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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 1940's, 50's, 60's and early 70's !

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 coloured 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!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore

Views: 106

Comment by StephenBln on April 6, 2009 at 14:28
Yep, in the 1960s there were quite a few East German & (the then) Czechoslovakian childrens programmes on TV..
Another one, around 1968 was the East German White Horses which was dubbed into English and strangely went back to the GDR and was used there as a programme for East Germans kids learning English....
Comment by John D on April 6, 2009 at 19:19
Black and White Minstrel Show - oops hush mah mouf :-)
Comment by Chris Smith on April 6, 2009 at 20:58
Listen with Mother
The Light Programme
Valves in the TV
Irons that plugged into the light socket
Mangles on the top-loading washing machine (state of the art!)
Lino and rugs (no fitted carpet in those days)
Muffin the Mule
Captain Pugwash (the name's of his able-bodied seaman and the young Master are myths)
Lamb Chop (the puppet)
Comment by maggie on April 12, 2009 at 0:01
....whooping cough, measles, mumps and having to spend summer days up close and personal with a friend so that I could catch anything going such as german measles, while still young. Not forgetting the threat of polio, the last of the smallpox scares and people disappearing for months to the TB sanatoriums. We were the ones who managed to survive before antibiotics, most vaccinations/ inoculations, anti virals......and Mums spent days scrubbing the clothes by hand, and fathers did hard manual work without power tools......though personally I spent endless days running in the fields, camping under an old silk parachute blissfully unaware of anything outside of my imagination.......
Comment by John Shulver on November 19, 2019 at 13:15

Brilliant stuff.    

Comment by John Shulver on August 8, 2020 at 11:37

Chris Smith................what an absolutely brilliant post. Loved it.  I've only just seen it.  But you finding photos of your late dad was truly the pot of gold at end of rainbow.  Having few photos of my own father I can totally share in your delight.  Worth their weight in gold eh !

And I attended Woodlands Park schools as well but in 1954 - 60.

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