our generation is the best!

somebody forwarded me the email below. so this is not mine but i could so relate to this. the sad thing with some forwarded emails is that we do not get the chance to acknowledge or thank the author for their sometimes brilliant and touching pieces. this is definitely written by a cebuano coz he rode corominas but i think most people will have their own versions of some of the elements wherever they grew up. i'm an outdoor kid myself. still mostly a kid till now and still loves the outdoors. i hardly watched tv then and until now.

and to give a bit of my own experience - i grew up obsessing about owning a pot and burner. the miniature earthen pot sold at the 'tabo' or market day. this started when i was 5 and my tiya rina naturally thought i was too young. so i would go to my cousins' house and hope to get my chance to actually get something boiling in the pot with my own efforts. and ya, i don't remember ever getting burned and we were sensible enough not to drink or eat anything that we brewed there. and we loved fishing. at tiya's house, we had the sea behind the house instead of a backyard. tell me if any child could afford staying indoors in a place like that. and save for the time a hook got through my middle finger (and had to be cut with a pliers first before it could be pulled out (imagine a fishing hook)) it was always pure delight when something tugs at your line. and there's the unspeakable pride and joy when you pull out a real catch! and not some old booty from the seabed. and when the tide was high we would jump into the water with dead coconuts tied together as our lifesaver. but not before my tiya would make some suds and pour it onto the sea so that particles and stuff on the surface would vanish and make way for cool crystal clear water.

so i'll go ahead and repost the article below. i even kept the title. by the way i was born in the seventies. just so you won't think it's really that far from today. or isn't it? and oh, my mom had an ob-gyn. and i did get hit by a bike and only because i was just 5 and nobody allowed me to join their games. and the biker, hardly able to pass the crowded street, hit poor me standing by the fence. and before the doctor could sew the 6 stitches on my forehead, i screamed for a..... mirror!

TO ALL FOLKS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1950's, 60' s, 70's and early 80's !!

First, some of us survived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne and drank San Miguel Beer while they carried us.

While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine, a te Linunod, balikutsa, bukhayo and didn't worry about diabetes.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, ang uban kay duyan nga habol gihigtan ug pisi nga inigtabyog ug kusog ma pakong intawon ta sa bongbong.

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang sa General Milling nga naa'y faded picture nga nag-salute), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads, wala pa gyu'y brake ang bisikleta.

As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (Bisaya Bus nga pultahan puros ang kilid, Corominas Bus nga senimana ang brake), or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts (karon kay Minibus na nga nindot kaayo ug sounds or Ceres Bus nga bugnaw ug aircon)

Riding on the back of a carabao on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (karon; ang mga bata wala na kaila ug Kabaw)

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT bottled mineral water sa Nature Spring or Viva, or Absolute Mineral water (usahay gani, straight from the faucet or poso or Tabay!)

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this. Or contracted hepatitis.

We ate rice with star margarine, bahaw nga gibutangan ug asin ug mantika sa baboy, drank raw eggs straight from the shell, and drank softdrinks with real sugar in it (dili diet coke or Pepsi Max), but we weren't sick or overweight kay......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on. Syatong, Bato-Lata, Bagol, Dakop-Dakop, Tago-Tago, Ngita'g Kaka.

No one was able to reach us all day ( wala pa'y uso ang cellphone) . And yes, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (katong bearing ang ligid) or Karitong Kawayan nga karaang tsinilas ang giporma nga ligid and then ride down the street , wala ma'y gidungog nga naligsan atoh! 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 cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and no Friendsters. ........ ...WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words..sakit bai ? pero kung kontra gani nimo ang imong kadula,,,,singgitan lang dayon ug..Mayra,Gabaan!

We played marbles (jolen) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate Pan Bahug-bahug & Bagumbayan (recycled bread man diay to kay wala mahalin!) We were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.

We had to live with homemade guns (giporma nga kahoy, gihigtan ug garter ug lastiko) , saplong , tirador ug uban pa nga pwedeng magkasakitay. Pero lingaw gihapon kaayo ang tanan.

We made up games with sticks ( syatong ), and cans ( Bato-Lata )and although we were told they were dangerous, wala man gyud to'y actual nga nabuta bah, bukol lang nuon sa agtang naa.

We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend's house and knocked on the door or batoon ug gagmay nga bato ang bungbong, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala pa nang mga childhood depression ug damaged self esteem ek-ek ra na. Ang maglagot, pildi.

Ang mga Ginikanan naa ra sa daplin para motan-aw ra sa duwa sa mga bata, dili para manghilabot ug makig-away sa ubang parents.

That generation of ours has 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.

It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn't it?!

P.S. - The big letters are because your eyes may not be able to read this if they were typed any smaller (at your age? Duh!).