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?
CREEPY CRAWLERS!!!!
I loved that toy. I asked for one for my birthday. My dad kept telling me it wasn’t for girls. But of course he bought me one anyway.
I grew up in the seventies. Great time for toys. My dad always bought me great stuff. Kites, bikes, etc. Made me the best forts. I sure do miss that old man.
I remember having "wars" were we took tennis balls, propped them on top of fence posts, poured gas on them, lit them and then hit them at each other with baseball bats.
ahhh the good old days. Damn I miss them.
Well, a whole roll of the paper ones under a rock or hammer was louder than those plastic caps. But yeah, in the toy gun, the plastic ones were WAY better/louder than the paper caps.
Wasn’t that called a WASP gun? I had a black one like a .38 snubbie.
how may injuries per game VerySad?
My thanks as well. Enjoyed old memories to share with kids and grandkids. Used to take my son out to shoot model rockets and his son just had a model rocketry camp two weeks ago.
LOL! You had me laughing at mom and Old Milwaukee. Hubby is much better about using the emergency brake than I am.
Inner tube from an airplane. Tube big enough to curl up inside. Friends roll you around. Get tired of that, lay it down and voila, trampoline!
this is the best thing I have read in years. Thanks too D68.
“your wife would be worth her wait in gold in the near future.
With the cost of healthcare, and the fact that healthcare service quality will be like employee customer service at a downtown McDonalds, a man or woman who can do all what you posted will be invaluable.”
The doctor, my wife worked for, retired last June to avoid Obozocare.
A year plus later, basically every time we go out shopping, walking or to eat, we run into former patients, who have found out what a good deal they had with my wife and her doctor re patient visits and costs for an ER visit. Most docs now send patients to the ER instead of triaging them in their office and then if necessary sending them to the ER.
If you aren’t a welfare patient or an illegal, a simple ER visit starts at about $2k and takes a few hours out of your day.
So their patients today can easily spend more money on a single/simple ER visit than they did a year or more of visits with my wife and her doctor.
Also, they have found out the grim reality of the costs of deductibles before their insurance kicks in.
Our current FP chided both of us for not really seeing a md when we first went to him, a year ago. We have a couple of chronic problems that are handled with RX renewals or over the counter drugs for allergies. A year later with zero visits due to no new illnesses or an chronic disease getting out of hand. He told us that if everybody was as healthy and knowledgeable as us, with my wife as the primary knowledge bearer, he wouldn’t have a practice.
Then he talked about our younger 40 something son, who hadn’t seen doctor for over a decade. He went to another doctor in the same group for a physical just to have a fp. That doc told him to gain a few pounds and keep on doing what he was doing, and to see him in a couple of years unless he had an acute problem.
Our son’s doc told our new doc, “if everyone was like him, they could eliminate about 90% of the docs in the group. Our doc told the other doc, in spite of being in our mid 70’s, we were basically the same as our son.”
We may try to get our Doc to go to the computer visit program and get paid $40 for a computer visit and to renew our few Rxes until we need him.
I don’t remember any serious injuries. I remember hitting my chin a few times.
I was also thinking ... Mom and the kids on the bikes have this really creepy similarity to Chief Justice Roberts’ family.
Like Stepford-level creepy.
Believe it or not, they still sell a version of the “Thing Maker”.
The device that heats the ‘things’ is no longer like a hotplate, but is more of a miniature oven, with a door that locks shut while the creatures are cooking, but my son still enjoys it.
PS - the safety lock on the oven door is easily bypassed, for those who are so inclined.
That was one of my favorite childhood memories... exploring the long, winding, underground storm-drains throughout the neighborhood. The muck, the slithering critters, and the whole creepy atmosphere. It emptied into a nearby bayou, black water and all. Never dared tell my parents of these exploits. Took several friends with me on different occasions, and I hope they look back on those memories with the same fondness.
I think I fancied myself as an intrepid explorer, teethed on the safaris I’d see in old “Jungle Jim” movies, which were still commonly aired on tv in the ‘afternoon movie’ slot back then.
Yes, with a little imagination, stinging insects can provide hours of fun!
With jelly that was made with SUGAR... OMG, it’s a wonder anyone’s alive.
:)
I just thought of another evil genius invention. Jr High I walk into the library and an epic spitball fight is underway. Creative genius Kevin And Jim pull out the big guns.
They had taken the typical clear plastic bic pen, removed the inside so its now just a hollow shell and taped up the little hole (remember that hole?).
They then cut a metal hanger up so that its a small ramrod like piece. You put a spitball into the bic tube, force it down towards the end using your ramrod. You then take another spitball and push it into the front tube section and leave it.
Now, when you ram your metal ramrod into the tube, the force and pressure from the first spitball makes the spitball at the end explode out of your bic spitball gun and you will win the war. Amazing how loud and powerful that device was.
I wish I still had my Tonka trucks from the early 60s. Real steel, with rubber tires, and no plastic except windshields and such. Had a whole bunch of them.
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