Kids of Today !

[Big J R]

Kids of the 50s, 60s and 70s

 

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50s, 60s, and 70s probably shouldn't have survived.

 

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!

 

Please 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.

 

Amen !

[Little Miss Urchin]

It could, of course, be argued that the children from that time created children now as they're the ones who helped build the technology/form today's government, etc.

 

Children fron the 80's - now there's a great era...! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Big J R]

Oh the good old 60's

 

Off out on a Friday night with ten bob in yer skyrocket. Couple of pints, 10 Gold Leaf, a leg over if you were really lucky ! and still have change when you got home.

 

Lager ? What was that. I think mine was Red Barrel.

[The Invisible Man]

BJR, you were doing so well and then you went and spoiled it all by mentioning Watney's Red Barrel. Now there realy should have been a government warning on the stuff.

 

Remember Ben Truman? Bizarre stuff, I recall. Double Diamond and Whitbread Tankard were about the best you could hope for.

 

Through my formative years in the 70's I drank light and bitter, primarily because it helped a bit, and partly because you got more than a pint. A decent barmaid/man would pour almost a pint of bitter then give you the light ale bottle.

 

Safety issues? Try designing a bulding now, mate! You'd think people have an irrestible urge to walk off the edge of flat roofs or throw themselves through rooflights (skylights) and have to be saved from themselves. We have to do Rosk Assessments for everything - apparently if we don't identify Falling From Height as a hazard, people would be plummeting to their deaths all over the place. Lucky we're here to warn them!

 

Oh God, I think I've just agreed with BJR!

[Little Miss Urchin]

You don't need to tell us here in Hornchurch about safety. The council put up a metal fence along the length of the high street and put in another 2 traffic light crossings - with 50 yards of each other!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

 

If the council's gom £ to waste I'll happily do it for them. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

 

Useless sh*tes.

[Big J R]

The Council misread the planning instructions Miss Urch

 

They thought the plans said "MENTAL FENCE"

 

I tell you what Invis; I know Red Barrel was cr*p, but if you drank three quarters of it, then stuck a couple of Barley wines in with it........ You were anybody's and anybody was yours !!

 

Two of those was more than enough !

[The Invisible Firstborn]

Bizarrely, I agree with Big JR on the kids thing. So many of todays kids are wrapped up in cotton wool from an early age and we're breeding a load of soppy wuss's.

I was always allowed a good deal of freedom, and I used to ride bikes with no helmet, eat any old [****!!****], play football in the road, play with matches, get into fights, graze a knee falling off me skateboard and generally lark about.

But I'm hardly ever ill, I have no allergies and I dont have any hideous mutatations.

 

But alot of the middle-class mummy's boys who went to my school always had hayfever, asthma, lactose intolerance, nut allergies and whatnot. I'm sure it's because their bodies have never been exposed to anything other than the sterile, padded world of the suburban semi.

 

The big jessies!

[The Invisible Man]

Oi, careful, there's at least one social worker reads this!

[The Invisible Firstborn]

I wasnt neglected.

I was told what was good and bad, right and wrong. But then left to do enjoy being a young chap.

 

If I'd been told that I'd fall off the big boy's bike and bash me leg and still did it, that was me own bleedin' fault and I wouldnt do it again. But kids today arent even allowed near the big boy's bike. If you see what I mean.

[The Invisible Firstborn]

One other thing - I am a fan of a lazy night in with the PlayStation now and then, but only certain games. Usually if it involves shooting things.

 

What baffles me is kids that play football games, or tennis games or whatever. Why not go and play tennis and football? Actual Reality rather than Virtual Reality.

 

(Then I suppose the parents would actually have to bring up their kids, rather than buy their silence and stick them in front of a TV)

[DeeFicient]

 

You look after your dad kid, I think he needs it!

 

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[The Invisible Firstborn]

I think he's past looking after. It's all damage-limitation these days.

[Big J R]

Great stuff Invis and Firstborn.

 

The problem with allergies etc today, is bloody intensive farming, additives and Christ knows what else manufacturers stuff into our so called food chain.

 

I grew up on a farm. Lived in cow-[censored] - Drank milk straight from the cows udder, (now illegal) - Watched a hen lay an egg, and within 2 minutes, the egg was boiling with buttered soldiers waiting. Sat in the 'snug' of the farmers local at the age of 12 with a half of cider and REAL men........

 

OH [censored] ! Bring back the good old days...

[Big J R]

ONE OTHER THING !

 

Living on a farm for all my school holidays taught me the 'Facts of Life' !

 

After you've led the Bull to the waiting cow and watched him mount, you don't need a lot more education !

 

Nurse ?? More pills please ..............

[The Invisible Firstborn]

One more rant about the kids of today. Their bloody music!!!

 

Now, it's one thing to have all these manufactured pop bands churning out the mindless pap that they do.

 

But what p!sses me right off is when a bunch of pre-pubescent pretty boys, or jailbailt in miniskirts cover songs by real artists. It devalues the original and just proves that they have no real talent.

 

I was horrified to overhear some young girls (about 13/14) in HMV. Light My Fire by The Doors was playing and one said "This is that Will Young song, isnt it?" I was appauled.

 

I weep for the future.

[Halifax Lass]

 

 

Did you learn good taste from your Invisible Parent.... The Doors...Jim Morrison? How can anyone talk about Will Young and the Doors in the same sentence?

 

 

[Big J R]

OH THE GOOD OLD DAYS !

 

Kings Road bistro's on a Friday or Saturday night.

CREAM blasting out on the jukebox. (I Feel Free. Badge. White Room). Nothing but coffee or chocolate to drink, (and the occasional spliff).

 

One cafe near the Worlds End pub I remember well. You could walk in stone cold sober, order your coffe, inhale deeply three times, and you were away with the fairies !

 

DECENT MUSIC ! NO MANUFACTURED BANDS !

 

AND, mini skirts, God Bless em !

 

Yanks out of Vietnam. Free Love. No AID'S

 

(Nurse ?? More pills, please !!)

[The Invisible Firstborn]

Precisely. Not sure if the old man goes in for the Doors so much.

 

But I do his share his passion for blues and blues-rock. Jimi (of course), Clapton (in his various guises), Bad Company, Led Zeppelin and the like.

 

I do a bit of Soul (Northern or otherwise), punk, new wave and decent modern indie stuff. I beleive the old boy goes in for a bit of that. The strokes and such.

 

I listen to basically anything that IS music and isnt pop, garage or f**king jazz. I hate jazz!

[The Invisible Firstborn]

The Worlds End is a dive these days. Kings ROad aint what it was (well, what I understand it was!!) I used to work down there. Bloody toffs and 'It' girls. Bloody lot!

[Halifax Lass]

Oh Firstborn, now you are talking. Northern Soul!!

 

I also remember I used to go to a Blues club in my mispent youth saw Long John Baldry, Brian Auger, Julie Driscol, Manfred Mann (with Paul Jones who went to Uni with my cousin) Small Faces, Georgie Fame etc etc all before they became well known names.

 

Do you remember 'Hot Pants' JR. Best worn under an ankle length coat with high boots!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />