Cyprus-Forum.com

[lee hayes]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1920's, 30's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70'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.

Riding in the back of a Ute/Bakkie on a warm day was always a special treat.

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 on 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 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 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 riverbeds 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 slingshots 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 tryouts 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 straps and bullies 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.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

PS -The big type is because your eyes are short at your age

[Eliko]

lee hayes, brilliant stuff mate and well done !!.

One small criticism, you forgot to mention that our fish and chips were usually wrapped in last weeks newspapers.

[zan]

Can we also remember those that did not make it due to one of those events above. Also can we pay me some respect for suffering with an Asbestos related illness for the last twenty years...Thank you.....



What this about the Tuna out of cans by the way....I use to do that all the time?????

[beverley10]

My daughter in Oz sent this to me in an e mail! Great is'nt it? trust one to miss the humour of this scribe and the truth it also contains!
Good luck with your trying for work in Cyprus,it is dog eat dog ,not easy and poorly paid if you can get it.Make sure you take enough money with you to survive at least a year so you do'nt starve!

[aidy]

What this about the Tuna out of cans by the way....I use to do that all the time?????

So you can slap it in the microwave and nuke it for a minute.

another step in the new era, will be interesting to travel in time a bit and see similar emails of how 'we' coped in the begining of the 21st century

[phoenix]

This is a classic case of "the older I get, the better I used to be".

It's unfair to the younger generation to harp on about how much better things were in the good old days.

We should just make the most of NOW.

. . . if my memory serves me well

Pip-pip
Phoenix

[Nikitas]

Lucky Sod lee Hayes,

You got a BBgun when you were 10! I had to make do with a home made slingshot (catapult for the English here). Had to wait till I was 14 to get my airgun.

And to all hygiene afficionados here I can attest that fish and chips tastes soooo much better wrapped in newspaper!