O THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's.......
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while
they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn't
get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs 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, not to mention,
the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding
in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died
from this.
e ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop 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 okay.
We would spend hours building our 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 did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all,
no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no l
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. We made up games with sticks and tennis
balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or
rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, 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 are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!
Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids,
before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own
good. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors,
doesn't it?
Before we forget
It's just got worse!
Did anyone else here this on the radio this morning? Apparently some teachers wanted to take their pupils out to play in the snow yesterday, but had ato complete a risk assessment form first and the pupils had to stand 65 feet apart before they could throw any snowballs.
Madness!
Did anyone else here this on the radio this morning? Apparently some teachers wanted to take their pupils out to play in the snow yesterday, but had ato complete a risk assessment form first and the pupils had to stand 65 feet apart before they could throw any snowballs.
Madness!
Re: Before we forget
I must say this is absolute rubbish. Yes, lets celebrate smoking during pregnancy. Yes, let us shed a tear for the days when there were no seat belts or air-bags. Riiiight. Oh, and testing for gestational diabetes is a bad thing is it? Riiiiiight. Wow - how about celebrating the advances in ante natal and obstetric care instead?Porty wrote:O THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's.......
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while
they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn't
get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs 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, not to mention,
the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding
in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died
from this.
e ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop 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 okay.
We would spend hours building our 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 did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all,
no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no l
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. We made up games with sticks and tennis
balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or
rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, 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 are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!
Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids,
before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own
good. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors,
doesn't it?
Obviously the person that wrote this, as well as having some bizarre views about pregnancy, hasn't grasped the simple fact that todays kids are perfectly able to play a multi-player online game one minute, get bored of it and go out and kick a ball with their pals the next.
This kind of nostalgia is flawed because it fails to point out the positive aspects of the present and the negative aspects of the past. Todays kids, as well as having had the benefit of modern medicine, are also more than capable of incorporating new technology into their play - the author of this diatribe fails to spot that completely.
-
ColinMcFadyen
- Posts: 30
- Joined: 08 Jun 2003, 17:00
- Location: Ottawa, Canada
Re: Before we forget
There is definitely something different about today's kids. If not for modern medicine, many of them would be in serious trouble.
My kids are 10 and 12 and for most of their years in school, they have been in classes where certain foods have been banned for lunch. Many kids are allergic to peanuts, dairy and eggs. Asthma and bronchitis seem to be at epidemic proportions. Medicines and puffers are commonplace.
I also think that is is sad that our kids cannot have the same experiences that we had. During the summer, I ate breakfast said goodbye to my mum and headed outside to play with my friends. Back for lunch and out again. Taking the bus from Portobello to The Regent on a Saturday for a film at 9-10 years old was not a problem. Same goes for playing all day at the prom or heading off for Arthur's Seat.
My kids are 10 and 12 and for most of their years in school, they have been in classes where certain foods have been banned for lunch. Many kids are allergic to peanuts, dairy and eggs. Asthma and bronchitis seem to be at epidemic proportions. Medicines and puffers are commonplace.
I also think that is is sad that our kids cannot have the same experiences that we had. During the summer, I ate breakfast said goodbye to my mum and headed outside to play with my friends. Back for lunch and out again. Taking the bus from Portobello to The Regent on a Saturday for a film at 9-10 years old was not a problem. Same goes for playing all day at the prom or heading off for Arthur's Seat.
....and nostalgic people 200 years ago would no doubt say the same about kids growing up in the 1920s.
Yes, those days of shorter life expectancy, TB and ricketts are what I look back to and wish I, too, could have experienced. All these pesky life-saving public health measures - dammit, I demand an end to immunisation against Polio - where's everyone's backbone?? And smallpox - pah, nothing wrong with the odd outbreak. Those days of gaslight and diptheria inspired great authors - so that's where we've been going wrong!!!!
Grr.
Yes, those days of shorter life expectancy, TB and ricketts are what I look back to and wish I, too, could have experienced. All these pesky life-saving public health measures - dammit, I demand an end to immunisation against Polio - where's everyone's backbone?? And smallpox - pah, nothing wrong with the odd outbreak. Those days of gaslight and diptheria inspired great authors - so that's where we've been going wrong!!!!
Grr.
Re: Before we forget
Dada the whole point of nostalgia is that you have a wistfiul memory of an earlier time...not always accurate and often ignoring the negative aspects. I accept that the article does not acknowledge the advances in modern medicine etc, but it does make a very valid point that most of us kids survived and survived very well without those advances and without being able to play on-line gamesDadaist wrote: I must say this is absolute rubbish. Yes, lets celebrate smoking during pregnancy. Yes, let us shed a tear for the days when there were no seat belts or air-bags. Riiiight. Oh, and testing for gestational diabetes is a bad thing is it? Riiiiiight. Wow - how about celebrating the advances in ante natal and obstetric care instead?
Obviously the person that wrote this, as well as having some bizarre views about pregnancy, hasn't grasped the simple fact that todays kids are perfectly able to play a multi-player online game one minute, get bored of it and go out and kick a ball with their pals the next.
This kind of nostalgia is flawed because it fails to point out the positive aspects of the present and the negative aspects of the past. Todays kids, as well as having had the benefit of modern medicine, are also more than capable of incorporating new technology into their play - the author of this diatribe fails to spot that completely.
Yes, absolutely. If it had just been about snowballs and go-carts then I would have been happy to go along with it - but when you start throwing in stuff about lead in paint and smoking during pregnancy I start to wonder about the whole thing - yes, a whole generation "survived" those things but the writer fails to mention the people from that generation who either didn't survive or suffered as a result.
Re: Before we forget
me tooColinMcFadyen wrote:During the summer, I ate breakfast said goodbye to my mum and headed outside to play with my friends.
Teddygirl
Have you tried the Farmers Market in Castle Terrace - great tasting carrots and other goodies.
http://www.edinburghcc.com/ECC/farm_market.htm
Have you tried the Farmers Market in Castle Terrace - great tasting carrots and other goodies.
http://www.edinburghcc.com/ECC/farm_market.htm
True Dada but despite that, today's generation are not any happier than we were. You only need to read Jamsie's Car Crime in Porty thread to see what some of them get up to for amusementDadaist wrote:Yes, absolutely. If it had just been about snowballs and go-carts then I would have been happy to go along with it - but when you start throwing in stuff about lead in paint and smoking during pregnancy I start to wonder about the whole thing - yes, a whole generation "survived" those things but the writer fails to mention the people from that generation who either didn't survive or suffered as a result.
But not all medical 'advances' were good! What about Thalidomide? Think my mother was safer with the morning sickness!Dadaist wrote:Yes, absolutely. If it had just been about snowballs and go-carts then I would have been happy to go along with it - but when you start throwing in stuff about lead in paint and smoking during pregnancy I start to wonder about the whole thing - yes, a whole generation "survived" those things but the writer fails to mention the people from that generation who either didn't survive or suffered as a result.
Enough of your nonsense - get back to the Play Pen!
I'm not saying that todays youth are happier or that happiness comes from any of these advances, nor do I particularly care. But just because some aspects of the past were "good" or some advances turn out to be detrimental doesn't really make me want to emulate the Good Life either.
Perhaps the author of the original piece should have thought before using their computer to post it on the internet - I think stone tablets would have been much more appropriate...
Perhaps the author of the original piece should have thought before using their computer to post it on the internet - I think stone tablets would have been much more appropriate...
How cynical. Personally I am happy to embrace all of the medical advances and IT Technology improvements that come my way and enhance my life. Doesn't stop me from being nostalgicDadaist wrote: Perhaps the author of the original piece should have thought before using their computer to post it on the internet - I think stone tablets would have been much more appropriate...
Perhaps our generation lack the easy come easy go spirit of you young Pups.Dadaist wrote:I'm not saying that todays youth are happier or that happiness comes from any of these advances, nor do I particularly care. But just because some aspects of the past were "good" or some advances turn out to be detrimental doesn't really make me want to emulate the Good Life either.
Perhaps the author of the original piece should have thought before using their computer to post it on the internet - I think stone tablets would have been much more appropriate...
And we are guilty of kick starting the Child obesity epidemic. Don't pick up that particular baton. Anyway Dada old boy, people in glass houses.....
Last edited by Porty on 27 Feb 2005, 05:06, edited 1 time in total.
Nor should it, but it shouldn't lead you to demand they put lead back in paint either.foxy wrote:How cynical. Personally I am happy to embrace all of the medical advances and IT Technology improvements that come my way and enhance my life. Doesn't stop me from being nostalgicDadaist wrote: Perhaps the author of the original piece should have thought before using their computer to post it on the internet - I think stone tablets would have been much more appropriate...
No, but I did hear about this :Mimpty wrote:It's just got worse!
Did anyone else here this on the radio this morning? Apparently some teachers wanted to take their pupils out to play in the snow yesterday, but had ato complete a risk assessment form first and the pupils had to stand 65 feet apart before they could throw any snowballs.
Madness!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4303215.stm
