I feel extremely ancient now , I was born in 1963


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

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags and 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, but we were never
overweight because we were always out 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 DVDs, no Internet chatrooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them. We played elastics and
rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt! We fell out of trees, got
cut, and broke bones but there were no law suits.

We played knock-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 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!

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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 1986....

The Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel.

They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry 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, the Dukes of Hazard or the
Famous Five.

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 getting married/already married or getting divorced/divorced.

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

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

6. 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!!