CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE 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 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 a Sunday, 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 because we didnt need to keep up with the Joness!
Not everyone made the rugby/football/cricket/netball 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 throw the blackboard rubber at us if they thought we werent concentrating .
We can string sentences together and spell and have proper conversations because of a good, solid three Rs education.
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 !
I was one of those born in the early 70s and i saw how things began to change as the 80s progressed. I still remember taking drinks bottles back to the sweetshop that was opposite the ground in the 1970s.
The coalman with his horse and cart and the race for the 'nuts' to fertilse the roses. The Corona home delivery lorry eagerly awaited by us kids. The provident man making his weekly rounds not always so welcome.
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YOUTH are the future
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"The worst thing you can do is make a committment and not meet it and I understand that." Barrie Hobbins 14 August 2010
Not just the coalman Bruno but the co-op baker and milkman delivered using horse and cart where I lived in Kidbrooke. Also remember the circus train used to offload in sidings at Eltham Well Hall (also gone). The animals were paraded to Blackheath. I still remember seeing women on horses and elephants walking up Birdbrook Road. They also had the wild animals in cages in the parade. Although I wouldn't like to see the return of circus animals could you imagine the field day the health and safety brigade would have with such a parade these days.
H&S, Animal rights, etc etc put paid to the Circus which now resembles more of a mobile music hall without the music.
We also enjoyed the delights of the bungalow bath which hung on a nail in the wall in the back yard and was filled with water boiled up in a Baby Burco which sat precariously on a chair with its tap over the bath yet another H&S hazard. (Luckily I was the oldest child so I wasn't the last in the bath!)
The chamber pot reigned supreme on cold winter nights when a trip to the outside loo was out of the question.
As you got older youth cluibs, with far less facilities than those of today, for which we were grateful and didn't vandalise within weeks of their opening only to then complain that there was nothing for us to do.
Seemingly every house had a key dangling on a bit of string inside so the kids could put their hand through the letterbox, pull the key out and let themselves in.
And anyone who thinks recycling is a new idea obviously never had the pleasure of the 'pig bins'.
Not necessarily the Good Old Days but they were certainly character building.
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YOUTH are the future
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"The worst thing you can do is make a committment and not meet it and I understand that." Barrie Hobbins 14 August 2010
