My Life on a Plate

For Those Over Forty

During the sixties I remember promising myself that when I grew older I wouldn't criticise the young, as many older people did during my teenage years. To this day I try to understand the world of youngsters and hope I support them in their plans and ambitions. That doesn't mean I approve of everything every young person does or says, but I do try to see the world through their eyes and make allowances where necessary. But I have to say, the following forwarded mail did make me smile.

'My mum used to cut chicken, slice eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't get food poisoning.

My mum used to defrost mince-meat on the kitchen sink and I used to eat a bit raw sometimes. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper, in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember anybody getting e.coli.

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool. There were no beach closures then.

We all played sport and also did P.E. and risked permanent injury with a pair of Dunlop plimsolls instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built-in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened, because they tell us how much safer we are now.

Flunking sport wasn't an option. There were not many fat kids back then.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the National Anthem and got free school milk for strong bones and teeth, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. We must have had horribly damaged psyches.

What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat, combed our hair for nits and was even allowed to give you an aspirin for a headache or fever.

I thought I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself. I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Playstations, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital T.V. cable stations.

Oh yeah...and where was the Benadryl and steralization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed.

We played 'King of the Castle' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mum pulled out the cheap bottle of iodine and then we got our hair ruffled and were told to get back out there. Now, it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of expensive antibiotics, and then Mum calls the solicitor to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

We didn't misbehave at a mate's house, because if we did, we got our bum smacked there, and then we got our bum belted again when we got home. I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on our front veranda, just before he fell off. Little did his Mum know that she could have owned our house. Instead,she picked him up and swatted him for being such a yobbo.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told they were from a 'dysfunctional family.' How could we possibly have known we needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many social ills that we didn't even notice the entire country wasn't taking Prozac. How did we ever survive?'

Yes, times change in good ways and bad and no doubt will continue to do so. I'm sure readers of a 'certain age' will relate to the above and for those not quite so mature, don't believe you won't look back and think some things were better in your younger days. You will!

Huge thanks to silversara for the merit badge. Much appreciated on an otherwise bland Sunday.