Am I getting Old?

Another of those forwarded notes – but one that makes me VERY nostalgic!! 🙂

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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 colored 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 matchboxes!

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just chappals and fluorescent
sticker on our wheel guard.

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 laddoos and drank sugarcane juice with added 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 glass and no-one
actually died from this.

We would spend hours riding cycles without support wheels and then went top
speed down the road, only to find out we weren’t still so confident on the
bike!!!

After running into stinging bees / thorn bush a few times, we learned to
solve the problem.

We would leave home in the afternoon and could play all evening, 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 DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.

We had friends – we went outside and found them.

We played with marbles on the main street without footwear and sometimes
that road 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 chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners
catching us.

We walked to friends’ 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 pebbles.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore the same shoes all summer!

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 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 1985……They
are called youth.

• 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.
• They believe that films such as Devdaas were written recently.
• They can never imagine life before computers.
• The joy of watching TV together with the entire neighborhood.
• They can’t believe a black and white television ever existed.
• 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 already married with grown up kids or some may even be
having grand children!
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 meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good old
days, repeating again all the funny things you have experienced together.
7. 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 old!!