Read if you are a 70's kid...

Rajakumar Duraimurugan.

I grew up in a small town called, Uthamapalayam, Madurai District in Tamilnadu State, India. and I walked to school regardless of the weather and dinner time was at 8:00 PM and bed was 9:30 PM. Beyond 9:30 pm, the entire town was dark and silent. Entire Schooling from 1st standard to 12th standard in Government Schools.

Eating out at a restaurant was a huge deal, that only really happened when it was a birthday or a very special occasion. Only a couple of such restaurants in the town, that time.

There was no such thing as Fast food and having a bottle of coke or a Large milkshake from the milk bar was a real treat.

You took your school uniform clothes off as soon as you got home and put on your ‘home’ clothes. There was no taking or picking you up in the car, you walked or rode your bicycle! You got home, did your chores and your homework before dinner. Nothing more.

Our neighbour house phone had a cord attached and a rotary dial so there was no such things as private conversations! Very few houses had 4 digited Telephone numbers.

We didn’t have foxtel, Stan or Netflix, we had only 1 channel to watch, called DD, Delhi Doordarshan. Remember, only Friday, evening they used to telecast video songs of that time popular movies and the duration was only 1 hour, while lot many ADs were packed in.

We played Cops & Robbers, Hide & Seek, Kabadi and any other game we could come up with.....

Staying in the house was a PUNISHMENT and the only thing we knew about "bored" was --- "You better find something to do before I find it for you!" We used to roam around in greenish Paddy fields and Coconut plantations. The river, we had in our town, was another fortunate thing, to all of us, for morning bath, washing cloths, and evening timepass.

We played music via a Vinyl records or magnetic tapes. Mostly singing together Cine songs while taking showers in in the river.

We went to the local shop for grocery and candy used to be a couple of cents.

We ate what mum made for dinner or we ate nothing at all and if we didn’t eat our vegetables there was no dessert. 

Bottled water is luxury, we drank from the tap or from our mud pot at home.

We weren't AFRAID OF ANYTHING. We played till dark... sunset was our alarm.

If someone had a fight, that's what it was and we were friends again a week later, if not SOONER.

We watched our MOUTHS around our elders because ALL of our aunts, uncles, grandpas, grandmas, AND our parents' best friends were all extensions of our PARENTS and you didn't want them telling your parents if you misbehaved! Or they would give you something to cry about.

We respected the Policemen, Postmen, Wireman, Firemen, Teachers, Doctors, Nurses, all relatives, parents of friends, neighbours and almost everybody around us.

We got simple punishments (mostly standing outside class or kneeling down for 10 minutes) at school for not doing homework or being late to School or being naughty. 

Those were the good and golden days. So many kids today will never know how it feels to be a real kid, other than being hooked on to their mobiles and tablets for hours together.  ?? I loved my childhood and all the friends I hung around with.

You know what, they are still my friends and we catch up once a year..Good Times.

Like it.?? hope you too had similar or better kind of experiences.