Recently, recieved this forward mail from a friend which got me reminiscing about the golden old days we had in our childhood. How did one really survive growing up in the 80's and 90's?
We had no seat-belts, no airbags and sitting in the back of a truck was a treat… Our baby prams had the most gorgeous lead based colors(!) and we had no such thing as tamper proof bottle tops… Opening kitchen cupboards was a breeze as safety locks were unheard of! We loved being let loose in the big bad world without bodyguards…
Cycling was like a breath of fresh air… No safety helmets, knee pads or elbow pads, with plenty of cardboards between spokes to make it sound like a motorbike ;) We were fearless on our bicycles even when the brakes failed going downhill… We were showing off how tough we are, by how high we could climb trees & then jumping down..
When thirsty we only drank tap water, bottled water was unheard of and the idea of paying for water was alien to us! We kept busy collecting stamps, coins and other bits & pieces so we could build all sort of things… We could stay out to play for hours, as long as we got back before dark, in time for dinner…
We had no mobile phones, but we always managed to find each other…. How? No one knows… We ate everything in sight, cakes, bread, chocolate, ice-cream, sweet sugary drinks, yet, we stayed skinny by fooling around. And if one of us was lucky to find a 1 litre coca cola bottle we all had a swag from it & guess what? Nobody picked up any germs!!
If we failed our exams we were given a second chance by simply repeating the same grade…without visiting psychiatrists, psychologists or counselors…We did not have Play Stations, MP3, Nintendo's, I-Pods, Video games, 99 Cable TV channels, DVD's, Home Cinema, Mobile phones, Home Computers, Laptops, Chat-rooms, Internet, etc. BUT, we had REAL FRIENDS!!!!
When we called on them to come out to play, noone ever rang the doorbell, we just went around the back… We played with sticks and stones, played doctor and patient, hide and seek, snakes and ladders, monopoly over and over again…
Sundays were spent watching Mahabharat, Ramayan, and He-man and there were a host of other TV shows we were crazy for like Vikram-Betal, Spiderman, Surbhi, Duck tales, Jungle Book and many more..
These were the golden days of our childhood and they seem like a dream today.. time changes so fast that we dont even realize we have passed one stage of our life and moved into the other.. And when I see the kids today who miss on all these aspects, I wish they could see our wonder days and wonder at the way we used to lead our innocent lives :)
