TO ALL PINOYS/PINAYS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 50's, 60's, 70's and early 80's! (FILEX)

First, some of us survived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne, who smoked and/or drank San Miguel Beer or Syoktong, while they carried us. The manghihilotwas the cheapest way to deliver babies. Dinala ka ba ng nanay mo sa pediatrician for DPT? While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine, cortal or medicol and didn't worry about diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, pati na yung walker (andador)natin, matigas na kahoy or rattan at wala pang gulong.

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang), ( noon cloth or rattan duyan lang tied to the posts or ceiling, babies would fall asleep sa sobrang hilo ) and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads, sometimes wala pang preno yung bisikleta.

Take-out food was limited to Ongpin's pansit or Aling Toyang's pre-cooked ulam in kalderos. No pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway, Jollibee; and, coffee was just kape hinde kasing-mahal ng Starbucks.
As children, we would ride in jeepneys libre pag kandong, hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (yung JD bus na pula), or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts (ngayon lahat may aircon na.)

Riding at the back of a carabao on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (ngayon hindi na nakakakita ng kalabaw ang mga bata.) Did you make your own saranggola and pasted bubog on the strings?

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 711(minsan straight from the faucet or poso.)walang711noon, sari-sari store ni Mang Akong to buy Sarsi, Suntan, RC cola or Choco-vim.

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends and NO ONE actually died from this nor contracted hepatitis.

We ate rice with star margarine, pampatangkad daw, took raw eggs straight from the shell and drank softdrinks with real sugar in it (hindi diet coke), but we weren't sick or overweight kasi nga.......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day and get back when the streetlights came on. Sarap mag patintero, tumbang preso, habulan at taguan. Hindi uso ang kidnap-kidnap na yan, safe maglaro sa labas.Tanda mo ba PIKO, step-no-step- yes, trumpo, garter & mala-ahas sa haba na goma? Kung maulan, jackstones, pick-up sticks or sungka, bahay-bahayan, tinda-tindahan, titser-titseran or swimming sa baha or kangkungan.

No one was able to reach us all day (di uso ang cellphone, walang beepers.) And yes, we were O.K. Sipol lang ni tatay ang meron noon!

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (yung bearing ang gulong) or plywood slides out of scraps and then ride down the street, only to find out we forgot the brakes! After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (sewage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD's, no cellphones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, no Friendsters, Facebook. MSN etc. ......... ...WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them.TV viewing was a treat, kilala mo ba si Popeye, Gumby, Betty Boop & followed the bouncing ball in Melody Tunes? That was karaoke then, LOL!

We climbed walls and trees (to get aratiles and catch salagubang & tutubi - tied them on the neck or buntot with a string,) fell off trees, got cuts or "bukol", broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only ribbing we got was from our friends with the words...masakit ba ? Pero pag galit yung kalaro mo,,,,ang sasabihin sa iyo..beh buti nga ! Sabay belat.

We played marbles (jolens) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate dirty ice cream, fish balls & inihaw sa baga. We were not afraid of getting sick or getting germs in our stomachs.

We had to live with homemade guns, gawa sa kahoy, tinali ng rubberband , sumpit , tirador at kung anu - ano pa na puedeng makasakit, pero masaya pa rin ang lahat. We made up games with sticks (siato), and cans (tumbang preso) and although we were told they were dangerous, wala naman tayong binulag o napatay... paminsan minsan may nabubukulan lang.

We walked a lot, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them to jump out the window.

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made it to the team. Those who didn't pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala iyang mga childhood depressions at damaged self esteem ek-ek na yan. Ang pikon, talo.

Ang magulang ay nandoon lang para tingnan kung ayos lang ang mga bata, hindi para makialam at makipag-away sa ibang parents.

That generation of ours had produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO's, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas....

We had failure, success and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.

You might want to share this with others who've had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.

And if you like, forward it to your kids too, so they will know how brave their parents were.

Pinorward lang po sa ako 'to..di ako sure kung nabasa niyo na pero share kona rin :-)