A child of our time
I got sent this by email today; I have no idea where it originated - whether it is one person’s work or a collaborative effort - but it struck a chord with me. Rather than just email it round to everyone I knew, I thought I’d give it a post all of its own.
If any of this resonates with you, then look out - you’re getting old.
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For those born before 1986…
According to today’s regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60’s 70’s and early 80’s should not have survived because our 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 dokeys” on our wheels.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags, and 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 pop 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 scrap 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 Playstations or Xboxes, 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 lawsuits.
We had full-on fist-fights but no prosecution followed from other parents. We played Knock-down Ginger and were actually afraid of the house owners catching us.
We walked to friend’s homes.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode bikes in packs of seven and wore our coats by only the hood.
The idea of our parents bailing us out if we 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. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as real kids, before the 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 but it might put a smile on your face;
The youth of today have never heard of “We Are The World” and they think “Uptown Girl” is by Westlife!
They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, or Belinda Carlisle.
To them, there has only ever been one Germany and one Vietnam.
They don’t remember a time before AIDS. They don’t remember a time before CDs.
To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can’t imagine how this fat guy was once God of the dancefloor.
They believe that “Charlies Angels” and “Mission Impossible” are films from the last few years. They can never imagine life before computers.
They’ll never have pretended to be the A Team, the Red Hand Gang or the Famous Five. They’ll never have applied for Jim’ll Fix It or Why Don’t You.
They can’t believe a black and white TV ever existed and they will never understand how we could have ever left the house without a mobile phone.
That my friends is how it was…
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So, what else is there? What makes YOU a child of the 60’s, 70’s or early 80’s?
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