Can I go out and play please mummy....

[Tim Mackey]

  TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 50's,60's and 70's !!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cots covered in 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, not to
mention the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose, NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle
and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank lemonade made with sugar, but we were not 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 O.K.

We would spend hours building our Go-Carts out of old prams and scrap and then ride down the biggest hills, only to find out
we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes and trees a few times we learned to solve the problem!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels Cable, Video movies or DVD, No surround sound , CD's or I PODS, no cell phones, no personal computers, no internet or chat rooms............

WE HAD FRIENDS and went outside to find them !

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays!

 

We made up games with sharp arrows and bows made from trees, we played with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not actually “put out any-ones eyes” !!

We rode our bikes or walked to a friends house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them !

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

THESE GENERATIONS HAVE PRODUCED SOME OF THE BEST RISK TAKERS, PROBLEM SOLVERS AND INVENTORS EVER !
The past 50 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 !

If 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 so much of our lives “for our own good”.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were !!

[Always broke]

Spot on . Thats how it was and how it should be now. Great thoughts Timbo.

God I did have some fun. That brought back some great memories.

[Tim Mackey]

PS, should have said..... I posted this as an aside to the thread on "flying alone" should it be allowed, apologies to those who have already seen it , I think I may have posted it before, - and its not mine originally, TBH I cant remember where I picked it up.

Edited By Timbo - Administrator on 13/12/2009 10:35:44

[Tim Mackey]

Its a cracker huh Always broke

[Peter Miller]

AND HOW!!!

 

I still have a scar from one of those go carts.

[simon barr]

Yeah, you're dead right, Timbo. I also did all these things and survived....

[Bruce Richards]

A men to that. I try to give my son those same freedoms but the world is different. Those Xboxes, Nintendos and 150 channels of TV do exist and you can go to prison for carying a knife. We are lucky that we do not ive in a big town or city so ther is room to shoot BB guns and buid camps etc without upsetting other people.

[Brian Parker]

 

I have vivid memories of a joint ‘parachute jump’ from a barn hayloft using parachutes made from blackout curtains.
The ‘chutes didn’t work...more like free fall.

 We walked (limped) away to play another day.

[Klippy]

I still have the scar on my knee when a large rock was dislodged by my 'friend' above when we were trying to find Kittywake eggs. Those were the days. If you told your parents that the local copper had clipped you round the ear, you got another one! Because you must have deserved it!

[001]

Absolutely spot on, Tim.

 

 We used to climb tall trees without safety harnesses and headware (not concrete indoor climbing walls). We also used to go out in the snow EVERY winter and toboggan down the farmers field and make ice slides in the playground.

 

 And I used to cycle hundreds of miles every week, on my own, without  a 'crash' helmet or flashing lights and I used to have a big yellow cape for when it rained. etc. etc.

(The only thing we did do that was really dangerous was to walk across frozen ponds and that is not to be reccommended).

Now, my 9 year old grandaughter has a mobile phone but never goes anywhere on her own anyway. (Peer pressure).

There were also very few fat people under the age of 60 in the 1950's. Two of my uncles were obese, but they spent every night in the pub.

Our weekly groceries arrived in a small cardboard box, we never had crisps, fizzy drinks, sweets, exotic sauces, alcohol or snacks. Just fresh bread, dairy produce, cereals, meat, veg. etc. (No advice from the government on diet needed).

 

I honestly think that what is needed now is a Ministry of Common Sense.

 

[Mark Lubbock]

We are all quite clearly lucky to be alive!!

Not because we should have killed ouselves, but I  think we are the last generation to have actually enjoyed ourselves?

[Pete D]

I certainly agree with the the above.  As a kid after playing with my control line in a public park we would go and play with the water cooled German machine gun a mate had in his barn.  I suppose it was a good thing that the 2 boxes of ammo he had were dummy practice rounds. 

 We used to go into the tunnels and one day brought out a kit to change the barrel of a flak gun plus five rounds in a clip which we proceeded to throw at the wall.

 How we survived with all the detrius of the occupation around us I do not know but we did and learned about risk especially the mate who got twelve strokes of the birch for shooting crows with his schmeisser.   They confiscated it into the bargain.

 Sadly a couple of kids did get killed in one of the tunnels supposedly opening a canister of poison gas but they should have known better, presumably they did not see or understand the skull and crossbone signs.  The other kids around at the time certainly took note. 

 I certainly liked to go down the steep hill on my go cart but I did have a Wermacht tin hat as a crash helmet and only seemed to get scratches stings and a few bruises for my trouble.

 I am waiting for some bright spark to sue his local authority or school for not allowing him to learn about risk by being too health and safety consious.  It'll have to come.

 

Happy christmas and a good new year to all and long live rthose memories.

