you know your getting older...

red_ice

A little email that made me smile when i read it... its so true

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!!!!

Havelock

Even thought I was born in 1983, I did the above. God, it has changed, hasn't it. Made me smile.

Trojan

I know I'm getting old when I have several cups of tea, 2 full meals, and a bottle of lucozade sport, all during the course of a hard-core houseparty...

Good party though

Lump

Sounds like fun, without the hangover....


John