Mazkyri

I was born in the heydays of the late fifties and I lived through the changes of two eras, the one before the swinging sixties and the one after the sixties, when the world changed forever.

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50s, 60s and early 70's probably shouldn't have survived because, we survived being born to mothers who ate pig’s fat for breakfast and fried pancakes for snack and drank tap water while they were carrying us.

They ate spicy sausage, halloumi, sweat doughnuts, baklava, didn't get tested for diabetes, and provided us with baby cots which were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint, which was promptly chewed and licked.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors and it was fine to play with pans. We made our own fire-crackers for Easter, and we flew our kites which were made form paper, water and flour. When we rode our bikes, if we happened to have one, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and shorts in the middle of the winter. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags. Riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose, not from a bottle and it tasted so good. We did not have the worry of dandruff shampoo, dry hair or greasy hair shampoo, thanks to the all- purpose green soap.

We ate chips as the main meal, bread and butter and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building toys out of scraps, which were so much appreciated. We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded. We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms. We had REAL FRIENDS - we went outside and found them. We played with sticks and stones, and we would go to a patisserie waiting for our luck to strike for some well-off friend to come and buy us a sweet.

We swam all the way to the anchored boats, and sometimes all the way to the visiting ships. We would dive in shallow water no deeper than 40 cm. We fell off trees, got cut and broke bones but there were no lawsuits. We had full on fistfights but no prosecution followed from other parents. We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us. We walked to friends' homes. We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school. We didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was not exactly round the corner.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem-solvers. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

You must know lots of people who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good!!!! The majority of us now are one step away from our retirement…. the sunset of our lifetime, but we are all what they called ‘youth’.

Youth now may have never heard of the Rolling Stones, they probably never heard Twist and Shout or watched Jerry Lewis, Norman Wisdom or Thanasis Veggos. For them, there has always been only half Cyprus; AIDS and CDs have existed since they were born. Michael Jackson has always been white. They can never imagine life before computers. They'll never have pretended to be the 'A' Team. They can't believe a black and white television ever existed. And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone. But despite the odds, we are here breathing and screwing.

Now let's check if you are getting old:

1. You understand what was written above and you smiled.

2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a night out.

3. Your friends are grandparents.

4. You are always surprised to see small children playing comfortably with computers.

5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.

6. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good old days, repeating again all the funny things you have experienced together.

7. Having read this you are thinking of sending it to some other friends because you think they will like it too... Yes, you're getting OLD!

Pearls of wisdom

Life has two doors. I opened one and entered. I looked around in the morning. And by the afternoon, I got out of the other (Greek song).

I am a weak, temporary creature, made from mud and dreams. But inside me I feel all the powers of the universe. I want, just for a moment before these crush me, to open my eyes and see them. I have no other aim in my life (Nikos Kazantzakis).

Everything is in vain (Όλα μάταια) Street slang by shopkeepers in Hermes Street, Larnaka 1970's

My Epitaph

I came. I saw. I left. Why?