Congratulations all who were born in the 1940s 50s, 60s, 70s

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Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 2:30 pm

Found this on various web pages and magazines.

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-base paint.

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 bottles. Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Nandos. Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't 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 toffees, gobstoppers, bubble gum and some bangers to blow up tin cans. 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 he streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day and we were okay.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of old prams and ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars. We did not have Play stations, Nintendo, Wii, X-boxes, no video game at all, no 999 channels on Sky, no mobile phones no PCs, no internet or internet chat rooms...........We had FRIENDS and we went outside to find 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 didn't 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 birthday. 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 make ends meet!

Rugby and cricket had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!! Getting into a team was based on merit. Our teacher used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully's 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, Blade Ridge or Vanilla.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility and we learned how to deal with it all. If you are one of these, congratulations and you may 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 be sure to let your own kids read this so they know just how brave their parents were

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:09 pm

I love the "brass tacks" logic Fo.

I survived and there's nothing wrong with me...

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:18 pm

Used to mow the lawn with a motorized push lawn mower -- in my bare feet!

Used to take the mower to the top of the barn hill and let it go down by itself and chase after it in said bare feet!

The lawn mower and I survived.

Baiting Guru Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Posts: 21155

Spoiled older folks that never had to pump water from the well? No outhouses? No reel mowers? Now I'll be in therapy for years! LOL

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:41 pm

My parents' cars never had seat belts, so everyone drove more carefully, except my dad, an ex - rally driver, who slowed down to 100mph in the fog (no 70mph limit then).

Everyone smoked like chimneys and meals came with chips (aka fries in the US) which were fried in beef fat. Come to think of it, my Grandma fed me 'dripbread', which was bread fried in the same beef fat 'dripping'. I drank milk with loads of sugar in it, and everything was covered in salt.

My Grandparents looked after me in the holidays by buying me a Rail Rover ticket - aged 11 I just disappeared onto the rail network on my own every day. No way of telling them when I'd be back, but I was.

I'm more surprised I survived my late teens (unlike several people I knew) when my busy social life involved a lot of visiting a wide network of licenced premises on a motorbike, often in search of unprotected lady love (no AIDS then), and later returning home in whatever state I'd managed to get into. I can't imagine why my mother worried about me.

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:43 pm

I have eaten beernuts from the same bowl that other people ate from.
I drank a soda with both Nutra Sweet and Sunset Yellow in it.
I've made dinner for 10 people without washing hands.
I sunbathed without a factor 40 sunblocker.
I had sex with a woman, and none of our privates were shaved.
And I once washed my hands at a public toilet.
I had a tub bath more than once, too.
I've been smoking since I was 13 and drinking (socially, though) since I was 16.
I've been to Belfast, the Basque Country and Israel while there was unrests.

I'm surprised I'm still here!

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 5:26 pm

No Hyper-active disorder, or attention deficit disorder, just naughty kids.
1,000 park behind where I lived, golf course we used to go hunting golf balls at, including walking round the lakes with our trousers rolled up.
Walked home from school one night, 12 miles)
Gas lights illuminating the street, Demashio's ice cream out of a tub, none of this Mr Whippy nonsense. Choice of vanilla flavour or nowt. Ice lollies that where pretty much just that, coloured ice.

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 5:28 pm

TheDane wrote:

And I once washed my hands at a public toilet.

You really lived life to the fullest.

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:23 pm

..and when someone got measles, mumps or chicken pox, we would all go and 'see' them so we too could get this annoying disease out of the way. Tweny kids in our village could have any one of these - nowadays that would be a headline-grabbing epidemic.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

TheDane wrote:

I had sex with a woman, and none of our privates were shaved.

I brought a shotgun to school (10th grade) and kept it in my locker because I was going hunting afterwards. The only rule was that it had to be in a case.

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 4:35 am

I actually didn't make it through my childhood. I am a figment of your imagination.

Our "safety consciousness" has created more anxiety disorders and less creativity. If you get a chance, watch Rocket City Rednecks. It is GREAT and Safety is 3rd. Laughing

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 7:42 am

School used to be better, too!

Scenario: Johnny brings his new Army knife to school.
1973: The biology teacher pulls out his own knife, and together with the other students they compare their knifes' features.
2011: A SWAT team locks the school down. Jack is tasered, beaten up and hauled off to a high-security prison. Counselors are called in for the traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
1973: A crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up being best friends.
2011: The cops are called and arrest Johnny and Mark. Both are charged with assault and expelled from the school. Johnny's parents sue Mark's parents and are awarded a ridiculous sum even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey fools around in class and disrupts other students.
1973: Jeffrey is sent to the principal's office and kept in after school. He now sits still in class.
2011: Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin and turns into a zombie. The school receives extra money from the state and is assigned a new counselor to care for Jeffrey's disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his father's car and his dad gives him a whipping.
1973: Billy is more careful next time, grows up a normal guy, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2011: Billy's Dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is taken to a foster home and joins a gang. Billy's sister is told by a state psychiatrist that she remembers being abused by her father. Dad goes to prison and Billy's mom has an affair with the psychiatrist.

