We survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos...
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, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
We used aspirin exclusively, ate bread and dripping, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.
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 a Sunday, 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 and Bubble Gum.
We ate cakes, white bread and real butter, milk from the cow, and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because we were playing outside.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 rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Yes, we fell out of trees, got cuts, broke bones and teeth and no one sued anyone over it. We ate worms and ate dirt and the worms did not live in us forever.
Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet because we didn't need to keep up with the Joneses
Not everyone made the rugby/football/cricket /netball team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on merit.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY, no video/dvd films, or colour TV, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms. We had friends and we went outside and found them!
Only girls had pierced ears!
You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time....
We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays.
Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and throw the blackboard rubber at us if they thought we weren't concentrating. We can string sentences together and spell and have proper conversations because of a good, solid three Rs education. Our parents would tell us to ask a stranger to help us cross the road.
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 that's how we learned to deal with life.
I couldn't cash in the bottles at the corner shop because my mum worked there and she'd know I'd pinched them!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely true, it is amazing we are alive, mind you I did get shot by mistake and concussion from falling from a tree.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your response to my response on MAJ's page...
I agree with your take on the hacking thing up to a point and should point out it was not Flamblogger who was hacked but someone who comments on her blog. I think there are many who do not realise the implications of connecting to the web.
Hacking has become a generic term for anything bad happening via an unauthorised user, but originally meant someone who dissected a system to find out how it worked and possibly look for weaknesses. I was a hacker once but never put anything I learned to malicious use, I was never a criminal hacker.
I do not profess to know everything about computers despite having worked in the field since the 1970s. Amongst the many things I have been involved in, I have dealt with system management and security in a ‘hard’ environment and I believe that passwords are only first line security and are only as effective as a Yale lock is on a house, they only keep out the casual attacks.
Windows is full of holes and many of the ports opened for normal MS activities are found and used by criminal hackers on a regular basis, else why would MS have to keep issuing new security updates. It is here that the most serious attacks come from and like passwords; word verification will not help much, but it does add another layer. I have also mentioned before in my comments that adding another layer simply hardens the attacks and acts as a sort of challenge to the scrip kiddies to crack it, so you can never win. It is a constant battle to stay ahead and the only real defence is keeping a ‘clean’ backup offline and being prepared to wipe everything and start over. PS I also lectured on disaster management :)
I found you on another blog, commenting on blackcurrant cream slices. I note that you don't often post so maybe you won't read this, but I have to say it's a pity you don't because this post was brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI will add some comments to Ginger's - such as -"having been told by my grandfather on the dairy farm ONLY to drink from running water in the creek - which we did - to go 200 yards upstream and find a dead cow in the water"! The milk? via cans or a bulk milk system - was straight from the cow into our gobs! Or watercress from the same creek, chopped, salted and vinegared on beautiful fresh white bread with no additives! Or sliding down the railway line embankment on a sheet of corrugated iron with our "safety gear" on - shorts and a T-Shirt! Eating 3 day old offal - Pig's Head, Ox Tongue, etc. Plums and mulberries straight off the tree - no washing required (or even thought of!). Tap water - always! And still do! Funnily enough - I have no allergies - wonder why?
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