Over 35? Congratulations, you survived!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and or drank alcohol while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos…

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, bread and dripping, 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 cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints, we had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and we rode our bikes with 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 and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC or Subway.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn’t open on a Sunday, 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 Toffees, Gobstoppers and Bubble Gum.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter. We drank real milk from a cow and 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 forgot 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 DVD films or colour TV, 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.

Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns could only be bought 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 because we didn’t need to keep up with the Jones’!

Not everyone made the rugby, football, cricket, netball 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 throw the blackboard rubber at us if they thought we weren’t concentrating. We can string sentences together and spell and have proper conversations because of a good, solid three R’s education. Our parents would tell us to ask a stranger to help us cross the road. 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’

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all!

So, if you are over 35, take solace from the fact that you are part of an exceptional group of people who, against all odds, survived!

Most junk email and chain letters are only fit for the recycle bin. But on the rare occasion you’ll find a gem that’ll make you stop and think. This was one of them. Credit: unknown.