This morning I received one of those ‘pass them around’ emails, entitled Nostalgia. It was a series of statements, complete with pictures, that were designed to make the recipient think back to an age when life was easier, freer and less stressful. As I read though them, initially smiling at the memories of my childhood, I suddenly realised that many of them still remain, for my family and I, true today.
I’ve taken out the photos but replicate below the questions, complete with my responses. It’s things like this that cement my occasionally wavering belief that we made the right decision in moving here. Our prime motives were to reduce the stress in our lives and to give our children a real opportunity to be kids and enjoy a childhood… I think we might be succeeding!
Do you remember a time when…
All the girls had ugly gym slips - A Greek schoolgirl wouldn’t know a gym slip if it jumped up and shook it’s pleats at her! Definitely changed.
It took five minutes for the TV to warm up - When the power isn’t off entirely (3 times last night) the TV does come on pretty quickly, so I guess this has changed.
Nearly everyone's Mum was at home when the kids got home from school - I am, or even better I go and collect them.
Nobody owned a thoroughbred dog -The only people here who own pure bred dogs are a few ex-pats, all the locals have thoroughbred mongrels.
When 3d was a decent allowance - What’s an allowance? My kids get change from their father's pocket for sweets and earn a few lepta for doing little jobs around the house.
You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny - My children will do for 5 lepta (about 4p).
Your Mother wore nylons that came in two pieces - Well I don’t wear ‘em, more of a jeans person myself, but most of the over 60s do in Nymfes (often without the benefit of suspender belts either, very fetching! Norah Batty eat your heart out!)
All your male teachers wore ties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels - Granted we don’t see ties very often, apart from on open days, but no self respecting female teacher would be seen dead without high heels and perfectly teased hair.
You got your windscreen cleaned, oil checked, and petrol served, without asking, all for free, every time. And you didn't pay for air. And, you got trading stamps to boot - apart from the oil check and trading stamps we still get the rest - including free air.
Washing Powder had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box - I’ve recently got two sets of coasters and a pair of spaghetti tongs with washing up liquid, and an electric frappe maker with coffee.
It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents - Definitely still is.
They threatened to keep children back a year if they failed. . . and they did it! - And still do.
When a Ford Zephyr was everyone's dream car... - Well… OK, probably not any more, but I bet there are still a few around here!
And people went steady - Pretty much still do. There don’t seem to be many one night stands here apart from those enjoying a little holiday romance!
No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked - Absolutely still the same.
Lying on your back in the grass with your friends and saying things like, 'That cloud looks like a... ' - We last did that just a few weeks ago - found teddy bears, dragons and a strange looking ship.
Playing cricket with no adults to help the children with the rules of the game - Yes, Jack does regularly, and footie too. Causes a few arguments because of the constantly changing rule book to benefit whichever side is losing, but they're soon forgotten.
Bottles came from the corner shop without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger - OK, that has changed, but safety caps are a sensible precaution to stop small children taking tablets having mistaken them for sweets (that used to happen quite a bit when I was little).
And with all our progress, don't you wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savour the slower pace, and share it with the children of today. - That’s what we wished for, we wished hard enough and had the wish granted.
When being sent to the head's study was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home - Still pretty much true.
Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc.. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat. - Absolutely still the case.
As well as summers filled with bike rides, cricket, Hula Hoops, skate hockey and visits to the pool, and eating lemonade powder or liquorice sticks. Apart from the skate hockey - instead read roller skating, and liquorice sticks (as the kids don’t like them) summer was pretty much like that for Jack and Niamh last year.
Decisions were made by going 'eeny-meeny-miney-moe'? - They still are, although Jack and Niamh say, eeny meeny miney moe catch a ticket by it’s toe…
'Race issue' meant arguing about who ran the fastest? - Still does.
Catching tiddlers could happily occupy an entire day? - Still does.
It wasn't odd to have two or three 'Best Friends'? - My kids do.
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was 'chickenpox'? - Thinking of my own children, at their age I do hope this is the full extent of potential! I don't think we'll have too many problems at the moment. Niamh's response to a couple 'snogging' on TV is yuk - grossss.
Having a Weapon in School meant being caught with a catapult? - I don’t even remember hearing of a child being caught with a cattie here. Certainly no other weapons. The boys do like BB guns (available in all dodgy souvenir shops), but definitely NEVER taken into school.
Saturday morning television wasn't 30-minute commercials for action figures? - Well, OK, some things do change. Watching a Greek aired film a few weeks ago, there were 29 advertisements shown during one break!
Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles? - Still is, we call it dizzy sticks.
The Worst Embarrassment was being picked last for a team? - Still is.
War was a card game? - Don’ t remember that one.
Cigarette cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle? - The kids still do this all the time, but use any small piece of card or a twig.
Taking drugs meant orange - flavored chewable aspirin? - It still does here. I’m not saying there are no drugs issues, but certainly very few.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon? - You should have seen the street outside Bambers after Niamh’s 8th birthday party - it was covered with water splats and brightly coloured bits of rubber.
If you can remember most or all of these, Then You Have Lived!!!!!!! - Above there are 35 statements that describe a slower, less stressful time that for most of us petered out in the 1960s or 70s. I can remember them all bar one, and am glad that, as the final statement says, I have lived! I am also incredibly glad that of those 35 statements in our current lives only 6 are no longer true, and one of those is a card game that I didn’t remember anyway!
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