london_guy
February 25th, 2005, 10:40 PM
DO YOU FEEL OLD?
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were
kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80'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 air bags -
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 lawsuits. We had full on
fistfights but no prosecution followed from other parents. We played
knock-on-the-door-and-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 Live Aid or "Frankie says
Relax", nor do they have any idea what a Spectrum 45 or a
Commodore 64
are (and if you told them, they would just think they were
sad anyway),
and the Uptown Girl they know is by West life not Billy Joel. They
have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Boy George or Stock,
Aitken & Waterman.
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, Starsky & Hutch and Mission
Impossible are ideas that some movie guy thought up last
year. They can
never imagine life before computers. They'll never have
pretended to be
the A-Team, Red-Hand Gang or the Famous Five. They'll never have
applied to be on "Jim'll Fix It" or "Why Don't You" and they would
have no idea
what window to look through on Playschool with Brian Cant, Big Ted &
Little Ted, Jemima, Hamble and Humpty. And they surely
wouldn't have a
clue as to who Geoffrey, George, Zippy, and Bungle are. They can't
believe in 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 East-Enders the first time around.
7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the
good old days, repeating again all the funny you have experienced together.
8. Having read this, you are thinking of forwarding it to some
other friends because you think they will like it too...
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were
kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80'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 air bags -
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 lawsuits. We had full on
fistfights but no prosecution followed from other parents. We played
knock-on-the-door-and-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 Live Aid or "Frankie says
Relax", nor do they have any idea what a Spectrum 45 or a
Commodore 64
are (and if you told them, they would just think they were
sad anyway),
and the Uptown Girl they know is by West life not Billy Joel. They
have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Boy George or Stock,
Aitken & Waterman.
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, Starsky & Hutch and Mission
Impossible are ideas that some movie guy thought up last
year. They can
never imagine life before computers. They'll never have
pretended to be
the A-Team, Red-Hand Gang or the Famous Five. They'll never have
applied to be on "Jim'll Fix It" or "Why Don't You" and they would
have no idea
what window to look through on Playschool with Brian Cant, Big Ted &
Little Ted, Jemima, Hamble and Humpty. And they surely
wouldn't have a
clue as to who Geoffrey, George, Zippy, and Bungle are. They can't
believe in 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 East-Enders the first time around.
7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the
good old days, repeating again all the funny you have experienced together.
8. Having read this, you are thinking of forwarding it to some
other friends because you think they will like it too...