 

Peye D.

[simon barr]

If you've still got that machine gun Pete, can I borrow it for the magpies please...? 

[Pete B]

With a post like that, Pete D, I'm absolutely busting a gut to know just where you did your growing up? 'water cooled German machine gun';'Flak gun';'schmeisser';'canister of poison gas';'Wehrmacht tin hat'.................wow!!!

  

Pete

[Tim Mackey]

Brixton?

[Peter Gallivan]

Timbo, spot on, I see so much of my childhood in what you say and get more and more frustrated by the current trend towards Health and Safety overload.

I know things change, but like you, I am so pleased that I grew up in a time when I could make my own mistakes,learn from them and have fun!!!!

 

Peter

 

[Stratocruiser]

And we didn't see this on jars " Warning, this peanut butter was made in a factory that handles nuts, and it may contain traces of peanuts" We never wore helmets on a motorcycle, let alone a bicycle. And petrol was 1 shilling and 10 pence a gallon, the lead was free.

Edited By Stratocruiser on 13/12/2009 11:08:21

[Peter Miller]

I did a lot of my growing up in the mountains in the centre of Argentina.

 

Playing cowboys and indians in the rocks and scrub. Plenty of poisonous snakes etc. Cactus thorns are really nasty.Out until dark.  No one died.

[birdy]

Not being of the 50', 60' or 70' vintage I agree. I the local park there was a very tall tree. When I was younger I would climb this tree up to the point where It swayed In the wind. And I didn't kill my self once! But alas, then the health and safety police came and cut it down due to "the risk of a young child induring themselves."

I also never killed myself climbing on the roof of my house, or climbing over a fence that had spikes on it. Or free climbing. Or standing near the within 20 meters of the edge of a cliff.

In fact I have never even beem to hospital due to anything I did when I was younger, but yes, I have to agree, that life must have been a damn sight better when people didn't object to you sword fighting on tramaleens with out a near by ambulence, eye protection, pads, and net to stop you falling off.

[Ultymate]

Man cannot survive on nostalgia alone, yes I grew up in the fifties sixties and seventies and like you've all said loved the the freedom that went with those days but there are two sides to every coin. A dear friend of mine was crippled by polio, we had things like scarlet fever diptheria and many other things that have now thankfully been consigned to the history books.

        Also things have changed these days we have "people" loitering outside primary schools trying to sell drugs to the kids as they come and go and allsorts wandering the streets be they electronically tagged or probationists or worse. Yes we are bogged down in red tape health and safety but sometimes just take off your rose tinted glasses before looking back with too much longing. Enjoy what you've got

[001]

I think we all agree about the medical advances over the last few years.

 As for crime, it seems to me that if prisons were much harsher, drugs and mobile phones kept out of prison and sentences much longer with corporal punishment or prison normal for young offenders rather than joke 'community orders' etc. Then the streets would be safer.

[ken anderson.]

touch of the victor meldrew's creeping in(reading between the lines)...life is what we make it be you 5 year old or 75 year old.....i would rather put up with the red tape stuff than have somebody standing at the side of me with a gun pointed at me heed........

 

sorry for the geordie stuff...ken anderson........

[Romeo Whisky]

Re one of the above comments  ....  The LAST thing we need is a new Ministry of anything!!!

 

I think the best way to keep sane in this crazy modern world is to keep reminding yourself that the world is run by mad people.

 

Politicians and Public Servants are so busy covering their bums that they've completely given up thinking because they feel it is highly dangerous.  The Rule Book has replaced the brain everywhere.  There is just precious little intelligent life in the corridors of power any more, even at lower levels. 

 

But don't let it get to you - you can't fight it.   Let's just keep up our regular doses of aviation therapy and try to ignore the crass stupidity that now permeates all forms and levels of government from Brussels to the local Town Hall.

[ken anderson.]

to all who have joined 'timbo's' club-as in his posting..before you jump off the nearest bridge etc...........watch a film called 'it's a wonderfull life' this will bring thing's back into perspective.............and you will be alot happier..

 

 from a lad who used to get sent to play outside with home made pant's on............

 

       ken anderson..............

 

the best way to look at thing's is....think of yourself as a cog in a well oiled machine surrounded by nut's...................

[Simon N]

Blinkin' eck Timbo  ....  I could have written this post !! 

 

Me and my sister were talking about this very subject to her two kids recently, and they couldn't believe the fun we used to have growing up in the 60's and 70's.

 

I feel sorry for today's young 'uns as they are missing out on so much ....  they might have more "stuff" than we could have imagined, but I think we were far more blessed in so many ways.

 

As for enjoying what we've got  .....  is it really that much better now ?  

 

Hmmm  .....  I wonder ?  

 

Simon.