Getting Old

[owdun]

FOR EVERYONE BORN BEFORE 1986!!!


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 chap-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.

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 the last few years.

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!!


Aye Owdun.

[RAF Reginald]

That is absolutely brilliant, made my day reading it, apart from making me feel old, obviously!

Thanks for that.

[Sarastro]

Effing hell, that made ME feel old, and I'm only 26!

Though according to that list, I guess I'm technically dead. I should actually be writing this through a ouija board.

[Beast]

A very informative read Owdun, well done mate, and so true!

[Jeg]

Made me feel young, so nearly the same effect.

Good read though.

[got1]

I am just leaving on my first ever OAP do. The local pub has a do and they call it the 59ers (I personally prefer 69) but there you go.Beggars can't be choosers. Don't feeel that olddd .
Cheers.

[Sisyphus]

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's

owdun

Those who were born in the 60s, 70s and early 80s are STILL kids! Why, the 'oldest' will still be in their 40s!

[anglo-saxon]

I remember East Enders coming on and thinking "what's this new crap?" Never did watch it after that.

Moved house the other day. The boys (13 and 9) saw some old records. "What are they?", they say. They listened to the explanation with thinlky veiled amusement. Give them they due, though. A week before moving they packed away their PlayStation 2 and helped get the house ready. I was very proud of them. Then, once we were set up in the new place (sans TV as we are out in the boonies and need to get satellite), they watched the Magnificent Seven in black and white after making their dad a damned fine cuppa. Later, we spent the entire afternoon outside at -15 degrees C shooting holes in old truck doors behind the barn. They with their .22's and me with my nine mil. It was the dog's bollocks! Great wy to start at the new place. I'll have to keep them in the outside theme as the satellite TV is getting set up on Friday and it has 270 channels! Outragous!

[Sticky Blue]

Break the television!

[Tab]

Some one was saying that they can remember Eastenders starting on Television, well I can remember television starting, and Archers on the Radio, they even took of Dick Barton to put on Archers. How many of you used to listen to radio when it was the home Service and the light programme and yes we must not forget the Third programme for those of you that might be a bit high brow.

[owdun]

Tab, I have clear memories of our old fella's first radio, an accumulater job which had to be taken to some shop to be charged up. that would be about 1933. Our first Television set had a screen about eight inches wide, nearly went blind staring at it.



Aye Owdun.

[Wholley]

Tab.
The BBC Home Service was my fave.
I can still recall those famous words.
"Good Afternoon,This is the BBC Home Service.
Here is the news and this is Alvar Liddel reading it"
Followed by the Navy Lark,The Clitheroe Kid and"Songs on Sunday"
Does that make me"Old"
What the fark is an"Eastender"

[got1]

I have just returne from my oap do. F%^&ing marve;ous, never bouht a drink, great kayooke which I do't like andthe comedian was greart.
So you can F45K off aqs In am raytarsed

[JoJo82]

I'm not exactly "sane in mind", should I blame the cots? Any basis to have a legal case!!!!

[Ruth]

I didn't know the Home Service but the World Service can do a similar job.

I'll never forget when, after six weeks in provincial USSR with the KGB still holding my passport and return plane ticket, I got hold of a radio that at one in the morning could pick up the BBC.
"This is the BBC World Service at ten o'clock Greenwich Mean Time" - news and then "Brain of Britain"

It was a little bit of the world out there, and I almost felt I was in touch.