Simpler times.

[manning]

And the great mystery?

How the heck did we survive it all?

Someone said we were the baby boomers now being replaced by the whimps.

 

[disney junky]

Born in '55.

Rode a riding mower as soon as I could reach the pedals. Learned to drive standard on a '63 Ford pick-up, 3 speed on the column, driving all around the property. Lived out in the country. A couple neighbor kids near my age. We'd spend a great deal of time finding crayfish and minnows at the creek which flowed through our property.

Dean, he lived across the street, was two years older than I. I was probably 9 and he was 11 at the time. One evening, he was over and we found a tub full of sand in the basement. Somehow, Dad used to anchor the Christmas tree with it, and then it would wind up in the basement. Anyway, we started throwing sand at each other. Dean grabbed a cup and was scooping and throwing sand at me with great success. I looked for something besides my hand with which to try and throw sand. All I could find was a pipe cap, the threaded cap that would screw on the end of a pipe....solid steel. I scooped and threw, scooped and threw. After the third attempt, my nine year old hand couldn't hang on to the cap, and it flew towards Dean's head. I yelled, watch out, and he had just enough time to turn his face away from the approaching projectile. It hit him in the back of the head, and his scalp split open and began bleeding all over the place. At that point, I suggested he go home. I grabbed an old rag for him to hold on his head, but there was some blood trailing behind. He headed back to his house, and that was that....until my mom saw the blood. As I explained what had happened, she grabbed me and headed over to Dean's house to check on him. We found Dean's mom cleaning his scalp, not panicked, saying they were going to head to the doctor just to make sure it was ok. He needed a couple stitches, we didn't get sued, I didn't get arrested (but mom did lay quite a guilt trip on me), and for the next seven years, we joked about the experience.

Can you imagine if that happened today?

 

[DawnM]

Yes, if you are posting on this thread, you made it and survived.

However, not everyone did. They aren't able to post here. They are dead.

If you start looking at statistics, injury and death from many things, like child seats in cars and seat belts, deaths have done down by 70%. That is hugely significant to me.

Call me a wimp if you wish, but my children will have seat belts on and child seats until the appropriate age.

There are many other statistics I could quote, but that is a big one.

Dawn

And the great mystery?

How the heck did we survive it all?

Someone said we were the baby boomers now being replaced by the whimps.

 

[aprilchem]

I can NOW go to sleep with no noise outside.

I can let my son (when he was younger) go out when he wanted to

I can speak to people who I don't know and they'll smile and wave

I can afford a house!

NONE of these things I was able to do as a child in the city. I left so my family could have those kinds of memories, not of the ones I had.

The old times weren't simpler for everyone.

Yep. We weren't allowed to wear pants as children, or cut our hair. My mom wouldn't allow us to play sports because we were girls. We got beaten with paddles and wooden spoons when we were bad, and told that our priority should be finding a husband, not education. People in my town didn't mix if they were different races, and if you did you got labeled for it. IMO life is a lot better now!

 

[manning]

Yes, if you are posting on this thread, you made it and survived.

However, not everyone did. They aren't able to post here. They are dead.

If you start looking at statistics, injury and death from many things, like child seats in cars and seat belts, deaths have done down by 70%. That is hugely significant to me.

Call me a wimp if you wish, but my children will have seat belts on and child seats until the appropriate age.

There are many other statistics I could quote, but that is a big one.

Dawn

Yeah but look at all the fun I had.

 

[DawnM]

Well, if this is all about you, then sure.

But look at all the fun the dead kid didn't have.

Dawn

Yeah but look at all the fun I had.

 

[chiefmickeymouse]

Yes, if you are posting on this thread, you made it and survived. However, not everyone did. They aren't able to post here. They are dead. If you start looking at statistics, injury and death from many things, like child seats in cars and seat belts, deaths have done down by 70%. That is hugely significant to me. Call me a wimp if you wish, but my children will have seat belts on and child seats until the appropriate age. There are many other statistics I could quote, but that is a big one. Dawn

I agree. My childhood was simpler, but I often think it is a miracle I survived. Dh' s childhood friends weren't so lucky, only two are still alive.

 

[EMAW_KSU]

Went trick-or-treating and was allowed to eat the popcorn balls that one house gave out. I do not know how many she gave out but I think most everybody hit that house.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I remember riding in the car with no seat belts. We were on the floor of the back seat or in the way back of the station wagon.

Never wore a seat belt, either. In fact, my parents had a bed rig for the backseat for my sister and I to curl up on during long car trips. Thank God there was never an accident-we would have been thrown about like bowling pins.

We also trick-or-treated on Halloween by ourselves and went *everywhere* without worrying that we would be snatched or molested. This was the mid-seventies, and I lived in a large city, Philadelphia.

 

[DawnM]

Did you know that the razor blades and drugs in candy when we were kids was mostly urban legend?

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/halloween/a/Is-Halloween-Candy-Tampering-A-Myth.htm

Went trick-or-treating and was allowed to eat the popcorn balls that one house gave out. I do not know how many she gave out but I think most everybody hit that house.

