According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 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 on our wheels. 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, sometimes, even better.
We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank cola 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 with scooters and then went topspeed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. 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, and no Internet chat rooms.
We had friends and we went outside and found them. We played with marbles and king, and sometimes that ball really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones but there were no lawsuits. We had full on fistfights but no prosecution followed from other parents. We played knock-and-run and were actually 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 (ok 4,if you like it) 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!
2 comments:
awesome awesome !!!totally agree wid ya!
well written, a change from ur very vague blogs. goodlist of examples, but emphasis on the central idea is requried.
and i like the fact it was written at 4:15AM,
standards of everything change once u progress or rather, once the environment changes. when i was in CEPT, i would prefer sitting on the floor then anywhere else, not i am a bit worried about my trousers.
people are still risk takers but in a different way, at a different level.
there is a curve in kotler (marketing mngt book) about the life of a product, it applies to everything in life, all new fads, all trends go in the same order. see it.
take care.
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