ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

A teacher gave me this at my first grand parents day. How True it is.


Our Generation

We survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank and lived in houses made of asbestos.

They took asprin and Bex or Vincents.

They ate loads of bacon processed meats and tuna from a can .

We were placed in cots that were covered in lead based paints. We had no child proof lids on medicine bottles or doors and cabinets and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets or wore shoes and we rode in cars that had no seat belts or air bags.

We drank water from the backyard tap not from a bottle and the only take a way food was the vegemite sandwiches mum made.

We earned our pocket money by selling bottles or lead and even though the shops closed at 6 pm somehow we didn’t starve to death.

We left home in the morning and as long as we were home before dark even though no one was able to contact us we were ok.

We spent all day out side playing in the dirt, blowing up frogs and toads with crackers and we got given an air rifle for our tenth birthday.

We fell out of trees got cut and broke bones and no one ever got hit with a litigation case because of it.

Only girls had their ears pierced !!!

We ate mud pies and worms and our teachers hit us with canes if we played up and our parents actually sided with the teacher and gave us a flogging when we got home as well.



We had the freedom to fail or suceed and were given responsibility and learned how to deal with it.!!!

And after all that we still turned out ok.

All very true Bob.

Except the last statement, are you sure that is true ??

I reckon that would have to be a matter of opinion Nev but all you can do is try.

attached is photo of my grandaughter Chloe.

Gees did not think I had so many grey hairs, better put my hat back on.


Cheers Bob

Beautiful photo Bob and Chloe is obviously happy that Grandpa came to the Grandparents Day..what a beaut smile she has.You're a lucky man.

Cheers

Maureen

Been blessed with a couple of wonderful kids and six beautiful grandkids Maureen.

Thats all you can hope for is that your kids do ok.

Thanks Bob

... can't help but feel sorry for your kids AND Grandies - that have to kiss that face Bob ...

gee bob with a soup strainer like that strains the fly's out of yah tea mate

if yah shave it of yah don't get a second coarse either

BW

Na we breed them tough up here Manfred. If they can stand that then they will be tough enough to survive anything.

Bill you never know what sort of bugs are gonna get in your cuppa so it is best to strain them out. The other benefit is you get to taste everything twice...



Have a good day all

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to work we go.

Bob

G'day all,

People try to put us down, just because we get around. Things they do look awful cold.... Hope I die before I get old!

Just how my own children survived is a wonder in itself. I recall the baby basket on the back seat of the car, completely unrestrained. The loose fitting car seat with simple hooked over the back seat, again completely unrestrained. I also recall putting my firstborn in the bouncer in the kitchen where I went about passing pots of boilig liquid, either water or oil/fat back, and forth over her. She balanced on single width brick walls and walked along them, swag on wodden swings and used wooden seesaws. All life threatening activities. You wonder how the kids of our generation and our kids ever made it to adultood.
Todays 6 year old kids are so 'cotton-wooled' that they are afraid of their own shadows. But if you watch three and four year olds (if) allowed free play, and you will see them make a gun, or a sword, from a stick (if there is such a thing) they pick up from the ground.

I sat on (sorry 'for' or 'with') my Grandchildren yesterday morning and had prepared DVDs for them to watch or the enclosed trampolene to play on. Do you know what they wanted to do? Dig in my garden to find worms. We had a brilliant time. They discovered that - 1. worms like damp soil, 2. worms have slime on their bodies to help them slip through the soil. 3. worm wee and poo is good for the soil, 4. worms feel wiggly when you hold them on your palm 5. chooks like to eat worms 6. worms are cold compared to people 7. soil is dirty but dirt/soil is good stuff because it is where food is grown. 8. worms move along by contracting muscles around their middle. 9. you put the worms back after you have looked at them for a little while. 10. worms like to be in soil that has some grass or other matter in it that they can eat and digest. 11. worms would get sunburnt and dry out and die if you leave them in the sun... and you don't be crule to any creature, even a worm.. but most of all they found out that grandma loves to hear and answer their endless questions. (but loves to see Mummy come to collect them.

good on you Zondrae
In cotton wool we pack around them to protect them from what? US that’s who
So you lose a bit of bark from skinned knees, falling out of trees, eating a bit of dirt. And we pamper them and wrap them in cotton wool just who is the idiot them or us. Inside of us we cry for them when they fall down but how else will they learn? We teach them right from wrong, and to do this and that we have shown them , BUT have they really learnt or just copied what we have told them for they have never learnt the joys and disappointments of life for unwittingly threw our wish to help them we have removed those steps of learning
and health resistance that they must have. Good on you Zondrae they are the lessons that children need to learn about common things not so called modern technical stuff let them grow up first amidst a life of common hard knocks

Bill Williams the old Battler