For the matured members

[MICKYG]

Born in the 20's thru 50's.


CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1920's, 30's 40's,and 50's, First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, 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 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 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, Steers, Nandos, Red Rooster, Wendy's. Subway.
Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open at the weekends, 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 fruit tingles, Chappies, Wilson's Toffees, Vicks Bubble Gum and some crackers to blow up frogs with.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter 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 before it got dark.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

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. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

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 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.......no really!
And in December, there was only one festive holiday....... CHRISTMAS ......
and everyone wished each other MERRY CHRISTMAS! and NOT.... HAPPY HOLIDAYS..... take it or leave it!

We were given BB guns and sling shots for our 10th birthdays.

We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic testing at Maralinga in 1956.

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!
RUGBY and CRICKET had trials and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT AND NOT DUE TO BLACKMAIL, THREATS AND GUILT FROM THE PAST...... strange but true!

Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather staps and bully's always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Our parents got married before they had children and didn't invent stupid names for their kids like "Kiora" and "Blade" and "Ridge" and "Vanilla"

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 70 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!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore

Regards Mike

[les88]

Born in the 20's thru 50's.


CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1920's, 30's 40's,and 50's, First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked

Regards Mike

Mike I was born 9 years before you at the end of the great depression and before world war 2 kicked off. None of my friends mothers smoked in fact I can't remember any ladies smoking, maybe they did it on the quite. Diabetes was a subject that the doctors new very little about. When my uncles came to visit at the end of the war they would bring a large box of chocolates for Mum, she had diabetes and didn't know and the doctors took years to realize it. She was in hospital for months at a time trying to be stabilized. By this time the damage was done so they had to removed her legs. You forgot the dripping pot. All the fat and gravy was poured into the pot, on our bread we spread this mixture with lashings of salt.
les

[rrich]

And after second grade (year) we WALKED to school. (Ya know, that's where you put one foot in front of the other.) Our mothers would walk with us to school for the first half of third grade to teach us how to cross streets safely.

Go to the middle of the block (Between intersections with traffic lights) and step into the street between the parked cars. (OZ version) Peek out from between the parked cars. Look to the right and when there were no cars, hurry out to the center of the street and stand on the center line. Look to the left and when there were no cars, hurry to the other side of the street. (It was Brooklyn, New York. What can I say?) You can't imagine the H*** I catch for crossing streets like that today in the Los Angeles area.

My father demanded to know if the school needed to administer physical punishment so that I could get more than my fair share when he got home.

The school personnel were ALWAYS right and I was ALWAYS wrong. Nope, it didn't matter what, I was ALWAYS wrong.

There were but two things that I was allowed to say to a police officer, "Yes Sir" and "No Sir".

I can not remember the number of times that I was told, "If YOU have the money, go ahead and buy it."

Yes, I did have my mouth washed out with soap, JUST ONCE.

Being allowed to use the car for any reason was an event similar to gettng a bicycle on my sixth birthday. Yes it was a big deal and it required quite a bit of chores and grovelling.

And July 4, 1960 was truely Independence Day!

[dai sensei]

I may not be as old as you Mike, but I to remember growing up as you describe. I also remember going camping with my family and eating what we caught or going hungry. We caught worms and pippis in the surf for bait so we could fish all day. We also shot rabbits for our dinner, and come the no moon, caught prawns in the river mouth.

I have tried to continue the traditions with my kids, but the farms where I used to shoot are now all subdivisions. The kids go with me worming, fishing and prawning, but don't really enjoy it as much as I did as a kid as they don't catch as much any more. It takes too long and involved too much effort. They much refer to just buy their meals all prepared and cooked for them. Too much money and not enough sense I say. They do know how to though, so maybe one day they will pass it on to their kids.

[wheelinround]

You forgot the dripping pot. All the fat and gravy was poured into the pot, on our bread we spread this mixture with lashings of salt.
les

Bread & Dripping yum still have it occassionaly drop the bread in the bottom of the roasting pan any roast just leave off the salt.

The dripping pot also was used for chips, scollops, fried pinapple & prawns cuttlets

Ray

[Bob38S]

Is this what people refer to as the good old daze?

Yep, bring it on for I too am a child of this generation.

We learned early on to take responsibility for our own actions as well.

Besides this, we would also lend a helping hand to those who needed it without expecting a reward for it.

