for people born before 1986

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, r 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!

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, RedHand 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!!



I make it by 2 years and even at that it's pretty funny how true most of it is. I miss childhood

as for chappign someones door and runnign away, there was a nutter across the road who used to set an alsation on us when we did it. always fun to send someone who'd just moved to my old bit to his door when we were doin it

I have to admit I am definitely getting old...I enjoyed reading it Jim. I do miss some things from my childhood which was great, I only regret not having brothers/sisters though but thanks to my parents, especially my mum, can't complain about it.

Not old, just older.

Thanks Jim - that was fun! It's a great reminder of things we want to make sure our kids experience . . . even though they won't get here until next year (or later).

~Wren

Thanks JIM that was funny .. and I am defintely getting .. not old but just older ...

Yup - that's me - born before 1986 I tell my kids some of these things. The one about going out in the morning and not showing back up until dark, especially if it was summertime, really hit home. No one minded or cared. I used to play a lot of baseball, hours and hours of it in the summer. Girls and boys played baseball together - girls were not yet sidelined into softball. There were no parents to get into fights with the coach - there was no coach. We settled our differences ourselves - sometimes by kicking the sh!t out of each other but it got settled. We agreed on our own rules and we played by them. My kids played baseball growing up and it was very alien to me, it was so regimented. I miss the freedom that kids used to have - everything is so damn organized and scheduled now. And I can still outpitch my kids - they never played long enough to get good - they hated the regimentation too

Kathleen

same here, except for baseball we played ice hockey.

I had a crush on a boy and he on me - our way of showing affection was beating the shit out of each other on the ice. *sigh* good old days.....

Indeed!!

Cool!

Otherwise true, but we had an Atari2600 in the early 80's and a Commodore 64 short after that. Everyone did.

Ice

I didn't I was sooooo jealous on the people in my class who did have an Atari or a Commodore 64.