WE WUZ BRUNG UP PROPER !!

[oldbluefox]

WE WUZ BRUNG UP PROPER !!

"And we never had a whole Mars Bar until 1993"!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930'2, 1940's, 1950's and 1960's

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank Sherry while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos...
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured 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, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

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 6.00 pm and didn't open on a Sunday, 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 and Bubble Gum.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter, milk from the cow, 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 street lights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were OK.

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, or colour TV, 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 because we didn't need to keep up with the Jones's!

Not everyone made the rugby/football/cricket/netball team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT.

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and throw the blackboard rubber at us if they thought we weren't concentrating...

We can string sentences together and spell and have proper conversations because of a good, solid three R's education.

Our parents would tell us to ask a stranger to help us cross the road.
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', 'Blade' 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla'.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL !

[Jacknian]

Very true, and how sad that today's youngsters don't have the same freedom for whatever reason.

[Jean W]

Thanks OBF for the Congratulations

I have read this before and I never get tired of reading it. I wonder why

[emjay45]

We were lucky to have been children then. Carefree days indeed.

[jay-ell71]

Good stuff OBF......

[gfwgfw]

My 12 year old grandson is frequently asking us questions about our early lives

Asked what did you watch on TV, telling him we never ad a TV, a look of disbelief creased his lovely face

In fact we did have a "wireless" albeit the reception was extremely poor, powered with a huge accumulator, which had to be frequently recharged at the village garage

Halcyon days . . . . not

[CaroleF]

Well said OBF. My father worked with only Wednesday afternoon off (shops closed for half day closing on a Wednesday) and Sunday. He worked every Saturday so no weekends away. We survived. Amazing what we survived isn't it?

Carole

[oldbluefox]

I don't envy the children of today one bit even with all their fancy gadgets, their iPhones, iPads, satellite TV etc. Having none of that we had to make our own amusement, to organise ourselves and learn to adapt things from scrap.
All boys had a pen knife (and the cuts to prove it) and would spend hours making bows and arrows (with Woodbine packet flights!), dens, discovering where every bird's nest was for miles around, damming streams and brooks to see how big you could make it.
We respected our elders whether we knew them or not and accepted that 'No' meant 'No'. The only time we got toys was at Christmas and if we wanted a sweet rteat we made a cone out of newspaper, put sugar in it and dipped a stick of rhubarb freshly pulled from the garden. Chocolate was a special treat.
I remember at 14 years old I wanted a bicycle for Christmas and my father lovingly restored an old bicycle, painted it and polished it. To me I had hit the jackpot!! It was a lovely bike even though the gears did slip (ouch!).
Childhood for me was an exciting time (although I never was keen on school - too many other things I'd rather be doing). We didn't have much money and times were hard but we were happy.

[david63]

I wonder if in 60 years time the children of today will be saying the same thing?

[oldbluefox]

Probably...............

[jay-ell71]

I wonder what life will be like for children in 60 years' time?

[david63]

I wonder what life will be like for children in 60 years' time?

If things move at the same pace as they have in the last few years there will be no children in 60 years time - they will go from being babies straight to adults

[Holiday Planner]

I wonder what life will be like for children in 60 years' time?

If things move at the same pace as they have in the last few years there will be no children in 60 years time - they will go from being babies straight to adults

Interesting, because if you go back just a little more than 60 years before most of us were born many children had to work from a young age, so they went straight to adulthood too. Maybe only a few generations will have had a childhood.

[Stephen]

What goes round comes around..............eventually

[davecttr]

When i was a little lad all childhood ailments could be cured by a combination of 3 things:
Germoline
Elastoplast
Haliborange tablets

Example

Mam, Iv'e chopped my finger off.

Don't worry, I'll rub on some Germoline and stick an Elastoplast on it. Have an Haliborange tablet and a new finger will grow tonight when you are asleep.

[Holiday Planner]

When i was a little lad all childhood ailments could be cured by a combination of 3 things:
Germoline
Elastoplast
Haliborange tablets

Example

Mam, Iv'e chopped my finger off.

Don't worry, I'll rub on some Germoline and stick an Elastoplast on it. Have an Haliborange tablet and a new finger will grow tonight when you are asleep.

I used to love Haliborange tablets, but wasn't so keen on the Cod Liver Oil capsules that my Nan used to supply my mum with (especially for me)!

[oldbluefox]

You wos proper posh Angela!! We had cod liver oil off the spoon. Yuk!!! I can still taste it now.

[ChesterfieldJohn]

When i was a little lad all childhood ailments could be cured by a combination of 3 things:
Germoline
Elastoplast
Haliborange tablets

Example

Mam, Iv'e chopped my finger off.

Don't worry, I'll rub on some Germoline and stick an Elastoplast on it. Have an Haliborange tablet and a new finger will grow tonight when you are asleep.

LOL bought back memories my mum and grandmother swore by Johnsons Oils it was for everything. ear ache grazes anything that they could use it on.

John.

[AngieT]

Don't forget the Phennings Little Lung Healers and Sal Volatile. My gran forever shoved Phennings down our throats if we had a cold. I also loved my dummy being dipped in Virol (Cod Liver Oil & Malt Extract) - kept me quiet for hours.

[Jan Rosser]

You wos proper posh Angela!! We had cod liver oil off the spoon. Yuk!!! I can still taste it now.

Oh Foxy now that's one memory I can do without - cod liver oil off a spoon and something else sort of malty taste called Virol I think - now I did like that

No one has mentioned the nit comb - having long hair my sister and I were subjected to that "just in case" once a week - don't know if I over had any - probably too cold for them to survive in our house pre central heating days - only heat was the fire in the living room - roaring coal fire

[Jean W]

Malt Extract - fantastic

[Stephen]

You wos proper posh Angela!! We had cod liver oil off the spoon. Yuk!!! I can still taste it now.

Your not wrong Foxy.

I remember having the stuff as child in hospital. Thought they were giving me something nice. Was I in for a shock. Revolting stuff.

[Islander]

Thanks for the memories OBF. I hated the liberty bodices with thermagene ? pinned inside!

[emjay45]

Malt Extract - fantastic

Loved that too.

Thanks for the memories OBF. I hated the liberty bodices with thermagene ? pinned inside!

I didn't like wearing a liberty bodice and why did we need one as well as a vest?

[oldbluefox]

I still get a jar of malt extract for old time's sake. Lovely and a big improvement on the cod liver oil.

We lived a long way away from any dentists so the only time we went was when we had toothache. The immediate remedy for this was tincture of myrrh. (Why is it anything concerned with health tasted absolutely foul?!!). Visiting the dentist was a frightening affair with its Victorian waiting room full of velvet drapes and then the big, black chair................. For some reason I always seemed to be put out to have a tooth extracted and still remember the rubber mask being placed over my face and waking to find blood seemingly everywhere. I was then virtually carried out and delivered back to my grandmother, who always seemed to be the one who dealt with these situations. Then began the long trail home. Not everything was beer and skittles for children in those days.

I also remember sitting outside the pub with a bag of crisps and a bottle of lemonade and told to behave whilst mother and father had a drink inside - and we did!!! Misbehaving never really crossed our minds. No children in pubs in those days.

By heck it was cold in the winter though. Nowadays you rarely see frost patterns on the windows, nor do you get the thrill of walking on freezing cold lino or waking to find the hot water bottle had frozen. And how did we manage to squeeze five of us around a two bar electric fire?

Them wor the days!!!