Anyone over 50

joanlawson

Hi

Anyone over 50 will remember some of this.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.

After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark.

No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet.

We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played on swings and roundabouts, we fell off them and it hurt, so it made us more careful.

We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no lawsuit

We walked to friends' homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.

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

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and 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're one of them. Congratulations!

Joan

snowball

I'm 42 Joan and I remember all of them. Oh I loved playing outside, in the park, some great memories

Julie

valval

49 and we did not get much fizzy pop to poor but dad did fetch us a willky way when he fetched his star on a thursday (pay day) what a treat.
we took bottles of water out with us wandered miles had some sandwiches made dens got messed up and bathed lol but grew strong and true.( it just now things going wrong).
there was always some one out and about if not you played hop scotch or clackers till they came out did not matter what school they went to they lived near you so you paled about even going to the open air swimming pool together.
it was simple you learnt and got great memoires. i am glad to say fetched my lads up like this and my nephew and nice are the same she just fell off climbing frame(was racing accross it) she broke her arm but she fit and healthy . i do think there to many cars to day and dangerouse drivers there were a lot less when we were kids that for sure you were lucky to have one car two was never heard of val

frogmorton

Not 50 either
BUT

I too remember a childhood far more like this

Clips round the ears and the like.

Things were just as dangerous - as many child abductions as we have today - no less - but we know about them now courtesy of the media so fear for our kids more.

biggest danger has to be coronary heart disease form lack of exercise :roll:

Love

Toni xx

janie68

Joan

I'm 38 and can remember doing almost all the things you wrote down, I was all day be back for tea. I used to take the pop bottles back to the shop and you would get some money for them. I would gp to the spar aged 8 & get some pots, bread, milk etc for my Mum. We didn't worry about sunburn, remember when wearing seatbelts in the back became law.

Janie

dreamdaisy

Many of today's generation of children are too spoiled, too coddled, too protected, too selfish, too lazy, too cossetted, over -praised for every minor achievement, rarely hear the word 'No' voiced with any threat of punishment, have no limits or boundaries on what they watch on TV or do on a computer. What sort of adults will they become? And what sort of children will they breed?

You learn through failure, disappointment and difficulty in one's childhood, as children of our generation did via the freedoms they had. This prepares you for adult life. I have always been of the opinion that life goes catastrophically wrong when you leave the pushchair, because then you have to grow up, you have to start taking responsibility for your actions and their consequences, you have to develop. Now we have sizeable part of our society that basically refuses to do any of this.

I loathed my childhood and I'm glad it's done. It certainly, however, prepared me for now, so I suppose that's a good thing! Today's children are missing SO much. They know the cost of everything, and the value of nothing. Their lives fall apart if the computer fails, or the telly won't work. Diddums. DD

ninakang

Joan

When you mentioned walking to school, you forgot the part about having to walk 10 miles there and back in the freezing snow, sleet and rain in short trousers with no shoes on because you couldn't afford shoes and, anyway, it hardened your feet to go without. :P

I remember all these and I'm 33 (well, not the part about food rationing, obviously). I also remember when pounds coins came in to replace the old notes. And the new 5p pieces. so I'm not that young.

Have said it before - life was simpler back then. Most parents solved their kids problems with a clip round the ear and a rallying "Just get on with it". Did it do us any harm?

Nx

jordan7j

Hi Joan, yes I remember it all clearly!!! We just got on with it and that was that.
My kids went off out for the day too, well, the boys anyway!!! just took drink and a sandwich etc and were very happy and tired when arriving home that evening. No phone call, we didnt have a phone, they just got on with it as I had. It was a much safer world, and kids didnt expect much either. Nowadays its all about how much you can spend on your kids party/b day etc to beat the next door family!!

ichabod6

So how come that generation produced the misfits
of todays nanny state?

auntyphyl

ichabod6 wrote:

So how come that generation produced the misfits
Theof todays nanny state?

The main problem is that children always had rights but do gooders decided to tell them.

only49

when you stop and think dont that just make you relise how much things changed and not for the good either thats for sure, i rememer making mud pies, and a thing like a tube and you waved it around and made some funny sounds, and something i think used to be called clackers, they were 2 balls on a string or rope and you moved them up and down and clacked together, i think we were happy, i can still remeber to this day we didnt dare step out of line otherwise our dad would give us grief.

whats gone wrong

joanlawson

ichabod6 wrote:

So how come that generation produced the misfits
of todays nanny state?

That's an interesting question, Ichabod.

In many ways, I think things started to go downhill in the sixties with the emergence of the permissive society. This was a reaction against the austerity and oppression of the post-war decade. Suddenly, there were so many changes in society, not all for the good. They led to the demise of religion, and the demise of traditional family life.

I wouldn't like to return to the 1950s, but maybe things have gone too far now. Perhaps we are seeing the wreckage of the permissive society.

Ooh dear, I sound like Mary Whitehouse :!: :roll:

ninakang

Blimey Joan, I was expecting you to end your post with "Sit up! Walkies!"

Nx

joanlawson

ninakang wrote:

Blimey Joan, I was expecting you to end your post with "Sit up! Walkies!"

Nx

Wasn't that Barbara Woodhouse, not Mary Whitehouse :?: Come to think of it, they were similar in many ways :!:

suncatcher

My childhood was like that but im not fifty. Im forty this year.

ninakang

Oh yeah - I thought there was something not quite right with that

Nx

dreamdaisy

Joanlawson, I think you've nailed it. There was a rebellion against the rigours of the 50s, followed by the development of the Pill in the early 60s, which freed women from the 'risk' of an unplanned pregnancy, which meant we could behave more like the boys (should we choose to) which in turn led to a huge drop in self-respect and moral standards, there has been a general breakdown in the family structure due to multiple partners and the increasing mobility of people (ie it is rare, nowadays, for a person to remain in one place all their lives) and the benefits culture is in full flood.

I live in a road which is one of the main routes in and out of town. Saturday nights are characterised by hordes of young girls/women, swanning into town for a night out, dressed in virtually nothing then straggling back in small groups in the small hours of the morning, usually barefoot, shouting, fighting, vomiting, passing out. They do not appear to have any sense of shame. Yes, I've wobbled home once or twice in my time, but always very, very quietly! We need to restore self-respect, as well as respect for others into our society. Dunno how to go about that, though. DD

dachshund

Hi Joan.
i remember when i was little we could not ask for anything if we did we did'nt get anything.
we could not answer back or leave the table till
everyone had finished.
we played in the garden and made mud pies.
and we were frightened of policemen.
was arther around then my gran sat in the chair
we were just told she was old.
we are 68 now and we are so glad we were born when we were.
joan xx

dachshund

Hi Babycham
yes we were and you could not have a pudding
we had a horse called babycham she was lovely.
joan xx

auntyphyl

We always had a sunday dinner after going to sunday school, no chips or baked beans a proper lunch. Sunday afternoon there used to be a film on t.v. (black & white). If we children did,nt watch we could play in the parlour till tea when my uncle and cousins would come for tea, usually salad and cold meats bread and butter followed by trifle or jelly and fruit. I am 57 so this would be late fifties early sixties, wonderful times.

trisher

I remember when I was younger we were afraid if a policeman was coming our way although we did nothing bad but we were afraid.

We also were afraid of the teachers and some of our class played up she threatend telling your parents everyone was scared.

I think Kids get a lot of things today, without earning it or teaching them the value of money.

My sons were bought up that our home is where we all lived and it should be respected.

My sons got pocket money, If they wanted something then they did chores and earned money so they could buy what they wanted. This gave them the idea that things don't grow on trees.

My sons turned out to be good lads both worked hard at school. They made us proud of them.

dreamdaisy

I was brought up with discipline, respect for others and the law, and structure. The discipline was overt and punishments were acted upon, respect was an on-going lesson and the structure was more subtle in that each day had a routine, week-ends were slightly different, but there was a constant running through, me and my parents and relatives.

Discipline is now left by many for schools to impose: I remember hearing a past neighbour (a 4 x 4) saying to her youngest who was running riot 'Thank God you start school soon, they'll get some discipline into you.' Schools are there to educate, they are not substitute parents. I hear parents weakly saying 'No' to children, threatening some punishment but not acting on it, respect for others is almost non-existent in some areas, respect for the law? A toothless, puny thing now. What is there to fear is you commit a crime? Prison is cushy, but for many it's the only home/structure they have known. What an inditement (sp?) on society.

Families sprawl nowadays, don't they? The children of the 4 x 4 next door knew none of their grandparents, it was just too complicated! The social suppport network of cousins, aunts, grandparents is increasingly rare, so social services have to step in. For some, it doesn't occur to them that they should be looking after their offspring, but they are quick to complain if the social does something they don't like. You breed 'em, you look after 'em. Of course there are those who genuinely need help, and it should be given, but many more just leech of the system.

Society and its mores have changed too fast for the people within that society to cope. That's the essential problem. DD