[astrid]

I was born at the end of the 50's
sure we had more freedom to run around and play.
but i think the bad stuff outweighs the good.
It was "normal" for many parents to physically abuse their kids, or lock them in cuboards.
Mad or at least unstable teachers allowed to abuse their power over powerless children.
overcrowded classrooms, being forced to drink that discusting half sour milk.
School dinner consisting of lumps of beef fat and chunky custard.
Measles, polio,diptheria.
check out the cemetaries and that graves of children under 12.
unreported child molestation, or worse, blaming the child

you can say this never hurt me, but some of us were luckier than others.
I know many many people in their late 40's and 50's permenantly damaged
by their childhood experience.
these things still happen somtimes But its not concidered normal and good folk are more likly to report rather than keep silent.
This is a good thing

[munruben]

Were those the days when we didn't need counseling and people managed to solve their own problems? I was going to have a slice of bread and dripping but I am sure someone said "it wasn't good for me"
I remember when our family didn't have television and a radio was called a wireless. An OXO cube in hot water with bread was lunch. I remember being taken down to the air raid shelter when the sirens sounded and being scared when I heard the sound of enemy aircraft overhead and the noise of the bombs dropping.

There are a lot of good things I miss about the good old days but there was bad things too and I hope we have made his world of ours a better place for our children to live in. I just think we have gone overboard with some of our ideas and I hate to think what the world will be like in years to come. Some of the young ones of today will one day tell their children " I remember the time when we could use all the water we wanted " Is that progress? I guess thats another story.

[astrid]

I think we do overprotect our kids and make them a bit lazy in the process.
but what we are protecting them from are the things that our generation caused.
too much traffic on the roads for them to ride their bikes.
internet sites (backing money came from the boomers).

on the otherhand its harder to do bad things in secret.
look at the info that comes out of burma and china or the US because of mobile phones satalites and the internet.

its up to people to balence this with being aware, active and teaching basic good manners.

thats where us older ones come in.

Astrid

[wheelinround]

A time when children where sen but not heard

If it wasn't for our age our children of today wouldn't have such as electric household items

Dishwashers, Toasters, TV's, CD's, DVD's, Car's battery operated gadgets, tooth brushes, skate boards who'd ever thought you could make millions ridding one of those.

Things that have come and gone a few times over
skate boards, pogo sticks, Yo Yo's, BB guns air rifles to UK & AU,

Yes our generation created them built them and now use them trouble is the world over is struggling to find people to continue to make them, to sweep the floors and all types of menial tasks.

Everyone wants the $$$$$ sum

What worries me most is
Children are having the imaginations stolen from them
Not being taught to be responsible for their own actions
If its not in a text book and not written down it can't be done
Not to question to seek answers but just do it believe
If its broken it can not be fixed

[MICKYG]

I do not know if we have gone from better to worse when you weigh up the pros and cons. Its nice to see the diseases like Polio and many others have been conquered.
There are quite a few things which have come and gone. Do you remember Sputnik which you could see in the sky as a travelling light October 1957 ? When was the last time you saw a child playing Marbles? I do remember having Dripping on bread IE; fried in the pan. I recall following the trams on a push bike and hanging on to the rail at the rear in Sydney. I recall Ball bearing billy Carts made from roller bearings that the mechanic would save for you if you asked. ( I grew up in Balmain to about age eight )

These things were lethal worse than the ones in the Ginger Meggs comics. I watched man land on the Moon on tele. We have seen quite a few useless wars, Lots of new ideas. I do remember well the days before television when all information came by Radio, before Computers became popular I had a Commodore 64, Microbee and of course TRS 80 (tandy) and attribute these to having a family of two commputer literate kids. Loved that free Milk given out at all Schools. I when I was very young worked on properties along the Nepean river (Castlereagh) area on various dairys and lucerne farms. I am surprised that on Google earth all the farms have gone, there are quite a few factories where I farmed to grow crops, and the whole strip has been exploited for the Blue Metal which was under the farming areas. A man made "MESS" pawned of as a man made Lake.

This could go on for a very long time, reminiscing and all, great stuff

Regards for now Mike.

[wheelinround]

Mike that Celtic cafe in Glenn Innes is tops bubble n squeak traditional Cornish pasties, pies etc all cooked in lard or with lard

[ptc]

Memories!

[jerryc]

Oh dear!

Firs sign of ageing when you say "Do you remember?"

The memory brigade sounds a bit like Monty Python. "Living in a cardboard box? Eh lad that were luxury. We only had a matchbox and there were seven of us."

We learn by past mistakes (we hope) and try not to make them again.

Jerry

Everyone is entitled to my opinion

[watson]

I was born in 1942.......loved growing up then.........street cricket in the summer till dark( including mum's & dads)......chasey.......hide & seek...........loved bread & dripping......loved bubble & squeak cooked with lard...........but they were actually treats then......we didn't live on them everyday.......far better than the "lite" stuff we can buy today (doesn't 95% fat free mean that its got 5% fat in it??).
No Negatives......nobody abused me (except Mr Higgins next door once told me to "bugger off").
People that see dark things in that "free" time have a really negative outlook on life and the world.
That....my freinds ....will cost you all two cents. (or Tuppence)