This was sent to me and it made me smile and remember.

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those
of us who were kids in the 50's, 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 'clackers' 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 dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding
and drank fizzy pop 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 play all day,
as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was
able to reach us all day 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
Internet chat rooms. We had friends - we went outside
and found them.

We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes
that ball really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke
bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits.
They were accidents. We learnt not to do the same
thing again. We had fights, punched each other hard
and got black and blue we learned to get over it.

We walked to friend's 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 and ate
live stuff, and although we were told it would happen,
we did not have very many eyes out, nor did the live
stuff live inside us forever.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only
the hood. Our actions were our own. Consequences were
expected. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we
broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with
the law. Imagine that!

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
up 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 1983........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 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 just new films out last year. They
think that N-Trance "set you free" is an Old School
song. They can never imagine life before computers.
They've never heard of Pac-Man or Space Invaders or
BBC computers that have Bat n Ball games.

They'll never have thought Jazz was the sexiest
aftershave ever. 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 don't even know how to switch on a TV
without a remote control. 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 married. (and having children!)

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've developed more and more feelings about your
work. It's now your life.

7. You spend less and less time talking on phone with
your friends daily.

8. You meet your friends from time to time, talking
about the good old days, repeating again and again all
funny stories you have experienced together.

9. 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 older!!!!

Recommended Answers

All 41 Replies

I got a similar one that was sent to me helps if you live in uk but i will put it on anyway:)


Go back in time............

Before the Internet or the Apple Mac...
Before semi-automatics, joyriders and crack....
Before Sony, SEGA or Super Nintendo...

Way back........

I'm talking about Hide and Seek in the park.
The corner shop
Hopscotch.
Butterscotch.
Skipping.
Handstands.
Football with a stone, an old Coke can or a football in desperate
need of pumping up.
Jumpers for goalposts
Swapping bikes
. Fingerbobs.
Beano, Dandy, Buster and Twinkle
Roly Poly.
Hula Hoops
Jumping the stream, building dams.
. The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass.
Bazooka Joe bubble gum.
. An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a
tune
Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe Neapolitan or perhaps a
screwball with the bubblegum at the bottom
When curly wurly's were as long as your arm and wagon wheels as big
as your face

Remember . . .

. Watching Saturday morning cartoons....short commercials,
. The Double Deckers, Road Runner, He-Man
Tiswas or Swapshop?, Banana Splits and Why Don't You? or staying up
for Doctor Who after Saturday tea
. When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed
like
going somewhere.
Earwigs, wasps, stinging nettles and bee stings.
. Sticky fingers.
. Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and Zorro.
Climbing trees.
Building igloos out of snow banks.
Walking to school, no matter what the weather.
Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your
stomach hurt.
. Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights.
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for
giggles.
. Being tired from playing....remember that?
When the second worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team
And the worst was having the opposing captains argue about who had
you
last time
Swapsies.
When water balloons were the ultimate weapon
Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a
motorcycle.
. Choppers and Grifters

I'm not finished just yet.....

Remember....
Eating raw jelly.
. Mr Freeze ice pops.
There were only three types of trainers - girls, boys, and Dunlop
Green Flash - and the only time you wore them at school was for P.E.
You knew everyone in your street - and so did your parents.
It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.
You didn't sleep a wink on Christmas eve.
When nobody owned a pure-breed dog.
When you still saw the occassional bit of white dog-crap
When 25p was decent pocket money and a 10p mixture would buy more
than two sweets
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a shiny penny.
When nearly everyone's mum was at home when the kids got there.
. How it was "magic" when dad would "remove" his thumb.
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner
at a real restaurant with your parents.
When any parent could discipline any child, or feed him, or use him
to carry groceries and nobody, not even the child, thought a thing of it.
When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the
fate that awaited a misbehaving schoolchild at home
Remember when....
Decisions were made by going "Dip Dip Dog Shit "
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in Monopoly
48k seemed like an enormous amount of computer memory
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs.
And the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to someone of
the opposite sex. All day.
It was unbelievable that 'British Bulldog 123' wasn't an Olympic event.
Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a catapult.
Nobody was prettier than Mum.
Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.
Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin.
Ice cream was considered a basic food group
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true. It used to snow
Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED.

send this to someone
>
> > I DOUBLE-DARE YOU!!!

