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 ...
here was another goodie I just remembered...
We took a bicycle spoke and twisted it to shape like a gun...The female threaded end that screwed to the rim was perfect size to break off the old “strike anywhere” matchheads in...Break off about 4-5 matchheads and pack with a BB...Aim and hold a lit match under...
It would shoot a red hot BB 25-30 yards...LOL
Starting in first grade I had to walk 28 blocks each way hauling all my books in a satchel that was half as big as me. Two years ago they local school district redid the school bus map...some kids had to walk as much as three blocks to the bus stop and parents practically burned the place down at the school board meeting.
My best buddy borrowed his grandfather’s shotgun when we were in grade school and we took it up the road for some target practice. We only had three shells. In WV kids can still do that. Not long ago I saw a kid walking along the road with a .22.
It’s good to be rural and in WV.
If a doctor can fix something with four legs (or no legs), he can sure fix something with two. That’s the way we always looked at it, and it would be a mite easier because the patient could talk with him. From what I have seen of ER treatment in this area, I’d prefer the vet.
In the summer (in grade school) all the kids in the neighborhood would come out in the evening whenever the trucks came through to “fog” for mosquitos and, with our parents blessing, we ran around behind it in the fog. Great fun! Only later did we learn the “fog” had DDT in it. Gives a whole new meaning to: “Why don’t you kids go play in the street!” Ah, the good old days!
My boss and I were talking about doing that just yesterday; I think every kid who had access to mercury in a science class played with it. All the ones I knew, including myself, are still kicking ;-)
-JT
Childhood has been ruined by do-gooders.
Anyone for some archery golf? Par three on each "target" with a compound bow and par five with a long bow.
Up until Roe v Wade, we also did not fear being ripped apart, screaming, in an infanticide clinic.
When I was 8 I joined the Boys Club about a half mile from home. They were open from 3 to 5 and then again 6 to 9. I would go almost every day. At 5 would walk home for dinner, and return by 6. At 9 pm I would walk home, in the dark, alone, with no fear. Did it for years. Today my parents would be arrested.
As other mentioned, in the summer after breakfast we were off to find our own entertainment. If hungry return for lunch, other wise come home when the street lights came on.
Made a trip cross country laying in the back window watching the world go by.
Someone mentioned mercury, all the thermometers had mercury. If one broke played with the stuff for hours in the end putting it on silver coins to make them brighter.
Both parents smoked, all the adults smoked, traveling in an enclosed car you could say I smoked.
It was a time when a kid could get a job sweeping out stores or doing yard work. If you were big enough, you could do it.
Our toys could be as dangerous as real life, chemistry sets to guns (both toy and real).
It was freedom.
A free person can decide to take risk.
One reason I oppose government controlled health care is it puts into play the fact that when they are paying the bill they can control how you live.
We lost a lot in the name of “safety”
Us neighborhood kids, growing up in San Francisco where houses are right up against each other, would go hopping on rooftops from house to house, and slide down drainpipes to get to street level. Follow the leader, walking along the top fence-rails, through trees, picking all the fruit we could eat (until chased off by an owner). We would soap up wood boards and slide down the middle of streets, sometimes narrowly escaping being hit by a car coming around a turn. And sliding down grassy hillsides on cardboard sheets, sometimes hitting exposed rocks and getting thrown off. We used up a lot of bandages back then.
I’ve heard about it, but never played...Son and I bow hunt, but that’s about all I use the bow for...
they left off my favorite... skitching in the winter time!
Dad also developed an anti-dihhreal medicine for calves which was so effective that several ranchers got word back to him that they had tried it on their own family with similar results and thought he should try to get the FDA to approve it.
No big Pharma company wanted to take it on because it was too simple and wouldn't make them the money their other remedies would do.
Good times man!.
I knew a old man that had a mason jar full of mercury in his garage, for what reason I still don’t know, but it weighed a TON (at least as a kid it did)
...happened to my sister when she was about 12 (1969 or so). She was tossing the lawn darts strait down to make them stick in the ground. One went through her party shoe and into the ground... she lived to tell about it, but we still tease her!
We used to swim in the local pond with volunteer shotgun toting dads patrolling the perimeter for gators.
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