When We Were Younger

 When we were younger...............

• To get on a bus was 40p for a child and an adult fare was 70p 
• The oyster card didn't exist. Instead we had cash fares and one day bus passes 
• Children had to pay to get on a bus. 
• If you had a buggy you had to fold it up on the bus.  
• Wheelchair spaces were just for wheelchair users.  
• The streets were safe to play on  
• Neighbours used to talk to one another 
• You could only get hot cross buns at Easter.  
• Cadbury creme eggs only appeared on shelves a few weeks before Easter, as did the easter eggs  
• Shops used to set their Christmas displays up in November not September  
• You used to get plastic frogs in Christmas crackers (we used to race them) 
• Cif was called Jif  
• Starburst were called Opal Fruits 
• Snickers were called Marathon 
• There were chocolate sweets called vice versas 
• smarties came in a tube with a plastic lid  
• You used to be able to get Starburst Joosters  
• Boxes of cereal had small toys hidden inside.  
• Mobile phones were huge and you could only make calls and text  
• Computers took floppy disks.  
  
• If you wanted to record a TV programme you used a VHS 
• When you wanted to go shopping you went to the shops 
• C&A was the best place to shop.  
• We had Woolworths
• Nobody had computers at home  
• A sega mega drive was cool 
• we only had 4 TV channels until channel 5 came out
• Google didn't exist we used encyclopedias 
• You had to get film developed if you wanted to see your photos
• When you was travelling in a car you used a map not a sat nav 
• Music players were cassette players with headphones, now it's ipods
• Green was just a colour not a way of life 
• a blackberry was just a fruit  
• When I was 5 we were all into baby dolls, barbies, toys and playing. Now days they want to play with mobile phones and listen to music. 
• children were polite and not screaming the whole time.
• we used to fall over and cut our knees, now its a breach of health and safety 
• Frustration was just a game  
• meg & mob and the Mr men were the top books, not Harry Potter.  
• If you had £100 it was alot of money. 
• Children respected animals, books, plants and eachother. 
• You had to wait for the bus, not knowing when it was coming, no apps to help you plan 
• If you needed to know the train times you had to call National Rail, no apps or journey planners. 
• If you needed groceries you had to go to the shops. No home deliveries. 
• You couldn't pause live TV, or record it. 
• If you wanted to watch something that wasn't on TV you had to buy it on VHS or DVD. No netflix back then. 
• If you wanted to read, you picked up a paper book, not a kindle. 
• When Amazon launched it only sold books. 
• The search engine to use was Ask Jeeves or Lycos, No Google.
• If you had the lucury of internet you had to use a phone cable, which cut off your landline. You could only use one or the other. 
• If you wanted to talk to someone you used a landline, not a mobile. 

 Times have changed, so have we!

The young children this post describes are now in their late twenties, thirties or forties. That was us. To us causing mischief and trouble was making a mud pie in the playground, we didn't stab eachother or our teachers. We played games such as run outs, sticky toffee and Dodgeball. 

 

If your lucky enough to have had a real proper childhood where children were allowed to play outside without health and safety regulations, who were allowed to get muddy and dirty and graze their knees. Then you are lucky. For todays children will never have a childhood like we had. Todays children are only interested in tv programmes, playstation, facebook and mobile phones. We couldn't use the landline let alone a mobile and a computer? We had ONE in the school library and to use it was a high honour. 

 

Children should be allowed to be children and enjoy their childhood. Not stuck in on computers or worrying about whether their iphone will have a wifi hotspot.