WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER !!

[dsquire]

 

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 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!



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.





PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore



Cheers 

Don
 

[arnoldb]

  Brilliant!

I still have my air gun - got it when I was 6 and used to be able to buy little packs of bulldog bullets for it at the corner shop...  Now I have to go to a proper gun shop and show my firearms license   

And I'm from the early 70's...

[John Hill]

My father always told us kids how spoilt we were having bikes to go the 3 miles to the local school,  then when I got older and was being interviewed for a job the interviewer said he knew my father from his school days, remembered him well as ours was the only family to have ponies to ride to school.

[dsquire]

John

That reminds me of one from my dad.

As a youngster I always had trouble in school getting good grades. Dad always kept reminding me how all the way through school he never stood worse than 3rd in his class. Once I got into High School I found out that there never were more than 3 kid in his class.  
 He sure had me snowed but I still love him dearly and wish he were still here.

Cheers  

Don

Edit to add:

Child of the early 40's

[Bernd]

Don,

That one brought back some memories.

Child of the 50's.

Bernd

[Stilldrillin]

We had "battles" by throwing stones at each other.

Turned a table upside down..... It was a pirate ship......

Made dens in the woods. Stayed all night, sometimes.......

Child of the 40's.

David D

[mike os]

ah happy memories.... at 15 I had my first rifle...... FN R1    pellet gun, kids toys LOL ....try .410 then graduates to 20 & 12g before i did what were then "O" levels ( by which time I was fairly proficient with at least 3 assault rifles and a couple of sub-mac's  )  Somehow I am still alive & have not suceeded in killing myself, murdering my entire school or village....

[foozer]

We had "battles" by throwing stones at each other.

David D

Once! thunk up side the head ended those battles, blood and folks dont mix

Flexi Flyers I think they were called, downhill death on wheels

Cardboard and steep grassy hill

Ride inside a tire down hill

Child of the 50's

Robert

[lordedmond]

done all that although we used to sledge down a very steep field with a railway cutting at the bottom , we never had a problem with that but one lad did hit a tree , broke his neck  shocked us all . per rants banned use from sledging but as you all know that lasted about 5 hours


the most dangerous thing we did was to upend a metal dustbin fill with town gas and light it round the lid when over the science lab roof like a moon rocket flames as well


still alive just

child of the 40's

Stuart

[doubleboost]

We used to spend hours playing around disused mine sites
Throwing bangers down the open shafts
Making swings with un tested rope in un tested trees without a SWL on the branch
It was called having fun 
The metal work teacher used to let us in to the shop at dinner times to use the machines
I remember nicking some magnisium ribbon from the science lab and burning it with out any PPE 
Happy days late 50s

[andyf]

Same for me. Sent out to play, climbing trees and cycling miles and miles from home. Given some money at the age of 10 to go and buy myself an airgun from the local newsagents. At 13, off to the Lake District (hitching lifts to get there) to climb a few mountains. And would today's parents be happy with their 16 year old son spending his summer hitchhiking round foreign parts?

And all without a mobile/cell phone to keep in touch...

Andy (1947 vintage).

 

[BiggerHammer]

Good one dsquire. First shotgun a .410 in the third grade. Getting caught 20 feet up the neighbors very old and large Apple tree at age 6, those were some of the best apples EVER! Go cart with no seatbelts, rollcage or helmet (and not much sense, they will leave the ground and do flippy bouncy things if you get too brave/stupid).

Oh, and the lead based paints that were mentioned might explain some of my personality. 

[Artie]

The air rifle! I think I was about 6 when I got it... er uhm gun laws made the Guberment take it away a few years ago....  child of the 'wild' 60's....like..... wow..... man.....

[Swarfing]

Best time for was carting bags off weed killer and ???????(just in case it is still possible), a large biscuit tin and a bunch of DT fuses to the fields. Find the nearest sapling, tightly pack the ingredients into the tin, tons of gaffer tape and light fuse. Boy did they fly out of the ground  . then it would be off for a swim in the river and try and catch the eels. Gat guns stung at 6 feet away

Just missed the sixtys

[John Hill]

Hmmmm, found an empty 12 gallon oil drum which had petrol dregs sloshing around inside.   Stole spare spark plug for the lawmower and a nut that could be jammed onto the threads of the spark plug.  Drilled hole in bung of oil drum and fitted the spark plug using string as a gasket and packing.

