Life was simpler..........

[Player]

I thought the coffee lounge needed a little lightening up as a few threads on SS of late have been a little disempowering.

I hope you get a chuckle from this and please feel free to do so on my behalf; I was born in the early 60's.

Enjoy





CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1940's, 50's and 60's !


First, we survived being born to mothers who 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 coloured 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, McDonalds , 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 Playstations, 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!

FOOTY/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 !


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, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

 

[willair]

I thought the coffee lounge needed a little lightening up as a few threads on SS of late have been a little disempowering.

I hope you get a chuckle from this and please feel free to do so on my behalf; I was born in the early 60's.

Enjoy





CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1940's, 50's and 60's !


First, we survived being born to mothers who 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 coloured 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, McDonalds , 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 Playstations, 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!

FOOTY/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 !


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, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Takes me back after reading that i was born in the mid 50's,they only item that was left out was what my Father use to take all the time was
"BEX",i still have some of his old packets,thanks ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZQL22xOmUM

 

[skater]

My mother took salt tablets and smoked like a chimney. In fact, both my parents smoked non stop, even during pregnancy. I would not recommend that though, as I was plauged with bronchitis as a child, and I am positive it was from all the inhallation of smoke. I was hardly ever sick once I left home, so some changes are for the better.

I remember skating all the way to the skating rink, several suburbs away, over a very rough and bumpy road, all by myself and catching the train home late at night and walking home from the station. We didn't even have street lights where we lived. I also remember walking to my friends house, in the next suburb. To get there, I walked along the train tracks and through bushland to get there.

Kids today are sooooo overprotected. It is not uncommon for the parents of a child having a fall while skating to run out to them, mollycoddle them, carry them off the floor, all concerned about how their little princess (or worse, prince) has fared from a mere fall on the bottom. The child, of course, laps up the attention, cries, and carries on a real treat.

I remember some parents thought I was a monster when my kids fell, because I would laugh at them. Then, guess what? They would laugh too, dust themselves off, get up and keep on going. You know if they are really hurt, then you can do something about it.

 

[Macca]

Taking visitors out on the lake in a row boat then rocking the boat until it filled with water just for fun (and to scare the city kids) bail them out and row back to shore.

Chasing bush cattle out of the garden using catapults, crabbing with a piece of flattened fencing wire attached to an old oyster stake covered in tar.

Sailing boats across the lake using a gum tree as a mast and hessian oyster bags for a sail.

If it is daylight we ain't home

Probably not better or worse, just different !

 

[VYBerlinaV8]

Of course, infant and child mortality rates were far higher then than now.

 

[Amadio]

Get the hungries so trot down to the beach and dig up a few cockles - build a fire in the back yard - roast cockles until they opened and eat them with a rusty safety pin...

 

[Gordon Gekko]

Get the hungries so trot down to the beach and dig up a few cockles - build a fire in the back yard - roast cockles until they opened and eat them with a rusty safety pin...

oooooooooooooooookkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

 

[joanmc]

haha! sit in a mulberry tree and eat the fruit....grubs and all!!
take ham sandwiches to school without a freezer brick!
use our imaginations

 

[skater]

Make whistles out of the stones from the neighbours apricot tree, after pinching their fruit.

Spend hours, blackberry picking in the scrub, eating more than you put in the bucket to take home, and arriving home covered in scratches & purple from the berries.

Getting bottles of milk at school, that had been sitting in the summer sun for hours and being forced to drink it. LOL! Maybe that's why I still can't stand milk.

 

[evand]

Having skateboard vs. roller skate races around the hills of our local streets. reaching ridiculous speeds.

My mate was pulled over by the police for going faster than the cars on roller skates.

After a big storm pinching discarded inner tubes from the local service station and floating down the fast, swollen creeks. Very dangerous, but incredible fun.

Plenty, plenty more.

 

[pennyk]

Takes me back after reading that i was born in the mid 50's,they only item that was left out was what my Father use to take all the time was
"BEX",i still have some of his old packets,thanks ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZQL22xOmUM

I was thinking about BEX as I read Player's original post. I'm sure my mum was addicted to it....

We used to play in the stormwater drains. and the bush at the back of our house (in middle of Sydney). My mum would ring a cow bell when it was time to come inside, and we could hear it from quite some distance away.

We were fortunate at our school... there was a fridge for the milk, so we always got it cold.

Pen

 

[kathryn d]

I agree.
BUT we are the children of this time era.
Why did we raise our children different?
Is it because our parents were ignorant* of the dangers, and we now know what really could have happened?
I'm guilty of this too, as I was born 1960.

*ignorant (lack of knowledge)

 

[jacbmw]

haha, been reading this thinking it sounds alot like my youth (but i was born in the 80's)...

used to be out till all hours playing sports, mucking around in the local parks and waterways, skateboarding to all distant suburbs of the city without notifying the parents...

I know dad worried, but he knew i was always with friends and we would look out for each other if something (which it sometimes did) happen. It really tought me to grow up quick as far as knowing danger, resourcefulness and taking responsibility for my own actions...

