I got this from a post on nbriders and I thought that it was sooooooo true! I enjoyed reading it so I figured you all might..... "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 thongs. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags and riding in the passenger seat was a treat.
Or if we were in the back and the front seat became free, climbing through the middle over the console to ride in the front was no big deal, we just 'had to be quick' We drank water from the garden hose not from a bottle, and it tasted good.
We ate chips, bread and butter with hundreds & thousands and drank creaming soda, but we weren't overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one can of drink with four friends, and no-one cared.
We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and 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 find a new hill to go down and that thicker soled shoes would stop us quicker.
We would leave home in the morning and allowed to play all day, just as long as we were back before it got dark.
No one was able to reach us and no one minded. We didn't have Play stations or X-Boxes. We didn't have 99 channels on TV with surround sound, no mobile phones, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.
We had friends - we went outside and found them. We played elastics, bull rush and brandings, 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 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 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 Cherry 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, the Dukes of Hazard or the Famous Five. They can't believe a 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 children with mobile phones, you shake your head. Having read this mail, you are thinking of forwarding it to some Other friends because you think they will like it too... Yes, you're Getting old!!"