Oh God I remember it all and I really feel sorry for kids now that they don't do this stuff anymore:sad:

yeh but aint the
<<<<<<<<<<<<junior techie) bit nice makes me feel young heh heh not that i remember all that stuff in here

Redshift, I posted the same thing on another forum back in December. The ending was a little different:

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!

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids,
before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors?
People under 30 are Wimps


Does anyone remeber lawn jarts, the ones with the metal tips? Now those were fun to play with. Throw them up as high as you could and run like hell so you wouldn't have one sticking out of your head, because your mother would get really mad at you. :cheesy:

Things change. I can understand. I'm 14 years old, have a cell phone and all but i also do things here. Its not like kids today are completely immobile. We do stuff too you know. And yes, we too climb trees, walk to school, we aren't that ignorant, we know michael jackson wasn't always 'white', we know about pac man and space invaders, its not like these things aren't completely forgotten, its just that its in the past now. Soon these days of mine will be in the past too, my descendants will laugh when i say i used win XP back in the day lol. *sighs*

People under 30 are wimps

oh why thats a very educated thing to say...:-|

those were the days, :) well, kids today would never think of running around and chasing each other all day means fun... and during my younger years (dang, i hate saying that) all you have to do to find your friends was go out of the house, but most of the time they go to your place and call you out...

but then again,

Soon these days of mine will be in the past too, my descendants will laugh when...

It's a cycle, we used to think our folks had a boring childhood compared to us. Our kids will think the same... and again, and again, and again...

:) Let's just make our childhood worth the while...:)

You know your getting old when you think todays kids don't have it as tough as you did or have as much fun as you did.

Afdrano has it right - you gotta get over the fact that the world is changing around you.

It is not better or worse, it just different

and, of course, the more it changes - the more it stays the same

GrimJack

Just remember:
There has been an alarming increase in the number of things you know nothing about.

What I'm amazed at is how a 6 year old knows more about configuring Windows than her parents. I went to my friend's house and her cousin knew more about computers than when I was 14. Yikes!

i dont know what older is.. im only 20 ..

What I'm amazed at is how a 6 year old knows more about configuring Windows than her parents. I went to my friend's house and her cousin knew more about computers than when I was 14. Yikes!

It must be sumthin we should be proud of then... This only implies that the human race is getting smarter by the generation, and it'll be only a few more generations when star trek fantasy becomes a reality...

What I've noticed is that we've grown bigger and stronger, perhaps smarter, than people from 1900's :!:. What did we do the last 50 years? We made from a 2 meter computer this little pc that sits in front of us! I mean it took us 32 million years just figuring out that standing up can be a good thing. What do ya think will happen in another 50 years?..... :rolleyes:

Technology and science wise, we are progressing. Personality wise and character wise, we haven't grown much, that is if you compare the change in human character to the change in technology and science. People are still racists, commit rape, homocide, and the most eccentric of gruesome crimes. There's still a lot of religious conflict and a tremendous power struggle in third world countries. These are things that have existed for hundreds to even thousands of years, yet you think we'd be more civiliazed by now. It's true that we've changed, but the change is not as dramatic as our change in science and technology.

we've changed, yes, but is it changing for the better?

Well, depending on technology is one thing, but if you put the average person of today, somewhere in the bush, that guy won't live very long.

And yea well, we can't ignore all those problems in the third world. Even I must say coming from the Netherlands in a multi-national country as it is now, with our
drugs-policy. Most people are against it, but it takes a healthy mind to realise such a thing. And yet most people from different nationalities commit these crimes here. Atleast that's what the media shows. And it's hard for the media to make these news, because it's the only news and That's what they're going to show. And now my country is on the black-list, because they let you carry 10 grams of cocaine or heroine with you. It's all very disturbing and I must say if I would think about this daily, I wouldn't be here right now.

i dont know what older is.. im only 20 ..

i'm 20 and i can sympathize with the poster...lol. i remember playing 3d tetris on some godawful byzantine machine back in the 80s. lol

i'm 20 and i can sympathize with the poster...lol. i remember playing 3d tetris on some godawful byzantine machine back in the 80s. lol

Tetris? you should've tried playing basketball on Atari... I can remember them playing one-on-one basketball on the whole of the court, and GAAWWDD!! they have square heads and playing with a square ball... imagine that...

You know you're getting old when your grandkid turns up, beats the living bejeesus out of you at multiplayer, and you know that no matter how much you practice, it ain't gonna change!

