Also trying to keep busy on election evening.
Watch out, you’ll put an eye out with that . . . .
Lawn Darts was a lot of fun!
Clackers. Most fun ever, made illegal because why not?
Telling them they will die if they have any contact with people.
I used to climb trees as a kid. Most parents would freak out if they found their kids climbing trees.
I fondly recall the Navy Patriot “Cat In Space” program of 1957 ...
Dodge ball
Roaming around all-day (dared not be home before dinner)
Bike helmets
Helicopter parents
Not a modern safety rule, but computers take a lot of fun out of childhood. Having unlimited information at your finger tips is great, but there’s nothing like running, jumping, climbing, and throwing with other kids. Building snow forts, and having snowball fights. Playing tag, pickle, etc.
I used to love hanging out in the back of a full-sized station wagon as a little kid. No seatbelts, either.
I also liked my car seat, which was in the front next to my mother, and hooked on the bench seat. Integrated steering wheel with horn.
Not a childhood thing, but I miss riding the crane’s “headache” ball....
What a crock. I played a lot of lawn darts when I was a kid, and only knew of one other kid who lost an eye. (I don’t count the other incident with the dart in the rib cage - that kid was a spaz who had to use safety scissors until high school.)
I grew up in the Wild West of childhood playgrounds (mid-50’s to mid-60’s). There were teeter-totters, open metal slides, merry-go-rounds, swing ropes over a canal, BB guns, and much more. It was fun. But, more important, it was instructive. As kids we were allowed to get hurt and we learned risk-taking while doing mostly kid things. In today’s kid cocoon environment, kids aren’t allowed to get hurt or take risks. As a result, I think they fail to develop a healthy notion of risk so they engage in risky behavior as older teens and young adults when the risks and injuries are significantly higher. Crashing on a bicycle as a kid is much safer than crashing in a vehicle later on and daring each other to eat a bug is much safer than daring each other to take a drug.
The milkman used to let us ride in his truck! With real ice in it, you could sit on the ice blocks.
I loved my BB gun.
Wham-O Slip-N-Slide with a Water Wiggle thrown in for good measure!
In elementary school we had a steel slide about 8 feet high and about a 45 degree angle. We would put sand on it to slide faster. Wooden swings you could jump out of onto a rock hard eroded clay schoolyard. Those were the days!
And let’s not forget tetherball!
