This was received from Dawnae recently
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1920's, 30's 40's, 50's, 60's and 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, tuna from a
can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with
bright colored 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 some of us took hitchhiking
.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air
bags.
Riding in the back of a Ute on a warm day was always a
special treat.
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 Red Rooster.
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 Fruit Tingles and some fire crackers to
blow up frogs and lizards 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 scraps and
then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the
brakes. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in
creek beds with matchbox cars.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no
videogames at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape or
DVD movies, no surround sound, 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.......no really!
We were given BB guns and sling shots for our 10th birthdays
,
We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had
eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic
testing at Maralinga in 1956. 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!
Footy had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who
didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine
that!! Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and
leather straps 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 got married before they had children and didn't
invent stupid names for their kids like "Kiora" and
"Blade".....
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers,
problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 70 years have been an explosion of innovation and
new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we
learned
HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!
The 2007 events are out of order at the moment. Once I have written up the most recent events, I will get back to putting them in the right order.
In October, Ruth and I took our new caravan to Kaikoura and we stayed at the Peteka Motor camp for a week. We left on a Monday morning and left the following Monday morning.
John and Dorothy Martyn were
away at the top of the Island in their caravan and were on the way home. We had arranged to meet them there at Peteka. We arrived at about 1 pm and J and D arrived a couple of hours later.
The weather was not good during the time we were there but we all enjoyed ourselves. There ws not too much sitting around out in the sunshine though.
The Motor Camp is at the western end of the Kaikouara Airfield and small aircraft are very low as the take off and land - mainly going out whale spotting.
We all had a couple of dinners out at Robbies but on this trip, most of meals were at the caravans.
We had a few walks along the beach. There were fishermen at the mouth of the river whitebaitinging. There were no runs and they were catching them one or two at a time.
The picture (above right) was taken by me with my Titan Phone. John was driving, I was beside him and the picture shows Ruth and Dorothy in the back.
The picture directly above, also taken by me with my Titan phone, while sitting in John's car, shows John coming out of the petrol station after topping up the fuel tank. Not the reflection of the mountains in the building window. The picture below shows both of our caravans together, Martyns in front. Note, I have the awning up now on ours/
Ruth and I recently attended the Rangiora A and P Show. It was a couple of weeks ago.
We had attended Andrews House warming party on the Friday night. We had taken our new caravan and we had parked up to stay the night to avoid driving home late, especially after drinking.
We new that the show was coming up but only realised at the party that it was the next day.
We enjoyed the party and after breakfast, we headed off to Rangiora, leaving the caravan behind.
I will include a few pictures of the show here and later, give a brief account of the party. While at the show, for our lunch, we had a pottle of fries and a really nice whitebait pattie.
We always enjoy these events. There are plenty of animals, machines, stalls, thrill rides and such. Ruth left her camera behind and these pictures were taken with my new Titan phone.
We saw some wood chopping events and I saw that one of the displays did work with a stump grinder. I got the guys business card with a view to getting him to get rid o
f some of the stumps here - from the trees we had cut down about twelve months ago.
My favourite machine are the traction engines. There were plenty of them there. They are like live creatures and I love the smell of the smoke. I remember when I was about 7 years of age and living at Roseberry street (just the other side of the Barrington Mall), the council workmen used to come along the street with one of these beasts.
Here is a sample.
The sinking of the inter-island ferry 'Wahine' on 10th April 1968.
