Posted on 08/15/2014 9:54:14 AM PDT by Drew68
The way things are going, every kid is going to go to school wearing bubble wrap and a helmet. Back in the 1970s (and earlier), parents didn’t stress about our health and safety as much as they do today. It’s not that they cared less – they just didn’t worry compulsively about it.
Parents of 2014 need to be reminded of how less restricted, less supervised, less obsessively safety-conscious things were… and it was just fine.
1. JARTS: IMPALING ARROWS OF DEATH
Can your mind comprehend a more deadly toy than a weighted spear that kids hurl through the air like a missile? No one ever obeyed the actual manufacturer’s rules, we just flung these damn things everywhere. We threw them. They stuck where they landed. If they happened to land in your skull, well, then you should have moved.
After roughly 6,700 emergency-room visits and the deaths of three children between 1978 and 1988, they finally outlawed Jarts on December 19, 1988. I suppose it needed to be banned, but a part of me is sad that kids today won’t have the battle scars and Jart survival stories we had. Goodbye Jart – you were an impaling arrow of death, but I loved you anyway.
2. LOST AND NOT FOUND: SEAT BELTS
Cars came with seat belts in the 1970s, but no one used them except maybe out of curiosity to see what it was like to wear one. Of course, you’d have to fish them out of the deep crevice of the backseat cushion where they often came to rest, unwanted and ignored.
The only “click” heard in the 1970s automobile was your dad’s Bic lighting up a smoke with the windows rolled up. (cough!)
I should also mention that, not only were there no seat belts, child seats were nowhere to be found. Whether it was the front seat of your mom’s station wagon or her bicycle, chances are, you were entirely untethered.
3. SEMI-LETHAL PLAYGROUNDS OF HOT METAL
Remember when playgrounds were fun? Sure, there was a pretty good chance you’d be scalded by a hot metal slide, or walk away with tetanus, but that’s what memories are made of.
The ground wasn’t coated with soft recycled rubber or sand as most are today – they were asphalt. Remember being hurled from a spinning merry-go-round, then skidding across the gravel at full speed? Good times.
I remember my school playground had a metal ladder “wall” that I swear went up three stories – it didn’t connect to a slide or anything. It was literally a ladder to the sky. I remember fully believing the oxygen was thinner at the top. One false move and I’d have been a flesh colored stain on the asphalt.
According to the New York Times we are making playgrounds so safe that they actually stunt our kids’ development. So, while blood was spilt and concussions were dealt on the playgrounds of the 1970s, we were at least in a developmentally rich environment – and we had the bruises and scabs to prove it.
4. PRECIOUS LITTLE SUN PROTECTION
Back in the 70s, your goal was to get as brown as your skin would permit. Sun BLOCK or sun SCREEN was basically nonexistent. You wanted to AMPLIFY your rays, so women typically lathered on Crisco and baby oil to get that deep baked look.
For the kids, SPF numbers hovered around 2, 4 and 8. The idea that you would spray an SPF of 50 or even 30 wasn’t even an option, except perhaps from medical ointments prescribed for albinos.
5. HELMETS: FOR THOSE WITH MEDICAL CONDITIONS ONLY
Whether you were riding a bike, roller skating, or skateboarding, one thing was for certain: you were not wearing a head protection. You would have been looked at as a sideshow freak by other kids, and parents would assume you had some kind of medical condition.
6. IGNORED AND UNATTENDED ON THE REGULAR
Hey, who’s watching the kid in the stroller? YOU MUST HAVE YOUR EYES ON THE KID AT ALL TIMES OR ELSE HE WILL DIE!
My mother routinely left me alone in the car at a young age while she ran errands. Today, this will literally get you arrested. You see, once upon a time it was okay to leave your kids for long periods without supervision (remember the so-called “latch-key kids” of the 70s?), or let them free roam without constant surveillance. Today, parents won’t let their kids go out to get the mail alone, and any fun with friends has to be scheduled, closely monitored “play dates”.
On summer break or weekends in the 1970s, parents kicked their kids out the front door and didn’t let them back in until the sun went down. “Go play,” were their only words, and you were left to your own devices for hours upon hours. Neighborhoods looked like Lord of the Flies.
7. ROUTINELY ALLOWED TO GET SERIOUSLY HURT
This poor kid is about to get rammed in the nuts by a goat, and the nearby adult isn’t the least bit concerned. In fact, he finds this all incredibly amusing! As hard as this is to believe, but when kids got hurt back then, adults didn’t come running with first-aid kits. More than likely you’d be left alone with your pain, with no alternative but to get over it.
In the 70s, parents watched their offspring fall from trees and fall off bikes with a smile.
