CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930s 1940s, 50s, 60s and early 70s !
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 5.30pm 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 thenride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built treehouses 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 chatrooms............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 whodidn'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 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 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.
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On another note, I'm still trying to get HC right. Keep finding typos in it. Still tempted to give up completely.
The computer is being stupid too. Turn it off over night and it can't even find the IDE drives when it boots up. Leave it on and you get the blue screen of death at 4am. I know its 8yrs old, but its XP and I like XP. Don't like vista.
Have vista on the laptop but thats acting up. Some days it finds its internal wireless network card and some days it doesn't.
Guess today I start backing up EVERYTHING. All my photos and so on. Mind you some of them won't be a great loss. hope I have enough room on my USB pens to do this with.
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 5.30pm 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 thenride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built treehouses 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 chatrooms............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 whodidn'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 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 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.
-----------------------
On another note, I'm still trying to get HC right. Keep finding typos in it. Still tempted to give up completely.
The computer is being stupid too. Turn it off over night and it can't even find the IDE drives when it boots up. Leave it on and you get the blue screen of death at 4am. I know its 8yrs old, but its XP and I like XP. Don't like vista.
Have vista on the laptop but thats acting up. Some days it finds its internal wireless network card and some days it doesn't.
Guess today I start backing up EVERYTHING. All my photos and so on. Mind you some of them won't be a great loss. hope I have enough room on my USB pens to do this with.
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