Down memory lane......

DON79

Something else which is a "no no" now as well. my mum ate jars and jars of peanut butter when she was pregnant with my sister. The result, nothing but my the fact my sister loves peanut butter. No allergies or anything from it. Over the top about health in pregnancy sometimes, too much of the "what if" scenario about avoiding peanuts and cheeses.

Sue-UU

Some of the pills were called "Quells" weren't they? Never did a darned thing for me either and was as sick as a dog whenever I travelled by bus, no car luxuries until I was about 12.

DON79

yes i remember quells, there were others called "sealegs" too I think! but quells were equally as bad I think. didn't matter to me, car or bus, still got travel sick, can't remember when it wore off tho!


Funny thing is, I have been on the receiving end of the car sickness thing recently. My little boy was sick in the car for the first time a few weeks back. and it was horrible. aside from worrying about him while we found somewhere to stop, it was pretty horrible! did I mention it was horrible? :rotfl:

Sue-UU

Ah sealegs, that's em! No bally good at all either! My best time I ever travelled when I was a kid was when my uncle took me home in his old van, I felt fine then, not the smoothness of buses and "Royal Blue" coaches I suppose.

[edit] yes, horrible, though I think you mentioned that!

gairlochgal

Indeed. Born in 64 here and I remember being home alone 11ish and my uncle came and got me and we did 100 on the motorway - can't imagine a seat belt was involved. My mum murdered us both for it when we got home.

But ya know, we haven't forgotten this stuff. I am definitely parenting my kids in the way I was raised. We live in inner London and my kids are out and about and having good times. DD1 has a proud track record of trips to A&E as she has fallen/jumped out of trees. We have a dusty wii that they will have to remind themselves how to use when they next think of it. And DD2 is equally obsessed with Hannah Montana and Just William. The two co-exist very happily. So let's not give up on the kids.

Icewytch

Oh I loved reading that, thanks.
I was born in 61 in the highlands and remember playing outdoors in proper winters, three plus foot of snow, and ice on the inside of the windows. The house I grew up in had an outdoor loo (shock horror for anyone born in the eighties, har!) and for emergencies at night you had a gazunder
and if you really wanted to use the loo it was halfway down a field full of cows.
I really did the go-kart thing, being a bit of tomboy, and was proud of making one myself, though looking back now, when I remember the sticking out rusty nails, the wobbling wheels....och no, I`m still proud!
I remember visiting my uncles (mum died when I was still young and I was raised by men, which explains a great deal ) and being given a box of candles, matches, nails, screwdrivers and various tool bits to play with!
And not once did I come to any harm...oh sure, as a kid I had the usual grazed knees and with jumping off the sand dunes at Brora beach I broke my leg and being miles from home, had to crawl/hop back for treatment. But I survived and won a great deal of kudos from my mates for that. :beer:
I can`t say with any certainty..but am sure I read somewhere that the risk of `stranger danger` to kids today is NOT any worse than it was in our day. Hmmm..not quite sure about that, given the net and rising population...but for those parents who refuse to let their kids outdoors at all to play (through lack of safe spaces or fear of what might happen) then I really do think something is missing from the kids` lives.
But I guess things ARE different....back then, no kid would cheek or threaten any adult because that adult would clip your ear then utter the dreaded words "I know your dad..and I`m telling him about this!" and you`d be suitably terrified!
And policemen really DID bother about how kids behaved then and thought nothing of also clipping your ear, and telling your dad ditto.

I also remember Hillman Hunters!
And we had a Hillman Imp at one point, the thermostats always went on them so you took it out and always took bottles of water with you wherever you went, hee...:rotfl:
Eight track cassettes....sigh...
LP`s! I still have a collection (mostly Marc Bolan and early Bowie with the Corries thrown in for good measure )

Aw, this thread has really cheered me up. We didn`t have it so bad, really, did we?:)

fiveyearplan

I was born in 64 and I'm proud to say I did every single one of those things including drinking from that garden hose. I can also remember nasty bicycle accidents and injuries. Our playgrounds were made of concrete not that cushy black stuff that they are today. My mother did smoke and drink (she's not a big drinker) when pregnant with all 4 of us and we are all healthy. I'm also proud to say that I smoked and drank during both of my pregnancies (I only smoke 4-5 cigarettes a day and I had the occasional lager), my children are very healthy and bright. I think all this health business in pregnancy these days is way over the top and one of the reason children have so many allergies - that and being too clean. Let the child play on the floor, germs build up their immune system.

One last thing, we live in North London since our kids were 8-9 and before that we were in London Zone 2 and I have always let them play outside and walk to the shop from about age 7 or so. All the kids in the neighbourhood did, it was at the end of our street. Once we moved to North London they were able to ride their bikes in the street, go fishing, play in the woods etc and explore their surroundings. They sometimes packed a lunch and came home later etc. I'm glad they had similar opportunities to me.

One last thing - when I was growing up we were in a new neighbourhood with lots of house building and road building going on - the show houses were never locked and we used to play in them. My step dad took me out on the new roads and taught me how to drive when I was 10 years old.

Deep_In_Debt

Gosh. I was born in 66 and I remember those days!

We lived in the country then in quite a big house and we didn't have a telly for years so me and big bro were always playing outside whatever the weather! We used to love mud especially and getting covered in it!

My mum doesn't drink and never has done but she did smoke when she was pregnant with both of us. Not heavily though. We grew up to be very healthy kids! We were never ill and used to get jealous of the kids who were as they always got time off school and we didn't!

We used to wind up the local park keeper by swinging from the branches of the trees which would then snap and we'd go tumbling down the hill - but we loved it! The park keeper knew my dad and used to report our bad behaviour but it didn't stop us! We'd just find something else to wind him up about like riding our bikes across the grass instead of along the paths!

I also had one of the bright orange space hopper things - I loved it! I used to go up and down the road on it. All my friends at the time had them so we used to have races in the middle of the road! I always had grazes on my knees and elbows from coming off it! I recently saw a child near me on one and I was tempted to rush over to her and ask if I could have a go! First one I've seen in years!

Oh, those were the days. We were so innocent then and were happy with the really basic things in life, like just playing outside and making camps in the woods and winding up the park keeper!

dodecanese

hi
I was born 1970, my dad had a Vauxhall Cavelier with the plastic "leatherette" seats- and me, brother and sister were always "loose" at the back of it. I also remember getting a spacehopper one Christmas.

Our house had an outdoor loo, and we also had a rag and bone man plying his trade still, he once gave us some children's tea set stuff- he must have been at the absolute dieing end of his trade, but I do rememeber him coming around the street with his horse.
I remember Italian cookery becoming rather fashionable too, while I was a nipper- my mum and dad were rather partial to rustling up a spag bol or a lasagne- it was all quite exotic in Yorkshire, in those days:rotfl:

Deep_In_Debt

I remember my dad had a Morris 1100 at the time with the horrible PVC seats with patterns on! We used to end up sticking to the seats in the hot weather when we were wearing shorts and getting the pattern of the seats on the backs of our legs! Mum had a 2CV for years also with plastic seats!

We didn't have central heating at home so in the winter we all used to huddle round the log fire in the living room wearing our coats and jumpers but it never seemed to bother us as many of our friends didn't have heating either.