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We could play on the street, in the fields and climb trees,we could cut down trees for bonfire night, we would go blackberrying,walking and cycling, we would build go-carts from pram wheels,sit on a neighbours wall and chat,we respected older people and they respected us, if a policeman came along we moved along,we had no 24 hr tv, computers hadnt been invented that people could afford,few had cars,summers where hot and sunny, winters wet and plenty of snow,we had mums and dads who lived in the same house as us,and they went to work.
But we seemed happy with our lot,
What have kids got now, wall to wall tv,obesity,fast food,no jobs, debt,single parent families,living on benefits for being without a job,probably a war with someone in the next few years,and massive unemployment.
How things have changed in the last 20 plus years.
This was all trees when I was a boy.
This was all trees when I was a boy.
Thats what the nimbys are saying in Delamere.
[i]What have kids got now, wall to wall tv,obesity,fast food,no jobs, debt,single parent families,living on benefits for being without a job,probably a war with someone in the next few years,and massive unemployment.[/i]
well I was 16 in 1982 so;
fast food - tick
no jobs - tick
war with Argentina - tick
families living on benefits was just starting as the pits closed
30 years on we seem to have gained lots of television and are reluctant to let our children go and play in the woods in case there's any priests lurkign about.
Otherwise, plus ca change?
nostalgia; it's not what it once was.
30 years ago, adults were bemoaning the state of the nation, how the kids were all evil bastards, how it was much better when they were kids despite not having as many luxuries, and no-one was safe any more.
Plus, as you say, ca change. Congratulations, you've turned into your granddad.
I remember going to an 'International Youth Camp', on the very un-international Mersea Island (it's in Essex). We were all around 15 - 16 and pretty much stayed in groups of our own nationality, only to mingle with the 'foreigners' for some competitive contact sport or just a good old fashioned dust up! Some of the other things we did just wouldn't happen today, such as:
Running along a big sheet of plastic that has soapy water on it, you're attached to a bungy and it's pretty much impossible to get to the end without being snapped back along the slippery plastic and plough head first into the big pile of horse & cow poop piled up at the other end.
The organised game (organised by the adults - teachers, youth leaders, etc) at the end of camp disco. You had to pair up with a member of the opposite sex, get in a sleeping bag together and swap all your clothes!
happy days.........
When did all this fanciful change happen then?
I was a kid 40 years ago and remember doing all that stuff, but I'm sure that when i was in my twenties all that had been knocked on the head, and we talked about the how all the kids were fat, lazy, rude and undisciplined.
I'd never wear a child. It sounds disgusting.
what cougar said
White dog sh!t.....where's all that gone hey?
dp.
few had cars
How old are you? What a crock. When i was a kid we didn't have sh1te copy and paste emails.
I was chatting to the mrs about this last night, back in the day when everyone was skint, you made do with what you had, and saved your pennies for a treat. Now everthing is pretty much affordable to everyone you can just buy your entertainment, and when you get bored of that, buy something else. So thats my solution make everyone skint and we'll all be happy. 😀
I am round tonight wors for all your wordly goods...no need to thank me for making you happy 😉
Ps you can keep the beer so not all bad eh
So thats my solution make everyone skint and we'll all be happy.
According to the bible that David Cameeroooon reads from
[i]I am round tonight wors for all your wordly goods[/i]
I think the phrase needed here is;
"Monksie! Fire up the wheelie bin"
I now work less hours for more money. I eat nice food have proper holidays.
I'm happy.
I remember climbing a tree when I was about 12 and ending up the equivalent of about 4 storeys up and the tree starting to get so thin it was starting to sway under my weight. I tentatively made my way down again.
Didn't find no giants........
"Monksie! Fire up the wheelie bin"
WIN!
When i was a kid we didn't have sh1te copy and paste emails.
Moar WIN! 🙂
Has anyone blamed Thatcher yet?
Spam.
project - MemberHow things have changed in the last 20 plus years.
What, since 1992 ? You're having a laugh.
Plus 20 maybe.
Memories of a 30 years ago.
A classmate who had razor blades sewn into the lapels of his shirts.
Friends who made a bomb and disturbed the Wrexham suburbs and had a visit from plod.
A couple of suicides of schoolmates.
A drowning in the local park.
The National Front.
Footbal violence on the terraces.
Punch ups every Saturday night at the Centenary Club.
Teachers getting beaten up by the girls, well one of them at least.
