To all those born in 40s, 50,s 60,s

[Paul Barker]

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking .

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun.

We drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop 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 scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no text messaging, 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 .

We played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out any eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, 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 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, tell it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Pinched from another site.

[alnewall]

...and we developed something called "common sense".

[NickG]

"We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms"

No, but we then went on to invent them, so the younger generation could then assume we knew nothing about them :-)

[Black Stuart]

Good post Paul,
yes we were always outside playing. Our bunch used to ask our mothers for sanwiches and we thought it a 'great adventure, to walk 7 miles each way to the Devil's Dyke on the Downs.

We nicked bits of corrugated steel sheet and used them as toboggans on the grass at the top and career down to the bottom at incredible speeds.

we always had cuts full of god knows what - nobody ever needed a tetanus jab.

Most importantly we developed imaginations. We did'nt get clean clothes every day and wore hand-me-downs - if you suggested that to kids or their mothers today, they would look at you as if you were mad or perverted.

All advertising is aimed at women and with a few exceptions they have become totally brainwashed (this applied to Europe as a whole). Women no longer work hard physically, so turn into fat slobs. They feed garbage to their kids who also become fat slobs.

We live in interesting times - I'm waiting for the day when the slobs go to the swill bins/supermarkets and find them empty - what then?

[andrew ivimey]

Two points then have caught my eye from the above.

It was this generation who invented the dross and ****; i.e. if not actually you and me, it was our generation, our peers.

And women are all fat slags so it is their fault - hm, oh really.

oh and a third thing, 'common sense' that is really funny!

Everysooften on the Web there are thoughtprovoking postings like the one Paul has shared with us. They are usually interesting, make me smile and yes, think a little about what was, what is and what might be.

'Was' is often seen through rose tinted specs if the seer has the luxury of being able to look back. What is, is where we are now and again with the luxury of being able to, we can look over the rims of our king sized lattes and wonder what on earth the younger generation (again our produce) are coming to.

And then, the Future:

- Given that evidence exists at least in Judao-Christian history that we have always believed in, wanted to believe in, or fought against the idea of, Doom & Dystopia, what do we then do?

Pay for our lattes, shamble out into the queue, take a mobile call from our nearest and dearest about what breakfast cereal we should buy and grumble.

It raining not is in Tokyo.

[Richard]

Yes Andrew, very good, I was thinking along similar lines. If we had a good childhood it was because our folks brought us up well. If not we probably thought life was just like that anyway. Point being, adults have a responsibility to kids and kids know nothing til they're taught. Melanie Phillips has a good essay (in the Mail today) on this about the recent "kid's dogfight" hosted by 4 lone females last week.

Paul's bit is very romantic but I had a friend lost an eye in a stone-fight, etc, and nor did this stop as we grew up and friends were killed on motorcycles, then cars, and shot on holiday etc etc. Only when we're older still do friends confide worse tales of childhood abuse from adults who've lived with it for 30 years or more.

Us baby-boomers are a lucky, gifted, generation. When I moan about mobile phones my daughter counters with "well, your lot invented them". So we did, and almost everthing else too in the world at the moment. Maybe her lot will do a better job.

[pre65]

Originally Posted by Richard

Us baby-boomers are a lucky, gifted, generation. When I moan about mobile phones my daughter counters with "well, your lot invented them". So we did, and almost everthing else too in the world at the moment. Maybe her lot will do a better job.

Hi-i so hope that they do !!

Philip

[Stratmangler]

Originally Posted by alnewall

...and we developed something called "common sense".

And then Government created this monster called "The Health & Safety Executive".

Because of the HSE working to total numpty levels it is getting more and more difficult to actually do work - can't go up ladders above 1 metre, and so on.

And nobody seems to want to bear responsibility for their own actions.

Chris

[david counter]

thanks Paul,

a very thought provoking post,
it's my birthday today, looking back, when I grew up just after the war things seemed much simpler, if you fell of a swing at the play ground and broke your arm you just got on with it, your parents didn't look round for people to sue, we didn't have this blame culture that's around today,

[Darren D]

Originally Posted by pre65

Hi-i so hope that they do !!

Philip

I somehow doubt it, just sit and watch them for a while.....