Posted on 06/17/2015 4:35:26 AM PDT by HomerBohn
(Slinging dead cats like a boomerang?)
Kids walked or rode bikes everywhere, even from town to town. Played cops-&-robbers and cowboys-&-Indians.
In summer we an out after dark with our jars to catch lightning bugs (fireflies). Played fly-&-bounce alley until dark. Got called home after supper because Amos & Andy was on the radio.What a nostalgic list that is.
Young people nowadays have no idea how much fun it was to grow up back then.
Memories...
Did it all, except throw rocks at snakes in rivers. We didn’t have snakes in rivers where I grew up. We did everything else though and then some.
Young adults these days need to be coddled, it’s quite tiresome to me.
Nowadays, someone would have my parents arrested for abandoning their child.
Yup, did all those things on the list except having a real gun (we did have cap guns with those little strips that popped) and walking to school alone (only because I had a twin sister who walked with me). And it was that sister who jumped off the roof (it was only a little one story one over the porch) — it was when we put on a neighborhood skit and she was the Wicked Witch and that’s how we made her dramatically “appear” out of thin air!)
I have not seen a non-adult cut their grass in years. Using a lawnmower is too dangerous for kids.
I do remember packing a sandwich so that I could ride my bike with my friends from Hampton, VA to Yorktown, VA so that we could run and play on the battle grounds. And we all got home before dark and had no adults with us.
I also remember a Maryland State Trooper pulling my dad over to let him know that we’d left my brother behind in the Stuckey’s restaurant after finishing our meal. No tickets or problems from the police, they just wanted to be helpful.
Wow.
I think I did the entire list.
We even played, "doctor".
After a particularly nasty cut from sliding down a metal pole (nothing real serious, just blood, no stitches), mom made an appointment at the doctor for a tetanus shot. I bicycled myself to the appointment. Nobody batted an eye at unaccompanied 10 year old showing up at the doctor's office for an appointment.
I grew up in “mosquito country”, Beaumont TX. There was often a huge mosquito problem there so they sent trucks around spraying this bad smelling dark gray stuff. I don’t know what it was—I’m not sure DDT was used in the 40’s and 50’s.
A lot of the kids I knew followed behind the trucks on their bikes breathing in the insecticide.
I never heard of anyone dying or getting sick from this activity—but maybe they died younger than they would have otherwise.
how about various activities with:
a WHAMMO sling shot
firecrackers, and maybe a frog or two
crow hunting using the neighbors cat as bait
i could go on, but it gets worse.....
At least, that's what THEY say (but we all know what THEY say)...
Where I grew up in Maryland, we use to go down to the woods and catch frogs, turtles, and such. At the age of 6, 7, and up, you learned quickly the difference between a poisonous and nonpoisonous snake, snappers, poison ivy/oak, things like that.
Preparedness Nut-Job Conspiracy (to make us soft and dependent) Nanny State PING!
When I was 8 years old I jumped off the garage with an umbrella thinking that it would work like a parachute.
If growing up this way was so good; how come we have destroyed the country?
Fireworks are not mentioned.
Cutting shotgun shells to get the powder out for fun projects isn’t mentioned.
Calcium carbide cannons not mentioned.
Building a go cart from a bad lawn mower isn’t mentioned.
I could go on, and on and on.
I made my own fireworks from reloading powder I bought, no questions asked, from the hardware store.
Did most of the list.
Carried a pocketknife to school in the 60 and 70s without any problems but was nearly fired in the 90s for having a small Swiss Army pocketknife tool on my keychain ...while working in a warehouse having dozens of box cutter knives with unguarded 6 inch blades laying on work tables there!!!!
We have institutionalized stupidity as the norm.
I had the unique experience of growing up by Love Field, a former Army Air Corps base in the late 1950’s. There were old warplanes parked just off the road going around the base. We played in most of them.
Our favorite group was a row of a out a dozen B 17’s parked in a row. The only thing between us and them was a three strand barb wire fence.
All the manual flying controls still worked.
A maintenance crew drove by while we were in them one afternoon while we were in one. We knew we were in trouble when one of the men walked over to us. All he said was, “Have fun, and don’t get hurt.”
Helping parents with chores.
Believe it or not, in our town there is a sign that no one under 12 is allowed out of the car at our dump (transfer station) My son, from the time he could carry would jump out to help me with the trash. The dump man never said a thing.
Pump gas. There are signs on the pump about being at least 16 to pump gas. My son was expected to jump out of the car and pump from the time he could manage. And he did.
But then again, we all continue to commit 5 felonies a day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.