 

[lustergirl]

I can NOW go to sleep with no noise outside.

I can let my son (when he was younger) go out when he wanted to

I can speak to people who I don't know and they'll smile and wave

I can afford a house!

NONE of these things I was able to do as a child in the city. I left so my family could have those kinds of memories, not of the ones I had.

The old times weren't simpler for everyone.

Robin: so true, the south is way more hospitable and welcoming then us uptight Yankees. I grew up in Bensonhurst in a tight knit community probably not far from you?

 

[EMAW_KSU]

Did you know that the razor blades and drugs in candy when we were kids was mostly urban legend?

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/halloween/a/Is-Halloween-Candy-Tampering-A-Myth.htm

Nobody around here gives out homemade candy any more doesn't mater if it is an urban legend or not.

Do your kids get homemade candy and you allow them to eat it from people you do not know?

 

[scoutie]

My kids ride their bikes all over the place, and most of the neighbor kids (with the exception of one overly protected little girl) do too. In nice weather, there is always a game of some kind of outdoor game going on.

As for helmets and seatbelts...as another poster reported, injuries have gone down quite a bit since these safety measures have gone into place. You better believe I'm buckling my kids up in the car, or making them wear helmets when they ride their bikes. Have you ever seen a child with a traumatic brain injury?

MY MIL always talks about how her kids were fine "flopping around in the front seat" without seatbelts. Sadly, when my husband was a kid, he witnessed a horrible car accident where kids were thrown from the car. Those kids weren't so lucky flopping around in the front seats without seatbelts.

I teach middle school, and I don't see a lack of creativity at all. On the contrary...these kids are way better critical thinkers than when I went to school (my school--as many were-was very much of the "drill and kill", multiple choice, memorize a bunch of things that you forget the next week, type school).

Maybe it's regional, but I don't see all of the doom and gloom that people report about "kids these days".

 

[mjkacmom]

I walked to and from kindergarten alone (it was half day, and the rest of the kids on the block had full day) - 15 minute walk. My kids still have a lot of the same freedoms I had - I don't worry about abduction at all. One thing we were allowed to do was go to the beach without adults. My grandparents had a shore house, 3 blocks from the beach, so we would gather our pails, towels, and boogie boards, and head over for the morning, come back for lunch, and go back until dinner time (elementary school aged). We were also allowed to go to the pool without adults.

I never wore a seatbelt until I was in my 20's, but my kids sure do. I think items like carseats, helmets, SUNSCREEN, etc., are beneficial to my children. However, this whole hovering is not a good thing. I'm sure the incidence of child abduction or molestation has not increased since we insist on watching our kids 24/7.

 

[goofyintoronto]

I was born in the mid 70's, and I wasnt allowed to ride my bike everywhere like most on this board.

But I do remember the no-seatbelt thing, and riding in the back of the pickup.

 

[DawnM]

No, but throughout the 70s and 80s part of the legend was that people were putting it into store bought candy. Injecting drugs, things like that.

Nobody around here gives out homemade candy any more doesn't mater if it is an urban legend or not.

Do your kids get homemade candy and you allow them to eat it from people you do not know?

 

[CdnCarrie]

Yeah but look at all the fun I had.

Why do people assume today's kids don't have just as much fun?

 

[xipotec]

The monsters have alway been around, if you locked your doors or not, the murder rate has not changed significantly in many many years..

What has changed is the information we receive. If a murder/rape happened in your small town it was talked about for years likely, but rarely did you learn about the horrible things happening 20 miles away.

Now we get instant information about the horrors everywhere , in real time, repeated over and over. This puts people in a state of fear, so what has changed, people are more informed and therefor more afraid.....

So in short , people are still as horrible as ever, we are just more aware of them and living in fear of them....

 

[Andtototoo]

Robin: so true, the south is way more hospitable and welcoming then us uptight Yankees. I grew up in Bensonhurst in a tight knit community probably not far from you?

As long as you outwardly conform to the cultural norms, the south can be hospitable.

 

[DawnM]

But we aren't just talking about homicide rates.

We are also talking about helmets and carseats and a general idea of safety.

These things HAVE changed.

Also, childhood sexual abuse cases have quadruped since 1950. Much of that has to do with things going unreported back in the 50s-70s, but I also believe that with the internet and availability, people's sick proclivities are easier to feed.

Other than sexual, childhood abuse has risen over 100% since 1980.

Just look up statistics, they are out there.

I am not advocating "helicopter parenting" but I don't think children should have free reign out on the streets of a large city for hours either.

Dawn

The monsters have alway been around, if you locked your doors or not, the murder rate has not changed significantly in many many years..

What has changed is the information we receive. If a murder/rape happened in your small town it was talked about for years likely, but rarely did you learn about the horrible things happening 20 miles away.

Now we get instant information about the horrors everywhere , in real time, repeated over and over. This puts people in a state of fear, so what has changed, people are more informed and therefor more afraid.....

So in short , people are still as horrible as ever, we are just more aware of them and living in fear of them....