Teachers leaving with nervous breakdowns.
The good old days. 😀
Hmmm, one of my strongest childhood memories is the really hot summer of 2003, I was 12 and was allowed to pretty much do as I pleased in the summer holiday for the first time, spent the summer doing gymnastic classes, paddling in a stream, climbing trees, pretending to want to snog various boys, babysitting. Camping in the garden. All pretty regular stuff, I watch my pervy little brov doing the same thing now, went round to mum and dads yesterday and him and his mates were playing football on the grass patch in front of the houses.
Nothing really changes I think.
As a kid in the 60s / 70s the only real difference is parents are paranoid and overprotective now in a way they weren't then. Crime against children was higher then.
Atari 2600 games console or nekkid text pics of my female classmates?
Hmm, tough choice.
C'man Junoir is a lucky barsteward; I wish my dad had taken me mountain biking, done Alpine rock climbing, Cuillin Ridge and Via Ferratas. It will come as no suprise to those who have kids themselves that HE is actually not that interested in all that s**t. Junior General on the other hand....
[i]How things have changed in the last 20 plus years. [/i]
Maybe things have changed in the last 40 years, but not really in the last 20 years - affordable computers go back 30 years for starters.
[i]As a kid in the 60s / 70s the only real difference is parents are paranoid and overprotective now in a way they weren't then.[/i]
Disagree, you had paranoid parents then too - my three now pretty much get up to what I did when I was their age, except they have a lot harder job getting 'legal' alcohol now.
I think the thing is you don't remember how it was, you remember how it was through the eyes of a child.
You rarely see kids climbing trees, playing football on the street, soon to be traffic calmed to 20mph max,groups of children sitting on a neighbours wall are now seen as thuigs or muggers,nicking apples from a orchard is seen as theft,kids dont walk anywhere, theyre chauffer driven,some have never met their dad,like TJ said parents are over protective and keep the kids locked in like prisoners, bribed with food,pop and computer games to stop them going out,where a lot of them interact over a keyboard and not in real life with each orther and older people.
nicking apples from a orchard is seen as theft
And it wasn't before ?
All that excitement and adrenalin fueled from scrumping was based on a completely false premise ?
I feel cheated 😐
but you usualy got a smack off the local bobby, not a criminal record.
Spam.
now, when I were a lad spam came in a tin.
they key was opened by a rather dodgy 'key' device which invariably failed, invariably leading to cuts as you attempted to liberate yer lunch from said tin.
Once liberated the [s]compressed sweepings from the abattoir floor[/s] quality spiced ham and pork contents could be thickly sliced and grilled until crispy on the outside, soft in the middle, and served on fresh Warbies toastie loaf, with a dash of HP 🙂
nyom........ nyom......... nyom
In fact, you just know i'll just have to pick up a tin soon + see if anything has changed 🙂
project, yesterday....
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You rarely see kids climbing trees, playing football on the street, soon to be traffic calmed to 20mph max,groups of children sitting on a neighbours wall are now seen as thuigs or muggers,nicking apples from a orchard is seen as theft,kids dont walk anywhere, theyre chauffer driven,some have never met their dad,like TJ said parents are over protective and keep the kids locked in like prisoners, bribed with food,pop and computer games to stop them going out,where a lot of them interact over a keyboard and not in real life with each orther and older people.
Apart from the being driven everywhere bit the rest is bollocks, at least round here.
Is the OP 500 years old?
What ever happened to hedgerow porn.
Our 10yr old is down the woods playing nerf wars with a group of mate's every time the sun is out. That or on the bike, or scooter. Skyrim instead of crappy 70s TV and carrying a phone is the only difference.
What ever happened to hedgerow porn
now that is truly nostalgic - the childhood delight of finding a stash
try explaining to young people nowadays what the wombles was really all about
but you usualy got a smack off the local bobby, not a criminal record.
You got physically attacked by a copper for scrumping ?
Well I never got caught, although tbh I very much doubt that the old bill would've been in the least bit interested in dealing with incidents of scrumping.
But apart from that, it was no more acceptable 20-40 years ago for a copper to hit a kid than it is today - whatever anyone says. Yes I'm sure it happened then as it does now, but coppers made sure they weren't caught doing it - it wasn't a case of parents saying "thanks officer for smacking my kid", that's just a myth which has existed for as long as I can remember.
Not much different for my son except he has better toys: MTB, lots of skis, roller blades, skateboard, snow board... .
project do you post anything that isn't doom-mongering/whining?
