Growing Up In The 60's and Early 70's

First of all, we drank our mother’s milk not cow milk! We were raised up by our mothers who had no maids and they cooked and cleaned while taking care of us. They gave us candy floss (like cotton), fizzy drink, shaved ice and biscuits dripped in syrups; and diabetes was rare. Salt was added to Coke as remedy for reducing our body heat, hypertension was rare also… We drank the real “mineral water” direct from the tap and not from a bottle. We ate candies, bread with full cream sweetened Nestle Condensed Milk (Red Wording milk) and “Golden Churn” butter and we were not overweight.

Our father’s cars had no aircond, CD player, no seat belts, air bags or ABS. Our private taxis were Mercedes Benz and were indeed a special treat for us to ride in one with the cost of $2.00 per trip. We walked to school because there were not many school bus drivers around and our fathers’ responsibility were to earn for the living and not to send us to school…

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, protection cover on doors or cabinets. As children, when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. We did not have Play station, X-box, Nintendo, colour TV, multiple channels on cable TV, DVD movies, no surround sound, no phones, no personal computers, no Internet, no Hifi set, Wifi, and Bluetooth. With a mere 5 pebbles (stones), the girls would have the endless game for the whole day. With a ball (tennis ball is best), we boys would run like crazy for hours. Jumping the box was nice too…

We would spend hours on the fields under bright sunlight flying our kites, without worrying about the UV ray. We went to jungle to catch spiders and birds while kids of these days would look for dinosaurs instead... We caught guppies in drains and when it rained we swam there and flu was a stranger to us…

We could spend hours repairing and modifying our old bicycles. We even built wooden scooters out of scraps and rode them down the hill, only to find that we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem by using our feet… and the straps of our "Bata" slippers were reinforced with wire...

We could swing around the Rambutan Trees not for their fruits but for the fun of it. We fell out of trees, got cuts, broke bones and teeth and we still continued the stunts. We were shy to talk to girls until we were 18 and we only had our first birthday parties at 21.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of because there were no laws given to us and yet this generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 40 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

To be honest, what our kids have in their childhood is not actually of their needs but of the leak syndrome from our childhood. This leak syndrome was also part of the inspiration that contributed to the invention and innovation… Anyway, we had grace, freedom, failure, success and responsibility. We learned, we innovate and we live…

You might want to share this with those who do not have this blessing of growing up as kids, and while you are at it, tell your kids so that they will know how brave their parents were.