They took aspirin, candy floss, fizzy drinks, shaved ice with syrup and diabetes was rare. Salt added to Pepsi or Coke was remedy for fever.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.
As children, we would ride with our parents on bicycles/ motorcycles for 2 or 3. Richer ones in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pirate taxi was a special treat.
We drank water from the tap and NOT from a bottle... We would spend hours on the fields under bright sunlight flying our kites, without worrying about UV rays which never seem to affect us. We go into the jungle to catch spiders without worries of Aedes mosquitoes. With mere 5 pebbles (stones) would be a endless game. With a ball (tennis ball best) we boys would run like crazy for hours.
We caught guppies in drains / canals and when it rained we swam there. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually worried about being unhygenic.
We ate salty, very sweet & oily food, candies, bread and real butter and drank very sweet soft drinks, sweet coffee/tea, ice kachang, but we weren't overweight because......
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, till streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours repairing our old bicycles and wooden scooters out of scrap 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, multiple channels on cable TV, DVD movies, no surround sound, no phones, no personal computers, no Internet. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and we still continued the stunts.
We never had birthday parties till we were 21,
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and just yelled for them!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
Yet this generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 40 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 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.
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before 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.
1 comment:
Whoa! Sounds pretty familiar to me reminiscing the good old times. Would like to add in, our feeding bottles were made of glass and in the shape of banana called the "Allenbury Feeder". Sorry unable to salvage as souvenir because all were broken, that's why we have plastic bottles now. Maybe if you are lucky can still find them in the flea market.
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