Scenario: Mark has a headache and takes some headache medicine to school.
1973: Mark shares headache medicine with the principal out on the smoking dock.
2011: The police is called, Mark is expelled from the school for drug violations. His family's home is searched for illegal drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Mary turns up pregnant.
1973: 5 high school boys leave town. Mary does her senior year at a special school for expectant mothers.
2011: The middle school counselor calls Planned Parenthood, who notifies the ACLU. Mary is driven to the next state over and gets an abortion without her parent's consent or knowledge. Mary is given condoms and told to be more careful next time.

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1973: Pedro goes to summer school, passes the exam in fall and goes to college.
2011: Pedro's cause is taken up by state Democratic party. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. The ACLU files a class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is banned from the core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he can't speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers. He puts the gunpowder into an empty glue bottle and blows up a red ant bed.
1973: 12,842 ants die.
2011: The ATF, FBI and DHS are called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism, the FBI investigates his parents, his siblings are removed from home, the family's computers are confiscated and searched for illegal content. Johnny's dad goes on a terrorist watch list and is not allowed to fly for the rest of his life.

Scenario: Little Johnny stumbles while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1973: After a while, Johnny feels better and continues playing.
2011: Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 10 years in state prison.

(Also, I've seen Madonna with perky tits and no baby break!)

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:51 am

^^^^^^^^^

Sadly all too true...................... Twisted Evil

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:29 am

When I was in school me and my classmates used to play football (soccer for americans) in every break. There were only two football courts so we had to share with other kids. Sometimes people got hit with the ball, younger kids usually got hit the most. You got up and continued playing.
During the 11th grade I hit a kid by accident. I had to talk to his tutor and swear I wasn't bullying that kid... Rolling Eyes

edit: I am 20, I guess everyone dislikes the younger generations

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:46 am

I need counseling if I get a splinter in my finger.

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:36 am

I used my own knife to do a dissection in high school biology,because it was sharper than the ones the school had.No one cared.Pocket knives were extremely common.I still carry one.I had to go into a government building last year and carefully emptied my pockets beforehand of everything that I thought might be considered a weapon.I forgot about the folding screwdriver/botle opener on my keychain.You would think I was trying to walk in there with a machete.

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:05 pm

Well whaddya know, in Switzerland I can board a plane to almost anywhere in the world carrying this -->

No problem at all - I just have to put it in the little basket along with my keys and phone at the metal detector.

This, however

is considered a potentially dangerous item and thus verboten.

Of course I can't carry either of them on the flight back home. I regularly forget to put my knife in the suitcase before I check it in and as a result have the knife confiscated. Egyptian guards are usually very happy when that happens because they get to keep it.

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:39 pm

^^ why nailclippers? you can buy them in the duty free shops

and for some reason you can also take vodka and lighters into the plane

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:45 pm

Roycropper wrote:

. . . my Grandma fed me 'dripbread', which was bread fried in the same beef fat 'dripping'.

Yep, I remember that and also living on the farm, we were taught to "sop" up all the liquids, including fat drippings, with a piece of bread.

We hanged the clothes on the line to dry, had to tend and weed a huge garden, had to learn to can foods for the winter, kill a cow for beef for the freezer, dress (de-feather chickens) for Sunday dinner, "slop" the hogs (which we later killed for food for the winter), sugar cure bacon and ham, drive a tractor at about age 12, shuck field corn by hand to put in the grainery in the barn, muck out the barn stalls, my cousins and I washed our hair with rain water from the rain barrel (no hair dryers or curling irons).

Our Shirley Temple type curls were curled with irons that you put on the wood stove to heat up and when you ironed clothes you put the cast iron irons on the stove to heat up, when they cooled, you got the other one that was heating up and continued ironing clothes.

Monday was Wash Day (no automatic washers)
Tuesday was Ironing Day using the above method for ironing and later had something called a "mangle" (ironer) where you could sit and iron.
Wednesday was Food Preparation (baking, canning, cooking)
Thursday was Scrub the Floors Day
Friday was Hair Washing Day (we only washed hair 1X per week) Although if you were going to the Friday Night Football game you could wash hair on Saturday morning.
Saturday was Go to the Grange day, 4-H Meeting http://www.nationalgrange.org/about/history.html
Sunday was Church, Sunday Dinner and relative visiting.

If it were "thrashing time" the above weekly activities took a back seat whilst the fields were harvested.

