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My wife, Betty, is now home again, after her rather dramatic entry to hospital. Whilst there is some stabilising to do via medication she is greatly improved - in fact she’s quite perky. She has that wide grin on her face as she says "My doctor says ..........." and lands me with a new bit of labour. Yes, it’s good to see her like this, and so thankful it turned out so well.

Now, back to business! The other day, when a youngster was complaining about what seemed to me a trivial matter, I had to stop myself saying "When I was a lad ..........", and I’ve since thought what chaos this could cause in FG. I know I am asking for trouble - goodness knows where it will lead but let’s be hearing (serious or ridiculous) -

When I was a lad (or lass) ........................

meltonpie wrote: My wife, Betty, is now home again, after her rather dramatic entry to hospital. Whilst there is some stabilising to do via medication she is greatly improved - in fact she’s quite perky. She has that wide grin on her face as she says "My doctor says ..........." and lands me with a new bit of labour. Yes, it’s good to see her like this, and so thankful it turned out so well.

Now, back to business! The other day, when a youngster was complaining about what seemed to me a trivial matter, I had to stop myself saying "When I was a lad ..........", and I’ve since thought what chaos this could cause in FG. I know I am asking for trouble - goodness knows where it will lead but let’s be hearing (serious or ridiculous) -

When I was a lad (or lass) ........................


Glad your wife is on the mend Melton.....well, this got me thinking and one of the things I used to say to my kids was....

"when I was a kid, no one owned a car so we HAD to walk".

The thought of hardly any cars on the road was beyond them....

Very glad to hear Betty is on the mend, meltonpie!!!

I do remember when I was a kid, you ate the food your mum put in front of you, because that was it !! Grin. I tell my kids that and they find it incomprehensible.

But you remind me of Gilbert and Sullivan

When I was a lad I served a term

As office boy in an attorney's firm

etc... grin.

I bet very few of our American FGers know G&S!

My very best wishes to you and Betty, Melton.



Now, when I was a child, food actually tasted like food...take cheese for example: none of your mild, medium, mature and extra mature. Cheese was cheese and it came with authentic rind on it.

And , milk was delivered to your doorstep and came in bottles, none of this plastic container stuff.

And there were bus conductors with proper ticket machines slung around their shoulders who used to shout "move along there" and tell youngsters to give up their seats for adults...

Need I go on??

I remember a time when other kid's moms could feed you, or discipline you, or have you help carry their groceries, and no one thought it was odd, or wrong, or had some evil demented ulterior motive. Or threatened to sue over it.

When I was young..we actually played games...OUTSIDE!

We drank from the hose, stayed out from morning till evening

And I did walk to school almost every day...almost 4 miles one way.

We went trick or treating on Halloween, and got to eat the stuff right away, without having to have mom or dad check it first. My neighbor across the street used to bake cookies and hamd them out to trick or treaters..just in little baggies.

When I was a lad, any kid who didn't have skinned knees and elbows had an overprotective mother.



Games had scores, winners, and losers.



Channel surfing was walking to the TV and checking channels 3, 5, and 12.

BabyRider wrote: I remember a time when other kid's moms could feed you, or discipline you, or have you help carry their groceries, and no one thought it was odd, or wrong, or had some evil demented ulterior motive. Or threatened to sue over it.


Are you serious here - not to feed your kids mates?

We had tribes of them in - it was a rare day without at least one "addition to the family".

Marie5656 wrote: When I was young..we actually played games...OUTSIDE!

We drank from the hose, stayed out from morning till evening

And I did walk to school almost every day...almost 4 miles one way.

We went trick or treating on Halloween, and got to eat the stuff right away, without having to have mom or dad check it first. My neighbor across the street used to bake cookies and hamd them out to trick or treaters..just in little baggies.
*sigh* Nostalgia.... :yh_sigh

We didn't lock the house. We left car keys in the ignition, with the windows down. In my early childhood, big problems were sicker burrs, chiggers and red ants.

Marie5656 wrote: When I was young..we actually played games...OUTSIDE!

We drank from the hose, stayed out from morning till evening

And I did walk to school almost every day...almost 4 miles one way.

We went trick or treating on Halloween, and got to eat the stuff right away, without having to have mom or dad check it first. My neighbor across the street used to bake cookies and hamd them out to trick or treaters..just in little baggies.


Kids here still play outside if given the chance. And LOVE IT!! As fer drinking from the hose, I still do that. Grin. Doesn't everyone???

AussiePam wrote: Kids here still play outside if given the chance. And LOVE IT!! As fer drinking from the hose, I still do that. Grin. Doesn't everyone???


Drank out of the hose this weekend. Working on the yard. No shirt, no shoes, no problem.

