You wrote a wonderful post.
As I was reading through this thread, what I noticed was all the high-level creativity and innovation that went on with kids during the 60s and 70s. This is what kids did then, played creatively - and yes, some of it was very dangerous, and yes, it is what took us to the moon and back.
It started with a bunch of creative kids with time on their hands, freedom and supplies that could be bought freely at that time.
My dad did a lot of those bottle rocket/rocketry/chemistry type things when he was a kid - said they mixed up things and experimented, the old trial and error, blew things up, put things on the train tracks and then studied what happened after the train ran over them (nothing live, LOL) -all at a very young age - he later became a physicist and worked in the space industry.
Dad always said it was those who thought outside the box, who did things that people said “couldn’t be done” who took us into space. A lot of them were the sons of coal miners, farmers, working men, etc. Guys like my dad who came from dirt-poor families that tended the cornfields of Indiana.
Looks like it starts at a very young age, and may it never,ever be lost.
***who did things that people said “couldn’t be done”***
“THEY SAID IT COULDN’T BE DONE!(Couldn’t be done! Couldn’t be done!) BUT WE DID IT!”
An old TV add for L&M cigarettes on GUNSMOKE.
“As I was reading through this thread, what I noticed was all the high-level creativity and innovation that went on with kids during the 60s and 70s. This is what kids did then, played creatively - and yes, some of it was very dangerous, and yes, it is what took us to the moon and back.”
Our house was built in the 1970’s and is about 1800 sq. feet. Lots of homes near us were built in the 60’s and are smaller ramblers - say 1200 square feet.
Those smaller homes are now being bulldozed and in their place are 5,000 sq. foot homes or larger. Many of the new homes have 5 bedrooms and 7 baths! (I have no idea why every child needs their own master bath, but...)
And the house covers most of the lot. I asked a builder friend about them. “Well, with land being the most expensive part of the price, folks want a bigger house for that price. And they don’t need a yard because nobody uses them anyway. The kids are either on their devices, at school, or some organized activity.”
We built a huge fort in the corner of my child-hood back yard and added onto it over the years. Mostly done with scrap lumber. (Okay - it seemed like scrap to us, but looking back, some of it probably wasn’t. Heck - even at the time we didn’t think it was scrap. “Yeah - but it’s got dirt and concrete all over it - and just laying here in the dirt. It’s not over in that pile of new stuff.”