How it WAS !

[bondy]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 1940's, 50's, 60's and early 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 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 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, McDonald's , 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 Play stations, 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 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, and we learned HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL !

[eyeayen]

+1 ( well maybe not the blowing up frogs but everything else is so true ! )

[Moozo]

I remember those days, and now i have four kids who stay in all the time and play xbox or watch tv.......but this is down to all the scum bags who have made the world the way it is today

For me bring back the 80's and early 90's

[gainsy]

So true all of it
I remember my evil knievel toy that you had to put lighter flints in to make it fire sparks out the back, doubt that would pass todays tests on toys, also doubt i would be allowed to ride the motorbike that my dad made me out of a lawnmower up & down our street without a care in the world
Bring back the 70/80's

[SlowOne]

To which we could add the latest banes of our lives...

We lived with the fact that there might be germs in the kitchen / loo / clothes because they were cleaned with bleach and/or soap and dried properly. We didn't get ill.

We didn't need adverts to all manner of things telling us that we are in danger of something that doesn't exist unless we buy another product we don't need.

If we needed to borrow money we asked the bank manager, pawned something or got credit from the grocer and greengrocer. And we got it...

The shops delivered to the house as standard. The greengrocer came round in his van. The paperboy delivered the paper. The milkman delivered the milk. The butcher delivered the meat. No one had heard of a superstore, nor travelled more than a few miles to the high street where they could buy everything. And we never felt deprived or jealous of others who had more...

If we had something to say we talked to our friends and family in a polite, reasoned way. We learnt to find things out, construct a sentence and make an argument that could be discussed. We could change our minds. We did not grow up to be idiots...

[Spoolio]

+1 to all that. When you put it like that Bondy maybe progress isn't such a good thing. On an RC level the Tamiya Sand Rover that cost my dad 2 weeks wages was probably my most treasured possession ever. Happy days.

Where's Doc Brown and the DeLorean so we can pop back in time for a visit?