Good Old Days!!

This is one of the forwards I received today. I enjoyed it. In fact as the author commented, I had a faint smile when I was going through it; but decided not to forward it. The best of my friends read my blog and rather than forwarding this to them, it is ideal that they read it here. Hence the post.

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids
in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived,
because
our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint,
which
was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on
medicine
bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play
with pans.
When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and
fluorescent
'spokey dokeys' on our wheels. 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 pop
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, and no Internet chat rooms. We had friends and
we went
outside and found them.
We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball
really
hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones but there were
no
lawsuits. We had full on fistfights but no prosecution followed from
other
parents. We played knock-and-run and were actually afraid of the
owners
catching us.
We walked to friend's 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. We rode bikes in
packs of 7
and wore our coats by only the hood. The idea of a parent bailing us
out if
we broke a law 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!
Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids,
before
lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.
For those of you who aren't old enough thought you might like to
read about
us.
This my friends, is surprisingly frightening ...and it might put a
smile on
your face: The majority of students in universities today were born
in 1983
...they are called youth.
They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and
the
Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel.
They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena or Belinda
Carlisle.
For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam.
AIDS has existed since they were born. CD's have existed since they
were
born. Michael Jackson has always been white.
To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't
imagine
how this fat guy could be a god of dance.
They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are Films
from
last year.
They can never imagine life before computers.
They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, RedHand Gang or the
Famous
Five.
They can't believe a black and white television ever existed and
don't even
know how to switch on a TV without a remote control.
And they will never understand how we could leave the house without
a
mobile phone.
Now let's check if we're getting old...
1. You understand what was written above and you smile.
2.. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a
night out.
3. Your friends are getting married/already married.
4. You are always surprised to see small children playing
comfortably with
computers.
5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.
6. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good
old
days, repeating again all the fun you have experienced together.
7. Having read this mail, you are thinking of forwarding it to some
other (which I refrained from!:-))
friends because you think they will like it too...

Yes, you're getting older and still rocking away to the 80's
music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers