Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 40s, 50s, 60, 70s and 80s.
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 tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cots 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, 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 van - loose - was always exciting and great fun.
We drank water from the garden hose or tap and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank cordial 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, No Pay TV, No cable, No DVD movies or surround sound..
It's crazy! We even had No mobile phones, No text messaging, 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 played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we didn't poke out anyone's eye.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Local teams 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!
^-- Completely off-topic for this thread, but I can't say I don't agree with it, either. I'm a product of the early '80s, myself, and a majority of that post applies to me. When I observe the sheltered, paranoid, overly-structured, often highly medicated lives parents force their poor kids into these days, it amazes me that I'm even alive to talk about it today! By modern "standards" (scare quotes), none of *us* (that is, people born 1930s-~1989ish) should have even survived infancy, let alone grown to be fully functioning, capable adults.
Hey, I've thanked people with "cheers, mate" for years and nobody really seems to think anything of it. It may be due to the large influx of TV programming imported from the UK, wherein such figures of speech are fairly routine -- Americans are becoming familiar with it. Around this part of the US, there are also small but fairly sizeable British and Australian ethnic populations, which I think has also helped some.
Now, it's "cheers, guv'nor" that still tends to knock people for a loop. Especially during an election cycle.
Last edited by ratchetjaw; 11-22-2014 at 04:47 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
cheerful. 
Cheers, all you want. Educate those that don't get it. Righto? 
