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?
Cracker balls were great too! Looked like colored Kix, with bits of sand and powder inside. Throw against a hard surface, and BANG! Feel stinging sand. We would place these under toilet seats on those standoff pegs. People sit down and BANG, blow sand against back of the legs!
I’m glad you printed that size!! It could see the details from the box.
God, do I ever remember getting my fingers burned on that thing - we all wanted to take the bugs out immediately but the plates were 500 degrees.
We lived Phoenix for a couple years when I was small, back in the mid-60’s. My parents would take the whole brood to Encanto Park for a day of jollity. There was a long concrete storm ditch that ran down the side of the mountain. We would sit on flat rocks and coast down the ditch. The only way to land was to come up short upon the rock pile at the bottom of the ditch. It was surrounded by cacti.
Had us some fun times until Mom caught us.
Yeah, but when they talk about us it's true. I had to wear a helmet when I rode my bike (state law in California) so I looked like a retard and around 14 I stopped riding my bike because of that. There was NO playground equipment at my school because it had all been removed as 'dangerous'. Mostly it was all just a legal liability. We had no field trips for the same reason. And there were no guns on campus in high school except for the school police who sometimes carried shotguns as if we were prison inmates...which we were.
I used to (GASP!!!) swim in the river without a life preserver on and that was illegal. I was wondering when the state was going to make a law requiring us to wear stripes with plaid since they seemed dead set on making us all out to be retard dorks.
Here you go...
Whenever I see these threads I remember riding back from the local public swimming pool with friends...the 6 of us sitting on the back of a flatbed pickup truck, hanging on for dear life and no concerns about being pulled over.
Raised on a farm, we’d dump cans and bottles in the woods and clean it all out couple times a years. I’d go out and pour all sorts of stuff into a nice pickle jar. Sometimes it got too hot to hold.
And the present generation thinks they invented camel toe.
I wonder what she’s selling? Whatever it is, I’m buying. If it’s no longer made, I want to buy it on Ebay.
bttt
We used to play in the local mud/quicksand pits after a good rain...you’d let your friends/cousins sink in up to their waist, and then listen to that cool sucking sound as you pulled them out of the muck. Awesome, b*tches.
I lived in Mont Co during the 70’s and 80’s... great times. I can’t recognize the place now.
And they were made out of metal!
Why do I have a suspicion that metal lunch boxes probably aren't allowed in school these days?
I still have a scar from getting a Jetson’s lunch box upside my head.
Oh, does that bring back memories. We dared each other to jump from the highest rungs down to the asphalt. Yee-hah!
If I recall, that is a .22lr used by JROTC rifle teams....
Everything else in the photo is just a distraction.
we had so many BB gun fights i swear we could keep a whole shift at Daisy makin BB's just for us...
I remember a rig like that up until the early 80s at my uncle’s place.
We’d hit the woods with Crosman, Benjamin, and Marlin in hand, kill rabbit or squirell, cook ‘em, and head home to play football....and have BB gun wars....
We called that a jungle gym. The monkey bars was a horizontal “ladder” about 7 feet off the deck.
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