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It Was Dangerous When I Was a Kid . . . .

IMG_2640 One of the constants in life, nay, one thing that never seems to change is the fact that things are always changing. Take safety, for instance. As far back as I can remember people have been at least moderately interested in safety. But the concept itself has evolved tremendously, to the point where many (and by many I mean MOST) of the activities in which I engaged as a kid are now seen as extremely dangerous. Looking back on those days, in which I am quite sure we all felt "nominally safe," I almost wonder how I managed to grow up! 

Consider the following list of "normal" activities for me as a kid as an example. Then, feel free to add to the list with "dangers" of your own! The times they are a changin'.

  1. No seat belts in cars
  2. No child seats (infants instead rode in the mother's lap in the front seat)
  3. Parents used belts and paddles for spanking
  4. No bicycle helmets
  5. No knee or elbow pads for skate boarding
  6. We drank soda pop out of glass bottles
  7. Many of us wore "Tough Skin" jeans
  8. We rode in station wagons facing backwards
  9. We rode in the back of pickup trucks on the highway
  10. We used lawn mowers without hearing protection or blade-releases
  11. We had asbestos pipes in our schools
  12. People were allowed to smoke in public buildings
  13. People were allowed to smoke in airplanes
  14. We rocked the school bus back and forth
  15. We were read Grimm's Fairy Tales
  16. We had leaded paint, and
  17. Leaded gasoline
  18. We had no smog protection on our cars
  19. We drank water straight out of the tap
  20. We jumped on trampolines without side netting 
  21. We played with lawn darts
  22. Any number of people could ride in a car and nobody thought anything of it
  23. Our high-chairs had more pinch-points on them than a hydraulic press
  24. We ate food without ingredient labels
  25. We operated all sorts of equipment without those yellow caution stickers posted near every lever
  26. We drank McDonald's coffee without being warned that it was hot
  27. Toy guns looked real
  28. We all had BB guns, and shot them at each other!
  29. We played street hockey without helmets
  30. We did our own science projects without any parental assistance
  31. We really did walk to school
  32. We had no hand sanitizer of any kind
  33. Our video games had no ratings system assigned to them
  34. We could drive go-karts without signing a waiver
  35. We organized neighborhood sports games without any parents, leagues, referees, groomed fields, etc.
  36. We played baseball with a baseball
  37. We actually left our own yards without taking along a babysitter
  38. We were never diagnosed with a "Disorder" and medicated accordingly
  39. We were spanked at the Principal's Office
  40. We said the Pledge of Allegiance in school, and
  41. We even prayed in school!

I can't believe we made it!

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30 responses to “It Was Dangerous When I Was a Kid . . . .”

  1. Norma Avatar
    Norma

    we ran errands for our parents, instead of the other way around.

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  2. Shaun Avatar
    Shaun

    #23 is great! My parents have that Metal Monster sitting in the basement which still gives me quivers when within a 10 foot radius.

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  3. Erika Rozsa-Atkinson Avatar
    Erika Rozsa-Atkinson

    When the school took us on an exchange trip to the Sovjetunion we lined up without supervision at the store and bought Smirnoff Vodka for our dads as a souvenire and carried it on board of the aircraft (age 15). We also lined up on the street of Moskow to drink soda water for 1 kopek per kid and used the same glass. We just had to rince it it first. There were 30 of us…

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  4. MiriamChong.com Avatar
    MiriamChong.com

    A quarter ($.25) will go a long way.
    No color TV. Only black and white.
    No Cell Phones. Only Dial phones.
    No computers. Only Typewriter without a reverse/erase key.

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  5. V Art Puente Avatar
    V Art Puente

    We drank water out of hoses
    We were spanked by our friends parents
    We rode our bikes with no supervision for long distances
    We were taught to drive a car at 13yrs. old
    We threw large water balloons at each other sometimes hitting the face.
    We roof hopped(living in San Francisco) where the houses are close together.
    We slid down very steep sidewalks on waxed plywood or any boards sometimes winding up in the street(also S.F.)

