Bohemia Village Voice

Congratulations to all my friends and family who were born in the 40s, 50s and  60s.

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 tin, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.
Then, after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured 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. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Take away food was limited to fish & chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Nandos. Even though all the shops closed at 6pm and didn’t open at 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 shop and buy toffees, gobstoppers, bubble gum and some bangers 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 OK. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we’d forgotten the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on Sky, no video/dvd films, no mobile phones, 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, but 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 buy Easter eggs and hot cross buns only at Easter time.
We were given air-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! Our parents didn’t invent stupid names for their kids like ‘Kiora’ and ‘Blade’ and ‘Ridge’ and ‘Vanilla’. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
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. Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bullies always ruled the playground at school.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all! And YOU are one of them! – CONGRATULATIONS!