According to today’s regulators & bureaucrats, we kids of the 70s and early 80s

probably shouldn’t be alive today:

1. Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which we promptly chewed and licked off.

2. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

3. When we rode our bikes we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent spokey dokey’s on our wheels.

4. We would ride in cars with no seatbelts or airbags and sitting in the front was a treat.

5. We drank water from puddles and garden hoses, not from a bottle - and it tasted the same.

6. We ate chips, sweets, drank fizzy juice with sugar in it but we were never fat because we were outside playing.

7. We shared one drink with 4 friends, drinking from the same bottle, and no-one actually died from this.


8. We spent hours building go carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find we forgot the brakes. After crashing into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

9. We would leave home in the morning and play all day long as long as were back before dark. No-one was able to reach us and no-one minded.

10. We didn’t have playstations, x-boxes or video games. There weren’t 99 channels on the TV, no DVD’s, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers and no internet chat rooms.

11. We had friends and we went outside to find them. We played bulldogs and street rounders and sometimes that ball really hurt.

12. We fell out of trees and off walls and even broke bones but there were no law suits.

13. We had full fist fights but weren’t prosecuted by other parents.

14. We played knock door run and were actually afraid that we might get caught.

15. We walked to each other’s houses and believe it or not, to school! We didn’t rely on Mummy and Daddy driving us round the corner.

16. We made up games with sticks and balls.

17. We rode on bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

18. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of - they actually sided with the law!

19. We had freedom, failure, success & responsibility - and we learned to deal with it.



Today, the "Uptown Girl" they know is by Westlife and not Billy Joel. They have never heard of Bananarama, Nena or Belinda Carlisle. For them, there has only ever been one Germany and one Vietnam. AIDS has existed since they were born. CD’s have existed since they were born. Michael Jackson has always been white. To them, John Travolta has always been a lard ass and not the God of dance we know and love! They believe that Charlie’s Angels and Mission Impossible are films from last year. They could never imagine life without a computer. They’ll never have pretended to be The A-Team, The Kids from Fame or the Redhand Gang. They’ll never have asked Jim to fix it or written into Why Don’t You with a cool tip. They can’t believe that Black & White TV ever existed and don’t even know how to switch on a TV without a remote control. And they will never, never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone!!!

Yes, my friend - you too are getting old!!!!!!

*Kiss*