Born in the 60's, 70's or 80's

Last year i went to a 20 year school reunion. Basically it was organised after a load of my year bumped into each other electronically via Friends Reunited and got chatting. One of them just sent me a mail:

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those
of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably
shouldn't have survived, because ...

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

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

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip
flops and fluorescent 'clackers' on our wheels. (I
think you will find they were known as spokey dokeys -
some old git wrote this)

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts
or airbags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a
bottle and it tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy
pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight
because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle
or can and no-one actually died from this.

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

We would leave home in the morning and could play all
day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No
one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video
games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape
movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no
personal computers, no Internet chat rooms. We had
friends we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and street rounders, lamp posts made great wickets and sometimes that ball really hurt.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones but
there were no law suits.

We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed
from other parents.

We played tin can murky and knock-down-ginger and were afraid of the owners catching us.

We walked to friend's homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we
didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school,
which was just round the corner.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.

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

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law
was unheard of. They actually sided with the law.

This generation has produced some of the best
risk-takers and 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.

And you're one of them. Congratulations!

Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow
up as real kids, before lawyers and government
regulated our lives, for our own good.

For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you
might like to read about us.

This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and
it might put a smile on your face: The majority of
students in universities today were born in
1983........They are called youth.

They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and
the Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel.

They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena
or Belinda Carlisle.

For them, there has always been only 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 round in shape
and they can't imagine how this fat guy could be a god
of dance.

They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission
Impossible are Films from last year.

They can never imagine life before computers.

They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, Red Hand Gang or the Famous Five.

They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You.

They can't believe a black and white television ever
existed and don't even know how to switch on a TV
without a remote control.

And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone.
Now let's check if we're getting old...

1. You understand what was written above and you smile.

2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a
night out.

3. Your friends are getting married/already married.

4. You are always surprised to see small children
playing comfortably with computers.

5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you
shake your head.

6. You remember watching Dirty Den in EastEnders the
first time around.

7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking
about the good old days, repeating again all the funny stories you
have experienced together.

8. Having read this mail, you are thinking of
forwarding it to some other friends because you think
they will like it too...

Yes, you're getting older!!!!

 

Excellent! :lol:

I can relate to bits of both sides of the age divide here. Born 1980.

LMAO! Look! No hands!!!

 

I was born in 1982 and I know Bananara and Rick Astley well . I wish I didn't but that cannot be helped it is just somthing I shall have to live with.

As for the cars thing, yes I often woundered how the hell I was alive when you consider the cars I just to travel in as a baby. I dad had a 1969 F reg Mini Traveler and I was just dumped in the back with no seat belts or anything, just my travel cot.

As for bike riding well I used to have a speedometre on my cycles. and I would always try and break the speed limit on it. There is a slight hill nearer me so I used to ride down that road (on the pavement!) at 33mph! The joke is now if I was driving a car down that road I wouldn't go anything above 25mph!

CDs have not always existed but then I am biased . I still remember the old music centre's made by Sanyo and the like.

Am I getting older? Yes I think I am. (well of course I can unless I can invent a way to freaze time) but a lot of the generation born in the late 80's early 90's are ignorant to life bc (before computers).

Although I myself have been brought up with computers, my dad got his first Commodore in 1984 and I remember being so fasinated by it when I was 2/3 years old. Even though I didn't understand anything. It wasn't till I was 8/9 I started writing very basic programs for it.

I got my first IBM PC in 1993 and learn't DOS on that. That is somthing, the modern generation of computer uses have no idea how to use DOS! I think learning DOS gives you just a good understanding of how file structures work even if it is a little bit dated now. However the console mode is still used a for configuring PCs all the time

We got the Internet at home in 1997 and I first used it in late 1995. I would say this one the time when I started not having a normal childhood.

Ok I shall stop now.

 

Please forgive my extremely poor grammar above. I still have a hangover and my head is splinning around. (And yes I do remember when Kylie was in neighbours and I should be so lucky was in the charts).

 

I was born in 1964 and got all of the post, except that I sleep far less in my dotage than I did in my yuuf - approx 4~5 hours a night now.

 

another child of the 60's and yep all so true especially

alough we were posh,we used to wipe the top of the bottle on our t-shirts between swigs

 

Yep! Describes my childhood perfectly. I was born in 1959. The first 4 or 5 cars I travelled in had no seatbelts at all and I think I was in my teens before rear seatbelts were made compulsory on new cars.
My brother and I used to go out and play all day long on the local common or recreation ground. In 1968 we moved to a new house which was the first of a new estate so we had a large building site to play in for about 2 years. Heaven!
We used to use cardboard and clothes pegs for the clickers on the bike wheels - remember the Raleigh Chopper! I was never sad enough to own one. I had a five speed racer
In 1976 I got a moped that would do 45 mph (with L plates).
We didn't have a colour TV until about 1973, and then only because my brother and I smashed the old one while fighting in the lounge. I got out the front door fast enough. My brother wasn't so lucky so he got a good thrashing first. We didn't dare go back for 6 hours
I walked to school alone from the age of 6. It was over a mile. When I went to big school I used to walk to the station and catch the train with all the city gents in their bowler hats. Sometimes I cycled as it was actually only 4 miles to the school but the train pass was free.
I can remember petrol at 25 pence per gallon, about 5 or 6p a litre Even when I learnt to drive in 1977 I think it was around 64p a gallon although I may be wrong there.
In 1968 a Ford Escort 1.1L was £800.

 

I'm older than most but I remember awaiting the weekly delivery of the Eagle featuring the adventures of Dan Dare “Pilot of the futureâ€Â. I can recall being told that due to a surfeit of home grown coal, oil and atomic power the UK would have energy so cheap that the electricity meter in your home would cost more than the power it would meter! TOTP and Pans People were the biz.

