The times, they have changed! This is for all of those who were born in the 1940's, 50's and 60's.

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank sherry while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.

They took aspirin, ate bleu cheese, bread and drippings, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured, 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 we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

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 Nandos.

Even though all the shops closed at 5.00 pm and didn't open on a Sunday, 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 bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy toffees, Gobstoppers and bubble gum.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter, milk from the cow and drank soft drinks with sugar; we weren't overweight because we were 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 okay.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes; no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY, no video / DVD films or colour TV, 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.

We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door, rang the bell or just yelled for them!

Mum didn't have to go to work to help Dad make ends meet because we didn't need to keep up with the Jones'.

Not everyone made the rugby / football / cricket / netball team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Getting onto the team was based on merit.

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and throw the blackboard rubber at us if they thought we weren't concentrating.

We can string sentences together, spell and have proper conversations because of a good, solid three R's education.

Our parents would tell us to ask a stranger to help us cross the road.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility; and we learned how to deal with it all.

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.