Talkin' 'Bout Our Generation
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s 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 dokeys' 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 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 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, and no Internet chat rooms.
We had friends and 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 but there were no law suits.We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.
We played knock-and-run and were actually afraid of the owners catching us. We walked to friend's 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. he idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law 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. If you are one of us, congratulations! We have had the luck to grow up as real kids, before lawyers and governments regulated our lives for our own good.
My friends, the following is surprisingly frightening . . . but it just might put a smile on your face.
- The majority of students in universities today were born in 1983 . . . 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, Nena 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, Red Hand Gang orThe Famous Five.
- They can't believe a black and white television ever existed, and don't even know how to switch on a TV without a remote control.
- And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a cell phone.
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
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