Things aint like they used to be

I was born in '73, but I can remember us having the internet in my household when I was 4, and even then I could trouble shoot dodgy html.

LSD was stronger back then.

Lots of climbing over barbed wire fences of 'junk yards' containing dobermans.

Were you in this?

I was born in '73, but I can remember us having the internet in my household when I was 4, and even then I could trouble shoot dodgy html.

LSD was stronger back then.

I really thought you were older than that, BMMF.
That makes you 11 years younger than me, come along to the RP finale tomorrow night; I'll buy you a beer to celebrate my birthday, and you can tell me how to sort out dodgy html, 'cause I still haven't worked out how to.

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.
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 or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking!!!
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a Bakkie on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Steers, Nandos.
Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Chappies,
Wilson 's Toffees, Wicks Bubble Gum and some crackers to blow up frogs with.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks 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. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in river beds with matchbox cars.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on DSTV, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile 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.
Only girls had pierced ears!
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time.......no really!
We were given pellet guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays!!
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the
door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!
RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT AND NOT DUE TO BLACKMAIL, THREATS AND GUILT FROM THE PAST.... strange but true!
Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather staps and bully's always ruled the playground at
school.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!
Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like "Kiora" and "Blade" and "Ridge" and "Vanilla"
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 70 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 we never, ever used ANY paragraph breaks, because we liked reading the hard way.

I'm sorry, but what a load of old nostalgic, self-indulgent twoddle. Well done you, you happen to have been born at a better time than other people. Give yourself a nice pat on the back for that.

I seriously don't think any of the aforementioned 'reasons to be proud' mean much at all despite the glorious images they evoke. Anyone or any family, if they have there heads and hearts in the right place, can overcome the apathy and bureaucracy of 'modern' life. I for one spent my whole childhood in the woods playing with bikes and friends. Rest assured that my growing up in the 80s and 90s has all of the same halcyon memories that yours might.

Every one of the points you make could be a headline in our media, maybe you watch too much TV?

DISCLAIMER: not having a go, just uncomfortable with the idea that things used to be better. I just don't and won't believe it.

i remember white dog shit... white?

Just to set the record straight for the few cycnical people, i didnt actually write this myself, it was emailed to me and on reading it, it did make me sit back smile and reflect on my own childhood.
Thought i would share it with others to see if it triggered the same happy memories. To start harbouring on about child abuse and police getting away with things is a carbon copy of todays society isan't it ?
So i guess you could say, social workers, doctors, health visitors if they all did there jobs properly today then we wouldnt still be having our papers headlined with the abuse that baby p suffered would we ?

So i guess you could say, social workers, doctors, health visitors if they all did there jobs properly today then we wouldnt still be having our papers headlined with the abuse that baby p suffered would we ?

This kinda reminds me of my father-in-law claiming that they did'nt have peanut allegies, lactose intolerance, and such in his day.

I imagine they just had more unexplained deaths and illness.

Just because a problem is better identified today, doesnt mean it did'nt exist yesterday.

Just to set the record straight for the few cycnical people

Just to set the record straight, I'm not cynical. I thought it was you being cynical?

it was emailed to me

thought as much.

baby p

none of my business.

Was i calling you as an individual cycnical ? don't see any quotes there do you ?

no, you didn't quote me. sorry. I jumped the gun.

" just uncomfortable with the idea that things used to be better. I just don't and won't believe it."

i know one thing that was definately better 25 years ago and that was the speed and amount of traffic on rural roads. i was allowed to ride my bike wherever i wanted (which was a radius of about 7miles around the village) from an early age and don't remember any problems with cars. back then a car doing 60mph down a twisty country road was quite hard to achieve as they were slow, had shit brakes and handled badly. now i wouldn't dream of letting a kid ride around there on their own, and have to think carefully about particular roads/corners and junctions i have to cycle around there.

To start harbouring on

Harping

To start harping on.

