ROFL

This one's no joke, it's mostly true

GROWING OLD

Kids of today are wrapped in cotton wool......... Read on.

If you lived as a child in the 50's, 60's or 70's, looking back, it's

hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have...

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

Our cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paint.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cupboards,

when we rode our bikes we had no helmets.

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

We would spend hours building 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 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. No mobile phones.

We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no

lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame,

but us.

Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and

learned to get over it.

We ate cakes, bread and butter, and drank cordial, but we were never

overweight...we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one

died from this. We did not have Play stations, Nintendo 64,

X-Boxes, video,games, 65 channels on pay TV, video tape movies, surround sound,

personal mobile phones, Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had

friends.

We went outside and found them.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door,

or rung the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. Imagine

such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the

cold cruel world! Without a guardian - how did we do it?

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and ate worms, and

although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many

eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever. Footy and netball had

tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to

deal with disappointment.....

Some pupils weren't as smart as others so they failed an exam and

were held back to repeat the same year. Tests were not adjusted for

any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide

behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was

unheard of.

They actually sided with the law - imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and

problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years has 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! Please pass this on to others who have had the

luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our

lives....... for our own good of course......

Wow ... I wonder what the current generation would think of the ideas of taking RESPONSIBILITY for their actions ... unheard of!!

Whilst this is what is portrayed, I don't see it as being entirely true.

At the age of 12 I bought my first car with hard earned lawn mowing money. And proceeded to spend every spare minute and cent fixing it up.

By the time it was finished, I had crashed several home built go karts (don't put wheels on a fridge and sit in it), nearly lost my finger to a bandsaw, and had a small run in with the boys in blue over the legality of firing a tennis ball at high speeds using propellant. And my parents definitely sided with the cops.

I have damaged nerves in my ankle, and a thick coating of scars, yet no legal action would have ever been considered. I was able to the age of 12 disappear off on bikes for the day with mates, as long as I was home by dark.

I pity the children who grow up today having never pulled down a car, crashed a go kart (on a public road of course), and am appauled by people suing others for their screw ups.

It shits me that a society (led largely by US precedents) can sue for their own stupid actions.

my 1c

Chris

I grew up very similarly to Z kid. Just add in pipe bombs, homemade rockets, and rattlesnake hunting. The amazing thing about the responsibility issue is that it is us, the baby boomers, that have caused it. We have created this litigous society because we not only want someone punished for our stupid mistakes(not ourselves), we also want the easy money that the lawyers promise us we'll make if we just give them their huge commission. But don't blame it on the lawyers, they wouldn't exist if we didn't use them. Come to think of it, my coke that I bought at the golden arches was too cold and it gave me a headache, which made me irritated, which made me take a swing at the employee, who knocked my teeth out. I'm going to sue the Golden Arches and the dentist for doing a poor job and the insurance company for referring the dentist and the guy who gave me boxing lessons when I was a kid. Victor.

Originally posted by tanny

Come to think of it, my coke that I bought at the golden arches was too cold and it gave me a headache, which made me irritated, which made me take a swing at the employee, who knocked my teeth out. I'm going to sue the Golden Arches and the dentist for doing a poor job and the insurance company for referring the dentist and the guy who gave me boxing lessons when I was a kid. Victor.

ROFL

Serves you right for going to Maccas.:cheeky:

As a "Mouldy Oldy" who grew up in the inner Sydney suberb of Waterloo, I can associate with just about everything listed in Growing Old.

As a teenager I was rather well known by the local cop on the beat. He didn't have to ask me where I lived, he just grabbed a handfull uf hair on the nape of the neck and frogmarched me home. But he was fair as well as hard and I had RESPECT for him.

Z Kid, you give me hope for the younger generation.

Rick.

I never drove a POS cart down a hill without brakes. Does that make me a bad person???

Funny how every generation thinks the generation after them is somehow inferior...

not a go at you Rick, as if I would take offence by a Mouldy Oldy who I have no respect for :stupid:

Well Guys

You can't knock a bloke who comes from Waterloo - they bred them pretty tough around there didn't they Alpha.

I came from Forest Lodge and going down to Waterloo was like going inot another world.

I agree with all you say about the go karts and finding my own entertainement, accepting dissapoitment, etc.

But (and a big one at that) - the people regulating and the ones from the bleeding hearts brigade are making the laws that are screwing everyone around - did they not come from our generation???

Umm - No - as I work in Government and the bleeding hearts are a lot younger than me. Afraid I have become one of the old school and advocate the lash for wrong doers who do not clean up after themselves.

:devious:

:finger:

Yes, Biker, Bleeding hearts and do gooders cause more problems than they fix.

It's a bit crook when parents have to think twice before chastising their kids. My grandma used to say "That's why God gave kids BUMS ----To Smack". Child abuse is a different matter, but knee jerk reactions are seldom for the better.

One good thing came from being born and bred in Waterloo.

Boy Oh Boy, did I learn to RUN BLOODY FAST.

Rick.