SiMach

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70’s!! First, 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 can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored 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 pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
  We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
  We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
  We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank fizzy drinks with sugar, 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 on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell 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.
  We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given air guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
  Football 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 TODEAL 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 lawyers and 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.
  Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
 
I received this in an email recently and after reading it, I have to say it got me thinking, remembering and talking. This brought back so many memories for me. Memories of playing with the kids in the neighbourhood. I grew up in Opera Estate, 7 Lakme Terrace. It was one of the best times of my life and I think for my family as well. Most of us kids went to the same school either CHIJ opera estate of Opera Estate Pr, so we were never short of friends to play with. Everyone seemed to know each other and the doors were always open. What divided each house from the other were fences not walls as most commonly used now. Parents were receptive to us kids playing with one another. I can still remember playing “masak-masak” with my immediate neighbours. I used to go to the mama shop after school with my sister Patricia and buy packet drinks, the mama man would use his dirty hands to grab a chunk of ice and place it in the bags, and heaven knows where he scratched. I used to play police & thief, cowboys & Indians with the other kids along with my own family.

Life was fun, easy and simple then. What happened to the carefree girl I used to be? Yes I grew up obviously, but how & why did I get to be so worrisome and particular about things? I freak out when my chickadees do the very same things that I used to do. Just the other day, I was ordering the kids to put on their slippers while running around the void deck; I used to walk around the streets barefooted. I scold them when they run in the rain, yet I used to love playing in the rain. Could it be we know too much? Strange diseases popping up and old ones more apparent? I do know that I want my chickadees to have fond memories of their childhood, the way I have and not grow up telling their kids that mummy was a tyrant unwilling to let them experience the simple joys of life. My kids will grow up and remember playing with the Xbox and watching TV that’s for sure and that’s not exactly creating history isn’t it?