CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL BORN IN 50's, 60's, 70's and Early 80's !!!
First, you survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, your baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
You had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, no locks on doors or cabinets and when you rode your bikes, you had no helmets, not to mention, the risks you took hitchhiking ..
As children, you would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun. You drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle.
You shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
You ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank lemonade with sugar in it, but you weren't overweight because......
YOU WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
You 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 you all day. And you were OK.
You would spend hours building your go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out you forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, you learned to solve the problem .
You did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels, no dvd movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........
YOU HAD FRIENDS and you went outside and found them!
You fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
You played with worms(well most boys did) and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
You made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although you were told it would happen, you did not poke out any eyes.
You rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing you out if you broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. You had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and you 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😂
Written by
gilreid1
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Love the list, bought back some good memories. BUT hey! it was a risky life. I broke bones, fell off bikes trees and horses, got great scars, nearly drowned while swimming alone, was molested quite a few times, had TB, nearly strangled with a washing line (I was on a bike) and that’s just the few I can remember. But you’re right, it did make us stronger.
I was diagnosed with Rheumatic Heart aged 7 and as a consequence my childhood was probably similar to yours. And I wasn't offended by the post either
My RHS was always at the back of my mind - and nearly everyone else' as well. I did feel that sword hanging over my head, growing up. Pun intended - having a heart condition from childhood is really not for the faint hearted!
Good one - made me smile. Reminded me of the time I got smacked by a cricket ball when I was 6. Cricket pitch in the village I lived in and I'm watching the game by the pavilion and a ball comes straight for me in slow motion - hit square on the forehead - out cold. Someone rang the one doctor in the village, who turned up within 10 minutes in his Rover 90, checked me out, put to bed for the night, doctor called the next day to check that I was OK. Amazing man, he was prepared to, and did, come out at any hour day or night, and worked on until his 70s.
The good days in many ways. I lived in a village and anyone needing the family GP with no easy reach phone box just sent some one to knock on his door and within minutes his car pulled up at the door. His surgery was within his home and he mixed and dispensed some of his own prescriptions. The downside was that people had to pay.
My late mother had a brother who died of quincy when he was 7 yrs old. When my Grandmother went to his surgery one day to settle his bill his response was 'no, there is no charge. I can't have you paying when I couldn't save his life'. Wonderful true family doctor. I doubt many now would say the same in the same circumstances.
Well said apart from the worms not lasting a lifetime. There was tapeworm and ringworm that had to be removed. The 50s and 60s playing outside gave us helicobacter pylori that caused stomach ulcers but took an Australian scientist to discover the connection in the 80s.
Oh my that brought back many happy memories we were out on our bikes all day and we were lucky enough to have a little boat on coniston water spent all day there, with a sandwich and not much else.
Oh yes, I totally agree and funnily enough my Dad learned me how to swim, he threw me in the river and I found it quite easy. The only hard thing was getting out the bag he had tied. 😂😂. Seriously though, there was love and no one had their noses stuck to a screen ignoring you. The good old days.
Thank you gilreid for posting something that has created so many interesting replies. It’s never a bad thing to get people talking, no matter which way the wind blows for you. I look forward to your next amusing/thought provoking post! Sue 🙏X
I would attach playing cards to bicycle fender to catch spokes and make a noise! We also did a lot of climbing on the roofs, including the junior high school, but don`t tell anybody! Went barefoot and could walk on anything, before there were fire ants. I was born late forties.
I have seen the list, or similar ones, before - the only difference is you are now excluding those of us born in the 40s !! There are plenty of us still around. Hopscotch on the pavement, football in the road, marbles in the gutter, fog, snow, the list goes on and on.
WHATABOUT THOSE BORN IN THE 30's like me. We experienced all the stuff mentioned; PLUS world war and bombs falling out of the sky. And then at 18 having to do 2 years of national service.!!!
Same childhood childhood memories here in the USA. I’ll add respected parents, teachers and the police. Expected to do chores, don’t cuss and be kind to others. Be grateful to live in a free country and be proud of our history.
Girl Scouts
Pen Pals
Neighborhood grocery stores
The milk man
Walk to school
Gifts only for Christmas and Birthdays
Today my husband and I look at the World today and are thankful for living in the Era that we did.
Well I am pleased I was born during the war because obesity didn’t exist - we were all rationed .As for drinking and smoking that must have been for the very rich. We lived on what we could get and being in the country it was rabbit and pigeon pie sometimes. As for risk takers the men who had to fly off to save us from Nazi invasion never knew if they would come back. Aircraft didn’t have the luxury of computers they have today. I have all my own teeth and it took my arteries 77 years to fur up. Yes we have seen many good pioneers in the last 70 odd years but we are also seeing dramatic climate change. Not all good
Great post; made me laugh and remember many events of my childhood, including playing with worms, (as a girl), and raising and releasing newts. I raised my daughter to have a similar childhood, but lost her to the millenial's world of tech in her teens.
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