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?
Haha! Thinking the same. Dang!
How about pushing .22 shells into the dirt, standing back about 5’, and shooting them with a bb gun?
One of my dear friends and I were discussing the old Chemistry Sets that we got for Christmas - the one I got was USED and most of the chemicals were gone but friend said what was in that kit was enough to blow the house apart - among other dangerous experiments.
We also had that children’s toy where you could make those rubbery insects by pouring a solution into a mold and then cooking it in a metal device - damn thing heated up to about 500 degrees. We burned the heck out of our fingers making those things - and this was in elementary school.
Parents never said a word -if we were burned, it was our fault for not being careful enough.
There was also the Suzy Homemaker Oven — the REAL one, not the fake one now that’s heated up a little bit by a light bulb - the original oven really cooked things are real temps like a real oven - some children’s toy,huh?
We also chased each other around with squirt and cap guns that we bought at the local 5 and dime - they were LOUD and I understand would get a kid expelled from school if he were caught with one.
But, God did we ever have fun.
Creating an amusement park in my backyard where one of the “rides” was a 20 foot wooden ladder “roller coaster” propped on an 8 foot fence. You went down on whatever wagon or pedal-less vehicle happened to be laying around nearby and landed “hopefully” at the end into a brick walkway. That was one of the many “safe” rides.
When my uncle was growing up in the 40s it was still possible to buy M-80s off the shelf. He said all the kids had them and set them off all over the place.
Later, they were banned but not Cherry Bombs, which are still powerful. My cousins said in the 60s they threw plenty of them.
Very funny. We thought my aunt had it made because her husband could afford a station wagon with power windows.
left out Beanie Weenies, Surf & Turf (still have no idea what the “Surf” part was!) and loads of Tater Tots!
Never did this myself, but heard of flushing m80’s down a toilet...
I grew up near the RR tracks. We would jump off trestles, play around the yards, jump freights to the next town.
We also swam in old quarries filled with water, some you would go to a high ledge where you had to run to clear the rocks below.
“Last year, hidden in the rafters in my parents garage at their lake house, we found a box similar to this. We got them out and started playing until mom came out and said she had been looking for them because they were dangerous and needed to be thrown away promptly.”
We still have a set of Jarts. When parts of our yard needed to be aerated, I would break out the Jarts. Our grandkids play with the Jarts when their parents aren’t around.
Remember wood burners? I burned myself so many times I threw mine away.
Really? We always had fish sticks on Fridays because of the Catholics. I loved them - plus all that other food you mentioned. In the 60s, school food was actually food.
Oh yeah, we did that too, we called it “skitching”. They wouldn’t plow the sidestreets, so if we got at least 6 inches of snow, it was game on!
In the summer, we would wait for the ice cream truck to come around, and get some kids to run out so he would pull over, then a few of us would sneak on the rear bumper and see how long we could ride before he noticed us and chased us off. Sometimes we would end up like 6 blocks away and had to walk home.
Yeah, I’m just pulling from memory, we did get fish sticks too but I don’t remember getting them every friday.
You'll put your eye out with that toy, kid.
I started having children later in life. I was 40 when my first son was born. He's 5 now. It had been decades since I visited a toy store but now with kids, it's a regular occurrence.
I recall the first time as a father that I visited a Toys 'R Us. It was depressing. No chemistry sets. No Revell or Monogram models (and, needless to say, no paint or model glue). No Estes Rockets, electric train sets, gas-powered Cox airplanes. None of the toys I loved as a child.
In fact, it seemed like there wasn't a single toy that would challenge a child's creativity. Even today's ghastly expensive Lego sets are engineered in such a way to be assembled with as little imagination as possible.
What a wonderful generation of safe, compliant worker-bees we are producing.
The boys used to pour a little gasoline in a metal garbage can and put the lid on. Wait a while, then throw in a lighted match. I’m not sure I ever saw this. Maybe just heard about it. Try to even find a metal garbage can today.
We all had those sparkler things on 4th of July though. Until someone in later years pointed out that the core was about a thousand degrees.
We “smoked” “punks” and cattails. What is a “punk” anyway? They were thinner than a cattail.
Great fun plugging the radio in half way and touching the exposed plug for a minor shock. Brilliance.
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