Just the way it was ...

[Gnarly Gnu]

You have to go to India or China or PNG or places like that to see life being lived to the full from an early age.

Dunno about PNG but I have had a lot to do with kids from India and China - mate they only do video games and facebooky type stuff now. They can be smart but hopelessly impractical and with zero mechanical knowledge I'm afraid. The entire contents of a hardware store is a mystery to them (actually went looking for a hardware store in a large Indian city once, no such thing existed).

 

 

[planedriver]

A Sparklets bulb full of flash powder with a Yellow Sump fuse used to make a big hole in the neighbour's lawn. A .303 bullet casing (with the lead melted out) on the end of a dowel bolt would go through a corrugated iron fence when fired from a crossbow which had the leaf of a car spring as a bow. All good clean fun in those days. And what about tobogganing in an old car bonnet towed behind a car. Then at school, in Cadets, we had almost unlimited live ammo for firing Bren guns on range day. I reckon Australian kids today don't know they are alive. You have to go to India or China or PNG or places like that to see life being lived to the full from an early age. What many call poverty now is only the conditions we lived in as kids anyway, because material goods were in short supply. We certainly made fun, but would not be allowed to do it today.

Mate, you were obviously a bloody disgrace, probably no better than I was, but we had fun as kids, we were not really malicious, just part of growing up to be the responcible citizens that I hope we both are ?

 

 

[Marty_d]

Mind you, there is the other side of the coin. While we all made it to adulthood reasonably intact (hopefully), there were plenty who didn't. Holding on to that big banger a second too long, dropping the rifle while climbing over the fence, etc.

 

A high proportion of broken bones in kids came from those old rectangular trampolines with no net or spring cover. I wouldn't let my kids on one these days, and I dread the thought of them in a few years doing the things I did when young and brainless (especially involving motorbikes, speed, alcohol, in various combinations).

 

Not trying to throw a damper over the reminiscing, just saying that "it's all fun until somebody loses an eye" was literal in some cases.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

Proud resident of "Van Demon's" land...

Heh

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Yep Marty, the sins of the fathers... are hopefully not repeated by our offspring. One of the burdens of age is the knowledge of what kids do, and coping with the worry.

 

 

[planedriver]

Mind you, there is the other side of the coin. While we all made it to adulthood reasonably intact (hopefully), there were plenty who didn't. Holding on to that big banger a second too long, dropping the rifle while climbing over the fence, etc.A high proportion of broken bones in kids came from those old rectangular trampolines with no net or spring cover. I wouldn't let my kids on one these days, and I dread the thought of them in a few years doing the things I did when young and brainless (especially involving motorbikes, speed, alcohol, in various combinations).

Not trying to throw a damper over the reminiscing, just saying that "it's all fun until somebody loses an eye" was literal in some cases.[ QUOTE]

 

I'm OK

[Bikky]

Hmmm... Make me wonder sometimes. We as "oldies" have a tendency to criticise young un's rather unfairly I think.

 

We have the luxury to make comparisons that don't help. For example, "At your age I was out with my mates adventuring and making new discoveries - learning about life the hard way. All you want to do is play video games and slack around!"

 

Most kids these days would like to do the same as we did. Who is stopping them? Errm, us oldies methinks!

 

"No you can't have a skateboard, you'll hurt yourself."

 

"You can't play in the street. Too many loonies out there!"

 

"Put that down! It's too sharp too play with."

 

I think we've all become a little too paranoid and we're denying young people the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

 

Guidance is good, but is prohibition really helpful?

 

 

[Marty_d]

Hmmm... Make me wonder sometimes. We as "oldies" have a tendency to criticise young un's rather unfairly I think.We have the luxury to make comparisons that don't help. For example, "At your age I was out with my mates adventuring and making new discoveries - learning about life the hard way. All you want to do is play video games and slack around!"

Most kids these days would like to do the same as we did. Who is stopping them? Errm, us oldies methinks!

 

"No you can't have a skateboard, you'll hurt yourself."

 

"You can't play in the street. Too many loonies out there!"

 

"Put that down! It's too sharp too play with."

 

I think we've all become a little too paranoid and we're denying young people the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

 

Guidance is good, but is prohibition really helpful?

Like all things in life it's a balance. Learning from mistakes is great, unless the mistake is something like checking if the gun's loaded by looking in the barrel, shooting cans off a mate's head with a hunting bow, or playing chicken with trains.

 

 

[Cosmick]

Three Thripenny Bungers taped together with a bit of mosquito coil for a timed fuse saw a few letterboxes demolished, A Roman Candle made a great mortar during cracker fights. A Thunder would fit nicely into a bike pump, replace fuse through small hole and a Stonker (big marble) in the top was deadly. (surprisingly in hindsight I am surprised the tube never exploded)

 

Used to cover ThreePenny Bungers with glue and roll in pebbles, back yard grenades.

 

Don't remember anyone getting hurt, just was never game to go back to the letterbox to see if the mosquito coil had gone out.

 

 

[ayavner]

and who could forget the flaming bag of poo on the front doorstep???

 

 

[planedriver]

Ahh! now I have a suspect.

 

Had that happen to me when the kids were small, and I lived just up the road from you in Baulkham Hills.

 

The doorbell rang, I answered the door and naturally stomped on the burning package. Had to throw away a good pair of slippers and socks, but later saw the funny side of it.

