Recieved this e-mail today...
It is English but thought most of it may be relevant to a lot of you
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who
were kids in the 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 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels. As children, we would
ride
in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat
was a treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a
bottle and it tasted the same.
We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice 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 could play all day, as long
as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and
no one minded.
We did not have Play stations 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 DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.
We had friends - we went outside and found them.
We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really
hurt!
We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law
suits.
We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other
parents.
We played knock-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the
owners catching us.
We walked to friends' homes.
We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on
mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the
corner.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.
We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard
of...They actually sided with the law.
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 as real kids,
before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for
our own good.
For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to
read about us.
This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might put a
smile on your face:
The majority of students in universities today were born in
1986........They are called youth.
They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and
the Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel. They have
never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda
Carlisle.
For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam.
AIDS has existed since they were born. CD's have existed since they
were born.
Michael Jackson has always been white.
To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't
imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance.
They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are films
from last year.
They can never imagine life before computers.
They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, RedHand Gang or the
Famous Five.
They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You.
They can't believe a black and white television ever existed. And
they will never understand how we could leave the house
without a mobile phone.
Now let's check if we're getting old...
1. You understand what was written above and you smile.
2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a
night out.
3. Your friends are getting married/already married.
4. You are always surprised to see small children playing
comfortably with computers.
5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.
6. You remember watching Dirty Den in EastEnders the first time
around.
7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good
old days, repeating again all the funny things you have
experienced together.
8. Having read this mail, you are thinking of forwarding it to some
other friends because you think they will like it too... Yes,
you're getting old!!
I forwarded it on to loads
Thank you so much! I was just thinking about this the other day. My kids have missed out on so much - of course, they're thinking the opposite and think that I've missed so much!!! We used to ride our bikes to a small country store 2 miles away and everyone in between our house and the store knew us. We couldn't do anything bad or it would get back to our mother before we made it home!!! My kids have never played "Baby in the Air" and think that you have to actually through the baby in the air!!!
Oh, you have brought back so many very good memories! Thanks again!
When one of my daughters was in kindergarten (3 years ago), the teacher took out a record to play for the children. A little boy looked at her and exclaimed "WOW! That is the BIGGEST CD I've ever seen!"
Funny how i was born in 90s but alot of those things are still to me. I remember when we never had cell phones(i can still remember the first time i used a beeper to reach my mom) ,and i can't remember a day without computers ,but that doesn't mean i was on it 24/7. I probably was on our one computer about 2 times a month when i got bored and wanted to play my games that were somewhat educational. I did watch some TV ,but oddly enough it was either cartoon network which at the time ended at 10ish or food network. LOL
Anyways thought i'd mention that. 
Ahhh, the good old days 
Can't forget mud pies, plaiting grass, shooting marbles, catching bumble bees and lighting bugs.
I love to talk about the good old days 
Good one! I remember walking everywhere, saving our bus fare that was about 15 cents, until we had a dollar and could go buy the Beatle's latest 45, that is bigger than a CD but smaller than a 33 LP, haha! And in the summer packing up peanut butter sandwiches and Kool-Aid and leaving at 8 in the morning, being gone until 5 pm, spending our days at the museums and art galleries that had free admission or the parks or playgrounds and nobody worried that we had been kidnapped or worse, you had just better get home for supper! And falling out of trees while eating our peanut butter sandwiches, fortunately no concussions like poor Keith Richards though...
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes
... fortunately no concussions like poor Keith Richards though...
The man is 62 and still climbing trees; I don't know whether to be appalled or applaud is zest for life. 
There comes a point in life where one starts looking at activities differently. I stopped saying to myself, "Gosh, I could break my leg doing that!" and started thinking, "Good grief, I'm no longer talking about a broken leg here, I'm looking at possible hip replacement." 
Gave up snow skiing and just waterski now; the water is a lot more forgiving than the ground. Now I just wish I'd done a lot of the hard things in life when they were easier. 
That was so fun!! My kids can't imagine playing outside all day, I need to push them out the door!!! When they finally get out and find some friends, I learn later that they played INSIDE their friend's house!!!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHH
Me, my mom had to yell at me to come back in!!!!
have a nice day
Lorris
Yes, it is a pleasant thread, cute too!
Haha, whole new phrase, goes from "fall down and go boom" to "fall down and go ambulance", !
Hugs Squirrelly
Oh yes the good old days.......when us kids actually read books for entertainment! Wading in the creek without worrying about contaminents.
Summertime meant....catching fireflies and tying a string on a June-bug's leg and letting it fly....and scream like the devil when it flew in your hair!
Playing hide and seek in the dark.....OH and hopscotch...I just loved that!
And every Sunday....the whole family would gather at someone's home for dinner. And tent meeting revivals....being baptised in the creek.
Oh....the good old days.......
The best one is when gas was only $.19 to .25 a gallon 
I didn't think I was getting old, but.....
Just the other day, at my son's elementary school, I saw a fifth grader on a cell phone. Ridiculous!!!! We always had to be in when the street light came on and no one ever worried where we were playing. We hardly ever locked the doors. To be a kid again.....
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