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?
Damn, that was LIVING!!!
You can add to that list: taking the bus from the East Bay to Chinatown to buy firecrackers. And you had to walk through a narrow alleyway for about 50 feet to complete the transaction with an old Chinese guy that was right out of a scene from an opium den.
you wonder what type of minds invent these sadistic but insanely fun games.
And everyone ate peanutbutter and lived.
Actual fights consisting of groups of kids throwing rocks at each other as hard as we could.
Yep. We held our rock fights in the woods to add to the element of surprise.
Also: hitting rolls of caps with a hammer.
Creepy crawlers (the heating pan went up to about 600 degrees.
And, of course, running or riding our bikes behind the DDT mosquito fogger.
I burned my hand many a time on a Thingmaker.
Giant Stride, from 11 Playground Essentials They Don't Make Like They Used To
"Kid what would you like?"
"I want something that ya go around in a circle for 5 minutes and then puke!"
Not One Kid asked for that.
I was born in 1967 and this brings back great memories. I remember being seven and my grandmother was staying with us while my parents were out of town. I went too high on a swing set, went sailing through the air and landed with a stick jabbing into my hand. My grandmother told me to wash it off (which back then consisted of putting it under water with no soap for about three seconds) and put a band-aid on it, so that's what I did. My parents got back a few days later and I showed my mom my hand because it still hurt, she took me to the doctor and it turned out I had blood poisoning because it wasn't cleaned out. No big deal and the doctor, my parents and my grandmother all acted like it was my fault in the first place.
Good point. It is easy and even natural to helicopter your one and only baby.
You have to let go and let live three kids running around, or else you’d go nuts trying.
Had a great chem set. Use to make that rotten egg smell, remember my Mom yelling down to me in the basement about it. Some how later on in that year I discovered the formula for gunpowder. Made my own rockets. One day while launching my most brilliant creation using some toy rocket received on some ancient Christmas Day years prior. On the back yard retaining wall launching pad, my aero space plans came to an abrupt end, when, mom stepped out with the trash to see the mighty lift off which culminated in a premature abort fire ball about three feet up from the top of the five foot high wall. It was a spectacular failure! Ah well it was the late fifties and NASA and Me were on the same disaster track!
A friend's father brought home bottles of mercury for him to "play with".
I was thinking the same thing.
The same minds that landed a man on the moon and brought him back safely on little more computing power than a slide rule.
The same minds that won the Cold War and brought down the Berlin Wall.
Descendents of the same minds that won WWI & WWII.
Ok, now the thread can be hijacked to bitch about the Baby Boomer Generation. lol
We would play “you’re it” on the monkey bars. You were not allowed to touch the ground.
Where to begin?
Cardboard sliding on the dried grass on the steep hills behind the house. We'd swipe refrigeration boxes and schlep them up hills all day long, the trick was to know when to bail off before you slammed into the barbed wire fence at the bottom.
We built a three level tree fort on an oak that hung 40 feet over the bay, I still cant believe nobody died from that project.
We build wooded coasters (No brakes) and flew down our street that ended in a "T" intersection at the botom, we'd shoot across the road and go flying into thick bushes to stop.
We'd walk from school to downtown, (a couple miles) underground in the storm drains.
I had two tall pine trees in the front yard about eight feet apart and me and my buddy would race each other to the top, and when the wind was blowing the tops would sway towards each other enough so we could cross over and race down. (I did loose it about halfway down once, hit every branch, and lost skin on my front, back, sides, and arms. The Bactine bath I got was worse than the fall. That crap stung like a bastard.)
Lots of fun with BB guns and firecrackers.
We'd get together with the kids up the street and had massive dirt clod wars in the oaks and poison oak patches.
The good ol' days...
Yea, they were great. Nothing better to kill all kinds of bugs. Now we have ticks and lyme disease.
Well that fired an old synapse. Thanks!
Thanks D68 for starting this Thread, a nice change from all the depressing news out there.
YO! Guys, over here....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