As to start acting like a harpy, a mytholigical creature who drove the Trojans from the Strophades with dire announcements of the coming woe (Dante's Inferno)

Nobody don't think anyone has ever tried to fill their mouth with ships whilst expounding on a subject.

I remember back in the day, when people didn't get sayings horribly wrong.

/rant

Harping

To start harping on.

As to start acting like a harpy, a mytholigical creature who drove the Trojans from the Strophades with dire announcements of the coming woe (Dante's Inferno)

Nobody don't think anyone has ever tried to fill their mouth with ships whilst expounding on a subject.

I remember back in the day, when people didn't get sayings horribly wrong.

/rant

Oh and alas one of the select few appears ha ha go visit the i hate thread :~}

i remember white dog shit... white?

Clearly whichever miserablist wrote the original list didn't spend much time playing in the local park, if they had then white dog shits would have been included.

The past is a foreign country.

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Look forwards, not back.

I really thought you were older than that, BMMF.
That makes you 11 years younger than me, come along to the RP finale tomorrow night; I'll buy you a beer to celebrate my birthday, and you can tell me how to sort out dodgy html, 'cause I still haven't worked out how to.

Boo, people usually think I'm younger. I've been asked for ID when buying booze at the supermarket a few times recently, but I think that's a cultural thing - certain ethnicities seem to have 'age-inappropriate' perception of certain other ethnicities :S

I've got a babysitter tonight, but the friends we're meeting, despite being cyclists and having been to RPLZ before, don't want to go. Looking for a nice quiet chat environment in our most tucked away local instead. Shame, I was going to come along and win everything :p

" just uncomfortable with the idea that things used to be better. I just don't and won't believe it."

i know one thing that was definately better 25 years ago and that was the speed and amount of traffic on rural roads. i was allowed to ride my bike wherever i wanted (which was a radius of about 7miles around the village) from an early age and don't remember any problems with cars. back then a car doing 60mph down a twisty country road was quite hard to achieve as they were slow, had shit brakes and handled badly. now i wouldn't dream of letting a kid ride around there on their own, and have to think carefully about particular roads/corners and junctions i have to cycle around there.

At the TT on the E1/25b on Sunday (north of Bishops Stortford), I was struck by the increase in Sunday morning traffic, and that's just in the 4 years since I last raced there. Certain Essex lanes remain quiet - they're just not fast enough for impatient motorists, but rural B-roads and smaller A-roads are definitely over subscribed. Pity.

Harping

To start harping on.

As to start acting like a harpy, a mytholigical creature who drove the Trojans from the Strophades with dire announcements of the coming woe (Dante's Inferno)

Nobody don't think anyone has ever tried to fill their mouth with ships whilst expounding on a subject.

I remember back in the day, when people didn't get sayings horribly wrong.

/rant

This is for you check the dictionary :~}
har·bored, har·bor·ing, har·bors
**1. **To give shelter to: harbor refugees; harbor a fugitive.
**2. **To provide a place, home, or habitat for: a basement that harbors a maze of pipes; streams that harbor trout and bass.
**3. **To entertain or nourish (a specified thought or feeling): harbor a grudge.
[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#226699]Your right though there was a spelling mistake

Oh and alas one of the select few appears ha ha go visit the i hate thread :~}

Sorry, every now and again I find a misquoted saying and go into a witless rant. I call it the Comic Sans MS mists.

This is for you check the dictionary :~}
har·bored, har·bor·ing, har·bors
**1. **To give shelter to: harbor refugees; harbor a fugitive.
**2. **To provide a place, home, or habitat for: a basement that harbors a maze of pipes; streams that harbor trout and bass.
**3. **To entertain or nourish (a specified thought or feeling): harbor a grudge.
[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#226699]Your right though there was a spelling mistake

Not actually a spelling mistake, that is a definition from an American dictionary.

