For all those born before 1986

[Fearns]

For those born before 1986!

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 - 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 chat rooms.
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 had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

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!

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, Red Hand Gang or the Famous Five.

They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You?

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 teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.

6. You remember watching Dirty Den in EastEnders the first
time around.

7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the Good Old
Days, repeating again all the funny things you have experienced together.


8. 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!

[Steven]

scarily true

[ed taylor]

I was born in the fifties, and can remember a lot more changes too, in those days there was a thing called respect, especcially for othere people and there proporty, I remember the black and white telly, houses not having central heating, having to walk to school, I can remember when Radio 1 first started. I had heard said that the older you get the more you live in the past, I woild have been very wise if I had known then what I know now......

[dazzer t]

oh the memories came flooding back reading that. lol
making grass slides on banks and sliding down on plastic bags was a good one we used to do. and no one used to suffer with hayfever either.(well maybe some did but they just carried on playing anyway)

oh the good old days.....

[Caterman]

Oh how i wished some of the self centred, single minded yobs of today that think only of themselves could read this to see how life was when people had respect for other people and property.
Thing is, most of them can't even read!!!!!

[mad4stela]

oh memories of pouring buckets of water down my road on freezing cold days to make a slide come rushing back

[ed taylor]

We used to have proper winters in those days too, or at least when I was a kid anyway, and we had nice hot summers too. also I belived in farther christmas then...........

[MLC]

The innocence of youth doesn't exist anymore. When I was ten I was out playing with my action men. Today they're telling Police to F*ck off!!

[ed taylor]

What, the action man now has active foul language now..............

[VauxVeteran]

What, the action man now has active foul language now..............

This has just identified the problem to me, today's kids although not perfect by a long shot are barraged by many a scenario that leads to their anti behaviour


Let me run this past you, I will start with the 1st read of inspiration, the bit about making our own go karts, we would find an old pram and enough wood to build a simple 4 wheeled device to run down a hill on, same thing with sledges, bit of flattened cardboard and away we went, todays kid would insist on going to toys r us and have £100+ spent on a purpose built unit, add in the constant peer pressure that now exists, if I didn't want to do something the gang did and they gave me 5h1t for it I just used to tell em to do one and ignore them until they came round again, then there's the constant TV wannabe series, all influencing kids to dream of being a pop star cos pop stars are cool, not so, I met a few of the ppl I used to look at in a god like fashion and I wouldn't give them the time of day now tbh, and finally the drug issue, again they are made to feel odd if they don't comply and the fact that some ppl have sunk so low as to hook kids at school with freebies.