Worth the read

[mossman]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1920's, 30's 40's, 50's, and 60's

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pickup on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Red Rooster.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy fruit tingles and some crackers to blow up frogs with.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in creek beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
Lawsuits from these accidents.

Only girls had pierced ears!

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross buns at Easter time.......no really!

We were given air rifles and sling shots for our 10th birthdays,

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!

Footy had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather staps and bully's always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Our parents got married before they had children and didn't invent stupid names for their kids like "Kiora" and "Blade" (Ed. Nothing wrong with Blade (named in honour of champion ruckman Brendan Lade))

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 70 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 are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!



You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.


And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

[otyikondo]

All very true, but seen it before, Mossman, many times. But there is a new interesting feature to this incarnation...

It's been slightly clunkily localised, or what do you think to the culturo-linguistic mishmash of:

Riding in the back of a pickup on a warm day was always a special treat.

versus

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Red Rooster.

or the (quite frequent) references to litigation and lawyers versus the noting of Hot Cross Buns, and then there is "ruckman", which is basically an Australian rules football term and not used elsewhere.

I'd guess this has been modified by most everyone who passed it on.

The Grammar-Nazi in me says the clumsy use of apostrophes is evidence that people born after the sixties may also have had a hand in writing it.

[annekmc]

[mossman]

All very true, but seen it before, Mossman, many times. But there is a new interesting feature to this incarnation...

It's been slightly clunkily localised, or what do you think to the culturo-linguistic mishmash of:

Riding in the back of a pickup on a warm day was always a special treat.

versus

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Red Rooster.

or the (quite frequent) references to litigation and lawyers versus the noting of Hot Cross Buns, and then there is "ruckman", which is basically an Australian rules football term and not used elsewhere.

I'd guess this has been modified by most everyone who passed it on.

The Grammar-Nazi in me says the clumsy use of apostrophes is evidence that people born after the sixties may also have had a hand in writing it.

Spotted a couple and as you say, these have been doing the rounds since the days of "faxes" and even earlier, the much folded, surrupticiously passed on photo copy, have often wondered where all of these hand me downs originated.

[karel]

Myeah... Isn't it that particular generation that's been leading the world into one of it's largest economical crises?
When were George W Bush Sr and Jr born?


Ok... I'll get me coat...