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Made me chuckle;

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 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 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 chatrooms.

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 law suits.

We played knock-the-door-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 to you and others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for "our own good".

I remember some of that

Knock door chase used to be fun

Ah you brought me back. I was born in 1974 and essentially grew up in the 80's. I had a Gemeni which was an Atari clone. I played with it for like 10 minutes a day. The rest of the time I was way too busy doing all those things you just said. I remember once when I was 9 I walked along a major street for about 15 kms in bare feet and no shirt (no sunscreen then either! Although I am a fan of it now!) My mom, to this day has no idea I did that. I was home by the time the street lights were on so that was good enough for her. Ahh the good old days. My kids try pulling any of that and I'll kill 'em! Thanks for the memories!

So true on lots of it! My mum had 4 boys who used to come home from school every day covered in mud from playing football in the rain and didn't mind.

Actually, on that point you missed a part about kids being entirely happy to be dressed in hand-me-downs from older siblings rather than demanding the latest kit as modelled by Ronaldinho!

we had better cartoons in we were young

seriously the one part i can never forget is vacations, being away from home all day long with friends, going swimming, playing cricket have ur lunch at any of ur friends home and still never have your parents worry about you. Outdoors was the key word. I never had a gaming system all my life, the first game i played was when i got a computer at my home . but still i would give anything for days like that

Jeevan wrote:seriously the one part i can never forget is vacations, being away from home all day long with friends, going swimming, playing cricket have ur lunch at any of ur friends home and still never have your parents worry about you. Outdoors was the key word. I never had a gaming system all my life, the first game i played was when i got a computer at my home . but still i would give anything for days like that

word. Except for the cricket part

Oh and get your ass on MSN. Do I have to remind you everyday now?

Nick81 wrote:

Jeevan wrote:seriously the one part i can never forget is vacations, being away from home all day long with friends, going swimming, playing cricket have ur lunch at any of ur friends home and still never have your parents worry about you. Outdoors was the key word. I never had a gaming system all my life, the first game i played was when i got a computer at my home . but still i would give anything for days like that

word. Except for the cricket part

Oh and get your a#s on MSN. Do I have to remind you everyday now?

lol getting on dude:)

i used to play video games at night though, football was the afternoon thing everyday. Do you guys remember playing marbles, 7 stones (brutal game but fun)

I worry sometimes about my kids living in ' a plastic bubble' growing up here, but maybe it's not so bad when you look at the alternatives.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6361983.stm

As long as you or someone else is there for them in the real world later on.

Every single one of them refers to me and some more which are not mentioned, the one that I would like to share is;

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.

My School days went as follows;

Walk 1 mile
Bus 4 miles
Train 12 miles
Walk 1/2 mile
Bus 2 miles
Walk 1 mile

And make sure your tie was straight and your cap was on at all times

bugs bunny road runner slyvester and tweety. good thing we all know now how damaging these politicaly incorect things where

sauron wrote:I worry sometimes about my kids living in ' a plastic bubble' growing up here, but maybe it's not so bad when you look at the alternatives.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6361983.stm

What, smoking, drinking and underage s*x, sounds like they're having a great time

On the topic of walking to school and generations getting lazier, I think it was Bill Hicks who had the joke that ran something along the lines of:

My great-grandfather used to tell my grandfather as he grew up how easy he had it compared to what he had to endure. My great-grandfather would tell him, “You know, when I was young I had to walk 10 miles to school there and back every day, then help my father work the field until the sun went down”.

My grandfather used to tell my dad as he grew up how easy he had it compared to what he had to endure. My grandfather would tell him, “You know, when I was young I had to walk 5 miles to school there and back every day, then come home and work the vegetable garden until the sun went down”.

My dad used to tell my me as he grew up how easy he had it compared to what he had to endure. My dad would tell me, “You know, when I was young I had to walk 2 miles to school there and back every day, then help my mother clean the house until the sun went down”.

What am I going to tell my kids though? “You know, when I was young, I actually had to get out of my seat to change the TV channel!”.

^^^ Yeah, and a happy slapping was where the kid was on the receiving end - not the parent or teacher.

I was born in 1968, i really miss the days where everything was so much better, from TV to air!!!! Everything has changed now, you can't go to ride your bike without any fear on the road, i remember i had a lot of fun with my red shiny bike, with my friends playing football, watching mighty mouse in the tv...... So many beautiful memories

Now what our children have to do? Imitate the hanging of Saddam??

What a world my friends

I was born in 1983 so I cant exactly say if I did all that but I still remember the cartoons and series which used to be shown in T.V. channels. Like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cowa Bunga). Hell yeah I still remember the title track, Transformers, Bionic Women, Gobots, Knight Rider, Mc Guyver, Kojak, Pro Stars, Mighty Mouse, Duck Tales.

But what I really miss is the music scene. Like Elvis Presley - Fever, Jimi Hendrix- Purple Haze, Abba - Mama Mia, John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom etc. Those were the days like I feel ppl could just live with music their whole entire life and the whole concept of rockers saying we will play cuz we wanna but not the money. Nowadays even the music sucks. Everything has almost become stagnant. hehe even I bet weed was allowed.

It's become like you need a place to play kids, pay up. There is no open place and we cant also blame!! Everywhere kids are coming up.

sage & onion wrote:Every single one of them refers to me and some more which are not mentioned, the one that I would like to share is;

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.

My School days went as follows;

Walk 1 mile
Bus 4 miles
Train 12 miles
Walk 1/2 mile
Bus 2 miles
Walk 1 mile

And make sure your tie was straight and your cap was on at all times

did you have buses in your day

Galactico wrote:

sage & onion wrote:Every single one of them refers to me and some more which are not mentioned, the one that I would like to share is;

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.

My School days went as follows;

Walk 1 mile
Bus 4 miles
Train 12 miles
Walk 1/2 mile
Bus 2 miles
Walk 1 mile

And make sure your tie was straight and your cap was on at all times

did you have buses in your day

Yeah, Big Red Ones