CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1940's, 50's, and 60's, and possibly of interest to those unfortunate to have been born later!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank
Sherry while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos...

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, raw egg
products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and
didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

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, 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 and Bubble Gum.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter,milk from the cow,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, or colour TV, 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.

Our parents would tell us to ask a stranger to help us cross the road.

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