Got this email from a friend. Aptly describes my childhood. Added some of my own experiences in red. Enjoy. Ernest
To All those Born in the 40s, 50's & 60's...
First, we survived with mothers who had no maids (LOL, and now I have a maid coz we cant handle the 2 kids). They cooked /cleaned while taking care of us at the same time.
They took aspirin, candies floss, fizzy drinks, shaved ice with syrups and diabetes were rare. Salt added to Pepsi or Coke was remedy for fever.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.
As children, we would ride with our parents on bicycles/ motorcycles for 2 or 3. (We used 'beca')Richer ones in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a private taxi was a special treat.
We drank water from the tap (We had a well at the back of the house, which we used even when we had tap water) and NOT from a bottle. We would spend hours on the fields under bright sunlight flying our kites (we played the gigantic Wau Burung / Bird Kites), without worrying about the UV ray which never seem to affect us.
We go to jungle to catch spiders without worries of Aedes mosquitoes.(Also to the various longkang, irrigation ditch, paddy field and the like).
With mere 5 pebbles (stones) would be a endless game (I remember this game, my sister was good at that game, and the many other simple games that we used to play). With a ball (tennis ball best) we boys would ran like crazy for hours. (we had our own kind of softball game, mostly made up)
We catch guppy in drains / canals and when it rain we swim there (I cant swim, yet still jump in and dog paddle). (NB: Don't forget about the fighting fish and the spider fights!)
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually worry about being unhygenic.
We ate salty, very sweet & oily food, candies, bread and real butter (loved the bread with butter and kaya (coconut & egg jam) that this Indian guy brings over on his bicycle, or on a cold rainy day when my mum would toast bread and put butter and sugar over it) and drank very sweet soft sweet coffee/ tea, ice kacang, but we weren't overweight because......
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, till streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. (Yup, went roaming all over, the beaches, catching crabs, fishing, ‘lastik’ birds and the like) And we were O.K.
We would spend hours repairing our old bicycles and wooden scooters 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, X-boxes, Nintendo's, multiple channels on cable TV, DVD movies, no surround sound, no phones, no personal computers, no Internet. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and we still continued the stunts.
We never had birthday parties till we are 21
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and just yelled for them!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! (And they told the teachers to "cane" their kids if they mis-behaved and we got ANOTHER whacking if the teachers ever complained about our behaviour!!)
Yet this generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 40 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 government regulated our lives for our own good.
And while you are at it, forward it to your kids - they will know how brave their parents were.
PS: -The big type is because Long-sightedness or hyperopia at your age (HA HA HA how true).
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