How Times Have Changed

[Doolally]

I found this while browsing the 'net today and thought I'd share it with you, how times have changed!

...

"According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's probably shouldn't have survived.

Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked.We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent 'clackers' on our wheels.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.Riding in the passenger seat was a treat.We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle (tasted the same). We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles 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 before it got dark. No one was able to reach us all day and no one minded.We did not have Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet chat rooms. We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played conkers and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits. There were accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again. We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue - we learned to get over it.

We walked to friend's homes. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate live stuff, and although we were told it would happen, we did not have very many eyes out, nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. 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 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're one of them. Congratulations!

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as real kids,before lawyers and government regulate our lives, for our own good.

(If you aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us.)"

[Gleber2]

This post is the first post that I've read that has almost had me in tears!!Cheepers, Ah'm gettan soft. How did we survive the Glebe, I sometimes wonder and indeed some of us didn't RIP. So right. To have gained so much and to have lost so much more.
A beautiful post Doolally.

Edited to removed quoted post, no need to quote a post that is immediately before the reply CM

[Kenn]

Brilliant post, but what about scumping, trolling for frogs an' newts,pinching mother's washboard for the skiffle group, drift wood fires on the beach with chips fried in dripping over 'em to name but a few pastimes of our youth.

[changilass]

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes



Remember doing this in Castlehill Place as kids, ran into dads car and got a roasting lol

[dirdyweeker]

brilliant memories. Whar about kick 'e cannie, rounders and skipping especially on nights like this?
Going to the trinkie to look for a good stone for hoppie.

[_Ju_]

Outside of school and except for two cold months a year I walked EVERYWHERE bare foot (Now there is so much glass, nails and muck around you can't do it anymore). We got TV when I was seven ( S. Africa) and really didn't pay it much attention to it untill I was around 13. I'd rather listen to Dr Manson (?) and the Archers on the radio or read a book. My cousin had an Atari and when we visited I didn't give it the time of day. Summer was never-ending and at school (where there wer no bullies as far as I know) we'd run around, play dangerous games like catch, compete earnestly in class and in sport with winners and losers, pass and fail tests......you don't get to do this anymore.

Thanks for sharing that Dollaly. I loved it.

[Chobbersjnr]

I am a child of the modern age & up untill I was 12 or so we never had television, or any sort of dedicated games machine to keep us occupied (thanks dad)

I did have lots of fun in sand, earth, playing football, watching the farmwork happen around me & from an early age developed an extreme interest in music. It was all about getting outside for me & I hated it when it rained. Once a week the whole family would go shopping & we would visit relatives & in that visit we would watch cartoons, I considered this a treat. There was another relative who had a games console so once a week we would play a game or six.

It's only when I got to school for P6&7 (as I was home taught) that I realised what I didn't have. Never having had these things, it didn't bother me but all my mates had these things, it took a long time to realise that I had so much more in life not having the world of TV rammed down my throat, & my head filled full of flickering mind numbing images from games machines. I had a real upbringing that wasn't dominated by the comings & goings of Neighbours or Home & Away

I like hearing stories of old & was only today looking down Davidson's Lane thinking SLEDGE & imagining my father & various cronies commiting deadly acts on these hills trying their best not get run over by whatever vehicle might have been passing

The stories I like to hear from my father's generation are dissapearing due to all the aforementioned must haves of modern life & it's sad. Some of the best laughs I've had are about old Thurso & Wick being told by the people of the time

One of the most memorable things for me as a child was my father taking me round the caves on the Thurso sea front, the salvation army cave in particular. It is something that will always be with me & something that always be on Thurso's sea front

What a great post & it is so true. The modern take just doesn't fill you with a warm glow like the old. "I remember me & ma mates all went cyber sledging"...........................NAH

Yours truly
an old feeling youngster:D

[Whitewater]

Great post Doolally, and so true, I remember it all, and so much more, they were great days, what people it produced, all the shakers and movers. What fun we had. A great generation and I'm proud to have been part of it.

[golach]

I am a child of the modern age & up untill I was 12 or so we never had television, or any sort of dedicated games machine to keep us occupied (thanks dad)

I did have lots of fun in sand, earth, playing football, watching the farmwork happen around me & from an early age developed an extreme interest in music. It was all about getting outside for me & I hated it when it rained. Once a week the whole family would go shopping & we would visit relatives & in that visit we would watch cartoons, I considered this a treat. There was another relative who had a games console so once a week we would play a game or six.

It's only when I got to school for P6&7 (as I was home taught) that I realised what I didn't have. Never having had these things, it didn't bother me but all my mates had these things, it took a long time to realise that I had so much more in life not having the world of TV rammed down my throat, & my head filled full of flickering mind numbing images from games machines. I had a real upbringing that wasn't dominated by the comings & goings of Neighbours or Home & Away

I like hearing stories of old & was only today looking down Davidson's Lane thinking SLEDGE & imagining my father & various cronies commiting deadly acts on these hills trying their best not get run over by whatever vehicle might have been passing

The stories I like to hear from my father's generation are dissapearing due to all the aforementioned must haves of modern life & it's sad. Some of the best laughs I've had are about old Thurso & Wick being told by the people of the time

One of the most memorable things for me as a child was my father taking me round the caves on the Thurso sea front, the salvation army cave in particular. It is something that will always be with me & something that always be on Thurso's sea front

What a great post & it is so true. The modern take just doesn't fill you with a warm glow like the old. "I remember me & ma mates all went cyber sledging"...........................NAH

Yours truly
an old feeling youngster:D
Chobbersjr, what can I say, I have met your owld fella and through him I have heard you and your music and the praise he heaped on you when he and I met. And here ye are a comparitive loon in my eyes, but I bet your owld fella will be proud o ye and your memories, well done young fella ....an 'at coming from me is high praise.

[Ann]

If anyone is interested, here is a link to some memories of mine wot I wrote for our primary school reunion!

http://www.caithness.org/reunions/lyth/memories/index.htm

I'm sure the memories are familiar to many of you who went to primary school in the fifties.
Ann

[zebedy]

omg..

I'm 16...

And reading through every post...

U guys gettin emotinal... Got me going haha...

Gawd ... *SLaps own face *

[Chobbersjnr]

omg..

I'm 16...

And reading through every post...

U guys gettin emotinal... Got me going haha...

Gawd ... *SLaps own face *

LOL there's a lot to be gained talkin' till e' owld fowk o' caithness;)

[JAWS]

Doolally, I don't think I've read anything so accurate for a long time. One thing it doesn't mention is that if you got caught getting up to mischief you certainly didn't go moaning to your parents. If you did all that happened was that you ended up in far more trouble than you bargained for.

Ju, I'm not surprised you didn't bother with TV in RSA. One channel and every other day in Afrikaans! Fancy running round in all that hot sun, now you would have to cover yourself from head to foot with even your eyes behind special UV sunglasses.

I dread to think what the Health and Safety Dreamers would have made of what we got up to as kids. A couple of years ago they complained bitterly about girls wearing the baggy trousers with all the tassels hanging from them. The reason? Then might get them caught in train doors for heavens sake. Recently it was complaining bitterly that female pop stars should show more responsibility. How dare they encourage young girls to risk collapsing in Wick town centre with hypothermia from their bare mid-riffs.
Don't let your kids anywhere near those dirty farm animals if you do they will catch something dreadful and drop down dead immediately from bubonic plague or some other diabolical disease.
Poor farm kids, they didn't stand a chance, first sight of a lamb and the poor dears need admitting to an isolation unit.

However did the human race cope without all the various bodies controlling us from the cradle to the grave? I wonder if they put "Use by" dates on coffins? I really must check when the time comes, I really would hate to get one that's past it's "Sell by" date, after all, it might be the death of me!

[Chobbersjnr]

I wonder if they put "Use by" dates on coffins? I really must check when the time comes, I really would hate to get one that's past it's "Sell by" date, after all, it might be the death of me!

LMAO[lol] [lol]

[The Pepsi Challenge]

I am a child of the modern age & up untill I was 12 or so we never had television, or any sort of dedicated games machine to keep us occupied (thanks dad)

I did have lots of fun in sand, earth, playing football, watching the farmwork happen around me & from an early age developed an extreme interest in music. It was all about getting outside for me & I hated it when it rained. Once a week the whole family would go shopping & we would visit relatives & in that visit we would watch cartoons, I considered this a treat. There was another relative who had a games console so once a week we would play a game or six.

It's only when I got to school for P6&7 (as I was home taught) that I realised what I didn't have. Never having had these things, it didn't bother me but all my mates had these things, it took a long time to realise that I had so much more in life not having the world of TV rammed down my throat, & my head filled full of flickering mind numbing images from games machines. I had a real upbringing that wasn't dominated by the comings & goings of Neighbours or Home & Away

I like hearing stories of old & was only today looking down Davidson's Lane thinking SLEDGE & imagining my father & various cronies commiting deadly acts on these hills trying their best not get run over by whatever vehicle might have been passing

The stories I like to hear from my father's generation are dissapearing due to all the aforementioned must haves of modern life & it's sad. Some of the best laughs I've had are about old Thurso & Wick being told by the people of the time

One of the most memorable things for me as a child was my father taking me round the caves on the Thurso sea front, the salvation army cave in particular. It is something that will always be with me & something that always be on Thurso's sea front

What a great post & it is so true. The modern take just doesn't fill you with a warm glow like the old. "I remember me & ma mates all went cyber sledging"...........................NAH

Yours truly
an old feeling youngster:D


A very well-written, well thought out post there, Chobbers. You must be the oldest youngest person here. I, too, long for a simpler time. It's important younger folk of Caithness learn of their elders' songs, tales, and life within Caithness. If they don't, then part of the county's great traditions and stories will disappear just like the many young folk it produces. And I totally agree about the TV thang - I can't remember the last time I sat down to watch it (not that I have the time). Can't say I'm missing it, 'cept for The Simpsons, of course. But before I sign off, consider this: how many people living in rural Caithness can honestly say they know their neighbours? Know that they could walk into each other's homes safe in the knowledge they are always looking out for them, keeping the community spirit ticking? This may still be the way, but try telling me it's not dwindling.

[mareng]

Good one, Doolally!

I've passed it on and re-posted it on another site (as a lot will have done, I think)

Think I'll go and have a couple more mercury fillings to celebrate being alive.