But the point is, you don't have to be old unless you give up, and adopt some stereotypical lifestyle based upon the expectations of others. I had one of my grandkids turn up on the weekend, and he gave me the irrits sitting down to a 4 hour session of Grand Theft Auto 3. I couldn't ecven get near my own games rig! But I beat him in the end. Put 'Jah Rule' on the stereo and cranked it up loud! That shifted him, because he hates listening to 'Jah Rule'! :D

Do kids even play tag or hide-and-go-seek anymore? I remember playing those when I was younger. Now it seems like it's all PS2 this, Gamecube that.

The kids play those in my yard, anyway.

Best way is not to have game consoles. Those things in the house and every kid that comes there ends up crowded in front of the TV. Having games on the PC makes it a lot easier to keep that activity for when kids are on their own, without others around for play.

Of course, it depends on the guidance you give to the kids as well. Leave them with Technology as a 'babysitter' and you've got no hope!

I've been lucky enough (or smart enough) to get the kids all involved in outdoor activity from the outset, and now that my kids have kids of their own, they're passing on the same guidance. Involvement in regular sports activities helps, but actually getting out there and playing with them is the most important factor of all.

Oh yeah, that's right! Having Grandparents involved heavily with the kids is pretty crucial to it all as well!

Hmm, 1983? That's my birth date. I'm kinda old, kinda young. That was amusing, thx.

Hmm, 1983? That's my birth date. I'm kinda old, kinda young. That was amusing, thx.

you were born when I was a 1st grader... :P

heh heh...


That puts your birthdate at around the time my wife and I were deciding 'enough was enough' in regard to kids. We already had a houseful! :cheesy:

Ye Old Commodore 64

When I was a kid, we did alot of things as a family. Go to church, play games, do homework, go camping. We were always outside when the weather permitted, but when it was too bad to go out, we were allowed to watch some tv, not much but some. Being as I was the youngest, I had a special duty during our tv watching time. I had to stand holding the antenae, with aliminum foil wrapped around it to get the best reception, being told to move this way or that way to get the best picture. Luckily, it was a black and white tv with only 3 channels.
Now those were the good old days.

Ye Old Commodore 64

This i remembered well... I had to type at least 50 lines of BASIC code just to play a lame video game... :) and the storage media i had was an audio cassette tape...

What a Difference 30 Years Makes



1970: Long Hair.
2000: Longing for hair.

1970: The perfect high.
2000: The perfect high yield mutual fund.

1970: Keg.
2000: EKG.

1970: Acid Rock.
2000: Acid Reflux.

1970: Moving to California because it's cool.
2000: Moving to California because it's warm.

1970: Growing pot.
2000: Growing pot belly.

1970: Watching John Glenn's historic flight with your parents.
2000: Watching John Glenn's historic flight with your children.

1970: Trying to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor.
2000: Trying NOT to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor.

1970: Seeds and stems.
2000: Roughage.

1970: Popping pills, smoking joints.
2000: Popping joints.

1970: Our president's struggle with Fidel.
2000: Our president's struggle with fidelity.

1970: Paar.
2000: AARP.

1970: Being caught with Hustler magazine.
2000: Being caught with Hustler magazine

1970: Killer weed.
2000: Weed killer.

1970: Hoping for a BMW.
2000: Hoping for a BM.

970: The Grateful Dead.
2000: Dr.? Kevorkian.

1970: Getting out to a new, hip joint.
2000: Getting a new hip joint.

1970: Rolling Stones.
2000: Kidney stones.

1970: Being called into the principal's office.
2000: Calling the principal's office.

1970: Screw the system!
2000: Upgrade the system!

1970: Peace sign.
2000: Mercedes logo.

1970: Parents begging you to get your hair cut.
2000: Children begging you to get their heads shaved.

1970: Take acid.
2000: Take antacid.

1970: Passing the driver's test.
2000: Passing the vision test.

1970: "Whatever"
2000: "Depends" :D

Things I have Learned now i am older

1. The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.

2. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

3. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

5. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.

6. You should not confuse your career with your life.

7. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

8. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.

9. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

10. Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie.

11. Never lick a steak knife.

12. Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

13. You will never find anybody who can give you a
clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

14. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

15. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 11.

16. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

17. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

18. And when God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.

19. Your friends love you, anyway.

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