I received this email from my sister this morning and there is certainly truth in it. I would say it apply more to my three older brother and sisters more than to Adrinna and me. I always felt that they had more fun as children than I did. I cannot say this for Adrinna but I felt that my childhood was somewhat boring - overly protected by parents and older siblings. We (Adrinna and me) never get to go out with friends till the sun sets but we did get to play outdoors but behind bars (our fenced and gated driveway).

The only computer games that we ever wished we had was "Watch
and Games" in the late 70's and then Pacman on PC in the 80's. Funnily enough,
McDonald's giving away the "Watch and Games" style electronic games with their
Happy Meal this month. Alex already had a collection of three so far.

TO ALL THOSE WHO WERE BORN IN THE 50's
and 60's / early '70s............

First, we survived with mothers who had no maids.

A multi-tasker, she cooked and cleaned while taking care of her children.

We took aspirins, candy floss, fizzy drinks, shaved ice with
syrups - diabetes were rare.

Salt added to Pepsi or Coke were remedy for fever.

No child-proof lid on medicine bottles nor doors or cabinets.

We rode our bikes with no helmets.

We ride with our parents on bicycles/motorcycles.

Richer ones in cars with no seat belts nor air bags.
Sitting in the back of a private taxi was a special treat.

We drank water from the tap and NOT from a bottle.
We would spend hours outside under bright sunlight flying our kites,

UV ray never seem to affect us.

With mere 5 pebbles (stones) would be an endless game.

With a ball (tennis ball best) boys would run like crazy, for hours.
We catch guppy in drains/canals and when it rained we swam there too.

We shared a bottle of soft drink with four friends,

NO ONE actually worried about being unhygienic

We ate salty, very sweet and oily food.

Candies, bread and real butter

We drank very sweet soft sweet coffee/tea, ice kacang,

but we weren't overweight because......
WE WERE ALWAYS PLAYING OUTDOORS!!

We would leave home in the morning and played all day.

We returned when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours repairing our old bicycles and wooden
scooters out of scraps and rode down the hill, only to find - we forgot the brakes.

After running into bushes a few more times, we learned to solve
the problem .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes,

multiple channels on cable TV, DVD movies, nor surround sound,

no phones, no personal computers, no Internet.

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell off trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and we still continued the
stunts.

We never actually had birthday parties till we were 21,

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and just yelled for them!

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

Yet this generation has produced some of the best risk-takers,

problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 40years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned.

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids,

before the government regulated our lives for our own good.