The Young Ones

The young ones will always look at older folks with disdain ... esp when the older folks keep telling them how wonderful, real and meaningful their experiences were when they were younger compared to the youths' nowadays. Its easy to fall into the trap of brushing the older folks as being partially senile, and hence their selective memory only allows them to remember the good things ... lol. Take from this what you will ... not my work (though you will find that I had added my own embellishments) but worthwhile to share.

WHEN LIFE WAS SIMPLER & CLEARER ...

for those of us born in the 40s, 50, 60s and 70s ...

without any maids, our mothers cooked, cleaned and took care of the whole family and still have time to chat with the neighbours

everyone ate candy floss, drank fizzy cola drinks and had shaved ice with syrups, diabetes were rare and aspirin/panadol cured everything

there were no 'victims mindset' ... nobody had ADD (attention deficit disorder) or dyslexia, maybe these were not discovered back then which just meant all had to work harder to overcome obstacles and not blame shortcomings on anything and everything

we rode adult bicycles to school, richer ones had their own Chopper or racing bikes ... ironically all had the same problems with our brakes

Prefects were a fearful lot, some more than teachers. Detention class was like going to prison for a day and there was "public caning" in schools

no one ever won big prizes playing "tikam", but it was a scam and kind of paved the way for early learning before graduating to 4D, Genting, etc...

we rode motorbikes without helmets, taxis was a huge luxury, heck even taking a bus was not cheap - we mostly walked or cycled everywhere

we always drank water from the tap (imagine doing that now)

we spend hours in the fields playing football, flying kites, without nary a worry about UV rays, we were kind of invincible that way

we would roam the edge of jungles to catch spiders and did not worry about Aedes

girls can play endless games with just 5 pebbles, guys can do likewise with a tennis ball

when it rained, we trudged through big drains and canals to catch ikon keli, we lived

we shared one bottle of soft drink with friends, no one caught anything

we ate salty, sweet & oily foods, bread with real butter and condensed milk ... we loved all the very sweet stuff but were not obese because we were out playing all the time, we had a real childhood

we left home in the morning and played all day till hunger drove us home. When needed, our parents knew where to find us. No one actually watched over us and we were always safe

we did not have mobile phones bugging us, when you call to make an appointment, you better be bloody sure to make it and on time too cause there is no way to cancel last minute or tell your friends that you were going to be late

no Nintendos, Playstations, X-boxes, 50 tv channels, DVDs, surround sound, no PCs, no notebooks, no Facebook, no INTERNET (OMG) ... but we had friends, real friends ... we went outside and found them, no need to poke ... when we take photos we really cherish them, no such thing as selfies (I think they are short for selfish or obsessive)

we do not know the word "bumiputra", we knew our friends by name, their parents were all Pakciks, Makciks, Aunties or Uncles

we fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and still continued with our stunts ... parents who are so protective nowadays led a very different childhood when they were young, is it because we now know better or that we know too much

we did not have parties till we were 16 or 21 ... parties do not happen every year

in badminton we did not change the shuttle as long as it can still be in flight, the number of feathers left was immaterial

match boxes were always "Chilli" or "Kingkong" brand ... collecting matchboxes from restaurants and hotels was popular and fun