Cans of drink had proper ring pulls where you could break off the tab from the ring, then use the tab to flick the ring. Instant flying saucer!
Cans of drink had proper ring pulls where you could break off the tab from the ring
Bloomin luxury.
When I were a lad we had to punch holes in cans of drink with one of them drink-can openers like this :
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And then we had to share the can of drink between 6 of us.
We used to take pen knives to school and play 'splits' on the school playing field. It never occurred to anyone to cause anyone deliberate harm though.
Talking 35 years ago here... 🙁
One of these smuggled away from Dad's stash then Ernie?
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Can of Tizer mate. The ol' man would give us a shilling to buy one. If it was Christmas.
What have kids got now, wall to wall tv,obesity,fast food,no jobs, debt,single parent families,living on benefits for being without a job,probably a war with someone in the next few years,and massive unemployment.
ISTR growing up against a background of substantial unemployment, massive interest rates, copious industrial action, regular power cuts and the threat of nuclear armageddon. I'd say things aren't so bad now 🙂
You appear to be suffering from false memory syndrome Mike D. The last time there was "regular power cuts" there was also [i]substantial less[/i] unemployment then there is now. In fact about 1.5 million less unemployed.
Plus interest rates were very high in the 1980s, when there was very little in the way of industrial action.
And since none of what you describe can be said of the 50s and 60s, plus the period before that pretty much predates the nuclear era, I don't know what decade you think you can remember.
when i was a kid my grandad didn't have email so couldn't send me things like the OP. or emails about muslims in tescos, the great work of Joe Arpaio or copy and paste jokes of little humor.
I don't know what decade you think you can remember
Quite possibly bits of several, I never said all that stuff happened at the same time 😉
[edit: or in that order...]
I think this mindset is more of a human condition when reaching a certain age rather than the actual reality.
[i]“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” [/i]
- Attributed to Socrates
^ WINNING POST 😀
when I was a kid my Dad used to take me to racing circuits to watch the touring cars. next weekend I'm taking him. how things have changed!
geminafantasy has hit the nail on the head..
the doors of your perception have shifted and you've been too busy to notice..
I never said all that stuff happened at the same time
You spent a bleedin long time "growing up", as you put it.......it seems to have spanned at least 20 years.
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
- Attributed to Socrates
Your point caller?
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Your point caller?
really..!!?
the point is very plainly that testosterone diminished old fools start whingeing bleakly about the hopeless plight of yoofs from the first moment that they coweringly choose a comfortable shoe over a pie and a scrap..
and so it has always been..
it seems to have spanned at least 20 years.
About 18, as I believe is traditional 😉
Emsz - that was the year I discovered MTBing - I was 29 😥
How things have changed...youth of today want to break rules, disrespect their elders, forge their own identity and don't understand the values we aspired to at that age...
...it's all BS. If anything the middle class parents have become more conservative, fearing pederasts behind every lamp-post. The kids are alright, they cannot screw things up more than our generation has - anyone who'd seen the footage of our PM off his long haired norks raving during the summer of love cannot fail to feel a little cheated.
About 18, as I believe is traditional
You remember from your first few hours of life the Cuban Missile Crises and how the world was on the verge of nuclear war in the 1960s, through the period of detente in the 1970s, and the power cuts of that same decade, then the mass unemployment of the 1980 and 90s, and the sky high interests rates that went with it ?
I'll take back everything I said about you having a poor memory - you obviously have an amazing, almost unbelievable, memory.
I'm also unimaginably impressed how as a toddler you were so clued up on current affairs.
'twenty years ago' is always seen as better than today.
it's False nostalgia. Don't forget you were a lot younger, had a different life, fewer responsibilities and probably a much more optimistic/naive world view.
IMO live for today and stop regretting a past that never was.
I think it's pretty poor form to complain about relatively marginal stuff like playing in the fields when we live in one of the richest, healthiest and freest countries in the world without anything like the problems of most people in most other countries...
You could always move to Syria, or Greece, or Israel, or North Korea, or Zimbabwe...
Only read the first thread ... so ...
The problem is the parental skills ... you are the parents now so no one to blame.
To quote mate: " children are born to be disciplined ... they are put in their place ... "
🙄
I'll take back everything I said about you having a poor memory - you obviously have an amazing, almost unbelievable, memory.
Is it possible that you're maybe taking this excessively seriously?
