Were you born in the 50's 60's 70' 80's ??

Irish_Ranger_IR

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 air bags. Riding in the passenger seat was a treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle - 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 Playstations 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 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. (If you aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us)

Tellox

oul 'fla
I grew up in the 90's,and had similar experiences to all you've wrote..I didnt have video games, 99 channels on tv (had rte, network2 and I WAS HAPPEH), had tapes of course.. but no mobile phones, or internet for that matter.

Of course, around 1997 or so,this all changed...

GoneShootin

us 80's kids were tough enough to withstand the tirony of our parents back then IR

Irish_Ranger_IR

Kids today !!! huh...

tbh not as tough as 70's 80's kids !!

DeVore

I grew up in the 70's and 80's (I was a woodstock conception )

I can identify with just about everything in that post!


DeV.

Amz

I have to say my parents didn't let me on my bicycle without a helmet, it took us ages to find a shop in Dublin in the 80s that sold them. My first helmet was red and had a picture of a tuccan in a pair of rollerskates on it. I was the only kid in the area to have one at the time and got such a slaggin'

Also they always had seatbelts installed in our car evem though it was extremely expensive at the time. They frowned upon people who had seatbelts in the car and didn't ensure that we wore them. I also never felt safe in other peoples cars if they had no seatbelts and obviously still dont.

People laugh at me for wearing my seatbelt so much it's just a natural thing for me to do now, as soon as I sit in a car I'll stick it on!

I think all the current safety features on things act as an incentive for children to try and get at things or break through these safety barriers.

ozt9vdujny3srf

heh :P

its all true though, puts our "need" for material things in perspective.

(however i had a snes a while ago :P)

patch

Thats very good! reminds me of the wonder years on tv.....and building houses out of planks and bits........:)

oneweb

It's oh so true! Look at times now... ...there are no playgrounds, and those that exist don't have anything which could cause injury (eg climbing frames, swings, normal ground (there's rubberised flooring), they even pay thousands of €uro to stop people from enjoying stuff like skateboarding the compo culture hit us, and it's wrecking everything! What happened to real life? Our generation were lucky to experience it (shakes walking stick vehemently ) If something happened us, it was our own fault. Nowadays it's anyone else's.

mike65

Good post IR!

As a child of the 60s' I'm frankly amazed that I made it past 5 with all my limbs intact! Not to mention my senses!*

Mike

*this is a debatable point but I'll let it pass for this thread!

Gordon

Heh great post, so true. Even though it is a chain mail.

byte

Aaah, those were the days!

Sandi

Ahhh...the 80s. Apparently I chewed the crap out of the side of cot....and I turned out ok...hmmmm..

TomTom

I even had to get my fronth tooth re-rebuild a few weeks ago as a result of the fun from the eighties, those were the days. The only consiquence you worried about was the eating you would get when you went home.

I'm a seat belt freak, cant travel in a car with out one, front or back, but thats the result of an accident that without it I could have been killed.

CuLT

I wis there was a suitable card to describe this thread, along the lines of "Not-so-old Fogeys remeniss about things that happened not-so-long-ago. Causes all posters over 20 to post very strained memories of their early childhood" .

On a COMPLETELY differnet subject, I remember growing up in the 80s, the music, the hair... the apple drops *drools*. Then I turned 5 years old and it was the dawn of the 90s .

Excellent post IR, especially if you wrote it yourself.. which Gordon doubts .

Mossy Monk

great post but i had an Atari 2600. i wish i still had it the 80's were great. i spent the latter part of the 70's in the womb

Irish_Ranger_IR

Originally posted by CuLT
Excellent post IR, especially if you wrote it yourself.. which Gordon doubts .

I got it on an email, I am sure everyone will get it sooner or later..

I was thinking, when I was growing up playing on the bmx's and climbing just about anything, i only broke both arms, fractured the left arm, hairline fracture in the right arm, broke my left sholder (going over the handle bars) fell on my head from about 8 foot(i think this was the worst) broke 2 toes, I was called for tea, so i ran out of the room, i then kicking the door jam, with the pain, i jumped, and the stairs where in fromt of me, i then proceded to fall down the stairs :eek: and about 40 stitches in total as a child.

but i am here today, fit and well ( just about ) !!!!!

hells angels

Helmets?? what are they i never wore one of those in my whole life...i think the coolest accident i ever had was when i was about 10 or 11 i was on my way to school (just down the road) on my bike and there was a milk lorry in front of me so i was tryin to keep up with it cause im a speed freak and all;) but the stupid lorry driver thought it would be funny to stop in the middle of the road for no fúckin reason and me's had no brake's and went straight into the back of it you should've heard the crash it was so cool but the driver didn't and left me in a heap on the floor and drove off.....:D

Ah well thats life and it never done me any harm*cough*

Wolf

Us 80's kids had it real I had a Spectrum 3+ (old skool)....... and nike air jams and luminous laces.

Kell

I agree completely. Grew up in the 70's and eighties before there was all this cyber junk that the kids these days love (and us fogies too). Having said that though, my child of the nineties nephew has been in and out of hospital so many times from football accidents, bicycle accidents and so many more and he has the added bonus of the DVD player, the PS2, the mobile and so on. I'm still tougher than he is (just)

K-

Gaffo

It's oh so true! Look at times now... ...there are no playgrounds, and those that exist don't have anything which could cause injury

Are you sure or is that you're just looking at things through your younger self's eyes. Things always seem so much more magical when you're a kid than when you look back on them as an adult. I used to always go to this playground when I was younger and I thought the place was amazing. It wasn't til I saw it again and my mam told it hadn't changed one bit that I realised that it was a kip. Things always look good when you're a kid.
I was born early 80's but enjoyed all of the 90's!!

The Sweeper

Great thread. The 'flip flops and clackers' thing on the bike made me howl. I had a little red bike, and I can remember collecting the plastic roosters from boxes of Kellogs Corn Flakes and getting my dad to attach them to the spokes on the wheels.

That and space hoppers, and bootskates with the plastic plug at the front that you tried to use as a brake and would invariably send you pitching arse-over-tip if you did, so instead you balanced on them and walked around in an ankle-breaking position pretending to be a ballerina, and hula hoops that were always tatty because the dog picked them up and chewed them and ran about with them until he tripped himself up, and leg warmers, and pretending to be the kids from fame (all of them), and playing skipping, and the arrival of 'double dutch' in the skipping annals of the playgrounds of Ireland, and marbles, and toy cars, and when hubba bubba only came in one flavour (violent pink original), scratch n sniff stickers for your copybook, fancy paper, playing football outside when football was on telly, playing tennis outside when wimbledon was on, going swimming etc. etc.

I can't imagine what my childhood would have been like if I'd had all of that stuff, and a mobile phone...

BigEejit

wore our coats by only the hood

If you were rich you had a "wind sheeter", I had a duffle coat that weighted about 6 stone when wet and smelt like an old dog ...Still, I'd say I only had my arms in the sleeves of the coat on sunday whne going to mass ... heh the smell on a wet day used to be horrendous...

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

This brings back memories as well, all good.

Mr.Applepie

Great post. Did almost everything on the list. I still dont wear a helmet(you know because its uncool and all);)

Originally posted by CuLT
the apple drops *drools*.

I still know where you can get apple drops - Sherbert strawberries too

Irish_Ranger_IR

I remember Garfield toys, comics, stickers.
Arcaide games - Paperboy - D&D .
football in the street untill 11.30.
Mcgyver, a team, airwolf.
Miami Vice ( I always wanted to be a cop after that !!)

My god there is so much more, its the last few years that have ruined the memorys of my child hood !!!!!!!!!!1