Hertingfordbury Parish News: June 2003

Clergy Letter

Dear Friends,

Due to a few weeks feeling off colour, I haven't written my own letter for this month. Instead, I'm sharing with you something I picked up on email. It has a ring of truth as well as humorous.

Happy Days!!

According to today's regulations and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s probably shouldn't have survived.

• Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked
• We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets, and it was fine to play with pans.
• When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent clackers on our wheels.
• As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the passenger seat was a treat.
• We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle - tasted the same.
• We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding, and drank fizzy pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
• We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can, and no one actually died from this.
• We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
• We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No-one was able to reach us all day and no-one minded.
• We did not have Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet chat rooms. We had friends - we went outside and found them.
• We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt.
• We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again.
• We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue - we learned to get over it.
• We walked to friends' homes.
• We made up games with sticks and tennis balls, ate live stuff, and although we were told it would happen, we did not have very many eyes out, nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.
• We rode bikes in packs of seven and wore our coats by only the hood.
• Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility, and we learned to deal with it all. And you're one of them. Congratulations! Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

Love and every blessing.

Rev'd Rosemary

Please note: Although the Hertingfordbury Parish News is produced by St. Mary's PCC, the opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the PCC.