Pre-PC, How did we survive?

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE
KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1920's, 30's 40's, 50's, 60's and 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,
tuna from a can, and didn't get tested
for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby
cots and toys 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 some of
us took hitchhiking .


As children, we would ride in cars
with no seat belts or air bags.


Riding in the back of a
truck on a warm day was
always a special treat.


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 or Burger King


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 shop and buy Spangles and stink bombs.

We ate cakes, 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 scraps and then ride
down the hill, only to find out we
forgot the brakes. We built tree
houses and dens and played
in gutters with matchbox cars.


We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes,
no video-games at all, no 99 channels on cable or Sky, no
video tape or DVD movies, no surround sound, 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.......no really!

We were given BB guns and sling
shots 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!


Our teachers used to hit us with canes,rulers and leather straps and bullies 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 got married before they had children
and didn't invent stupid names for their kids like
'Kiora' and 'Blade'....


This generation has produced some of the best
risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!


The past 70 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!

Budski..fabulous post. Starred and flagged.
I realize you put this in the joke forum as some would see the humour in it.
I see the seriousness of it. I grew up in the 70's and early 80's so I can relate to pretty much all you said.
I wish my kids could say the same thing.

Beatcha on the star AD... Corgi and Matchbox here. I remember walkin' up the highway totin' a shotgun and dead ducks... folks would wave. Lakes had fish... wheels didn't fly off transports... stuff like that... humour is the fluid of an eye.

Vic

Originally posted by V Kaminski
Beatcha on the star AD... Corgi and Matchbox here. I remember walkin' up the highway totin' a shotgun and dead ducks... folks would wave. Lakes had fish... wheels didn't fly off transports... stuff like that... humour is the fluid of an eye.

Vic

Yes you did VIC.. how true how true.

Well, this is a bit of both - it has a humorous side with a serious message.

The strange part about the whole information revolution is that it is very recent. When I was younger I did many of the things (like play outside and eat worms), and I am only in my twenties!

We would spend hours building our
go-carts out of scraps and then ride
down the hill, only to find out we
forgot the brakes. We built tree
houses and dens and played
in gutters with matchbox cars.

This section I am really fond of because it WAS my childhood. My parents garage is still riddled with my inventions that brought me joy and broken bones.

The children today are not outside playing. I can see it in my neighborhood. There are many children, I have seen them going from houser to car and car to house, but I have not seen them playing outside. When I was little, kids were a staple outside the house, whether it was me and my friends plowing down the road on bigwheels or those pesky kids down the street throwing fire on our rivalry.

In those days, few kids had nintendo's or sega but we preferred throwing out the slip-n-slide and ruining my parents yard along with ruining our knees on rocks and sticks.

I should have said that this was an email I received (it's doing the rounds), as some seem to think I'd written it - sorry for any confusion and apologies if anyone thinks I mislead them.