8mm Forum: The Good Old Days

This is topic The Good Old Days in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Craig Hamilton (Member # 258) on January 22, 2007, 06:45 PM:

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.

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 cakes, white bread and real butte! r and drank pop with sugar in it, 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 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 trials 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 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 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, [Big Grin]

Craig

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on January 22, 2007, 10:32 PM:

Craig,

Just great! How did we survive?

Doug

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 23, 2007, 01:17 AM:

Luck [Roll Eyes]

Graham

Posted by Keith Ashfield (Member # 741) on January 23, 2007, 05:19 AM:

Luck, love and a respect for our elders and betters. Something our younger generation seems to lack, not because we haven't tried to instill these qualities into them. They don't seem have the capacity, or the desire to maintain these values.
It's a worrying thought, what is going to happen to the next but-one generation?
Any way, enough doom and gloom. Just remember that the youngsters of today will never have the wonderful memories that us "crinklies" have of our childhood. Their memories will Playstation, X-Box and God preserve us - BIG BROTHER!! [Frown]

We have FILM!!! [Big Grin]

Keith

Posted by David Park (Member # 123) on January 23, 2007, 06:20 AM:

You missed out the saturday morning trip, on our own, to town to the ABC Minors film show. Or maybe if posh you went to the Gaumont or Odeon. Then in the afternoon off to the local Victoria Cinema for thier junior matinee, you had to go the following week because they had serials.

Posted by Mark Todd (Member # 96) on January 24, 2007, 03:49 AM:

I remember I just used to go down to the woods with my penknife for hours at a time alone or with mates. Just happy sat in the fields etc wittling or playing soldiers etc. Happy times.
Some things are better now though as I was regularly kicked and beaten to a pulp by a sweating swearing father till he litterally exausted himself usually just because he and my mum were uptight with each other.
If she hadn`t got something she wanted bought etc or I maybe had a mark on my trousers etc she would wind and wind him up till he went beserk on me and she would just stand and watch listening to the screaming then shut me away with no food etc for a day or so etc. If I ever actually did something wrong even small it went even further. It went on for years but the family even seeing the kickings etc were just concerened that he earnt good money and the family should stay together at all costs so thankfully some things have changed for the better.
Mind you saying that in the 70`s if I`d been a dog something would have been done ironically.
I think the youth of today do have it hard though in the prepackaged and must have world ( film compulsions excepeted) that there is little base in a sense compared to more normal times we grew up in. Hard in a sense theres less to lean back on when you need to even memory wise.
Also we all seemed to be skint more or less compared to now.
Though thats coming back with house prices and cost of living etc.
I remeber when staying with my grandad the absolute highlight was to walk into Bedford along the river around the town a bit and walk home again. That was it and it was great.
Conkers etc too, football or film cards, top trumps, but some of these things do still survive.
I have to confess our kids do have all things electronic, PS2 dvds etc but they do love the sight of a cine projector turning over and the thrill of it.
I suppose things have moved on over time in all sorts of ways but I do think( not getting political) the heart of the UK started getting eaten away in the 80`s and I would imagine in other up( sort of) and coming countries the contrasts compared to parents childhoods and expectations etc must be even more stark quicktime.
Best Mark.

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on January 24, 2007, 06:17 AM:

Wow Mark. [Frown]

I'm sorry to hear about those really rough years in your childhood.

As much as we all like to hold on to the past, you made a really good point when you said "Some things are better now".
When my wife and I watch vintage shows like "Andy Griffin", "Happy Days", etc., its easy to think, "boy, I wish things now were like they were back in the 50's". And I do it all the time. But then we remember, with those times also came bad things, like racism, etc.

I read something in a wise book one time that said something like- every age comes with good and bad things- and thats so true.

Thats the great thing about nostalgia. We can hold on to the good things from yesterday, and leave the bad things in the past [Wink]

.

Nick.

