This is worth taking a few minutes to read it is so true
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's, 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.
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 - 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 Playstations 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 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 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.
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. (If you aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us
dripping sandwiches!
.................... We could only dream of.....
We also never locked a door at our homes during the day and at night was secured by the Yale lock with just the one screw in it.
We also called the "nice" policeman who brought us home after being caught nicking apples SIR. That was just before your father said the immortal words, "leave this with me officer, I will deal with him" and then, whack...
Did it do you any harm?
You mean things have changed?
What a shame. That must be why the kids of today are out of hand eh
No coppers to smack them around the head then go around to tell the "old man" who gave you another smack for having a copper knocking on the door.
But in all seriousness, so very true and what would the nanny state and all the do-gooders say about???
Saturday morning pictures.
Knock down ginger (not that I....).
Three pn'orth of chips in the News Chronicle, with lashings of salt and vinegar.
Scraping out the mixing bowl, I did that last on Saturday, the first time in years, delish!!!!!!
Oh, Oh the missus is coming must go.
Decided to try a dripping sarnie the other week...childhood memories etc...it was disgusting, that fat coating the mouth ugh...might now give the sugar sandwiches a miss....however the freshly scrumped Bramley apple plus a chunk of full fat cheese, makes you look forward to autumn
yeah & I can remember getting a serious for not being able to do a 'clock sum' aged 5 & mum giving me a clip around the ear for getting told off by the teacher....the injustice has stayed with me for 40+ years....I wonder if I could sue....might help out the pension shortfall!
Until our recent diversification, I was quite proud of the fact that 3/4 of our workforce was made up of youngsters who started working with us on the Youth Opportunities Programme, Youth Training Scheme etc.etc. (The government keep changing the name). But I had a phone call this week to inform me that we couldn't participate in the Work Experience Programme (as it's now called) any more because it is now deemed too dangerous to have youngsters working in the harbour area!!! (They've been doing this with us for the past 20 years without incident).
I'm off now to find some tar bubbles to burst, pitch to chew, mucky carrots to pinch from the plots, whelks to boil in a tin can............
