Congratulations – We Survived!

VOCABULARY

When I was a child, we didn’t have as much as children and teenagers do today and there weren’t as many rules and regulations – but we survived. In those days, there weren’t as many youngsters suffering from depression or having suicidal thoughts. They weren’t fighting eating disorders or self-harming as much as today. So what was so different?

First, we survived being born to mothers who probably smoked and drank alcohol while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate raw fish and blue cheese, something that doctors would forbid today. Once we were born, we were put into cots that were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint.

There were no child-proof lids on medicine bottles or locks on medicine cabinets. There was no PlayStation, Nintendo, X-box, no video games at all. You were considered very lucky if you owned a television, which would probably have two boring channels not 99 on satellite to choose from, but we loved it all the same. There was no surround sound and no personal computers, so no Internet and no Internet chat rooms. We had real friends and we had to go outside to find them, they weren’t available at the push of a button. Any information we needed to help us with our homework was in an enormous encyclopaedia. There were no mobile phones. Can you imagine that? This meant no text messaging to a friend and no being distracted during school lessons. It also meant that there was no cyber-bullying. If you had a problem with someone, you sorted it out face to face.

We couldn’t take "selfies" in every position and post them online and change our Facebook photograph every day. Most of the photographs of me as a school child were taken at school wearing my school uniform, which is compulsory in England. So there was no worrying in the morning about which designer clothes to wear to school. We all looked the same.

In England, school started at 9am, which made sure that all the children were reasonably awake by the time the first lesson started, and it finished at 4pm. We had lunch together and I’m sure that most of the food was full of dangerous "E" numbers and artificial colouring, but nobody cared or even knew about them – we just ate what was given to us. Most children walked to school or took the bus, which was a great chance to talk to each other and sort out any disagreements, and to get a bit of exercise before the day began. When we got home from school there was no homework to be done as we had done it at school, so we would snatch a quick sandwich on unhealthy white sliced-bread, heaven forbid, there was no wholemeal bread . We would then go out to play with real friends, not Facebook ones. There were hardly any fat children as we were playing outside the whole time, not stuck in front of a computer. Our parents couldn’t contact us to ask what we were doing – we just knew that we had to be home before it got dark.

We played rounders or cricket together or used sticks as weapons to fight each other and miraculously – nobody lost an eye. We rode our bicycles to friends’ houses, without helmets, and there were no seatbelts in cars. But we still survived!

It was a time when children had to learn to deal with disappointment; they weren’t all given a medal just for taking part in every race or chosen each week to play for their sports team. The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. My generation has produced some of the most brilliant adults who, as children, learned to deal with freedom, failure, success and responsibility and most important of all – we learned how to deal with life! rules and regulations – Regeln und Vorschriften to survive – überleben in those days – damals suicidal thoughts – Selbstmordgedanken eating disorders – Essstörungen self-harming – selbstverletzend to forbid – verbieten cot – Gitterbett lead-based paint – bleihaltige Farbe child-proof lid – kindersicherer Deckel lock – Türschloss medicine cabinet – Medizinschrank to be considered lucky –glücklich geschätzt werden can you imagine that? – können Sie sich das vorstellen? to mean – bedeuten face to face – Auge in Auge compulsory – verpflichtend to worry – sich sorgen reasonably awake – halbwegs wach artificial – künstlich nobody cared – es kümmerte niemanden disagreements – Unstimmigkeiten a bit of exercise – ein bisschen Sport to snatch – schnappen unhealthy – ungesund heaven forbid – Gott bewahre! wholemeal bread – Vollkornbrot fat – dick rounders – Schlagball sticks – Stöcke weapons – Waffen miraculously – auf wundersame Weise to deal with disappointment – mit Enttäuschung fertig werden to take part – teilnehmen failure – Scheitern responsibility – Verantwortung