There was an article in the Herald Sun today about 'cotton wool kids'. How parents these days don't let their kids go anywhere alone, don't let them ride billycarts and those new trampolines with the protective wall around them so you can't fall off, party games where every kid wins a prize, how kids don't lose at anything anymore. I also read an article recently in The Age about sweets (lollies) and how some of them have just disappeared.
I got thinking and if I had kids...I'm not sure I'd let them do half the stuff we did. I thought for a moment maybe my parents were really relaxed. Until I remembered that it probably wasn't that they let us do the things we did, rather they didn't actually know about it.
Things like using the stormwater drains as a quick way to get around..unless of course it was raining because I'd heard a "story" about a boy at school who was in one and it rained and this massive tidal wave of water came bearing down on him as he was innocently strolling along in the drain. Amazingly he survived and with not a scratch on him. It was always fun to run outside at Nan's when it had been pouring down and seeing how turbulent the water in the drain next to her house was when it did actually fill with water.
Wow back in the days when it actually rained.
There was the extraordinarily long bike rides, the sitting by the railway line waiting for a train to come along, the horrendous amount of lollies eaten like fags, sherbet bombs, redskins, milkos, musk sticks, fizzoes (not a fan), wizz fizz, fruit tingles (also not a fan), vice versas, mates, chocolate frogs (the big chunky ones not skinny little freddos), jersey caramels, spearmint leaves, strawberries and cream..the list goes on...oh! and sherbies and milkshakes!
Actually I'm pretty sure you can still get all of those except the 'vice versas'. They were an Allen's lolly some were white chocolate on the outside and milk on the inside...and vice..versa. Growing up having relatives working at the Allen's (now Nestle) factory in Broadford was pretty good.
I didn't do much billycarting as a kid only once down a hill near a friends place as billy carts were pretty much an antique even then. Rollerblading was huge though! I remember right before best friends 10th birthday I got my rollerblades and we spent all night rollerblading around the outside (and through) her house; because of course EVERYONE at the party had rollerblades. We got a trampoline (sorry 'tramp' for Christmas one year. I don't remember falling off that particular one but I remember my sister falling off one at someone's birthday party.
Might I add besides crashing into the letterbox on rollerblades and breaking her wrist the worst injury she probably sustained in her childhood was due to an incident involving her head, the car boot, and the boot closing. On her head.
Now my tastes have changed* and I don't eat many lollies, although I still love milkos! I don't ride a bike anymore although if I had one down here I would - not as a means of transportation of course but for exercise. Bit of a difference.
Post your differences in the comments section! I'm a lot younger than most of the people I know who read this so I'm sure there are a lot better examples out there! Er ok...or you could just click here and read this.
- Jen
* I'm a chocoholic.
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2 comments:
Respect the fizzo's jen.
RESPECT THEM!
You don't like Fruit Tingles!?!? Everybody loves Fruit Tingles, especially the speckled ones.
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