Are we are the luckiest generation of all? A short essay.

Graham, I was born 1948 and totally agree although I don't know if the next generation will regard us as having brought much luck with us. 

This thread has me all nostalgic

Thought I'd Share this with everyone ...

 

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED 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 were Pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing,

Tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles,

Locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode

Our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children,

We would ride in cars with no car seats,

No booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day

Was always a special treat.

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 cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon.

We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar.

And, we weren't overweight.

WHY?

Because we were

Always outside playing...that's why!

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 them 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 and X-boxes.

There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable,

No video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's,

No cell phones,

No personal computers, no Internet and no 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 were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,

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

Walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts 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!

These generations have 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.

If YOU are one of them?

CONGRATULATIONS!"

I was born on the last day of 1947, so almost 1948. I regard myself as very lucky for all the reasons Graham mentions.

I am also a great believer in what comes round goes round.

As one resource comes to the end of its natural life, another is born.

EDIT: post crossed with Barman.  Couldn't agree more. But my daughter was brought up that way, same as me, and also her children. It can be done.

Hi Graham,

I was born in 1941, and I consider myself very lucky to have lived through the period I have, from having the freedom to roam through the countryside as free as we were able to and learn so much about the countryside in safety on our own as we grew up.

Born 1942 and consider myself lucky but we always had to live within our means and not get loads of credit,Ithink that had following generations done similar most of present troubles would not be here,we seem to now live in a world where we will have what we want and pay later somehow.  

Hi barman 58

What a great post!

Even as a young girl I was out playing all day and walked miles from home through woods and over fields, something that is unheard of today.

It made me nostalgic too, and I congratulated myself. :-)

Great idea for a thread.  I was born in 1958 myself.  I remembered singers like Mary Hopkin - 'Those where the days' from all those years ago.  The song lyrics said it all.

Yes, it does give us lots to think about in our lives - either it was a great old fashioned flower power life or a more up to date commercialised life that affects our childhood.

So when you where born makes a huge impact on your daily life in the here and now.

I remember my elderly 'cousins' used to address myself and my brother as 'child'.  The old saying 'Children should be seen but not heard' was a favourite one liner for all the younger generation to be told by adults in the 50/60's

Yes, the golden olden days when we where left to use our own imaginations in child's play.  That was a good thing without all the TV, game stations and what not we have around now.  It gave the younger generation a great chance to learn from their own experience of life.

Technology changed many industries in the job front so it was go with the flow or give up your job - a mighty change of life was in the making.  Some of it scary and especially to a unfamiliar non-techy person who has worked in a manual job form the mid - 70'.  Arthur Scargell and Margaret Thatcher had a strong influence over our lives today from yesterday.

Now we can improve our education if we could not achieve or pass exams form our school days - that was not around in the olden days

The love of wildlife was there but it was the silent few who indulged in the passion of bird watching - I would never admit to my school friends that I watched birds incase they thought of me as a wimp - so it was hush hush at all times. 

BBC had 'Johnny Morris' with his talk over of the animals, and other occasional wildlife shows to entertain us - 2 channels only with a test card at night.

Animals came a large part of my own families life.. This was better than getting up to no good - though there was the limited few (from my school) who behaved like that - and yes they got into lots of trouble too.

Life was different than to what it is now. Now you can do so much more with your time.

With up to date technology we can communicate on Wildlife Forums that we all love so much.  It makes life more interesting all together.

Barman: lots of food for thought in your answer - well remembered LOL

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Lovely essay, Graham. Thanks for giving us all something to think about. I too, was born in that era and often think I was lucky, as although we had very little as children, we have seen so many changes - both good and bad. I would not change the time I have lived on this earth, for anything. I remember staying up late & watching the first rockets into the outer atmosphere, & the 1st space travel, with my father who reminded me that we were watching History Being Made. We lived through a time when Teenagers were invented, as before that everyone became Adult overnight it seemed, and children were 'seen and not heard.' We were the first to have clothes in the shops for this new breed of person, and we enjoyed the advent of Pop music. (I lived in Liverpool at the time of the Beatles, how exciting that was!) Now I jump to the present - we have this wonderful thing called the Internet, and can talk to one another across the miles and across continents, and look up information on just about anything.... Aint Life Grand!

What an interesting thread complete with some lovely photos.I was born in rural Yorkshire in 1943 so my early childhood was during the sparce years just after the war but being so young and living in the country we did not know any different.When I became interested in wildlife due to transport limitations it was local stuff but getting a motor cycle in my teens broadened my hoizons and I became a bit of a twitcher before the media got hold of the word.Over this time we have seen fluctuations in numbers of birds,unfortunally more numbers seem to have gone down than up.Yes maybe we are a lucky generation but no doubt future generations will find plenty to be thankful for as plenty to blame us for.One thing they can thank past generations for is the improvement in optics the quality of modern even budget optics is way above anything we dreamed of.Let's try and keep a hold of what we have and improve on that.