THEN versus NOW

[ADeMartino]

Another post in the forum got me to thinking about all the things my friends and I did when we were kids. Stuff that was considered perfectly normal then, but today would be unthinkable - either from a 'safety' standpoint or because it's politically or socially incorrect now.

For instance, when I was a kid, nobody (and I mean NOBODY) wore a helmet or protective gear while riding a bike, skateboard, whatever.

Anyone have other examples?

[bhskittykatt]

I wore my bike helmet, but I'd bike for miles all by myself, even to downtown. Hell, just going outdoors unsupervised. My parents would literally lock us outside and make us go play until dinnertime. Even when we moved out to the county and there were cougar sightings in the area, they'd be "Here's what you do if you see a mountain lion; now go play in the woods for a few hours."

Hubs had a similar childhood, except he wandered the deserts of SoCal instead of forests. Same idea of spending hours unsupervised, though.

[drews]

We rode in the back of pick up trucks and we drank from the hose...those were the days

[smileyeagle1021]

I rode the bus all over the city all the time when I was younger... now people call CPS every time they see a kid alone at a bus stop.

[malmalthekiller]

My sister and I used to walk everywhere. We'd walk to the pool, to Rita's, to the library, to and from school - nobody really cared. I had to be home by dinner, and then home shortly after the street lights came on.

[Dreamstalker]

I was doing grocery shopping at age 11, and regularly walking across town to mom's work (teaching restaurant run by the culinary school) to meet her for dinner and hang out with the dishwashers/bartenders until she clocked out. This was a relatively small town (Montpelier VT); there were a few 'village idiots' (odd but generally harmless) around at that time, most of whom I got to know and they did look out for me.

[DeltaSierra]

Picking up hitchikers - my parents had no worries about that when we were kids, and they themselves used to hitchhike when they were younger. Absolutely verboten now.

If my Mom was doing grocery shopping, my brother and I would stay in the car and read or play games, and nobody would blink an eye.

When I was a teen, we lived waaay out in the country. Everyone had pickup trucks with shotguns on the back window rack, and we even went to school, and *gasp* the cops were never called and no one was suspended!

We used to carry swiss army knives on our belts in school too!

[Kit-Ginevra]

We were allowed to climb trees and make forts and go out on our bikes anywhere-I arrived back at Mum and Nan's having crashed it going down a trail and skidded along hands-first... almost wiped off my palms. And we made a go kart with ropes to steer it....until it went down our friend's very steep zigzag garden and crashed into the brook at the bottom...


And at school,we were allowed to swim in the pool(outside,no roof...brrrr) at lunchtime-Since we were 90% boys,rather than opening up both changing rooms and having to get one staff member of each sex there to supervise,we all changed together.We had one teacher supervising and you didn't do anything you shouldn't because you'd have got a thwack round the ear and been removed bodily(probably by the girl herself).Don't think any schools allow you to change together now...

[DGoddessChardonnay]

We could go to sleep in the summertime with the front door unlocked. Nowadays, however, everything has to be locked up.

Of course, we also had the parents who would let their teenage daughters roam the neighborhood at night. So dangerous nowadays to do so.

Oh, and high school students having a smoking area on campus so they could grab a quick one between classes . . . that was okay back in the early 80's but now, totally forbidden. That actually changed while I was still in high school (fall of '85 IIRC.)

Oh, and riding in the back of a pickup truck was commonplace when I was a kid, yet too dangerous now. Same goes for seat belts.

I can recall falling asleep in the back of Mom's 1969 Camaro coupe or in the back of the Ford station wagon on the way home from the Drive-In movies.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Ooh and off each year to the annual church tide race,we'd pile into the back of the sunday school teacher's car.Down went the seats,in we clambered.People sitting on top of the wheel arches-when we got to the hump back bridges,you'd fly up into the air...well into the ceiling

[JustaCashier]

In the '60's: walking (or riding bike) to/from Elementary School, about a mile away, in a mostly residential area of a major (but not like NYC, or LA) City.

Riding the bike without a helmet, (I don't think those even really came out until at least the mid-late '70's).

Older Brother and I laying/sleeping in the "way back" of the Rambler Station Wagon, on those occasional leave home at 2:00 am, for the "twelves hours straight through" drive to visit relatives in Northern California; Dad the only driver.

Lawn Darts!!

Mike

[MoonCat]

My dad had station wagons when we were kids, and we all loved to sit in the back. There were no seat belts back there of course. I remember lying on my back watching the stars through the windows one night coming home from somewhere.

He used to drive us to a place along the lakeshore, park the car, and take a nap while the four of us ran around and explored, sometimes going in the water about ankle deep. None of us could swim, and we never went out far enough to get into trouble.

We went trick-or-treating every Halloween, usually by ourselves. No problems at all. If someone had suggested that we should do it before dark, we'd have thought they were crazy.

And then there was my sister, who used to run all over the neighborhood by herself, from about age 5. Drove my mother crazy when she did that; sis would just get up early, before anybody else, and go for a walk, alone. Nobody ever bothered her.

[JustaCashier]

Yeah, I can't remember if we sat in the way back other than on trips like that.

Maybe also on the rare occasion we'd have several people in the car, filling all of the seating.

Our Rambler ('62) had lap belts front and back, pretty new thing back then, so as I recall, we always buckled up in the back seat.

Mike

[AccountingDrone]

I was born in 61, my brother in 59.

Out of the country other than when Dad had leave until 1966, then we moved back to the US and he went to Saigon.

I walked 4 blocks to kindergarten, then home for lunch and back for the rest of the full school day. Did this in first, second grade and third as well though these 4 years were to a Catholic school. Dad came home in 69 and retired, and got a nonmilitary job, and we moved to a larger town and we got put into private school so the walking to school ended

Summers and any time not in school we basically had breakfast and left until supper except for Sundays, when we did church until noon, then got together with whatever family was local at the time. At the summer house, we had cousins up and down the lakeshore, so we would vanish and do anything from ride the 5 miles around the end of the lake into town, boat across the lake to walk into town, boat or swim down the lake to one cousin or another, or take out the rowboat, sunfish, small motorboat or head over to the cousins to grab a crew spot in the lightening. Only real rule was be home by dark or call for permission to spend the night somewhere.

Learned to shoot at 8 years old, had my own .22 varmint gun as did my brother, we shot crows for the local farmers for half a dollar per crow delivered to the farmyard. We also picked fruit and veggies for whatever the going rate was under the table until 15, then we would go to work for the company my Dad was an executive with.

I had a full drivers license and my own car [1958 Nash Metropolitan] at 16 and was an emancipated youth. No I really don't want to discuss it other than it did not involve any form of child or physical abuse.

[Victory Sabre]

We had an elective of target practice in middle school. I had so much fun doing it. PE in high school there was archery. Also a lot of fun.