A trip down memory lane

[Joe Carillo]

I thought I should share with Forum members this chain letter that landed on my mailbox a few days ago.

MEMO

To:           All the kids who were born in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and early 80s
From:       Cecile Reyes  <ellicecreyes@yahoo.com>
Subject:   The real life!
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First, some of us survived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne and drank San Miguel Beer while they carried us. While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine, ate isaw and didn't worry about diabetes.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, pati na 'yung walker natin, matigas na kahoy din at wala pang gulong.

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads, sometimes wala pang preno yung bisikleta.

As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (yung JD bus na pula), or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts (ngayon lahat may aircon na).

Riding on the back of a carabao on a breezy summer day was considered a treat (ngayon hindi na nakakakita ng kalabaw ang mga bata).

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 711 (minsan straight from the faucet or poso)

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this...or contracted hepatitis.

We ate rice with Star margarine, ate raw eggs straight from the shell, and drank softdrinks with real sugar in it (hindi diet Coke), but we weren't sick or overweight kasi nga...

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on. Sarap mag patintero, tumbang preso, habulan at taguan.

No one was able to reach us all day (di uso ang cellphone, walang beepers). And yes, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (’yung bearing ang gulong) or plywood slides out of scraps and then ride down the street, only to find out we forgot the brakes! After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (sewerage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPODs,  no cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and no Friendsters….WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!

We fell out of trees, got cuts, broken bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only rubbing we got was from our friends with the words masakit ba? pero pag galit yung kalaro mo, ang sasabihin sa iyo..beh buti nga!

We played marbles (jolens) in the dirt, washed our hands just a little and ate dirty ice cream & fish balls. We were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.

We had to live with homemade guns gawa sa kahoy, tinali ng rubberband, sumpit, tirador at kung ano-ano pa na puedeng makasakitan...pero masaya pa rin ang lahat.

We made up games with sticks (syatong) and cans (tumbang preso)and although we were told they were dangerous, wala naman tayong binulag o napatay…paminsan minsan may nabubukulan lang.

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

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala ’yang mga childhood depression at damaged self-esteem ek-ek na yan. Ang pikon, talo.  

Ang magulang ay nandoon lang para tingnan kung ayos lang ang mga bata, hindi para makialam at makipag-away sa ibang parents.

That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem-solvers, creative thinkers, and successful professionals ever! They are the CEOs, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.  

The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had failure, success, and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.

You might want to share this with others who’ve had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.  

And if you like, forward it to your kids, too, so they will know how brave their parents were…

It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn’t it?

[renzphotography]

Now that you have mentioned it, chain letters used to be typewritten and neatly folded inside a letter envelope, not to mention secretly dropped in your mailbox. Nowadays, it is distributed via email with image files!

[vinzvonvan]

I wonder why only one member of the forum responded to this post.Is it because most members were born in the 90’s?or simply they don’t have time to use the computer anymore because they’ve tried playing outside?
Well I was born in 1975 and I’ve enjoyed playing outside the whole day on weekends and holidays.All the things that could be used for child’s enjoyment can be found in the house, or within the surroundings.As I was reading the article, I remembered those simple moments that helped shaped me as a person.
Since I have three growing boys, I tell them to play with their friends in the neighborhood rather than playing computer games or PSP most of the time. It’s a skill to know how to use modern gadgets, but it’s’ better to get tired and be perspired with real people.

[madgirl09]

wow! vinzvonvan...you're soooooo young! ulp, don't ask my age....just ask the men, they'll tell the truth 

remembering memory lane...good, but should not end there...
we need to do something for the younger generations to experience the good of the olden days. i occasionally take my kids for a long vacation to our remote northern luzon province where life is slower and the environment is still filled with antiquities enough to illustrate what life had in the 60's  . the old guava trees that served as seesaws are still there  . unfortunately, the rivers have gone dry, so what we could do is just pick some pinkies, pebbles and other stuff as paperweight.

please visit the other pages of this forum. we just don't have time to type our thoughts. keep asking so that we'd be encouraged to reply. you are a new "light" of the forum.