Congratulations

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1920's, 30's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who may have 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 some of us took hitchhiking .

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

Riding in the back of a Ute 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 fire crackers to blow up frogs and lizards 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 videogames at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape or DVD 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 BB guns and sling shots for our 10th birthdays,

We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic testing at Maralinga in 1956.

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 straps 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'.....

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.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

2 comments

Oh Yes, but only maybe. We didn't have the internet, mobile phone to get us out of trouble. And if the local copper had to come around, he gave a quick kick up the backside. Then again, if there was a "domestic: the local copper didn't get involved. It was a family matter. A lot of things change, some for the better, some for the worse. We are living now, in this society. We just have to accept.

I think we are very lucky after going through the Moe "Old Gippstown" and seeing the tiny little homes where children were reared on dirt floors and beds where sticks with hessian along with chairs of sticks and hessian. A fire outside boiled the kettle and cooked the stew

The conditions were SO harsh and if a women was left a widow no pension or money whatsoever. A horse pulled a big thing with hard wooden seats down each side and travelled hours to get anywhere (kind of like an old fashiioned bus) I suppose.

SO very few niceeties or a bit of luxury. To see the way people had to wash themselves and clothing etc. and travel and survive has to make us very very grateful surely. I know I came away astounded and very grateful for our life. If anyone lives in Gippsland or looking for a place to go back in time, this is worth a visit. If for no other reason to make us appreciate all we have. So many children died of the childhood diseases along with adults of all varieties of infections cureable today, who were lucky to make it over 50.

..........

I think we women need to be very careful about cleaning our handbags as the bag could have been on the toilet floor and then on our benches where we make sandwiches. Yuk. We often do not think about this.



Great day today and the amazing thing is we have tomorrow to look forward to.

2 comments



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