8. SECONDHAND SMOKE EVERYWHERE
From airplanes to your family car, it seemed the world of the 70s was shrouded in a haze of cigarette smoke. It wasn’t just the fact that many more people smoked, it was the absolute 100% lack of concern for those that didn’t, including children. Teachers smoked, doctors smoked, your parents smoked…. and they didn’t take it to a secluded smoking area, they did it right in your face.
Please don’t interpret this as condoning it. There’s no question that engulfing your child in a thick carcinogenic cloud isn’t a good idea. I’m just stating facts – this is the world we lived in. It was full of adults who didn’t seem to have anxiety attacks over our safety, and we turned out just fine…. right?
LOL - your school gets the prize. You win. No one can top that one.
“Of course, back then a broken wrist wasn’t a five-figure emergency room bill.”
When I saw the bills, I was stunned. Made me understand concerns about escalating medical costs.
We had gone about 25 years without medical insurance. Hence we thought twice, before visiting a physician of any kind.
When we needed medical help, we went to a “walk-in” clinic. Paid cash. And got pretty good care, too.
I’m 66 yrs. of age, now. Seen my share of doctors over mostly broken bones.
Last year I had a serious injury including a broken shoulder, subsequent surgery. Fortunately now covered by insurance.
One of the last injuries before I got insurance, was a hairline arm fracture. Waited about 10 days, before going to the walk-in for xrays. Sure enough, I was right-self-diagnosed myself as having fractured the bone, in a fall.
The physician said no splint was required, but advised me to go the Physical Therapy, same owner company as walk-in clinic.
I didn’t go to therapy, but learned it would be fast and easy to run up bills by the thousands on a non-insured basis.
HAHA! We would throw those giant green walnuts at each other.
Strange... I don’t see the children either
-BB gun fights.
-Playing Hide and Seek in the woods...at night.
-Remember when soda cans were made out of real tin. We would duct tape 6 together, pour a little lighter fluid in the end and touch it off with match. BOOM!!! and it was reuseable.
-Walking to and from Christmas Midnight Mass, by myself, in Chicago, in the snow, at age 11 and 12.
-Walking home from school in the rain and making it a contest as to who could get the wettest. We’d stand by the biggest puddles on the road and wait for cars to splash us.
It isn’t medical costs that are escalating so much as it is that you have to pay for YOUR treatment as well as 3-5 others’ treatment that walked on THEIR bills.
LOL - your school gets the prize. You win. No one can top that one.
(Ummmm, now that you might see my tagline I need to explain - I 'borrowed' it a few days ago)
I hated those things. First, because I couldn’t use them well and second, they hurt like crap! lol
I’ve always been convinced that Big Wheels pic is photoshopped.
I have enough experience jumping the things to know that it’s impossible to exert enough leverage (ie leaning as far back as possible and pulling back hard on the handles) during a jump to keep the thing from following a ballistic arc following departure from the ramp. At the point seen in that picture the thing should already be nosing over ...
Born in 1961, but my life was tame compared to my Dad’s...
Proposed raising our kids according to 1960’s or 70’s standards and my wife was not pleased.
Oh, well I feel sorry for them.
More to the point, where’s her cigarette?
The back of Boys Life was such a crock. I always wondered if any rich kid ever did that hover car kit they always advertised. Just sea monkeys for me.
I remember when I moved from FL to IL around 77, at my new school the kids played “Butts Up” outside the school before it started.
Butts Up was like handball, jai alai and baseball. You threw a ball as hard as you could against a brick wall. As it rebounded, any kid would try to grab it cleanly and throw it again. If you muffed the grab, you had to run to the wall and touch it before another guy could pick up the rubber ball and blast you in the back with it. If the thrower missed you, then he had to run to the wall before he gets blasted.
Three drops/muffs, you had to go to the wall, butt facing the line of kids, and every kid got a free pitch as hard as they could to nail you.
The rumor was that the High School kids were using golf balls.
We didn't have a tree, we had to go across the street to the Dairy Queen to smoke while off campus for lunch.
I understand now there's a "closed campus" you can't leave at lunch to smoke.
As hot as Mom is in that pic, you just know that (it being the 70’s) Dad is off banging his even hotter secretary ...
Gotta be from the 1960's. Three VW and they are six volt. VW went to 12 Volts in 1967.
Hey guys, lets hide in this giant leaf pile right on the street and when the next car goes by we’ll jump out and throw leaves all over the windshield!! Great idea. After that, let’s play Axe game, our version of the Shining where the biggest kid chases us around with a real axe from the shed.
Today, that would get a parent thrown in jail.
I think this was the same model:
I couldn't have been older than 8 at the time.
Oh my, I remember that! Sometimes we would play walk the plank version where you had to walk in front of the wall back and forth while they tried to peg you as hard as possible.
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