h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have read a number of articles about Children, and their pastimes over the years, including possible effects in today's Society, one of which is detailed below:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/main.jhtml?xml=/education/2008/05/17/fachildhood117.xml

What is your view?
Did you have a good or bad childhood?
Where you damaged by it?
Are your children, if you have any, affected by it?

If I were to post some of my memories, which I will do, probably selectively, I doubt they would be believed.

As a starter, I was often in detention for playing simple card games, such as 'Chase the Ace', Black Maria. Cribbage and Whist, yet Bridge was permitted. This was in break time. One Master used to take the Ace of Spades out opf the pack, making the pack worthless.
**Aside it was the card that 'card tax' was paid on.**

Used to cost me a fortune.. 10p a pack in 1975!!!

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/5-21-2004-54449.asp

I would tell my Mum that my Mate and I were out cycling around town, as we always cycled the mile to school, and cycled to and from School for lunch. Took about 10 to 15 minutes, so had 30 minutes to eat. Not so good if wet. Somehow she accepted it, or appeared to. It could happen up to three times in a week

My stories are legion, extending from 9 years old, up to 21, and College days...

I hope you can come up with a few pointers, and whether you think the article is correct in it's viewpoint?


I won't give my view, presently, to prevent prejudice...

In anticipation!

MMF

Most of my detentions were for not doing home work. I'd tell my parents I was staying behind to play rugby.

However I'm not so sure about the growing up in the 80s thing. I did and I used to go camping, sailing with my primary school, walking in the clent hills, I'd play out side in the field behind our house, walk 15 minutes to my best friends house, climb trees and smash myself to pieces while doing something which the health and safety brigade would ban as being far too dangerous. In fact at the age of two I climb scaffolding onto the roof of our house and the left side of my bottom lip is thicker than the right from when, as an idiotic young 7yo I tried to do something insane on my skate board and had a slight accident and painted the ground red with my blood.

I'll accept that I didn't have as much freedom as my brothers, who grew up in the 1970s, but I think the decline in freedoms has not been quite as sudden as the article makes out. Sure it's not a straight x=y relationship between years and loss of freedom and is closer to an exponential relationship. but it's not the sudden jump that is implied in the aforementioned piece.

Alright MMF - you asked for it.


I grew up in Belfast in the late 60s early 70s. My fondest memories are from the long hot summers we used to have. In our streets we'd build guiders (they're called carts now and adults mostly make them) but back then us kids used to build our own - we'd scour the local dump for valuable wood, old pram wheels, steering devices and even the very nuts and bolts we'd scrabble in the dirt for. Then when we'd finished we'd push each other around like lunatics up and down the streets (there weren't so many cars then either) until we'd wrecked the thing or broken our bones in the effort. Then we'd either repair it, soup it up or scrap it and start again.

Anyone familiar with the music of Van Morrison (he was a mate of my brother) will know about Cyprus Avenue. My lasting memory of Cyprus Avenue (apart from the fact that our church is on the corner) is that back then it had a lovely smooth, wide, downhill, tarmaced road and we used to rollerskate down it (rollerskates as in a metal frame with a wheel at each corner - none of this inline rollerblade rubbish) one day I was coming down it and hit a little tiny stone right near the top came right down the hill nose over tail - what a stunt - and it hurt but oh how we laughed.


We'd also tie a rope around a lamppost and nab a cushion out of the house to sit on it - we'd take turns at swinging around the lamppost. Dangerous but loads of fun.


We'd also ride our bikes to the beach and spend the day there with only an apple or a drink, we'd leave the house at about 9.30am and not come home to 10.00pm - but no-one reported us missing.


I think what's missing with children today is imagination .... they don't have to imagine anything, everything is available from someone else's imagination - from guiders to computer games the biggest loss is our ability to amuse ourselves.


....and by the way MMF thanks for making me feel really old.

for that, Fuzzy.. That wasn't the intention!

I certainly had a reasonable amount of freedom and, with real countryside a mile away, and the beach 1/2 a mile away, there was plenty to get involved in, but also potential (unrecognised) dangers. Children and open water are a modern parents' nightmare but in the early '70's, my mates and I would be out in the marshes, down on the beach, or exploring building sites and derelict buildings.

