For all of us born before 1986

[Guest Leveller]

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 's probably shouldn't have survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked.

 

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

 

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels.

 

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

 

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.

 

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

 

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one actually died from this.

 

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

 

We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

 

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.

 

We had friends - we went outside and found them.

 

We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt!

 

We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law suits.

We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

 

We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us.

 

We walked to friends' homes.

 

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

 

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.

 

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

 

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of...They actually sided with the law.

 

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

 

The past 50 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.

 

And you're one of them. Congratulations!

Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

 

For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us.

 

This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might put a smile on your face:

 

The majority of students in universities today were born in

1986........They are called youth.

 

They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and the Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel.

They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Neneh Cherry or Belinda Carlisle.

 

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam.

AIDS has existed since they were born. CD's have existed since they were born.

 

Michael Jackson has always been white.

To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance.

 

They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are films from last year.

They can never imagine life before computers.

 

They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, RedHand Gang or the Famous Five.

 

They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You.

They can't believe a black and white television ever existed.

 

And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone.

 

Now let's check if we're getting old...

1. You understand what was written above and you smile.

2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a night out.

3. Your friends are getting married/already married.

4. You are always surprised to see small children playing comfortably with computers.

5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.

6. You remember watching Dirty Den in EastEnders the first time around.

7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good Old days, repeating again all the funny things you have experienced together.

8. Having read this mail, you are thinking of forwarding it to some other friends because you think they will like it too... Yes, you're getting old!!

[Guest baldie]

Good God, i relate to all of that :whistle:

[Guest MOLLY]

MOLL.

[Guest baldie]

Whats the cheapest you can remember a 7"single Moll?, think i can get back to 50p And i wish i still had the old dansette, they are fetching silly bloody money

[Guest Andy cap]

Cant be 100% sure(its the old age settin in) but im sure i had a 45 with a boots 37p sticker on it,could have been 'The Rubettes,sugar baby love',think my sister bought it,dunno how i ended up with it,honest

 

But yeah,they was great days,many fond memories

[ruby 7]

Yes I can remember all of that.You didn't send your parents down the school because the teacher had upset you ,you would get a clout for being in bother and another in case the neighbours found out!

[lucky 578]

spot on leveller,that brought back some memories

[Guest gaspode]

[IanB 0]

:11: Them were the days lad!!!

[polecat 1]

feck me i should b dead long time dead :11: :11: :11: :11:

[J Darcy 5,871]

brilliant thread....i remember "apple knocking", when autumn came, sneaking about once the night covered our tracks pinching apples from trees....garden hopping....and the like...to us, in our youth, these seemed like "crimes" :11: ..having a rope swing in the woods and seeing how many we could fit on it, the person at the bottom lost their circulation in their legs!!!!..i was there when the BMX boom really hit...we ALL had them!!!..i had the BMX Annual...and we doted upon "BMX Bandits"!!! the film of that year......inevitably i smashed my face up on mine!!! broke my nose, and the f*cker never stopped growing since!!!!! we all had the trick nuts, and we tried to ride down the hills with as many on the bike as possible............aahhh..those were the days.....

mars bars 12p, cornettos 25p, chips 15p...we used to ask for a bag of scraps!!!!

i used to love those "Cabana" bars.... but i gues Turkish delight was my fave.....i never had any money at all when i was a kid so they were a real treat and should be savoured by carefully knawing all the chocolate off from the outsidde first...these days, i can afford to buy them, but they dont taste as good....if you catch my drift...

catching hibernating butterflies from inside old air raid shelters, finding the pupa's of peacocks and watching them hatch....discovering 5/6 spotted burnet moths and taking their catterpillars all home....having a den in the local quarry, camping out during summer......that first fire in the den when we all brought tins of beans..and no matches or even tin openers!!!!..we cooked a frog once!!!!!

bird nesting, gathering conkers was a big one, when in seaon....thinking about it, our lives revolved around those seasons, tadpoles, butterflies, conkers, fishing,ferreting.......ahhh...those were the days my friends, i thought they 'd never end.....la la la la la, da da da da dee dee dee

[Kye 77]

I remember me and Royston went apple stealing, it was in our neighbours garden, we realy hated this old bloke...but what we done, is we ate around the apples, but left them still hanging on the tree..lol.

In the morning he had two apple trres that had been growing just cores!..lol...our mum knew we done it, coz we where both shitting through the eye of a needle for about two days after!..lol.

I can also remember "Wagon wheels" being about the size of a fecking dinner plate, and "Curly whirlys" being about five feet long!..lol...know they look like a coffe mug coaster, and a stick of fecking gum!..

what else is weird is when you notice footie players are YOUNGER than you!...that messed my head up for ages!..lol.

ahhh, the good old days!

I can also remember digging an under ground "Base"...it was massive...feck knows how it didnt cave in and kill us all!...but i was lucky enough to kick the habit of smoking dried cow parsly stalks, before it lead to harder drugs like sniffing the Tip-Ex!..lol.

Kye,..

[Royston2 0]

I remember me and Royston went apple stealing, it was in our neighbours garden, we realy hated this old bloke...but what we done, is we ate around the apples, but left them still hanging on the tree..lol.

In the morning he had two apple trres that had been growing just cores!..lol...our mum knew we done it, coz we where both shitting through the eye of a needle for about two days after!..lol.

I can also remember "Wagon wheels" being about the size of a fecking dinner plate, and "Curly whirlys" being about five feet long!..lol...know they look like a coffe mug coaster, and a stick of fecking gum!..

what else is weird is when you notice footie players are YOUNGER than you!...that messed my head up for ages!..lol.

ahhh, the good old days!

I can also remember digging an under ground "Base"...it was massive...feck knows how it didnt cave in and kill us all!...but i was lucky enough to kick the habit of smoking dried cow parsly stalks, before it lead to harder drugs like sniffing the Tip-Ex!..lol.

Kye,..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:11: :11: :11:

Remember the fire crackers in the milk or yoghurts on the door steps :friends:

And when we blew up them french bangers up brimble hill :whistle:

I never forget that mini bus that was parked up by the recycling centre,feckinghell they was the days :11: :11: :11:

But the best days as John has reminded me was shit skiing grabbing the cows tails and slapping there arse in the collecting yard :sick: sad but true :11: :11: :11: :11:

[Guest MOLLY]

Whats the cheapest you can remember a 7"single Moll?, think i can get back to 50p And i wish i still had the old dansette, they are fetching silly bloody money

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do you know....i cant remember My 1st single i think was either Fleetwood Mac=Tusk or Rappers delight by the Sugar hill gang :11:

I can remember 10 Benson & Hedges was 36p And you could get about 3 sweets for a half pence....a 2p mix up went a long way them days

I used to play alone in the woods with my imaginary pets (a greyhound and a badger) without fear of anything happening. No central heating, no colour TV, no car, and my push bike was made from different parts my Dad found.

The best pressie at christmas was a set my Mam used to get each year, it contained various colouring in books and pencils.

 

I can also remember playing 'knocky door danger' at the old peoples cottages, an old guy came out and grabbed me before i even had the chance to run away he brayed my bum so hard i wet myself :11: ...did i run home to Mam..NO, she would have hit me harder, did i complain to the authorities NO, i just learned a lesson and never did it again

MOLL.

[Guest LEARNER]

I MUST BE OLD, I CANNOT REMEMBER WHAT I,M REPLYING TO.