As i remembered it

[TheDaddy]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS OF FULHAM WHO WERE BORN IN THE1930's 1940's, 50's, 60's and early 70's !

First, 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 and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

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 or shoes, .

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
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, Subway or Nandos.

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 soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with. We ate cupcakes, white bread 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 old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY , no video/dvd  films,  no mobile 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.

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 time...

We were given air 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 

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes 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'
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL !
And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!

were did it all go wrong ?

[Steve_orino]

Born in the late 70's but I distinctly remember standing up in the passenger seat of my mom's vehicle without a seat-belt...

I'm glad I'm able to type about it  :54:

[CorkedHat]

All very true, Mr Daddy. That was brilliant
Being a war baby, dodging Hitler's bombs, wearing a bloody gas mask, using ration books to buy food and clothing we couldn't afford anyway, having coal delivered so that we could bathe in a tin bath by the fire, listening to street singers on a Sunday afternoon and giving our worn out clothes to the rag and bone man were also a myriad of other memories I have.
I never once felt underprivileged, possibly because I didn't know what privileged was, but I tell you this. My childhood might have been tough and relentless but it has made me appreciate everything that I acquired in later life. I wouldn't have swapped my childhood  for the world, particularly when I was eleven and I discovered John Norman Haynes. :048:

[Peabody]

What about playing in bomb sites and there were plenty of them about.Great piece Daddy.

[OldBrownShoe]

Top Daddy!  Excellent piece young man.  But I have always liked blue cheese, please don't anyone report me to Health and Safety. 

[CorkedHat]

What about playing in bomb sites and there were plenty of them about.Great piece Daddy.

Quite right Mr P. When we returned to London from evacuation half the street in which my folks had lived was rubble and the air raid shelters still stood for another two years.
Lots of families were moved in temporary housing called pre-fabs - so temporary that they were still being used twenty years later.
Do you remember some of the old brand names from those days? I guess some are still going but I remember Zebra Grate polish, Mansion, Bisto, Oxydol, Rinso, Camp Coffee, Bev, Vim, Vimto and Gibbs Dentrifice.

[WhiteJC]

when I was a lad my Granddad used to send me out with a bucket and spade to follow the rang n bone man's horse
"its good for the roses" he used to tell me  :dft012:

[Lighthouse]

The down side is we questioned less. Doctors and Policeman etc were respected. I learned from a very early age that neither deserved to be respected without question. Ironically there was more freedom for kids and adults alike. You could stay out until it was dark and half a crowns worth a chips and a bottle of tizer fed and watered a gang of kids for a week.You bought bubble gum to collect the cards that went with it and the extra cards went on your bike to make a noise.

I learned to ride my bike in one afternoon by hurling mysef down a hill and the speed kept the bike balanced. After a few crashes I eventually rode home, batterted and bruised with the news. 'You better not have damaged  the bike' Was the only concern from the family.

You played Split the kipper and had more scars on your leg from pen knife cuts than any hitman. The places you lived had green patches to play on even if they were bomb sites. Now they have all been build on or have turned into dumps. OH YES AND WE WALKED TO SCHOOL.

[Abbotsbury White]

Hey Mr Daddy really enjoyed this and oh so true,bomb sites in Battersea,loads of shelters still left,piece of wood for a gun and this was the mid sixties!!playing football in the street only stopping occassionally when the rare car passed,my old man eating the dripping left over from the roast (yuck never got into that)baths by the fire,outside loos (always with the obligatory giant spider)massive giant public baths at Acton pool,permanent little fun fair by kew bridge,all very fond memories..

[AlFayedsChequebook]

I wonder what the average age of posters on this thread is?  :005:

I would just like to point out that my generation (born in the late 80's) are the first generation who's parents are predicted to outlive them en masse.

Game, set, match guys. Now get back to your nursing homes! :011:

[Lighthouse]

OLD JOKE NUMBER 1  - You don't live longer nowadays, it just feels like it.

[EdenRob]

Wow! Mr Daddy yes stirred up some old memories there. My play grounds were the old bomb sites that still existed ten years after the war in Islington and we played all sports in my nan's street; Football end to end but cricket across the street so that we could hook further.

We used to 'collect' the returnable beer bottles from the back of the off licence and then take them back a few days later to collect the money from them! :005: 1d for a pint bottle and 2d for a quart.

PS I've only just started eating blue cheese in the last six months, do you think I'll be ok?

[epsomraver]

Hey Mr Daddy really enjoyed this and oh so true,bomb sites in Battersea,loads of shelters still left,piece of wood for a gun and this was the mid sixties!!playing football in the street only stopping occassionally when the rare car passed,my old man eating the dripping left over from the roast (yuck never got into that)baths by the fire,outside loos (always with the obligatory giant spider)massive giant public baths at Acton pool,permanent little fun fair by kew bridge,all very fond memories..

Mo I spent my childhood living in Battersea on the Patmore Estate and went to St james Barrie school in Stewarts road, there were bombed out houses there well into the 50's and we played in them dinner break, when i think we wandered around upstairs walking on wobbly joists, oh elf and safety!!!

[Banstead White]

Good post, (very) late fifties myself, but remember lots of that well....Thanks

[Peabody]

If I remember rightly, there used to be seasons. First was the marble season, where you used to roll a marble along the gutter and someone else had to hit your marble. Then there was the 'running out' game, not forgetting the summer holidays, we only had five weeks, the grammar school kids had six (dunno why) which seemed to go on forever, you only went indoors for meals and to listen to Dick Barton. Who remembers fag cards, where you did swappsies. After the wonderful summer holidays, where the world was your oyster, we had the conker season. Oh happy days.

[Peabody]

One other thing, was the comics. We used to have such a wide selection. The Beano, The Dandy, Film Fun, Radio Fun, Comic Cuts (Pip Squeak and Wilfred) The Eagle, The Lion and reading comics like The Rover. The girls had  Girl and Schoolfriend.

[os5889]

I'm a mid 80's monster and remember doing quite a lot of that list! My brother born in the 90's seems to have a completely different upbringing and outlook on life. What happened between 95 and now??? The rise of Accountability, blame, the death of communities and lack of social responsibility caused by bureaucratic do gooders and his bunch of politically correct mollycoddlers!

[Jimpav]

A lot of this rings true for me Mr Daddy and I was born in 1980.

I was about 16 when I first got a playstation and 18 when I first got an e-mail address.

Mobile phones didn't really catch on until I was 19-20.

I might have missed out on £1 notes and decimal currency but us 80's kids will remember the original 5 and ten pence pieces plus old style bank notes.

Smoking was widely accepted to the extent that every hosue had an ashtray, even if you didn't smoke. My babysitter (an old dear) used to chainsmoke her way through 20 marlboro reds each time she came round and no one batted an eye lid - it did stink the house out though.

Pubs had kids rooms for you to play in and drink driving was socially acceptable providing you were not wasted.

[TonyGilroy]

Well I'm 60 and of course things were better back then.

Except.

Two of my school friends died at age 8 or 9 one through asthma and the other from an infection following an appendectomy. Wouldn't have happened today.

Every Sunday we................erm did absolutely nothing because there was nothing to do.

We had 2 black & white TV channels but could only watch what our parents wanted to watch.

Leave aside all the things that hadn't yet been invented. We didn't know what we were missing but we wouldn't have said no. Instead we played football and rode our bikes. Now that hasn't actually been outlawed but most kids choose to do other things.

Life's always been tough but kids today have many more opportunities and choices and I don't buy the nostalgia for the simple old days. I don't remember much enjoying them at the time but that may just be me.

[licker]

What an excellent post, well done to The Daddy.

I'm probably one of the oldest on this forum so i remember it all.  Brilliant.

Its so good i hope you dont mind me pinching it for the Toffeetalk Forum.

Bill.