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On Christmas morning, the streets are likely to be devoid of children because they'll be playing, conversing etc on PC's and games machines. Such a change in a relatively short space of time ......
Born 1930-1970?
First, we survived being born to mothers who likely smoked and/or drank Sherry while they carried us, and lived in houses made with asbestos...
Parents 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 6.00pm 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 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, 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, scrumped apples, and there were no Lawsuits from these incidents.
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!
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, or were being disruptive ..
We can string sentences together and spell and have proper conversations because of a good, solid three R's education.
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.
(With thanks to unknown author, though a few changes made ) :-D
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All so true, and back to your first sentence, I used to love Christmas morning when children would be out in the road parading their new bike, or dolls pram or scooter or whatever they had, probably wearing their new scarves, hats and gloves to show those off too. Life was much simpler then.
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Thanks MrDaff
For bringing back all those lovely memories of years ago.
Xmas was really magical back then. Only lovely presents for birthdays and xmas.The rest of the year we got good shoes on our feet, clean clothes and good plain food.
One big prezzy xmas morning and a long sock filled with orange. a few nuts and sweets. I used to drag mine around for hours.
Imagine the kids today getting just that.
Think we had much more fun than the kids do today and can remember never saying
" I'm bored " !!!!!!!!
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When did children start getting presents costing hundreds? Mine certainly didn't in the 60s/70s and neither did my daughter's children in the 90s, but son's children who are younger have had some big presents, late 90s and 2000s
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Am I just being an old misery because I think it is absolutely ridiculous the amount spent on kids today. What does it teach them. That they can have anything they want and it seems to be all year round. The amount of people who go into debt to give the kids everything going.
I read somewhere that schools are trying to teach kids money management, a subject that should be taught by the parents. But there again a lot of parents cant manage their affairs
Please dont shout and holler at me cause its the season to be cheerful and this is only my opinion. It worked for me and its working for mine
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it's all far too materialistic - kids don't remember material things as much as "time" spent with them - they don't care about fancy houses and plush furniture - a warm cosy home with good parents and enough food to eat - that's what really matters
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The reason children didnt get prsents costing £100ossssss,because toys didnt cost that much,,,,also the gadgets of today wasnt around,I wonder if they were, would we have got what the children do today?
possiblity we would have,
I supose our grandparents thought to get a new dolls pram plus the doll.! was outlandish and said --------they must be made of money.!! all I got was a home made rag doll and puled it round in an old wooden box without wheels, and we were lucky to get rabbit or a pigs trotter for christams dinner,,,,,,
just chances of the times bring a whole set of comparisons of tim gone by....changes in recent years I think have created--I want attitude......
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