Auric

 

And Gary Glitter was a rock god

 

Sid, great post.

We were almost indestructable as kids (born '68). It's probably why we will outlive the fast food generation born from the 90s on.

PS Remember your Grandparents saying "kids of today have got no imagination"? Funny how history repeats itself

 

If you are bored...

And you are on the computer , but there's not much going on within the various forums, this guys musings make a good, light hearted, little read to fill a little time. Good to see that some people have got the time and energy to do this kinda stuff , off there own back .......
Nostalgia chart/music site

I was just bumbling through my bookmarks/favorites , tidying them up and checking for dead links and got side tracked by it for a while. It kinda related to the thread.

BTW,everyone keep smiling, this post was just general chit-chat and not meant to offend any youngsters

 

Born 1974...

Yep, I read it and was definitely smiling to myself and being accompanied by a big warm glowing feeling from within!

Ah for those care free days indeed... Just stick on some Bananarama (don't ever see anyone mentioning them these days ) and it's like yesterday once more - or was that The Carpenters :shame:

If it wasn't for the humble home computer, I'm not sure what I'd be doing a living right at this moment, then again it IS something I could conceivably see myself living without if say I were to live in a country with a climate which encouraged all year round outdoor activities (not to mention the public transport infrastructure to one to step outside ones frontdoor in the first place without fear of the potential tedium of trying to use it).

Mobile phones too... I guess maybe because everyone leads more diverse lifestyles, different working hours, more things/choices to do. Before mobiles, I guess everyone could pretty much predict where everyone would be or at least not be too far away from someone else within ear shot of a landline who'd know where we were.

 

What - you guys literally imploded it? Cool!!!!! The best thing for them really...

I was (c)1975 so most of this rang true for me too - the first car I remember going in was a Simca and it was a death trap - the bottom was rusting out. We then got an Austin 1800 second hand - barring the design fault in the suspension it was the biz!

We rented our telly until 1994!!!! So we always had a colour one, but I remember one day in June 1988 coming home to find that we also had a video (a BATLLESHIP toploading Baird with Dolby Stereo on linear tracks - no hifi) - well, so we were one of the last houses on the street with VHS, but our neighbours had got Beta in 1982 - ha ha ha - so it does pay to wait sometimes...

 

My parents rented their TV till 1998 now we own 5 sets! My dads Lada was a death trap there considering it was just based on a 1964 design.

The first video recorder got was given to us in 1990 and it was a massive old Baird grey toploader.

My dad bought a Sony MIDI system for £500 in 1988 we were probably the first in the family to have CD player. It was considering very special to have a CD plater back then.

My dad had a car from 1980-1983 but sold it scraped it when it failed the MOT, it was 1968 Mini traveler. We didn't own a car until 1991 which was our first Lada.

 

I BET it was the same as our Baird - barring the colour; 8 channels along the right of the display, an off/on/timer switch and then Dolby switch on the left followed by the transport buttons, and a wired remote control by any chance? Oh - and a 4 digit mechanical tape counter???

I was the first person in my family to have a CD player - 1991. Funnily enough, it was a Sony midi system

 

I had one of the first NICAM Hifi VHS VCRs in the country - a JVC - in 1987. I used it to replace my Reel-to-Reel tape recorder for recording the Friday and Saturday rocks shows from the radio. I used to transcribe the best tracks to cassette for playing in the car.

 

QUOTE]I BET it was the same as our Baird - barring the colour; 8 channels along the right of the display, an off/on/timer switch and then Dolby switch on the left followed by the transport buttons, and a wired remote control by any chance? Oh - and a 4 digit mechanical tape counter???[/QUOTE]

I remember it having a mechnacal counter display. It had no remote control at all but I think it had a DIN socket to plug one into.

I remember it having a lid at the top next to the loader which loads of dials on it uses to tune it in.

I also remember we had a Baird TV as well and it had 6 channels. It was one of them early 70's colour TV's where the colour was almost black and white.[

 

He he he - we had the one up on you then - just before we got the video, we were renting a 21 inch 1979 Baird with 8 channels and ultrasonic remote! When the video arrived, the telly had also metamorphosized into a 1988 Ferguson FST with teletext - so I had videotape AND teletext to mess around with - pure class!

Incidentally, the older 1979 telly had a rounder sperical tube A football you could watch telly on, unlike the Sony slogan - a telly you can watch football on

Technobear - how long has standard VHS hifi been out? I've got NOW2 on VHS from 1984 with hifi stereo/Dolby linear - some cheesy old tunes on there too

 

NICAM came after stereo. I think Stereo VCR's came out in the late 70's but were very very expensive as they required 4 heads instead of two.

NICAM didn't come out till the late 80's. With a stereo VCR there was no stereo tuner so you could only record stuff on mono (as all transmissions were mono at the time) but you record stereo vcrs to stereo etc.

NICAM vcrs basicaly had a stereo tuner. I didn't get my first NICAM VCR until 2000! I have a NICAM TV as well now but I use the VCR for sound as it has got the phono audio outs.

 

As I recall, there were two hifi VHS models in late 1987. One was a Philips and I don't think it had NICAM. The other was the JVC which did have NICAM. And that was it. A choice of two. I ordered my JVC as soon as it was announced, primarily for use as an audio recorder. I had to wait about 4 weeks for it I think (well I was living in Somerset at the time). I don't remember when NICAM broadcasts actually started. I know it was some considerable time later.

Stereo VHS was available before hifi VHS but the sound quality was pretty dire as it was a linear track running at half cassette speed.

Hifi VHS uses an FM encoded signal blended with the video signal and helically scanned onto the tape. If the heads are misaligned, it sounds just like an FM tuner that's not quite on station!