City of IF

Crunchyfrog · Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 3998

TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1940's, 50's, 60's and 70's !

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright colored 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

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 the weekends, 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, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter 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,
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!

RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

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 writing is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore!

Smee · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 5215 Location: UK

Hey - for much of that you can include early 80's kids too!

All I had was an old Atari computer for most of my childhood that would send you cross eye'd if stared at for more than an hour. I had tree houses, rope swings, and no home PC or mobile phone until I was 16-17.

;)

Chinaren · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:06 am Post subject:

Naturally I'm too young for this, but I... er, remember someone telling me it was like that. Ahem.

And...

Quote: We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

About that... :scared:

Kids today... etc.

Alegria · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:30 am Post subject:

My early 90s childhood was like that. Yes, we had a computer, but because it took 5 minutes to load the homepage, and we were very impatient, there was always something better to do, and my parents severely limited my TV time. It also helps that I lived in apartments growing up (a good place to grow up in).

Ah, memories....[/code]

TruePurple · Joined: 18 Sep 2008 Posts: 256

What's wrong with blue cheese? It isn't any worse for you then any other cheese.

Also, while I think its a bad idea to name someone after a object, like blade. It's good that some people name their kids more original things. There are too many of the standard names out there, John, Sue, Fred, George, Ashly, etc. The odds are pretty good more then one person you know of will have the same first name as you. First names are who you are. They are suppose to be a personal identification mark. Its a partial fail when you share you name with several hundred thousand other people.

I especially hate it when parents name their kids after themselves.

I also hate that old 'tradition' of calling the wife of some guy by his full name. Take about trying to erase identity.

Also, I assume you already know this, but even though you survived some of those things, that doesn't mean they are good things. Eating lots of bacon, smoking and drinking when pregnant/around kids. Eating lots of cupcakes, white bread, butter/hydrogenated margarine (which is worse then butter) etc are not good things, no matter how much you exercise (but exercise does help alot)

Of course some of those things you mentioned are entirely different and fine. Sharing off a bottle for example, won't usually make you sick, unless one of your friends is already sick with a bacteria or virus (a hint, if your friend has a cold, don't share unless you want the cold too)

Who cares if some boys have earrings too. Gender identification is highly overrated, even now.

Am I to assume you are saying you think most all of the things you mentioned were better that way? (I mean some are obviously better, but that is a long list of very different subjects)

scissorkitty · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 6:41 am Post subject:

ahh, memories. I remember that place- outside. I think it's.. you know.. *waves vaguely*.. there somewhere.

The taste of dirt, a split lip, hiding in bushes playing tag without checking for yucky condoms or syringes first.. getting popsicles from the icecream truck without checking if he was a sexual predator.. watching "teen dramas" with NO sex, violence or swearing..

good times. good times.

Crunchyfrog · Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 3998

Smee wrote: All I had was an old Atari computer for most of my childhood that would send you cross eye'd if stared at for more than an hour.

What, you mean one of these? I had one of these. :D

somecyberperson · Joined: 20 Feb 2009 Posts: 12 Location: A place.

As much as I love the current era, I would like to live in this period for just a year or two. Everything was so much simpler than it is now.
I really envy old people.

Gallant · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:39 pm Post subject:

Hey I still do most of these things. Could be because I'm hugely immature when I'm outside and even though I'm 19 I will quite glady climb that tree!

*Scurries off to find a tree.*

Smee · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 5215 Location: UK

My step-dad had one of those, but the main one I remember was :

Atari 400

Only had a handful of games... River Raid (awesome game), Space Invaders, Jungle Hunt, Pole Position, Pitfall and of course... Pac-man.

Bizarrely it was my Mum who demonstated the best scores on River Raid. Disappointingly she hasn't shown any interest in computer games since ( except for a simple MahJong game).

Aaaah... happy, simple times ;)

EDIT:

Oooh looking through the Wikipedia list of Atari games... I also had Caverns of Mars - now that was a weird game. Ludicrously difficult :-o

TruePurple · Joined: 18 Sep 2008 Posts: 256

I do believe I've played caverns of mars (or perhaps one of the similar games) as I definitely recognize that last screen shot. You had to shoot those fuel things to keep your ship fueled else you crashed, right?

Don't let nostalgia & pessimism cloud your vision. In any urban setting, especially in a "rough neighborhood" it is always a good idea to remain alert and safe. It was true then too. And come 2009 there are plenty of locations where kids can play and be relatively safe (places where there isn't allot of nasty litter)

Sounds like your neighborhood has gone downhill scissorkitty, sorry to hear that. But one can take efforts to reverse this. Such efforts have succeeded before too.

Crunchyfrog · Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 3998

Smee wrote: My step-dad had one of those, but the main one I remember was :

Atari 400

Only had a handful of games... River Raid (awesome game), Space Invaders, Jungle Hunt, Pole Position, Pitfall and of course... Pac-man.

Pole Position! I'd forgotten about that. That was one of the few arcade games I was any good at. My fave though was Defender - It was so bloomin' difficult, but a lot of fun.

Reiso · Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 2:26 am Post subject:

Just to comment on the older game consoles being listed here: Texas Instrument, anyone? Hunt the Wumppass? Or was it Wumpass? Anyway... damn, I wonder if you can even find one of those anymore.

But yeah, Atari all the way. My Dad still has the one he bought us at his house, the original box, and everything. But then, he is a both a packrat and a dinosaur, so that really isn't very surprising. I semi-recently helped him pick out a new computer, and the one he replaced was running Windows 95. And I believe that had been his first computer.

HalfEmptyHero · Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 5:54 pm Post subject: Re: Oldies only. :P

Crunchyfrog wrote: lived in houses made of asbestos.

I'm living in a building made of asbestos right now :-o

scissorkitty · Posted: Wed May 06, 2009 4:35 am Post subject:

yay asbestos!

I'm sure it will preserve us all well into old age. I remember the acoustic ceiling tiles of my highschool being removed 'coz they were asbestos. Nice. They put up a tarp around the cafeteria. I'm sure that is absolutely the best way to remove asbestos near food. Plastic tarpaulin.

Chinaren · Posted: Wed May 06, 2009 5:08 am Post subject:

Better than an Asbestos tarp I guess. :)

TruePurple · Joined: 18 Sep 2008 Posts: 256

Asbestos will probably preserve you well after old age... death, and just bring you to that preservation sooner. Congratz, you will be perhaps be a life sized figurine of yourself for many years.

scissorkitty · Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 7:04 pm Post subject:

Excellent. I can become a ceramic urn of myself.

all is according to plan. :mad: