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Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 9:24 am Post Subject: To all the kids who survived the 30's 40's, 50's, 60's &
I know this has been around before but it's worthwhile remembering how things used to be....
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First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
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, 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.
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 soda pop 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. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
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 cell 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.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
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.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 814
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:31 am Post Subject:
Very good Carus. :-) Very very good.
A few additions:
Kids ate dirt and didn't use anti bacterial soap
My brothers swam naked in the creek in the middle of winter and didn't get sick
We were allowed to be at home by ourselves under the age of 13 years
We used to play at getting all the way around our house without touching any concrete, involving climbing up on the roof at several points
As a teenager I was allowed to paint the facing board around the roofline of the top story of our house, lying face forward on my belly on the slippery unpainted galvanised iron, steeply sloped, roof - at its highest point, a fall would have killed me
A kid broke his arm at our school camp - there were no parent complaints, repercussions, law suits or crackdowns
I for one certainly miss those good old days (apart from the malt extract and fluoride tablets)
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Kids ate dirt and didn't use anti bacterial soap
We used to get so filthy playing outside all day, and I mean all day from dawn to dusk, our mother used to wash us down in the old concrete laundry tubs with sandsoap and yellow sunlite soap.....ahh those were the days.
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 140
Location: Auckland, NZ
Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 2:11 pm Post Subject:
Hi All,
I remember getting a good scrubbing down in the concrete laundry tub... and yep, it was with Solvol and Sunlight! This didn't seem to give us skin allergies... { but when the skin grew back, it was tuff! ;-) }
I was always sent to primary school in shoes but as soon as I was around the corner from home, and out of view of my mother, the shoes would be off and in my schoolbag.
As kids we seemed to spend the entire summer wearing nothing but togs and would turn as brown as a nut, with a deep almost all over tan. Thirty-odd years later, skin cancer hasn't killed me yet.
I think our after school activities in boats would send many parents today into paroxysms... and perhaps quite reasonably... but we sure learned to be good swimmers!
And I particularly relate to parents siding with the law. I didn't get into much trouble with the law as a youngster, but plenty at school... And whatever punishment I got at school didn't concern me half as much as the trouble I'd be in when I got home!
Interesting comments guys and good to hear from you again Azimuth :-)
One thing that has been most noticeable to me is the driving of kids to and from school now. The mention of not being driven seems to evoke alarmed reactions from parents and students alike. For the children it is more the 'discomfort' of having to do this. Could this all be contributing to the growing lack of personal responsibility I hear about occasionally?
I remember if I was ever collected from school it was a luxury. I walked every day and in later years would take the bus into town. It certainly motivated me to become self sufficient with my own car asap, which I did at 18 years with my own money.
Here goes - more things that were done in those days when you walked everywhere and made your own fun as a kid :D
We used to walk a mile and a half along a long straight country road in the Waikato and eat ice off the frozen puddles.in winter.
We spent hours playing beside a creek having fun with the river pebbles and finding bird’s nests in the hawthorn bushes and blowing the eggs.
We loved eating “sour” young barberry shoots from the barberry hedges.
Later, when attending Avondale College we caught the train from Swanson, and after school would catch the Opua Express which arrived at 4.15 pm at Avondale and took nearly ¾ of an hour to reach Swanson and by the time I walked the mile home it was dark in the winter time, and it was just something you did .
I used to bathe our eldest son in the concrete laundry tub when he was a toddler and had been playing in the mud outside.
And, Azimuth, I used to love the Maltexo when we could afford it :)
Yes it has been a while since I have posted, not that I have been AWOL or anything, but I have quietly been reading the various threads and great posts.
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And, Azimuth, I used to love the Maltexo when we could afford it
Hi Joan,
You know it 's quite funny, as kids we absolutely hated malt but recently I purchased some from the supermarket and it was not half as bad as I recalled it to be.
I remember getting a good scrubbing down in the concrete laundry tub... and yep, it was with Solvol and Sunlight! This didn't seem to give us skin allergies... { but when the skin grew back, it was tuff! }
Very comical....ROFLMAO :lol: :lol:
Some of my best memories of my youth.........
Milk powder biscuits......
Freshwater crayfish from our local stream.......
Bob (shilling) a Job.......... (Yes I was a Boy Scout)....
Collecting tea coupons, redeemable for ten a penny as I recall.......
Saving every bit of money by collecting and selling sugar sacks of pinecones for firewood to buy my first second hand pushbike........
Buying my first second hand pushbike......I was a king......
Delivering the Herald at some ungodly hour in the morning on my second hand pushbike to save for new tyres.........
Mowing lawns (non motorized push mower) for extra cash.......
Collecting discarded beer bottles and large coke bottles (valuable currency at thruppence each return) from ditches along the roadside.........
School Savings accounts.....at a time when the state didn't plunder and pillage kids bank accounts for tax......
Ahh, and as was customary, Mums Sunday lunch roast lamb, fresh (not wrapped in polystyrene and gladwrap) from the local butcher shop complete with chopping block and sawdust on the floor........
Incidentally that same butcher shop has just closed down after 40/50 odd years due to supermarket shopping.....
When TV came on at 6pm.............watching the Amerikans save our bacon from the Red Peril in Viet Nam................on the old B&W valve TV.....
Your memories stimulate some of mine too. I grew up during the war and well remember tea and butter coupons - Bycroft biscuit tins with the picture of the boy carrying the Bycroft biscuit tin with the picture of the boy carrying the Bycroft biscuit tin.
My mother would give us each a shilling (10c) on a Saturday to go to the matinee at the local picture theatre, threepence for the bus fare (both ways), sixpence to get in to the pictures and threepence for an ice cream at half time.
We lived within sight of the upper reaches of the Waitemata Harbour very tidal with lots of mangroves and plenty of mud. We used to go swimming there on odd occasions. We'd spend hours playing in the shallow water, mud fights, water fights, and then we'd go home and be hosed down with the garden hose.
We would ride our bikes round the footpaths, doubling each other, falling off and scraping our knees and elbows. We'd clean up the tears and blood and go out for another go.
There was a grapevine growing just outside my bedroom window. It had large, black, juicy grapes which mysteriously seemed to disappear just as they got ripe. :-) :-)
My Saturday morning chore was to scrub the bare wooden bench with sandsoap and a scrubbing brush. It was used as a chopping board for just about everything - chopping the meat for the stew, carving the roast, rolling out the pastry, cutting bread, chopping herbs etc. It was constantly being washed ready for the next thing. My mother welcomed Formica when it arrived.
The milkman would deliver the milk right up to the back door. The billy would be left on the back porch and he would fill it there. The baker would deliver bread as well. He would bring several loaves in a basket covered with a cloth and we would choose the loaf we wanted.
We had no car and used to catch a bus and then a tram to get to the city. It used to take about an hour to get there, we lived in an outer suburb of the city in Waterview.
Some of my most memorable summer holidays were spent on Waiheke Island. My father was an ambulance man and was often on duty for the summer holidays. We would stay in the ambulance bach on Oneroa or Onetangi beach, right on the beach. We would literally step out onto the sand. We slept and ate there but lived on the beach. We were never bored, we'd swim, build sand castles, swim, check out the rock pools round the rocks, swim, play in the bush and build ti-tree huts, back down to the beach and swim, collect shells, swim. And we'd go home when the sun was setting.
What a fabulous post. Isn't it wonderful to let ones mind wander back to those earlier year and reminisce. Life seemed simpler then and probably was in most respects, at least as witnessed through young eyes.
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The milkman would deliver the milk right up to the back door. The billy would be left on the back porch and he would fill it there.
My Mum used to tell us similar stories and I believe where she grew up the milk was delivered by horse and cart.
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There was a grapevine growing just outside my bedroom window. It had large, black, juicy grapes which mysteriously seemed to disappear just as they got ripe.
Those darn blackbirds have always been fond of grapes... :wink:
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 814
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:53 am Post Subject:
Yes very good post Jean. My, we are beginning to sound like a bunch of old fogeys though aren't we?! :-({|=
I'm sure that wasn't Carus's intention with the original post - but it is great to hear everyone's experiences. :-)
Reading Joan's comments though ("We used to walk a mile and a half along a long straight country road in the Waikato and eat ice off the frozen puddles.in winter."), I can't resist a bit of Monty Python:
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...You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt
Collecting discarded beer bottles and large coke bottles (valuable currency at thruppence each return) from ditches along the roadside
:P Heh. We used to go on big bottle collecting expeditions with the kids across the road - we would go for miles around Manurewa collecting bottles and would redeem them up at the local dairy and divvy up the money.
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 387
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 5:54 pm Post Subject:
I'm reminded by the stuff in this excellent thread of how, when I was 2 or 3, I'd pick flattened chewing gum off the pavement and eat it - much to my mother's horror when she caught me at it. From the research I've read on the subject, I now believe that it is a natural urge for young children to eat dirt and, in fact, it's a very important requirement. It seems that such concentrated exposure to bacteria etc 'kick starts' the immune system. Those children who are prevented from satisfying this urge are thus disadvantaged and are most likely to suffer from immunodeficiency conditions, Asthma, Allergies etc.
An example:
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"We are at a point where we know our original ideas -- that germs were bad and dogs were bad for allergies -- were oversimplified and not correct," said Dr. Marshall Plaut of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases. But, he said, "we don't know the right balance between bacterial exposure being harmful and bacterial exposure being beneficial."
What they suspect is that, by purging our environment of many germs and microbes, we've deprived our immune systems of the chance to recognize them as a natural part of the environment. When we do encounter such substances, in the form of bacteria, viruses, fungi, along with pet dander, dust, pollen and similar irritants, our bodies overreact. We wheeze and sneeze. Asthma rates have soared in the last 20 years. Not only has the lung disorder become one of the most common diseases of childhood, it's become increasingly fatal. At the same time, autoimmune illnesses such as Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease (a painful inflammation of the intestines) are all the rise.
I also have a feeling that the depression of the body's natural defences also make an individual more susceptible to food poisoning in particular. I note, for example, that food poisoning incidences in the UK have increased by seven times to a figure of approximately one million cases a year. In the USA where the focus on hygiene and creating sterile environments reached hysterical levels, 266 million Americans suffer from food poisoning every year, according to an official of the Centre for Disease Control.
Another interesting fact about dirt; apparently it contains enough nutrients etc to keep a person alive if food is not available. Anyone like to try it?
Interesting to hear all the memories that this topic has evoked. I actually passed this original piece by email to Carus...I don't think she ever expected such a response.
It's made me think about my childhood growing up in Auckland. One of my memories being allowed to stay up until Midnight to listen to the radio to hear the New Year come in when I was about 6 years and all the boats at Auckland wharf that would blow their horns. There were fireworks and lots of noise plus the tolling at midnight of the town clock, the church bells ringing in the New Year.
My grandparents used to have evenings playing the card game 500, betting with dried haricot beans. They used to have lots of laughs, no alcohol that I can remember but lots of fun.
My best memory of all was of my family and friends gathered around the piano in the parlour having wonderful sing songs. Those were the days...
