Life As It Used To Be

[albannachxcuileag]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

 

 

1950's, 60's, 70's ! !

 

First off, 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, processed meat, canned corned beef from Argentina, 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 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. Riding in the back of a pick up 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, Abrakebabra or 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 bottle of real Coke with four friends and NO ONE actually died from this.

 

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Lucky Bags, Cowan's Toffees, Joe Bazooka Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with.

We ate cupcakes, white bread with crusts 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 river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on SkyTV, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........

WE HAD REAL 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!

 

We were given pellet 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!

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 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 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 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!

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 so good at your age anymore!

[agbff]

I was born in 89 and i still eat worm mud pies?

[pisces]

AHH THE GOOD OLD DAYS !!! BORN 1945!!! looking back life was good then wasn't it !!!

[reevesr1]

OK, you guys got CATAPULTS? For real? Did you like launch big ass boulders with them at marauding Frenchmen (or Englishmen)?

[Weedy1]

Abrakebabra? You guys were spoiled!

[Taco]

I shot my cousin in the ass with a pellet gun once just to check his reaction... all I can say is that he almost achieved escape velocity and lucky he was wearin' a pair of fairly new jeans. I'm not quite sure that he has ever forgiven me although he later became a lawyer and now makes a livin' suin' people. I sometimes lay awake @ night and wonder about that but not often.

[reevesr1]

When I was a kid, we used to have bb gun wars. I think we allowed 2 pumps, no shooting above the waist. Until we stole enough grinding masks from my dad. Then it was full out conflict, shoot 'em anywhere. Good times.

 

On the negative side, my friend accidentally shot his little brother in the eye with a pellet gun. Lost the eye. Though it was not during a bb gun war, they were effectively ended on that day.

[Weedy1]

When I was a kid, we used to have bb gun wars. I think we allowed 2 pumps, no shooting above the waist. Until we stole enough grinding masks from my dad. Then it was full out conflict, shoot 'em anywhere. Good times.

You sure you didn't grow up on the south side of Edmonton? Your story sounds very familiar only we used hockey gear, ran around the bush and would get chased by the cops periodically. We were real gangsters, not like these wanna be kids nowadays.

 

On the positive side, my older brother shot me in the head with pellet gun when I was 14. That was the day the beatings begun.

[dryfly]

I lived in Edmonchuk for 13 years between grade 3 and finishing at the U. (1955-1968.) When I was about 12, we made gunpowder (carbon, sulfur and saltpeter) in the backyard and burned it. We made a gun with plumbing pipe and the big fire crackers that would shoot a marble into a tree and through ½-inch plywood!! We shot BB guns in the backyard and in the Mill Creek ravine. In junior high, we'd openly walked with our BB guns over to the ravine. In high school, we walked to the ravine with 22s for heaven's sake and no one said boo. This was in the city!! I killed a rabbit with my bow and arrow in Mill Creek when I was about 13 or 14 and carried it home along 76 avenue...my mother thought that was great!!

 

We'd be arrested today for all of this stuff. Schools would be locked down. We'd get counseling and probably "do time" for heaven's sake.

 

No one lost an eye. We were not arrested.

 

Gee ... maybe we shoulda been arrested.

[SanJuanWorm]

Clive did you hang with Jesus back in the day?

[darrinhurst]

I shot my cousin in the ass with a pellet gun once just to check his reaction... all I can say is that he almost achieved escape velocity and lucky he was wearin' a pair of fairly new jeans. I'm not quite sure that he has ever forgiven me although he later became a lawyer and now makes a livin' suin' people. I sometimes lay awake @ night and wonder about that but not often.

 

My brother shot me in the face with a pellet gun once. Hit me in the cheek. Hip shot too. Didn't know it was loaded, thought he was dry firing. Impressive shot, but I was NOT impressed. Hurt like a :$*%&:

[Gil]

Born in 1963. One of my earliest memories (I think 4) was fishing with a hand cut rod for brook trout with my cousin and sisters in NewBruinswick. We would spend hours in the woods with no adults just playing and fishing. Had an amasing time. Probably is what started my obsession....

[snakeman]

That's funny and sadly rings true.

I grew up in the 90's and was lucky enough to find friends who, like me, had no interest in video games, and we would spend all our free time playing ball and ice hockey, throwing a football, chasing frogs and other critters, playing soccer, fishing and swimming, toboganning, etc. We were always playing out in the street, or at local fields and parks. Today the streets are empty as kids are inside with video games, tv shows like 'the OC' and 'the hills' and other MTV bullshit, only wandering outside when they are drunk and looking for trouble or looking for a concealed place to smoke weed.

[Nick0Danger]

The outdoor rinks are not half a busy as when i was a kid. We used to swim in the river, and go "river boarding" Shoot each other with slingshots, and ran around bowness park. Not once did we ever get told not to.

[PGK]

.

[bloom]

In high school we use to dress up in a few layers of clothes, put on safety glasses and then sneak into parks late at night with pellet guns. The best ones were those by the river that were mostly forests and had very little lighting. Getting shot didn't hurt that much but someone always got hurt... but it always from the running away, diving into the bush, or it just being too dark out. One of the best was when I was chasing a buddy and he didn't see the deadfall that was lying 6' above the ground. Knocked him on his back...first time I'd ever seen a concussion.

[cheeler]

Pellet gun wars were the best! One time a ranger caught me and a few buddies out in the middle of the bush, dressed head to toe in hockey gear and safety glasses (thinking they would actually stop a pellet), and since he didn't know what he could charge us with, he just let us go with a warning.

 

Getting shot in the back of the head really does hurt, though.

[Jayhad]

I still have pellet guns fights..... but it is called airsoft and not the "soft air" stuff from walmart

this is a store in calgary

http://www.007airsoft.com

[Castuserraticus]

Born (1961) and raised in N Alta on the north bank of the Peace. My brother and I had slingshots - Dad showed us how to make them - and bow and arrows before graduating to .22's when we each hit 12. We were free to travel to wherever our particular transportation mode would take us. We all had our own vehicles prior to 16. Everyone had a gun rack in the back window of their truck year round. We hunted, fished, tried some trapping, ski-doo'd, motorbiked, and had full access to the axe and other sharp tools - even at the school. Our playground was the forest behind our house and, essentially, the whole community. Nobody got seriously hurt. We all carried pocket knives. The tools and weapons were part of life and we were taught to respect them. Kids now are taught to fear and avoid them.