Turned off electric fence then carried drum down to the end of the paddock on our bikes, connected spark plug to dead electric fence after giving the drum a jolly good shake, pedalled back to the fence controller and turned it on.  Nothing happened for several 'ticks' then a great blue flash followed by yellow flames and black smoke.  It had blown both ends out of the drum!

[lordedmond]

after reading the posts and my own past I would pose the question "how the **** are we all still alive "

no HSE to nanny us ect

But I do think the dangers that we put ourselves in whilst younger made us more respectful of the dangers in later life

Stuart

[Bernd]

Turned off electric fence then carried drum down to the end of the paddock on our bikes, connected spark plug to dead electric fence after giving the drum a jolly good shake, pedalled back to the fence controller and turned it on.  Nothing happened for several 'ticks' then a great blue flash followed by yellow flames and black smoke.  It had blown both ends out of the drum!

Perhaps we didn't kill ourselfs because we had a bit more gray brain matter. Reread what John wrote. How many kids at that age today would remember to turn off the fence and get far away?
I fear not many. They'd want to stand in fornt of the dam thing to watch the ends coming flying at them and then the family would blame the electric fence maker for not making their electric fences safer. 

Bernd

[mike os]

mind you I came very close a couple of times.... once I started making home made explosives of various sorts

[John Hill]

We built a 'tree house' in a big macrocarpa tree, it must have been 30' off the ground.  One of the 'features' of this project was a fireman's pole made from metal irrigation pipe  (I remember words being spoken that this was only a 'loan').  For some reason two of us went up there on a wet day and when we came down you can well imagine, no grip at all on the pole at all and I hit the ground with a bone jarring thud, my brother laughed as I staggered away.  Then he did the same!  Two sore and sorry kids... but alive.

[mike os]

LOL.... I can see me doing that....

[Dean W]

We made it through because we started actually living from the time we learned to walk.  Our parents gave us the gift of
accumulating our own personal experiences rather than sitting us in front of a mind sucking video game to keep us quiet.
We didn't live through the false experiences of others on the web or on TV.  We went outside and gathered information through
tactile input. 

Dad gave me a gun when I was 9 years old.  Not an air gun, a .22 LR.  Couple years later got a small bore shotgun.  He, and
all the other dads around taught us how to use them properly, and sent us on our way.  Our moms told us to be careful, and
then said "bring back a couple of rabbits" as we tromped out into the fields like a small army of pre-teens.  Bicycles and trees
were a bigger danger to us than the firearms.  We fell out of trees and broke our arms.  We crashed our bikes and came home
with bloody knees and elbows.  We spend hours out in the sticks or in a neighborhood garage learning things.  We always came
home for supper and the folks were never worried.

We went to the movies about three times a year, and after we finally got a TV were allowed to watch it only one hour per night,
'cause mom was sure it would ruin our eyes.  When mom said "clean your room" we did it, and when dad said "you wanna
go with me to the dump?", we knew we were in for a fun time.

I only ever knew two kids who got killed.  They got stuck in an old refrigerator.  No one got run over by a car, or shot, or drowned
or fell while running with scissors.

I'm from the 50's.  I wish I could do it over again.  I'd do it exactly the same.  Man, it was fun.

[Bernd]

Amen Dean   

Bernd

[Anzaniste]

 
 We fell out of trees and broke our arms.  We crashed our bikes and came home
with bloody knees and elbows.  We spend hours out in the sticks or in a neighborhood garage learning things. 

We always came home for supper and the folks were never worried.



I'm from the 50's.  I wish I could do it over again.  I'd do it exactly the same.  Man, it was fun.

Just the same here in the UK except the gun bit. They are a definite no-no here.(I did have one though, a Diana airpistol, similar to a Gat.)  The biggest crime in our house was being late home for tea. I never quite understood why until I had my own kids but I brought 'em up the same way. I am very pleased to say that my grand kids are doing the same thing.