Although FWIW I was thinking more of early-80s Reagan era Cold War than Cuba. Which I think brings me into the realms of rememberability 😉
Is it possible that you're maybe taking this excessively seriously?
Unlikely. Specially in light of your constantly shifting narrative.
In fact I'm struggling rather hard to take you very seriously.
My parents used to worry about me playing in the streets in the late 60's. Warnings not to get into strange cars.
Looking back in my 20's I realised they were worried because we were in Hindley and Brady's neck of the woods. 😯
Rest of the time it was setting fire to things, building dens and sliding down the old railway embankment on fertiliser bags.
...it's all BS. If anything the middle class parents have become more conservative, fearing pederasts behind every lamp-post. The kids are alright, they cannot screw things up more than our generation has - anyone who'd seen the footage of our PM off his long haired norks raving during the summer of love cannot fail to feel a little cheated.
Interesting!
You rarely see kids climbing trees, playing football on the street, soon to be traffic calmed to 20mph max,groups of children sitting on a neighbours wall are now seen as thuigs or muggers,nicking apples from a orchard is seen as theft,kids dont walk anywhere, theyre chauffer driven,some have never met their dad,like TJ said parents are over protective and keep the kids locked in like prisoners, bribed with food,pop and computer games to stop them going out,where a lot of them interact over a keyboard and not in real life with each orther and older people.
Jesus what a load of bollocks
Kids today are as lazy, rude, selfish and smelly as they've ever been
Parents today react in exactly the same way towards news, trends and technology as they've always done
Most things haven't really changed, but there were a hell of a lot less cars around when I was growing up, born in 73.
anyone who'd seen the footage of our PM off his long haired norks raving during the summer of love cannot fail to feel a little cheated.
that's about his only saving grace I reckon..
although it would seem that not even such a beautiful and miraculous event as the ecstasy explosion can soften the vile reptilian hide of a born Tory..
[i]There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now[/i]
Copy this & send it to all your friends!
What have kids got now, ..,no jobs
That's because houses aren't built with coal fires today, so no chimneys for them to sweep. Instead they just persisit with endless pointless trolling on the internet
that's just a myth which has existed for as long as I can remembe
It was always better back then - I can just imagine the conversation
"This broze stuff is just crap, remember when it were all stone, stuff lasted then, do you see caves made of bronze, no they don't last, stone age technology, that's what we want none of this bronze age rubbish"
You never hear single celled amoeba complaining about how great things were back then and kids nowadays, do you? QED
ahhh, nostalgia, just not what it used to be
do you see caves made of bronze
😆
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20 years ago was much the same as now, except the bikes and computers were rubbish.
20 years ago was much the same as now
I had a full head of hair!
Are cubs and scouts still armed? 30 years ago we were equipped with a sheath knife and hand axe at the very least, and usually a felling axe too. I don't recall any serious injuries.
Mind you, a kid got stabbed at my school, and the perpetrator just got expelled, no police involvement, nothing in the papers, despite it being one of the best schools in the county. The little sh!t obviously hadn't been in the scouts.
Rickets, do the kids up North still get them?
Polio, not much of that about now either, nor thalidomide..
Got the cane at school for an uncontrollable fit of giggles in general studies in the library.
Coppers would clout you round the head and send you on your way if they caught you after chucking rocks at them.
Pervs were dealt with a tad more harshly
As Scouts we did have knives and a hand axe on a belt, but felling axes were only handed out at camp.
My old man got a good telling off when I had all the dustbin men cowering behind their cart with my air gun.
Building Soap Box carts and tracks with banked turns (now called berms) was all the rage and required bunking off from afternoon school, noone seemed that bothered
Deciding wether to ride your motorbike with or without a helmet was rightly your choice at 16 as was riding a 1000cc Indian with a sidecar on an L plate.
Beating up moddie ruperts was mostly only frowned on by Coppers since they all rode proper bikes so were 'greasers' off duty and mods took purple hearts so were druggies anyway, so it was open season when they came down to the coast at weekends.
Yep there was definitely more freedom in my sixties youth, I wouldn't want to be young today.
My old man got a good telling off when I had all the dustbin men cowering behind their cart with my air gun.
Oh but how you must've all laughed about it afterwards, eh ?
Yes mate, spot on - they don't let kids enjoy the simple things in life anymore, like what we did.
Loads of kids playing out in the street and woods round my way too. Have any of the moaners actually met a kid lately?