough to feed an entire country. And oh stringing beans.....can I like grow down instead of growing up?
I was e-mailed this today and thought those of a certain age might enjoy.. 
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
'clackers' on our wheels. (I think you will find they were known as spokey
dokeys - some old git wrote this)
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags and 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 pop 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 Internet chat rooms. We had friends we went outside and found them.
We played elastics and street rounders, 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 fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.
We played knock-down-ginger and were afraid of the owners catching us.
We walked to friend's 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. (I'd like to
add if they did drive a car it wasn't a huge bull bar equipped 4x4 SUV)
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 up 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 1983........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 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, Red Hand 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 don't even
know how to switch on a TV without a remote control.
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 stories you have experienced together.
Yes, you're getting older!!!!
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
'clackers' on our wheels. (I think you will find they were known as spokey
dokeys - some old git wrote this)
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags and 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 pop 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 Internet chat rooms. We had friends we went outside and found them.
We played elastics and street rounders, 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 fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.
We played knock-down-ginger and were afraid of the owners catching us.
We walked to friend's 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. (I'd like to
add if they did drive a car it wasn't a huge bull bar equipped 4x4 SUV)
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 up 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 1983........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 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, Red Hand 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 don't even
know how to switch on a TV without a remote control.
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 stories you have experienced together.
Yes, you're getting older!!!!
Oh.. yeah.. I relate to the first list... born in 1971 here! 
And to add another one to the "Youth" list....
They have never know a time without MTV
And to add another one to the "Youth" list....
They have never know a time without MTV
| QUOTE |
| Oh.. yeah.. I relate to the first list... born in 1971 here! |
1969 here
I actually caught myself the other day saying: "The music these kids listen to these days..."
THEN I CRIED
Looks like Dispondent has his finger on the pulse more than me!!!
I'm born 1978 but I understand and miss those days. They were great ! I use to ski down hill with my sisters. Now there is no more hill, there is a house ! I use to go to my grandfather who had a farm and to watch a cow having her baby. I receved a mail like that but it's in French.
I was a Bananarama freak !!!
I was a Bananarama freak !!!
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