Posted on 03/04/2016 10:06:31 AM PST by PROCON
If you grew up in the 1960s or 1970s, then you know how relaxed everything used to be. Our parents never forced us to wear seatbelts, we pretty much at whatever we wanted, and were given way more responsibiity than we should have been given. It's a little sad kids today won't get to experience half the things we did, but looking back, there's a good reason why they won't.
Were these 12 things we did as kids kind of dangerous? Yeah, maybe some of it was.
(Excerpt) Read more at metv.com ...
We played Army and used cherry bombs as hand grenades....
Ever put dry ice in a glass jar, add water, screw the lid on and then run like hell??? We did...
I used to sit on the station wagon tailgate when the car was jam packed full. One day I thought it would be funny to hop off and be missing once we arrived home, so I did so about a block away. The car was doing about 30mph. That was when I got my first physics class for seven year olds regarding moving and stationary objects, velocity, and deceleration. I looked like a road rash pizza for about a month.
Yes. Along with GritTV and GetTV.
I was riding a bike with no lights...
We used to rub blobs of mercury on pennies with our fingers to turn them silver. Didn't harm me much. *twitch* A couple years ago they roped off a school bus here and called in a hazmat team because a kid was playing with mercury on it. Total over reaction methinks.
“...was due to the fact that families could afford to have broken arms set and cuts stitched up..”
Actually today, the parent would be accused of child neglect and the kids taken away....
Metal monkey bars, set in solid cement.
Good times. Good times.
Liberals saying that we need protection from ourselves. My grandad used to go to NYC by himself, on the subway. He was eight at the time. He’d ride the subways just for the heck of it looking out the front window of the first car. All alone and was never accosted by anyone.
Running behind and getting cooled off with the DDT spray!
Running free on a million acres of public land with coyotes, panthers, bobcats all around!
Playing with matches.
Swimming in a cow tank or pond. Drinking the same water.
Getting covered with ticks.
Playing with matches.
Crawling down abandoned cisterns in SE New Mexico! Shaped like a huge underground cement soda pop bottle.
Playing with matches.
Swimming in irrigation ditches.
Playing with matches.
And some too frightening to mention!
Yup, that distant place, America, I miss her too.
And yet.....he survived!
Oh the Good Old Days!!!
I was in the farm in Summer, up at the crack of dawn, feed the chickens, cows, pigs and then off to the fields, that’s how I learned how to drive and ‘stick shift’, and then back for a quick lunch, back out to the fields, came in, milked the cows, cleaned the trucks, took showers, ate supper, off to bed...
In the winter, still up at the crack dawn, eat breakfast, walked to school, walked home, did school work, ate supper, took a bath, off to bed...
We would climb trees, chase the bulls, tip over cows, (I loved ‘cow tipping’) ate green apples, oh the memories!!!
Stayed out after dark without a cellphone or tracker.
I used to walk 1 mile to Kindergarten by MYSELF, in Seattle!
And then of course there was the "Bangsite Cannon" toy / weapon.
The best was duct taping about ten soup cans together with top and bottom cut out of all but the bottom of the last one. Punch a hole in the bottom with a nail. Ram a tennis ball or potato down the barrel about half way down. Squirt lighter fluid into the hole and shake it all around to become vapors. Then point at your friends about 100' away and see who can dodge the missile!
I am surprized I survived childhood.
Good memories.
I don't think the DDT trucks were dangerous to human beings. I did watch a multi-helicopter formation of Paraquat bombing in San Diego in the 70's, which actually could have been hazardous to humans, collateral casualties in the War On Drugs.
What was really amazing was that my little brother and I could get on our bikes and pedal four or five miles to hang out downtown all day with no one molesting us and only Mom worrying, which is what Moms do. Worst thing that ever happened was a flat tire and if you didn't have a repair kit your friends considered you a weenie and you never EVER admitted you had to find a pay phone to call home for help. Assuming you had a dime. Which you often didn't. I shall be happy to explain in a separate communication what a "pay phone" was to younger FReepers...
A couple years ago we were cleaning out my deceased mother's files, and found a receipt from the hospital for the birth of my oldest sister in 1954. Total cost including attending doctor, anesthesia, a day in jaundice care, and 7 days in a double room - $250.
My father was a HR clerk at an industrial company, and I estimate he made and average salary for the time - about $4500. If you extrapolated $250 to the average salary today, the cost of having a baby now should be slightly less than $3000.
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