Web Page 832

Top Picture: Hilsea Lido Gardens in the early 1950’s.






Bottom Picture: A 1960’s icon Bob Dylan

I know I have posted things like this before but I like this one!

WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER !!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's, 60'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, and they had butterfly nuts on the bolts which, after a bit if fiddling we learnt to undo ourselves.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes around the garden, the playing fields or rough ground, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks that some of us took when we were teenagers when we started hitchhiking.

As children if we were ever lucky enough to ride in a car, we rode in the front seat with no seat belts or air bags.
Take away food was limited to the local fish and chip shop, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Burger King.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open over the weekends, somehow we survived and didn't starve to death! We all 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, Gob stoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with and no one questioned it.

We ate biscuits, 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 our parents were happy. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts and sledges out of old prams and bits if wood, then we would ride down the hill, sometimes with disastrous results . We built tree houses and dens and played in riverbeds and streams 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 made mud pies made from dirt, and 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!
FOOTBALL, RUGBY and CRICKET had try outs 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.

Take Care and keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

You Write:

Steve Writes:-

Re Anida’s article: My Father kept chickens in our garden in Copsey Grove and maybe before that when we lived in Southsea but I was to young to remember that. Whether he sold the birds for the table or the eggs was a mystery to me then. I do remember, when he wasn't working, him sitting outside in the evenings with an axe, to kill the rats that were invading the Chicken coup! It probably set the scene for the much later T.V. series 'The Good Life' ? Back in the Fawcett Road (Southsea) prefab days, which was my first home and my earliest memories, I remember him growing copious amounts of spinach and him telling me I would grow up strong like Popeye if I ate my Spinach! Well, that became true as I have always prided myself on my fitness and strength.

But life was like that in those early and poor days of the late fifties.

News and Views:

Bob Dylan (see picture) has been denied permission by the Chinese government to perform in Shanghai and Beijing and so has cancelled his entire planned Asian concert. Said a promoter, "The chance to play in China was the main attraction for him. When that fell through everything else was called off. "

On this day 28th April 1960-1965

On 28/04/1960 the number one single was Do you Mind - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 28/04/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 28/04/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - The Shadows and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 28/04/1963 the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 28/04/1964 the number one single was A World Without Love - Peter & Gordon and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
On 28/04/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.