As to telephones we generally had a 4 party line, but somehow moved up into the world and got a 2 party line and yes, nosy neighbors would quietly pick up the phone and listen to your conversation. Having a private line was the ultimate. Our first phone was like this:

BTW, today we are now back to hanging clothes out on the line to dry, and canning and preserving food.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 659

My dad used to tell me some interesting stories. Smile

When he was in his teens, I believe, he and his two brothers would sometimes handle the liquid mercury that their granddad had in a container in his garage. I was fascinated by the idea because I knew that liquid mercury is pretty neat.

He also told me how when they'd go watch fireworks at their granddad's place, they (he and his two brothers) would go hunting for the left overs or the carcasses of the used fireworks. Then they'd gather up as much of the gunpowder as they could to make their own and light those off on some train tracks.

When I was in high school (graduated in the mid 90s), I had a class which was focused on science, but it was geared toward preparing for Science Olympiad competition. Anyway, I believe it was my senior year when the teacher (awesome, fun guy) decided that he needed to dispose of the brick-sized chunk of potassium he had been storing away for quite a few years. So one day we all went for a walk to behind the big supermarket that had been built near the school a couple years earlier. The market had a big drainage pond back there. The teacher put on some gloves, pulled the potassium brick out of the jar, and tossed it into the pond. BOOM! We got to watch a spectacular violent reaction between the water and the potassium. There's no way we could have done that today.

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:57 pm

<---- Born in the 60's (and sort of on topic...)

3 channels on the TV (black and white)

Doctor Who was actually scary

Saturday morning matinee in the ABC, Bridge St.
A jolly happy singalong to start (the words would appear on the screen complete with a bouncy ball to 'hop' along them to keep time - "We're Minors of the A-B-C!" followed by:
Woody Woodpecker, the Three Stooges, Flash Gordon (1936, starring Buster Crabbe - the spaceships had piston engine noises!), [maybe] The Double Deckers, lastly a feature film made by the Childrens Film Foundation.
After all that excitement, we would be kicked out into the town to find our own way home on the bus.

Playing in the 'Dens' in the field at the back of the church, or 'war' in the long grass.
Our 'guns' were either bits of wood crudely nailed together or excitingly shaped tree branches. The sound effects we provided ourselves.
"Rat-at-at-at tat. Got you, Simon!"
"No, you didn't, you missed!"

Trousers with mud and grass stains, hair full of insects and spiders (I had hair then...)

Sunday school - we always came home to find Mam with a smile on her face, and Dad looked both pleased and tired...

BBC2 would show wonderful East European soft porn movies late on a Saturday complete with subtitles.
Learning to say "get your knickers off" in Hungarian was a real education.

TV shut down at midnight (sometimes *gulp* 1am on Saturdays!)
The BBC actually still played the National Anthem.

Mam cooked her version of a full breakfast for us to go to school - porridge to start (made previous night and left to stand in the saucepan) followed by bacon, egg and fried bread - the bread was cooked last and used to mop up all the copious amount of lard that was used to cook the eggs and bacon.
In winter our house was so cold (central heating? What's that?) the plates would solidify the fat on the eggs and bacon so well that you could invert the plate and the bacon and egg would stick.
The sort of breakfast that makes your arteries go 'clang'

... and I'm still alive and don't have a heart/circulation problem

although sadly, I've forgotten all my impromptu Hungarian lessons.

And if anyone mentions 'Four Yorkshiremen' I'll slap 'em. Smile

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:30 pm

I get wistful this time of year thinking about the smell of burning leaves.

When I and my friends roamed around town during the summer our dogs would accompany us. Unleashed.

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:01 am

Things I remember:

The department store Sears had the weird smell combo of popcorn and cigarettes.

Hospital waiting rooms smelled like cigarettes

My first long time job, we could smoke in the break room

I don't smoke anymore, but I do miss the smoke anywhere creed. Sure cigarettes kill, but so does chlorine bleach. It's not banned from public places yet.

Yes I have been drinking a little

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 3:59 am

Quote:

Doctor Who was actually scary

the cybermen did it for me. Why did we hide behind the couch? Why not turn it off and play outside?

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:04 am

@ Bart, Cigarettes aren't banned, just the burning of them is banned. Laughing

I never smoked, but I did enjoy second hand smoke.

Re: Weapons, I always carried at least one knife for as long as I can remember. Only recently did I have to give up carrying a knife on a commercial airliner. The TSA typep people spotted it hanging on my pocket and said I couldn't take it through their check point. I ran it out to the car, but felt naked the whole trip. Sad

I wish I weren't afraid of the problems it would cause if I told all that I have done that would be considered illegal. Shocked

I still have a truck with a gun rack in the back window. Very Happy

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