 

[Luv2Travel]

Despite being born in the 70's I can still relate to some of what has been mentioned.

- Playing in the backyard for hours including making "sculptures" out of mud and collecting insects.

- School excursion when I was about 7, Mum tells me the male teacher had me sitting on his knee on the bus. He wasn't a pedophile, he was just a fantastic caring teacher to all the students. A male teacher isn't allowed to look at a female student today let alone have one sit on his lap!

- Trampolines without padding and safety nets - sister smashed her tooth out trying to copy me.

- Riding down our very steep court sitting ON a rollerskate only for the skate to come out and nothing between the road and my backside. Bandaged up for ages and being forced to go to ballet class wearing a leotard with bandages hanging out of my @rse.

- I laugh when I look at my baby photos with the giant cane bassinet. What a huge thing to carry around, and don't think it was very secure in the car! No 100 point legal safety requirements back then I pressume.

 

[buzzlightyear]

I guess there will be many examples of yesteryear being simpler and looked upon fondly, at least in retrospect. As there will be others that demonstrate the reverse. The road toll is one.

Have heard of close family and their driving exploits in the 70's. Its an amusing anecdote when told today, in the typical Aussie rogue fashion. The reality is that people were being killed/injured at a much higher rate than today and our knowledge of the factors that contribute to the road toll are far better understood. In turn our behaviours have changed as a result.

 

[RumpledElf]

These days kids need to be in a safety seat until they are SEVEN. What's next, kiddie seats until they are teenagers? Is the underage road toll realy rising so much that kids need to be in a seat that long? This is going to cost us rather a lot of money on a larger car very soon now as we have a small, economical car and the blasted kiddy seats don't FIT in it, so we really do need a Government enforced upgrade to a SUV

I live in the country and my offspring is forever nipping out to visit other kids, and they just turn up here too. She has three friends within 2 blocks of our house. They go off on bike rides, down to the creek, to the playground (all plastic with smooth corners, no metal or wood, and over about a foot deep of wood chips - nothing like the playgrounds of the 80s even) and across town to the skate park. She's thin, fit, and covered in scratches and bruises and scabs.

My pet peeve about modern life which I've whined about before here is the stupid healthy eating courses at school. You can't opt out of them, although I'm going to try and get her out of it this year by putting an objection letter to the principal, since by the time you find out about the course its too late - unlike religious education they don't tell you it is going to happen. The kids don't need educating about 'healthy eating', the parents do. This town is not in a low socioeconomic demographic, so there's very few fat kids here (the school here has a very large collection area and maybe half the kids are actually from farms and stations within a 30km radius) and you could just send the few porky ones home with some brochures and not inflict the ridiculous healthy eating crap on the skinny ones and force the parents to spend the next few years undoing the useless rubbish they get taught.

 

[The Fence]

Having skateboard vs. roller skate races around the hills of our local streets. reaching ridiculous speeds.

My mate was pulled over by the police for going faster than the cars on roller skates.

After a big storm pinching discarded inner tubes from the local service station and floating down the fast, swollen creeks. Very dangerous, but incredible fun.

Plenty, plenty more.

...aahhh the memories...tractor tubes with 4 kids aboard going down the Peel River in flood....no-one got hurt.

Next door neighbour had a go-cart without an engine...we lived at the top of a very steep street and would go flat out down with scouts at each intersection watching for cross traffic...if a car was coming, at the last minute you could turn this thing hard as without flipping it....so much fun.

Also roamed the streets underground in the drains...used to be the quickest way to school and the place for "initiations" to occur....yep..real gutter rats...LOL!

Roaming around the streets with .22 rifles & slug guns slung over shoulders...but for some reason not on Sundays....?

 

[weg]

The reality is that people were being killed/injured at a much higher rate than today and our knowledge of the factors that contribute to the road toll are far better understood. In turn our behaviours have changed as a result.

Agree that far more people were killed on roads years ago. Seatbelts especially have made a huge difference to the toll.

Apart from that though kids have become greatly restricted in their movements, are given much less access to other kids to learn very important social skills, are denied involvement in activities required to learn confidence through risk taking (climbing trees, roofs ect) and too frequently have someone hovering over them/directing restricting the childs ability to learn a few things for themselves.

 

[mary&mat]

I'm a 70's kid like Biggles & all these posts bring back some really carefree, happy, innocent times.

We knew everyone in our street back then too & most around the neighbourhood. I think b/c we walked to school & generally walked a lot more places back then, we got to know our neighbours more.

Gone from dawn till dusk in summer, make-shift boats made outta whatever old wood was lying around, playing in the stormwater tunnels, investigating old disused timberyards, going to the pool with $2 & it lasting the whole day, having water fights all the time, running under the sprinkler which was on from morning til night....ahhh...good times indeed

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

The irony of that story is that it is the author's generation that has created the children of today...

My mum kept me on a pretty tight leash growing up, but I can relate to some that stuff. Once I reached my teens, we (my brother and our friends and I) would go skating all day every day.