VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Philip Banks]

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos..
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, 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 colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had 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, Subway or Nandos.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, 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, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank 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 O.K.

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 video/dvd films, 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, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns 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!

RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the 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 bully's always ruled the playground at school.

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!

And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS

[CBrooksVox]

LOL! What a list Phillip! Kids today....

[CBrooksVox]

Sorry about the extra L!
Here's one....we played with Jarts that actually had METAL tips! OOOHHH the horror! And we had pull tabs on soda cans that we dropped into the can and never swallowed. Telephones had LONG cords and there was no such thing as call waiting! We used 45's with little plastic discs so that we could hear them on the Magnavox...and sometimes the NEEDLE broke. I'm aghast that we survived. There's so many more...I"m sure everyone can think of things.

[Bailey]

And a 50¢ weekly allowance was plenty.
_________________
"Bailey"
a.k.a. Jim Sutton
Retired... Every day is Saturday, except Sunday.
VO-BB Member #00044 .gif" alt="W00T" border="0" />
AOVA Graduate 02/2004 ;
"Be a Voice, not an Echo."

[Lizden]

You got an allowance????

I remember several summers traveling up from NY State to New Hampshire (Lake Winnipesaukee ), in the back of my best friend's parents pick-up truck, with the cab top on. She & I on plastic lounge chairs with our "Tiger Beat" & "Seventeen" magazines & our battery operated record players playing 45s all the way up! The only way we could get out was when her Stepfather opened the tailgate at the rest stops!

Great fun!

L.
_________________
Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

[CarynClark]

Tis true... those were the days.

I would get my $.50 allowance every Saturday. We would then go to the flea market (Zern's for those in PA) and I would spend some of it on penny candy, like those fake candy cigarettes. LOVED those.
_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[Eddie Eagle]

I neva wuz the shopest knife in the box. When my mom and dad offered me a choice between a dime and nickel, I always took the nickel cuz it wuz bigga. True Story.

[melissa eX]

We had roller skates - not rollerblades - with a skate key you had to turn to tighten the skates enough to keep them on. And when we didn't, we fell and skinned our knees and bumped our (helmetless) heads and we went home to get bandaged up before going back out to skate again.

When our teachers called our parents 'cause we were misbehaving our parents scolded us instead of threatening or suing the teachers.

We played dodgeball and tag and we knew the difference between getting hit too hard by accident and getting slammed deliberately, When it was deliberate we just hit back and it all got sorted out. When we were 'it' or 'out' and we felt bad we dealt with it 'cause, hey, that's what life is like sometimes.

And we had a great time....

[Bailey]

3 TV channels... b&w... rabbit ears... and NO remote.

_________________
"Bailey"
a.k.a. Jim Sutton
Retired... Every day is Saturday, except Sunday.
VO-BB Member #00044 .gif" alt="W00T" border="0" />
AOVA Graduate 02/2004 ;
"Be a Voice, not an Echo."

[Nelson Jewell]

Wow, Philip, I can't tell you how often I pine for those days. Especially now as I approach the half century mark on April 3rd.

I loved those summers that didn't end...those games that went on forever...chuckin' rocks and fishin'...standing in line waiting to see the next Elvis flick at the Braden theatre ( a buck twenty five would buy admission, popcorn, soda, and ice cream)...harvest season ($potatoes$)...and most of all, my childhood friends. Damn, we had it good and we didn't even know it.

And never in a million years had I dreamed I'd ever work in the airline industry, education, radio, television, and certainly working as VO talent.

I'd love to have those says to do over again.

nelz

[Monk]

and to be fair, there were things from those days that are gone.

Separate fountains for "Colored"

duck and cover

other forms of segregation...

There are many things today to celebrate!
_________________
Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me...

www.monksvoice.com

[Lizden]

Oh, Monk,
Absolutely.
I do agree, it just seems like over-protectionism & "Correctness" sometimes take over!

And as to:

[Mandy Nelson]

Lurve this tons, Philip.

[DinaMB]

LOVE this thread!

So true, so true!

I used to suppelment my income by working as a lunch mom (supervised a classroom of kids during lunch and recess to make sure they didn't kill themselves or eachother) when my kids were in elementary school. Would you believe they outlawed "Red Rover"? They also wouldn't allow the kids to run outside. Crazy.

I was the "bad" lunch mom. Before I'd take the kids outside I'd tell them they had to go out and play and run around and have fun until they could run no more (always making sure if they went by Mrs. Elbe the walked ha ha!) And we wonder why our children are obese!

We were the "weird" parents in the neighborhood. I asked that the children address me by "Mrs. Boland" and we had all my kids birthday parties at home with homemade games (anyone remember "drop the clothespin in the milk bottle?") They always had such a blast!

My children are almost grown but I gotta say... I feel sorry for my future grandchildren should I be so blessed.

[todd ellis]

ok - don't get me started - my dad pulling us down the street on our sleds behind the truck, building ramps out of (anything) and jumping the creek on our bicycles & figuring out that if you jumped off the low side of the barn onto the hill adjacent the drop was only about 6 feet --- IF you jumped far enough out. in 7th grade we built a go-kart then took the motor out of my friend frank's yamaha yz-125 and (somehow) mounted it on the back and drove it through city streets. we got stopped by the law (of course) and were told to "go home and tear that stupid thing apart or i will tell your dads". we did. we were scared of our dads.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
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