8 Reasons Children of the 1970s Should All Be Dead

Feedly.com ^ | 09 June 14 | Yeoman Lowbrow

[Himyar]

I was born in 1950. When I was in high school they had designated smoking bathrooms. Ugh. I had a horse and rode every where by myself. No helmet. Just a rope and a good horse. Hint: don’t rope a jackrabbit. It’s tough getting your rope back.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Any other examples?***

Riding horses with no saddle, falling off, getting back on.

BB gun fights. We didn’t put our eye out. (almost did when I was hit with a home made arrow 1/2 inch below the left pupil).

Drinking from a farm pond. No filter.

Playing with and getting seriously bit by a “tame” raccoon.

Rock fights with neighbor kids. (Friends on Monday Wednesday and Saturday, rick fights in between)

Winter snow ball fights with rocks inside (We fought back by putting cactus inside our snow balls).

Building and falling out of tree “houses” ( more like a tree stand today).

Gun fights with cork guns. (Almost did put out an eye with that one!)

Riding in my little read wagon down a steep road. Lucky no cars were coming.
Swimming in a algae green farm pond. No lifeguard.

Eating wild blackberries without washing.

Buying a box of 50 .22 Shorts for 45 cents at the age of 14. Now must wait till 21 to buy.

Way too many more to mention.

[roofgoat]

might as well buried land mines throughout a playground and let the kids loose.

[sima_yi]

You did this too?

[beaversmom]

Good article a FRiend shared with me not too long back:

The Overprotected Kid
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/

[roofgoat]

“Playing with and getting seriously bit by a “tame” raccoon.”

damn I’m busting up Ruy

[Buckeye McFrog]

In the late 70’s I was in high school, and I wish that would have been our lunch menu.

Jimmy Carter bailed out the turkey farmers, and we had some sort of reconstituted, deep-fried breaded turkey product at least three times per week.

[Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America]

..or maybe this:

[dfwgator]

We called them “Monkey bars”

"Hey Ma! Look at me I'm on top of the wheeeeee *clunk* Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh!"

[Second Amendment First]

Was aged 2 through 12 in the fifties.
Played with asbestos
Smelted lead and made bolos from lead balls and leather thongs
Played with mercury (actually swallowed several ounces age 15)
Rode bikes behind mosquito fogger spraying fuel oil and DDT
Played with lawn mowers (lost part of one finger)
Left for all day trips on hikes and bike rides
Climbed on roof of elementary school
Sled riding (friend ran into brick building)
Drove tractors, bailed hay
Camped out
Climbed cliffs
must be more also.

[Drew68]

The high diving board at the local pool is now gone. It was a rite of passage for my kids.

Yep! Conquered many fears jumping from the high dive into to the (14') deep-end of the pool. I used to try and test myself by swimming all the way down and sitting on the bottom.

These days the diving boards are all gone and the pools are so shallow that kids risk serious injury by diving into them.

[Straight Vermonter]

The big difference between now and then was there were many more children, especially among the people who have the ability or desire to create opinions. Thats my, perhaps brutal, take on it. Not all the eggs were in one basket so to speak.

Very true. The fact that we have so many fewer kids also partly explains #6. We all went out and played with the other kids in the neighborhood, either in the backyard, nearby woods or the playground. Today kids don't have the opportunity to do that because there simply aren't other kids around.

[roofgoat]

I wonder if that ad was legit, or BS. Kind of like when I was a kid in ‘74 and in a comic book bought this ripoff.

don’t know how to post a picture

http://mediahygiene.blogspot.com/2011/10/frankenstein-month.html

[neefer]

Thanks for sharing! This thread is so funny.

6. IGNORED AND UNATTENDED ON THE REGULAR
So true. My mother left me alone on an incline in a standard shift without the emergency brake on. I pulled it into neutral and it rolled into the road. Some teenagers pushed it back into the parking space, then told on me! This was after I chocked a cousin using power windows when an aunt left 5 kids in an unattended station wagon with the ignition turned on.

[Army Air Corps]

Ah yes, the Cage of Doom. I remember those well.

[Second Amendment First]

Built fires on riverbank and tossed in aerosol cans
Pound of calcium carbide for 25 cents, empty paint can, matches
Smoked cigarettes
Carried knives, axes, made spears

[WayneS]

They had an authorized student smoking area at my high school.

Lot’s of high schools in Virginia did.

[Texas resident]

Born in ‘61. Same thing here.
My kids have been horrified at our stories of growing up.
We played “smear the queer” on the concrete street.

[defconw]

Born in 63. All true there. But what else. We had cap guns, BB guns, rubber dart guns, and a Lone Ranger gun that shot plastic bullets.

Then there were those planes with the rubber band to wind up the propeller, if you didn't do it right it hurt.

Tennis ball can cannons.

Rock fights.

Fire crackers.

All the sports and games were unsupervised and rules disputes were settled by fist fights.

Easy Bake ovens.

Light Bright.

Riding in the pickup bed.

We actually played in the car.

[Boogieman]

We had one of those at our school to. EVERY year, at least one kid would break an arm on it.