SuperGerL: reblog

|NOSTALGIA

If you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's, looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have...
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Our cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cupboards, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes 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 when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day.
No mobile phones.
We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame, but us. Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We ate patty cakes, bread and butter, and drank cordial, but we were never overweight... we were always outside playing. We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this.
We didn't have Playstations, Nintendo 64s, X-Boxes, video games, 65 channels on pay TV, video tape movies or DVD, surround sound, personal mobile phones, Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian - how did we do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we didn't put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
Footy and netball had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.....
Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Tests were not adjusted for those who couldn't make the grade.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. 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 has 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!

And just to make sure you have had enough ........... just for a minute, forget everything stressful and read this ................................. go back in time...
Before the Internet or the Apple Mac.
Before semi-automatics, joyriders and crack.... Before SEGA or Super Nintendo...
Way back........
I'm talking about Hide and Seek in the park. The corner shop. Hopscotch. Butterscotch. Skipping. Handstands. Football with an old can. Beano, Dandy, Buster, Twinkle and Dennis the menace. Roly Poly. Hula Hoops, jumping the stream, building dams.
The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass. Bazooka Joe bubble gum. A penny Arrow Bar. An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune, Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe Neapolitan

Wait..................................

Watching Saturday morning cartoons .... short commercials, The Double Deckers, Road Runner, He-Man, Zeebedee, Tiswas or Swapshop?, and 'Why Don't You'? - or staying up for Doctor Who. When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere. Earwigs, wasps, stinging nettles and bee stings. Sticky fingers. Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians and Zorro. Climbing trees. Building igloos out of snow banks. Walking to school, no matter what the weather. Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights. Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.
Being tired from playing .... remember that?
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team. Water balloons were the ultimate weapon. Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle. Choppers and Grifters.

I'm not finished just yet.......................

Eating raw jelly. Orange squash ice pops. Remember when...............
There were two types of trainers - girls and boys, and Dunlop Green and Flash and the only time you wore them at school was for P.E. You knew everyone in your street - and so did your parents. It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends. You didn't sleep a wink on Christmas eve.
When nobody owned a pure-bred dog. When half a crown was decent pocket money. When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny. When nearly everyone's mum was in when the kids got home from school.
It was magic when dad would "remove" his thumb. When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents. When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it. When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home.
Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc. Parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! - and some of us are still afraid of them!!

Didn't that feel good?

Just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that! Remember when...............
Decisions were made by going " dip dip dip, my blue ship..... out". "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly". The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs. And the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to one. It was unbelievable that 'British Bulldog 123' wasn't an Olympic event. Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a catapult. Nobody was prettier than Mum. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better. Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin. Ice cream was considered a basic food group. Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true. Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED.

Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life... I DOUBLE-DARE YOU"

Born in '86!!!!But I experienced this too! although mine has a bit of tech in it already, but anyway I'm glad I had this life too ;)

“So don’t say you’re on the lookout for nice girls, guys, when you pass us up on every step you take. Sometimes we go undercover; sometimes we go in disguise: sometimes when that girl in the low cut shirt or the too tight miniskirt won’t answer your catcalls, sometimes you’re looking at a nice girl in whore’s clothing - - we might say we like the attention, we might blush and giggle and turn back to our friends, but we’re all thinking the same thing: “This isn’t me. Tomorrow morning, I’ll be wearing a teeshirt and flannel shorts, I’ll have slept alone and I’ll be making my hungover best friend breakfast. See through the disguise. See me.” You never do. Why? Because you only see the exterior, you only see the slutty girl who welcomes those advances. You don’t want the nice girl.. so don’t say you’re looking for a relationship: relationships take time and energy and intent, three things we’re willing to extend - - but in return, we’re looking for compassion and loyalty and trust, three things you never seem willing to express. Maybe nice guys finish last, but in the race they’re running they’re chasing after the whores and the sluts and the easy-targets… the nice girls are waiting at the finish line with water and towels and a congratulatory hug (and yes, if she’s a nice girl and she likes you, the sweatiness probably won’t matter), hoping against hope that maybe you’ll realize that they’re the ones that you want at the end of that silly race.”

-Jessica Leigh Griffith

Via creampuff