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on January 24, 2007, 06:33 AM:

Craig..How good it was to read your mail which just about said it all. I think I did most of that lot as was born in early 60's. Having just completed the fostering for children training with Social Services (got to find some cine film viewers from somewhere) we can see just how much kids are missing out on today. All rather sad they are missing so much FREE fun but at least we have memories....

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on January 24, 2007, 08:14 AM:

I think Nick has hit the nail on the head - we tend to remember the good times and discard the bad ones. I grew up in Wales in the 50's and that was a great time to be growing up, so many new things were happening, our first 14 ins television, rock and roll (remember Bill Haley and the Comets arriving in London and being swamped by teenage girls!), the Coronation of our beautiful Princess Elizabeth, Hilary and Tensing conqouring Mount Everset, Eurovision and Telstar (getting up at 3am to see the first transatlantic TV), Eagle comics, Juke boxes and bobby sox, espresso coffee, cycling from Cardiff to John O'Groats and back, shops packed with stunning looking 8mm cine projectors, Radio Luxemburgh, sunning on the beach at Lavernock listening to Alan Freeman (best ever DJ), Z-cars, That was The week That was, Destination Moon on the radio, Hancock's Half Hour, Brains beer, ......... and the sun shined every day!
What great times! [Smile]

Posted by Graham Sinden (Member # 431) on January 24, 2007, 11:05 AM:

I agree with you Paul, the 50's were exciting times. But some things you didn't have were Super 8, Derann's fantastic prints and the GS1200 [Big Grin]

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on January 24, 2007, 12:25 PM:

Graham..Never mind the GS1200 ! What about the Pathe Vox 9.5 sound projector, and mines still going strong after 68 years use. Thats older than me!

Posted by Trevor Adams (Member # 42) on January 24, 2007, 01:59 PM:

In the 30's-40's,I remember getting electricity,then,a radio! Our house had one cold tap,served by a 400 gallon tank.Our meat and butter was kept in a gauze safe on an outside wall of the house.My mother had one gas ring to cook on.Various horsedrawn carts clip-clopped up and down our street,the milko,the breadman,the bottlo,the night cart.And how about "bath night"(Sunday)?Not much fun being the third person to use the three inches of tepid,grey water!!!
I was an adult before my folks got an,electric stove,washing machine and fridge. And we lived in the middle of a city that now has a population of 1.4 million(Auckland)They were the good ol' days? [Wink]

Posted by Mark Todd (Member # 96) on January 24, 2007, 02:33 PM:

Wow thats amazing Trev, what a picture that paints.
Best Mark.

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on January 24, 2007, 08:06 PM:

Watched Roman Polanski excellent film "Oliver Twist" last night which prompted me to do a little research into the "Good Old Days" when Charles Dickens first wrote his first instalment in 1837 of Oliver Twist, here is an extract from what I was reading.

The Victorians prided themselves on being tough on crime, but largely ignored its causes. Poverty was a major cause of lawlessness on London's street, many of London's 2.5 million people relied on crime to earn a living, including 80.000 prostitutes. The poor often couldn't afford to raise their own offspring. Abandoned to the streets and failed by the authorities, many children were forced to fend for themselves as best they could. Conditions were so harsh that in the 1870s over half the children in London's East End died before their 5th birthday. Crime and punishment was a grim business in the Victorian era and sentences for petty misdemeanours were harsh-even for children, who often stole to eat.

There was also real fear of the workhouses. These institutions were established in the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act as shelters of the last resort for people who were unable to find employment or support themselves. Conditions in the workhouses were harsh; governors beat children and inmates were fed meagre rations. Social commentators were angered by these conditions, and Dickens attacked the system in "Oliver Twist."

Although this may all seem like a long time ago I still remember growing up in Glasgow where terrible diseases like Polio and Tuberculosis werent uncommon I had a friend who had TB. I feel that the so called "Good Old Days" are the ones we are living right now.

Graham.

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