We also had a go-cart, made from the wheels of our old Silver Cross pram. However our road was flat, but the side avenues were on a hill, so except the brakes weren't good and, after a few near misses with vehicles, the cart became a recycling trolley, collecting newspapers from the neighbours to earn 10p a hundredweight from the rag and bone man.

Although we'd be out and about, there was always a curfew, and heaven help us if we were late!!!

I was an hour late once and, believe me, I was never late again...

All in all it was fun, cheap and friendly...

My impression, here in Nodnol, is that the children who don't need supervision are supervised and controlled, while those who need supervision are left to their own devices.



But that is my impression and, having no sprogs of my own, I can only work from personal insight rather than experience!

MMF

My own childhood sounds remarkably similar to Mr Morpurgo's.

I was born in 1941 , my next brother in late 1945, ( we have 2 younger brothers as well!) but we agree that the long hot summer days also spent in Essex were pretty good. money was short, but we also agreed over a pint or two this weekend that we never remembered being hungry, and that our bikes were our passport to freedom.
We were allowed out ( carrying sandwiches and bottles of home made lemonade ) after breakfast , and the only restriction was to be back for tea!

We 'lived' on our bikes, and in fact at the age of 12 I had a 16 mile country paper round 6 days a week, got home at around 8.00am had breakfast and cycled 3 miles to school.

So we had a near idyllic childhood. We were told never to accept sweets from strangers etc , but instinctively new which people to avoid!

I don't know if we are better adjusted adults as a result, but I can see the dangers of raising children whose view of the world is constructed around TV, electronic games and DVD's none of which allow them to relate at a human level to those they will meet in their lifetime.

Novo
(one of the lucky ones! )

Heh, my childhood was from the mid 70s to the mid 80s so I do recall Scalextric, Evil Kneivel Stunt bikes, action man and stuff. Plus we snuck into the golden age of computing that was the ZX81 and 3D Monster Maze (a postive upgrade from our Binatone TV tennis game ).

Really though I mostly recall me and my mates cycling everywhere, climbing trees in the local woods. We'd name the tree after the first one who dared jump off a long overhanging branch onto the ground. We used to play bike-crashes when I was really young - I recall stopping this when I discovered how much it could hurt.

Back in Bedford (where I grew up) there are lots of underpasses under roads. Built for safety no? Well not for me
We used to ride our bikes down then up the steep grass verges at great speed. But that was just for starters. My brother and I used to regularly dangle in a daredevil fashion from the midpoint which was probably 20 feet from a tarmac graveyard had we slipped or fallen. We used to dare each other to jump from the top onto the grass verges as far out from the edge as we dared too.

I remember a building site in our village (Oakley just outside Bedford) when I was about 6-7 ish. Ooh heaven

I always walked to school too. Something that seems to be lost to the past that.

In that article, they seemed to say everythign changed/went dwon hill from the 1980's, but I think they're simplifying it too much; I was a kid throughout the 80's, but we weren't in a big city/London, so I think the situeation wasn't as grim as they might make out in teh article, depending on which bit sof the country you're looking at....

We always walked or biked everywhere, cycling to school or walking from quite young (about a mile to primary school, so useually walked then about 3 miles to high school, tended to bike).

Weekends school hols and when not at school were spent biking about to friends, roaming over the marshes, woods, on the fens, the river, generally outside larking aobut, lighting fires, falling out of trees, and breaking into deralict buildings... usual type of stuff...

We'd often go on long weekend long cycle rides, just camping where we could,and useually manageing with very little money on such trips...

by the later 1980's myself and a few friends, had, what at the time at least we called 'computers', but yeh we'd spend a lot of time with the computers sometimes, but at other times we'd be off cannoeing or cycling or causing havvock outside...

Spent a lot of time in the summers on the beach too, attempting to drown ourselves or break our legs on the groynes Used to watch a fair bit of TV but probalby not a vast amount of it really
By the early 90's I'd found pubs But still did a lot of cycling with friends and hiking and canoeing, fishing etc.... but then it aslowely moves I guess from childhood to adulthood ... mores the pity
We had a lot of freedom, and yeh we probably abused that freedom somewhat at times, we never had much money really but that didn't necessarily seem to matter too much, I never really went wihhout as such, thougha t the times I guess not getting the latest/best whateveritwasthatyear 'must have thing' might have been annoying but never really mattered that* much...