According to today's regulators and bureaucrats,
those of us who were
kids
in the 50's, 60's,
and 70'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
'clackers' 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 - tasted the
same.
We ate dripping sandwiches, 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 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 play all day,
as long as we
were
back before it got dark. No one
was able to reach us all day and no
one
minded.
We did not have Playstations 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 Internet chat rooms.
We had friends - we
went
outside and found them.
We played elastics and street rounders,
and sometimes that ball really
hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth,
and there
were
no
lawsuits. They were accidents.
We learnt not to do the same thing
again.
We had fights, punched each other hard and
got black and blue - we
learned
to get over it.
We walked to friend's homes.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate live
stuff, and
although we were told it would happen,
we did not have very many eyes
out,
nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.
We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of.
They
actually sided with the law. Imagine that!
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 up as real kids,
before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.
(If you aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us).
Remember those Summers of the past
As we used to run barefoot in the grass.
Going for picnics were such a thrill
Which one of us today would be king of the hill.
Eating ice cream, our sticky hands and arms
Playing hopscotch and singing ' macdonald had a farm'.
Running with untied shoe laces
Summer rain would clean our dirty faces.
Paddling in the sea, pushing sand between our toes
Evening sunshine, the sky a reddish glow.
Childhood summers they were the best
I'm older now and all I do is rest.
One chance I'd do it all again
But for now I'll settle with memory lane.
(c) Holly
