A walk to remember

Have you ever taken a walk down memory lane of your childhood history? While sipping a cup of hot tea or espresso, have you wonder how you survived your childhood.

If you were a kid in the 50's, 60's, 70's or even early 80's ..how did you survive your childhood?

Back in the sixties, when we were growing up, we never wore seatbelts in the car. As cars in those time did not have any airbags. So ..can you imagine if unwanted incidents had happened?

In those sixties and seventies, riding on the back of a pick up truck was very common and an adventure to most children that we still remember it! Now, you hardly see children ...only adults who are usually constrution workers or as means of transporting goods.

When we were babies, we put in our cribs that were painted with bright colors (paint which was full of lead) and parents of the yester-years were not so paranoid as compared to today's parents (now sudah pandai) who are blessed with guide books on how to care for babies.

There were no childproof medicine bottles nor did our parents ever childproof our house. No bar or grill gates or bars or any prtective gears in the kitchen to ensure the safety of young children in those years. If you fall down the stairs or knocked your head, you will be picked up and hushed away to stop crying. Today, kids will be 'blackmailed' with gifts to stop the never-ending cries ...huhu

It was never a must to wear a helmet when we rode our bikes around the neighbourhood areas. Today's parents will insist you wear your helmet or you will be screamed at.

Growing up in the past means we got to be as mischievious as kids ...we would drink water from the faucet or from a hose in the backyard (not bottled water) or even from the well which was quite a common sight in kampong areas.

Cell phones were not available yet, so our parents were never able to reach us - awesome isn't it? =)

We would get scrapes, bruises on hands and legs, break bones, lose teeth, but we would never sue for these accidents. In today's world, when accidents do happen, either foul language will on air or you will get an invitation to visit Court-room.

We would eat cakes, bread and butter, drink sinfully sugary drinks yet we were not overweight because we were always outside playing that burn away calories and breakdown body fats. But today's generation ...errr CQ will leave to you readers to make the judgment =)

A group of four friends would share a drink and we would all drink from the same bottle; but that was not gross nor would anyone get sick. Today, one would be so paranoid to share from the same bottle of drink.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-boxes, video games, cable TV with over 100 channels, VCR's, surround sound, cellular phones, computers, online chatrooms - instead we would have tons of FRIENDS. Today, toddlers are more advance ...they are well-versed with remote controls as their first toys.

Some of us were not as bright as others but when one would get left back that was no big deal. They would not get taken to a psychologist nor did they ever suffer from dyslexia, hyperactivity, ADHD, ADD ..etc yet they would simply repeat the grade until they passed. Today, many of these services centres are mushrooming worldwide.

We had freedom, mishaps, successes, responsibilities and we would learn to deal with them.

The question is ~ how did we survive? And above all, to become the Great people that we are today. Are you from one of these generations? Walking down your memory lane is a time era to remember ...