Anyway, I see your definition and raise you this one.

harpn harp [haːp]a usually large musical instrument which is held upright, and which has many strings which are plucked with the fingers.

*harp on (about)to keep on talking about: He's forever harping on (about his low wages); She keeps harping on his faults.*

Kentucky Fried Chicken - when they used real chicken!

KFC - what do they use now?

Chicken. The reason for the name change is that "fried" has too many negative connotations about the healthiness (or otherwise) of their food.

I'm utterly shocked that I seem to be older than most of the people posting on this thread.

When the hell did that happen?

As for my childhood, I didn't have running water, electricity or telephone.

I did have a horse, some dogs and a mountain bike, so I reckon my childhood would have taken place in the 40's or 50's according to this list. We did have a car, though, but then again we lived 45 minutes drive from town.

Not actually a spelling mistake, that is a definition from an American dictionary.

Anyway, I see your definition and raise you this one.

harpn harp [haːp]a usually large musical instrument which is held upright, and which has many strings which are plucked with the fingers. harp قيثارَه арфа harfa harpe die Harfe άρπα arpa harf چنگ harppu harpe נֵבֶל हार्प, वीणा harfa hárfa harpa harpa arpa ハープ 하프 arfa arfa hap harp harpe harfa harpa harpă арфа harfa harfa harfa harpa พิณ arp 豎琴 арфа ایک بڑا ساز جس کے چوکھٹے میں تار کسے ہوتے ہیں đàn hạc 竖琴

n harpist harpspeler عازِف القيثارَه арфист harfenista, -ka harpenist der/die Harfenist(in) αρπιστής arpista harfimängija چنگ نواز harpunsoittaja harpiste מְנַגֵן בְּנֵבֶל हार्प वादक svirac na harfi hárfás pemain harpa hörpuleikari arpista ハープ奏者 하프 연주자 arfininkas arfists; arfiste pemain hap harpist harpespiller, harpist harfist(k)a harpista harpist арфист harfista, -ka harfist harfista harpist นักเล่นพิณ arp çalgıcısı, arpist 豎琴師 арфіст بربط نواز người chơi đàn hạc 竖琴师

*harp on (about)to keep on talking about: He's forever harping on (about his low wages); She keeps harping on his faults.*

i didn't question your spelling or definition of the word harping. Was just pointing out that the word i used is not incorrect :~}

people are definately softer today.
i blame central heating. it makes people ill because they want to sit in a stuffy room all the time at 23˚ they need to HTFU.

and fat kids at school? there were 2 in a school of 1000+ when i were a lad.
i'm not allowed within 1km of schools now but when i lurked around them recently there were loads of fat kids.

Boo, people usually think I'm younger.

I've got a babysitter tonight

BMMF, you really have to start asserting your age. Where is it all going to end?

" just uncomfortable with the idea that things used to be better. I just don't and won't believe it."

i know one thing that was definately better 25 years ago and that was the speed and amount of traffic on rural roads. i was allowed to ride my bike wherever i wanted (which was a radius of about 7miles around the village) from an early age and don't remember any problems with cars. back then a car doing 60mph down a twisty country road was quite hard to achieve as they were slow, had shit brakes and handled badly. now i wouldn't dream of letting a kid ride around there on their own, and have to think carefully about particular roads/corners and junctions i have to cycle around there.

You're right. There are many things that have changed a great deal, some for the better but many for the worse. My point was that these things don't wreck our lives if we don't let them. Childhood obesity for instance is deemed a big problem and something that one ought to be concerned with. Yet I don't have kids, and don't know any particularly fat or unhealthy children. It really doesn't affect me and I only know about it because journalists (the same ones who write dog shit articles about 'fixies') ram statistics down our necks. Again, being 'politically correct' is another hot issue and one that people love to moan about, but it can be sidestepped simply by following your own moral compass. flap averted. I feel like the media makes us all think and function in the same way, homogenising opinion and polarising our hate for the way our world is now.

I agree about cars though.