Born between mid 50's early 70's

Frank the tank

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 50's, 60's and early 70'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, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured 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. 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 Nandos.
Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on a Sunday, or Wednesday afternoon, 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 Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers 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 old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY ,
no video/dvd films,
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...
We were given air guns and catapults 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 because we didn’t need to keep up with the Jones’s!

Not everyone made the rugby/football/cricket/netball team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on
MERIT
Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and throw the blackboard rubber at us if they thought we weren’t concentrating .
We can string sentences together and spell and have proper conversations because of a good, solid three R’s education.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!

Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla'
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.
PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore, BTW, blagged this from another website.

Stewie Griffin

I was born in 1970 and have done most of that but I have never hitch hiked nor have I blown up any frogs with bangers.

Frank the tank

Stewie Griffin wrote:

I was born in 1970 and have done most of that but I have never hitch hiked nor have I blown up any frogs with bangers.

I haven't done the blowing up frogs I have to admit, but I have hitched a ride walking home from a night out though.

electric_blue

That's bizarre - most of that may be true for a hick born 50 miles from the nearest town in the 50s - but by the time I was born in 1966 the world was relatively civilised. We had telly, records, FM radio and even computer games by the late 70s. I was never cruel to animals and my mum only fed us healthy food, and gave up smoking and drinking when she was pregnant. As I grew up in a city with lots of cars and odd people about I was not able to go out all day without being able to be contacted, though was very active, rode my bike WITH shoes on, but not a helmet.

My mum had to work because thatcher closed the dockyards down and Dad had to go to London to get work which was sporadic and relatively poorly paid.

I got caned once and it was sh.it - i wouldn;t want my daughter to go through that, especially as I hadn't done what I was accused of.

I mumbled all through my teens - could not form a sentance for years.

I am not one of them - and pleased that I am not. and my eyes are still nearly perfect.

So sod who ever wrote that piece of crap.

Stewie Griffin

Actually lecky blue you are right. It says we were always outside playing when in fact I went to sleep at night. Whole thing is completely stupid & is a waste of your time. As you were.

softlad

electric_blue wrote:

could not form a sentance for years.

some things don't change then.....

Frank the tank

EB,I think some folk ought to get a sense of humour inplant. :roll:

StanwaySteve62

just look at my name

shouldbeinbed

EB are you being not a troll again.

freehub

deja-vu?

stigofthedump

We didn't have a phone until 1977, when I was 13! And I was never stranded because we arranged transport by talking with my parents.
We also had records - and you listened to the tracks in order. And they are still on the shelf behind me. And they have sleeves and artwork and sleeve notes and great memories.
And black and white TV until the 1970's - with only 3 channels and closedown before midnight.

wiffachip

I used to have sugar sandwiches for supper, I've also not been to the dentists since 1975

not necessarily connected, just saying

used to use the pitch that they made roads out of as chewing gum

can remember when the co-op milk float was horse drawn

afx237vi

I think it was sometime in the mid 70s when someone first posted that message online.

deptfordmarmoset

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

Untrue, there was the corner sweetshop and you could buy a quarter paper bag of just about anything from a jar. You could get ''kali'' and I've never known how to spell it, but it was sherbet.

At 17 I hitch-hiked to lake Constance/Bodensee at the bottom of Germany. And by then I'd already cycled to Southampton and back to SE London. Without a helmet and just enough money to buy a bottle of pop overlooking the sea and lots of very sugary teas from the transport caffs on the route home.

Weejie54

Grumpy old men.....
I reckon the Monty Python Yorkshiremen sketch was better.

Mr_Cellophane

wiffachip wrote:

can remember when the co-op milk float was horse drawn

I can just about remember that. We used to have a bread van deliver every day. That was in Tottenham, he'd just leave a loaf on the window sill by the front door. My father still lives in the same house and anything left in the front garden isn't there in the morning. It is a good way to get rid of old fridges and chairs though.

softlad

wiffachip wrote:

I used to have sugar sandwiches for supper, I've also not been to the dentists since 1975

that's because he removed all your teeth...

