06/30/2009: "long sunny days..."

i cannot remember a time when the sun shined for so long, since the wonderful summer of '76!

back then, there was no global warming, we actually lived a free independant life, where sunscreen wasnt applied, food consisted of jam buttys bagged up in an old bread packet, and out for the day from 8am to 8pm adventuring in the fields of this great country.
no health and safety, just common sense, aunties (who were neighbourhood friends of the family) kept an eye out, there was always a place where no one would ever dare to go. (ours was the old crumbled farmhouse and its dark, chillingly cold, cellar that remained)
white dog muck, and football matches without everyone having to have the latest footy kits.

things were dictated by real seasons back then, conkers, raspberries, blackberries, etc, in late summer/early autumn, tadpoles and frog spawn appeared as if by magic in natural boggy places, random streams appeared from nowhere and went, nowhere, it didnt matter, they were fair game for building a dam.

summer holidays at home were normal for most, home made ice lollies out of the freezer, 2 ounces of anything was to be shared, or when the money fairy visited a friend, you wouldnt be included in the sharing process.
tunes every sunday on the radio, recorded on a tape cassette recorder, with the intro or ending talked over by a dj, families ate well, ate fresh and ate produce that was grown on allotments or bought at a greengrocers, not a sign of being sprayed with chemical gases to make them ripen quicker, mother nature ripened our "5 a day"

we played in the heat all day everyday, without suncream or hats, we all had tshirt suntans (unless our six million dollar tshirt was needed for a goalpost!)
the earthen paths through the fields, cracked, starved of water for months, thunderstorms amazed us every other week, a magical time it was.
no NHS health plans (telling us to paint our homes white - or increase the family's expenditure) everyone was equal, we all had nothing.
we played on each other's bikes, built bogeys, made our own fun, we didnt need to buy it!
if we played tennis, football, etc, we didnt plug in a computer console and stay indoors most of the day, we got our old bashed up sports equipment or borrowed some, and played outside, developing our skills, not how to wave a piece of plastic around and dream of being skillful.
we kicked cans around to the mystical sounds of our heros scoring at wembley, buzzing around our heads, we had jumble sales on the streets, we had standpipes!
bricks in our toilet tanks, shared baths, no showers or hygenic handwashes, we had carbolic soap and were gratefull for our full creamed milk (delivered to our doorstep by our milkman - who was normally a regular visitor to our family)

we had double yolkers, no EU regulations, everyone spoke english or welsh, every garden had a plot of spuds growing in it, that would be consumed by the family and any extra given - yes thats GIVEN - away to neighbourhood friends of the family.
there was no full day shopping expeditions or a must have macdonalds burger, we all ate at the same time, around the table, eating the same meal or you went hungry.
sweets, toys, cakes, were a treat, a prize, etc. we didnt have greedy people stuffing their faces on convenience food, because there werent any!

if you wanted to go anywhere, you either walked there or took a bus ride, which didnt cost you a third of your weeks wage to use.

so when you are roasting this week, sweltering in the heat, dont moan about it, enjoy it, cos its a shame we cannot go back to the summer of 76 and the simple way of life we all used to have!