Good fer you, JB !!! Hose water tastes perfectly good to me. Sometimes you get an added little something, essence of skink (small aussie lizards, unrealted to skunk..grin).

AussiePam wrote: As fer drinking from the hose, I still do that. Grin. Doesn't everyone???
Oh heck yeah!! How often do you burn your lips on the water from a hose that's been sitting in the sun for hours? I did that ALL the time as a kid...sheesh...you think I'd remember.....

ArnoldLayne wrote: 3 channels ? LOL

We only had one, we couldnt get ITV on our telly, only BBC
What's a telly? We had the wireless, and you sat and listened, and you didn't do half a dozen other things at the same time!

............. there were no mobile phones, and the word "texting" didn't exist. Try telling that to todays youngsters and their world will collapse!!

meltonpie wrote: ............. there were no mobile phones, and the word "texting" didn't exist. Try telling that to todays youngsters and their world will collapse!!


Does anyone remember those old telephone boxes where a call cost 4d? Didn't we have to press button A to be able to connect? What was button B for?

The "bug man" would come down the street spraying his dark cloud of insecticides and we kids would run to play in the cloud while our parents sat on the porch and watched. (Maybe that explains a few things about me.)::yh_sick :yh_nailbi :yh_ghost

theia wrote: Does anyone remember those old telephone boxes where a call cost 4d? Didn't we have to press button A to be able to connect? What was button B for?Superman, silly! :rolleyes:

meltonpie wrote: ............. there were no mobile phones, and the word "texting" didn't exist. Try telling that to todays youngsters and their world will collapse!!
We had mobile phones. :-2

paraffin heaters, never see them nowardays, wonder why :rolleyes:

theia wrote: Does anyone remember those old telephone boxes where a call cost 4d? Didn't we have to press button A to be able to connect? What was button B for?
Oh, you youngster theia!! When I was a lad ............. it was 2d in the phone box.

Button B was to get your 2d back should the person you were calling not be answering. Hence it was a regular chase round the local phone boxes, pressing button B to see if anyone had forgotten to take their money back.

trolls were lil plastic dolls with a bit of coloured fluff on thier head

Glad to hear that your wife is feeling better now Melton, I send her best wishes.



When I was young we were actually frightened of our teachers, not the other way around! We did as we were told and not as we liked.



Murders were truly scary because they happened so rarely and not 5 a day as seems the case now.



We had more fun because we didn't rely on computer games and tv etc., for fun and entertainment, we played games and made dens, we made our own fun.

Kathy Ellen wrote: Life was just "FUN!" we lived in a wonderful city and were independent and didn't worry about "bad people" around the corner. We didn't encounter them. Summer days were spent "down the Jersey shore," playing kick the can and stick ball, ice skating, and cleaning out the horses' stable. We rode the horses everyday for free. Life was good and still is.

Kathy ellen


Kathy, I never knew you rode hosses??!! WOW!!! Val, take note!! Another fine FG horsewoman. (Not like me who raced one through the bush in normal pam madcap way came off at high speed when the clumsy blighter put his foot in a wombat's hole and ended up in hospital with a cracked skull.. grin.. ALWAYS WEAR A RIDING HAT !!!)

But yes, when I was little I just ran wild in the neighbourhood (well still do), went off on my tricycle and visited strangers who brought me cordial and cake. My kids used to do this too, as they walked home from school. But they visited only designated safe houses (I think).. don't know if you have those in the UK and US. They are labelled places kids can go if they feel they are being followed or have any other problems when walking to and from school. My kids though this was a great social opportunity and make close friends in particular with an old Greek lady who spoiled them rotten. Grin.

But this is all raving on!! Kathy - it's so good to see you, Girlfriend. Hope the beach trips are wonderful. You work so hard teaching. I'm glad to see you getting a break. (I think things are gradually starting to improve here.)

When I was young we were actually frightened of our teachers, not the other way around! We did as we were told and not as we liked.

Had forgotten that! There was one female teacher that I was terrified of, and yet when I had a long spell of illness, she turned up at home to see how I was, had a nice friendly chat and left me an enormous box of chocolates. How you can misjudge people!

meltonpie wrote: When I was young we were actually frightened of our teachers, not the other way around! We did as we were told and not as we liked.



Had forgotten that! There was one female teacher that I was terrified of, and yet when I had a long spell of illness, she turned up at home to see how I was, had a nice friendly chat and left me an enormous box of chocolates. How you can misjudge people!


Did you find that the teachers that were the strictest were also the ones that were the most giving and inspiring when it came to passing on knowledge and sparking interest in subjects?

The strictest teacher that I had also gave me a lifelong love of literature and I am so grateful to her, she wouldn't allow any joking around in her classes and we were all made to treat the subject seriously.