Omar Little

So basically the generation born in the mid 50s to early 70s had all their fun doing all this stuff - but then didnt allow their children and grandchildren to do the same. :P

Mr_Cellophane

Omar Little wrote:

So basically the generation born in the mid 50s to early 70s had all their fun doing all this stuff - but then didnt allow their children and grandchildren to do the same. :P

Sounds like the Labour Party.

Frank the tank

Omar Little wrote:

So basically the generation born in the mid 50s to early 70s had all their fun doing all this stuff - but then didnt allow their children and grandchildren to do the same. :P

Yes, it's a case of.

"You've never had it, so good. :P

kettrinboy

and some bangers to blow up frogs with.

dont remember blowing frogs up with bangers, but remember us throwing them at each other and blowing up cowpats ,Brocks bangers were like mini sticks of dynamite, and back in the mid seventies we took our air rifles out in the fields and pits , if you did that now you would get the cops on your case in no time.

sloboy

Of course people born in that era had the huge liberating benefit of the threat of world destruction at any moment.

I don't really believe in golden ages. Different, sure, but not golden. I'm fairly sure that my girls are much more ready to take on the world than I was at their age (16 and 19).

Sloboy '59.

greasedscotsman

Frank the tank wrote:

Not everyone made the rugby/football/cricket/netball team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT

Our school rugby team was beaten in one game 107-0! And I wasn't good enough to get into the team.

daviesee

Well, I ticked all the boxes except:-

I never blew up frogs, nor ate worms or mud pies.

But I was allowed out after the street lights were on. I would never have got out in the winter otherwise.

For what it is worth, I never had children so I can't be blamed in any way for the restrictions today but I do encourage my grandchildren (through marriage) to enjoy freedom and the basic enjoyments of life. They are perfectly happy playing as I did as a child without all the modern gizmos. In some areas the fear may be real but in most places it borders on paranoia.

fleshtuxedo

I'm in the demographic here and tick many of the boxes. My 4 year old daughter already gets more homework from school than I did when I was 12, so she can forget about playing outside or anything like that

paultheparaglider

Omar Little wrote:

So basically the generation born in the mid 50s to early 70s had all their fun doing all this stuff - but then didnt allow their children and grandchildren to do the same. :P

Got it in one. It is a sad fact of demographics that there are more of us and less of you. So we need to keep care of you if we are going to keep having our pensions paid.

keef66

1957 born and I did all of that and more except the detonating frogs. I did once inflate one with a drinking straw though. I'd crap myself if I thought my kids were doing some of the stupid things I did as a teenager involving fireworks, frozen lakes, and climbing things.

I did make the rugby team and we once got beaten 91 - 0 by Goole Grammar School. Played for 5 years and never scored a point. I did play hooker though, so by the time the scrum got off my head play had invariably stopped.

Happy days though!

cooldad

Did all of that except blowing up a frog. I did shoot one once with a pellet gun, and never ever felt the urge to shoot anything again. Good times.

slunker

electric_blue wrote:

That's bizarre - most of that may be true for a hick born 50 miles from the nearest town in the 50s - but by the time I was born in 1966 the world was relatively civilised. We had telly, records, FM radio and even computer games by the late 70s. I was never cruel to animals and my mum only fed us healthy food, and gave up smoking and drinking when she was pregnant. As I grew up in a city with lots of cars and odd people about I was not able to go out all day without being able to be contacted, though was very active, rode my bike WITH shoes on, but not a helmet.

My mum had to work because thatcher closed the dockyards down and Dad had to go to London to get work which was sporadic and relatively poorly paid.

I got caned once and it was sh.it - i wouldn;t want my daughter to go through that, especially as I hadn't done what I was accused of.

I mumbled all through my teens - could not form a sentance for years.

I am not one of them - and pleased that I am not. and my eyes are still nearly perfect.

So sod who ever wrote that piece of crap.

A softy who got beat up at school then????

Gazzaputt

Born in 1971 and most of that was done except the blowing up of frogs.

We were always outside either playing footie, riding bikes, etc etc.

Anyone remember 'runouts'?

markos1963

I remember building 'dens' all over the place with my mates, came in handy a few years later when i was looking for places to take young ladies to show them my etchings. The remains of the blown up frogs didn't help with their libido though