 

 

[planedriver]

When I was kid living in England, you used to be able to buy a bundle of chopped firewood from the greengrocer, for starting the coal fire.

 

One winters day when it was snowing hard, I hid behind our garden hedge and tossed this nice looking bundle out on the footpath attached to some string which quickly got covered with snow. An old lady came along and bent down three times to pick it up, but it was just jerked away as her hand was almost on it.

 

If it had happepened to my Nan some years later, the offender may have possibly wound up with a knuckle sambo and a few loose teeth.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

My friend Paul put an empty cardboard box on the road with a string attached. As his neighbour came along, he pulled the box off the road. On the second morning he left it in place and the neighbour ran a wheel over it. On the third morning Paul filled the box with bricks...

 

 

[Guest john]

Many Years ago when In Tech College as a rebellious teenager, 3 of us wagged school 1 day & went to the local markets to fossick around & cause trouble. We were still in school uniform & were caught smoking by the Markets Caretaker. He wanted to know our names so that he could report us to the school Principal for smoking . The 2 mates that I was with gave their names of Peter Styvesant & Phillip Morris & I gave my name as Peter Jackson. The Caretaker wrote these names down on a sheet of paper & said that he was going to pass these names onto the Principal. We then disappeared as quick as we could & heard nothing further about the incident. O those were the good old days.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

We were still in school uniform & were caught smoking by the Markets Caretaker. He wanted to know our names so that he could report us to the school Principal for smoking . :

2 incidents, one was me and my mates trying to start a car in the holding yard out back of Mornington's Holden Dealership and a guy grabbed us, put us in his car and took us down to the cop station and another time me and a mate wagging school, hitch-hiking down Nepean Hwy when a guy picked us up and promptly turned around and drove us back to school (Dromana Tech)!

 

Can you imagine the trouble those guys would get into now for taking kids into their custody?

 

On another note I just noticed that a former Vietnamese refugee has been appointed SA Governor, he is 60 years old and arrived here 36 years ago at the age of 24.

 

I immediately thought of this thread and it makes me wonder if it's a good choice when he can't possibly have the deeper cultural knowledge that one can only gain by growing up in a country from birth, which we are discussing here, and that influences your attitudes and personalities and ultimately your decision making. I have been in China for 10 years and still make cultural blunders or simply disagree and don't wish to follow them sometimes.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-26/hieu-van-le-appointed-sa-governor/5552004

 

 

[Marty_d]

On another note I just noticed that a former Vietnamese refugee has been appointed SA Governor, he is 60 years old and arrived here 36 years ago at the age of 24.

I immediately thought of this thread and it makes me wonder if it's a good choice when he can't possibly have the deeper cultural knowledge that one can only gain by growing up in a country from birth, which we are discussing here, and that influences your attitudes and personalities and ultimately your decision making. I have been in China for 10 years and still make cultural blunders or simply disagree and don't wish to follow them sometimes.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-26/hieu-van-le-appointed-sa-governor/5552004

I don't know the bloke so can't comment on his qualifications or character, but he's had 36 years of Australian culture and the bonus of 24 years of Vietnamese culture, so IMHO his life experience is a positive.

 

China has cultures going back thousands of years, so perhaps not surprising that an "outsider" needs more than 10 years to fit in. Australia's dominant culture has only been in place a couple of hundred years, and pretty much all of us with the exception of Aboriginal people can be classed as immigrants anyway, so I reckon someone who wasn't born here is as qualified to hold office as Governer as anyone else.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

...On another note I just noticed that a former Vietnamese refugee has been appointed SA Governor, he is 60 years old and arrived here 36 years ago at the age of 24.I immediately thought of this thread and it makes me wonder if it's a good choice when he can't possibly have the deeper cultural knowledge that one can only gain by growing up in a country from birth, which we are discussing here, and that influences your attitudes and personalities and ultimately your decision making. I have been in China for 10 years and still make cultural blunders or simply disagree and don't wish to follow them sometimes.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-26/hieu-van-le-appointed-sa-governor/5552004

Interesting topic Bex, and I couldn't improve on Marty's response.

 

The Chinese themselves (or was it the Manchus) appointed foreigners as governors in the past, when their leaders valued innovation and diversity. Many Australians strongly resisted the appointment of our first native-born Governor General only 70-odd years ago- probably for similar reason to those you raised.

 

 

[ayavner]

a flaming bag of poo is funny in any language

 

 

[bexrbetter]

I don't know the bloke so can't comment on his qualifications or character, but he's had 36 years of Australian culture and the bonus of 24 years of Vietnamese culture, so IMHO his life experience is a positive..

And I'm absolutely certain he's a great guy and most suitable for various positions calling upon his qualifications. When someone goes up to him and says the current gun laws are wrong and expresses his opinion based on his lifetime knowlege as a kid growing up and handling guns how deep an appreciation would he have for that? (I'm not a gun lobbyist, just an example).

 

Got to go but be warned; "I be bach".

 

 

[Marty_d]

I can see your point, Johann Sebastian, but even in the Australian-born population there'd be a range of views on any issue. There would be loads of people even in our age range whose families either didn't agree with owning guns or lived in metropolitan areas where you couldn't use them anyway.

 

 

[planedriver]

a flaming bag of poo is funny in any language

Yea right!

Just send me a pair of new slippers and socks.

 

I'll still blame you, till something else comes to light:laugh: