BORN BEFORE 1986?

***Moved from GenDisc***

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who
were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have
survived, because 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 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags
and riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

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

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice 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 could play all day, as long
as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and
no one minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No
99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no
mobilephones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chatrooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them. We played elastics
and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt! We fell out of
trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law suits.

We played knock-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the
owners catching us.

We walked to friends' homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on
mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the
corner.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard
of...they actually Sided with the law.


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!

Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids,
before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for "our own
good".
For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to
read about us.

This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might put a smile on your face:
The majority of students in universities today were born in 1986....
The Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel.
They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or
Belinda Carlisle.
For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam.
AIDS has existed since they were born.
CD's have existed since they were born.
Michael Jackson has always been white.
To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't
imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance.
They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are films
from last year.
They can never imagine life before computers.
They'll never have pretended to be the A-Team, the Dukes of Hazard or
the Famous Five.
They can't believe a black and white television ever existed. And
they will never understand how we could leave the house without a
mobile phone.


Now let's check if we're getting old...
1. You understand what was written above and you smile.
2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a night out.
3. Your friends are getting married/already married
4. You are always surprised to see small children playing
comfortably with computers.
5. When you see children with mobile phones, you shake your head.
6. Having read this mail, you are thinking of forwarding it to some
other friends because you think they will like it too...

Yes, you're Getting old!!