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  6. Leah Stadel Avatar
    Leah Stadel

    We ate liver and onions because mom and dad made us. Once a week.
    No substitutions of PB & J or sissy food like that.

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  7. Carmine villani Avatar
    Carmine villani

    In senior year of high school during hunting season I would throw my shot gun into the car and go hunting after school. One time the principal came out, saw the gun and we talked about how good the hunting was that year.
    My parents were not arrested for being bad.

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  8. Britt M Avatar
    Britt M

    Growing up we worked on the farm, and it wasn’t ‘child labour’. We chopped wood, dealt with the animals… We cooked for the family when occasion called for it, and actually knew how to do it without trying to follow the directions on the side of a KD box… We did our own laundry and weren’t afraid of the results

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  9. Hans Avatar
    Hans

    We played at the playground unsupervised.
    We heated food in the microwave in plastic containers.
    Sitting in the very back of our surburban (no seats), we asked our parents to hit dips in the road at full speed (and they did!).
    Parents were taught put babies on their tummies to sleep.

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  10. Jon Groves Avatar
    Jon Groves

    I used to jump on the bed in the back of my parents conversion van while my mom was driving. You can imagine how that turned out when I jumped as she turned the corner. 🙂

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  11. Cathy - Team Rascals Avatar
    Cathy – Team Rascals

    Chris — Thanks for the meander down memory lane!! Just how did we survive? 😉
    Here are some I came up with:
    Older folks were called Sir, Ma’am, Mr., Mrs. or Miss. We called our parents’ siblings Aunt and Uncle so-and-so. Close family friends of our parents were called that, too. No adult was ever called their first name by a child, and adults were given permission to do so, even doctors.
    Manners were fashionable. Someone without them was a social outcast.
    We covered body parts and underwear that our parents said we should cover. We left uncovered anything they said was okay to leave uncovered.
    The hot brand of sneakers was Keds. And they were inexpensive enough everyone could afford them.
    We ran barefoot as much as possible as soon as the weather and social conditions would allow us to do so.
    We skated on ponds and learned to skate by falling down.
    We swam in creeks, ponds and lakes without a lifeguard, and often without adult supervision.
    We picked and ate fresh fruit and vegetables out of our gardens and off our trees, often without washing it.
    We let dogs lick our faces.
    We played hide-and-go-seek until dark all around the neighborhood. And sometimes, even after dark.
    We trick-or-treated without parental supervision. Folks gave out great stuff like home-made popcorn balls the size of softballs. Apples were considered lousy, unless they were candy apples.
    We decorated neighborhood trees with toilet paper, purchased with our own money, for Mischief Night pranks.
    We had paper routes, baby sat, did yard work, mowed lawns, shoveled snow and did chores for elderly neighbors to earn cash when we were too young for working papers to get a job.
    Paper routes were by foot and/or bicycle, unless the weather was truly awful and a parent who drove was available to take pity on you.
    We did household and yardwork chores and babysat younger siblings without pay because we were members of a family.
    We built and drove our own Soap Box Derby cars and tested them on neighborhood streets, without any brakes except our shoes.
    Hardware was the stuff our fathers used to fix things, like screws, washers, nails and the like. Software was unknown.
    $1.00 could buy candy for you and all your friends to share and have plenty to go around for extra helpings.
    We rode our bikes on busy highways, on gravel roads and everything in between. Training wheels were for sissies.
    We didn’t have video games. We had board games, cards and each other.
    We didn’t have videos or dvd’s. If you missed a show, you hoped it came around in a re-run when you could see it.
    The only tv stations were the local network and PBS affiliates. Every night before the 11:00 news, all the network affiliates would make an announcement, “It’s 11 o’clock. Do you know where your children are?”
    Little League was for boys ONLY. We sisters got to sit in the stands and watch them or help our Moms in the refreshment booth.
    We drank water out of streams and lakes on hikes and camping trips.
    We would sit in our cars and watch bears eat garbage at the dump at night for entertainment when camping.
    We took shortcuts through the neighbor’s fields to get home when we were late, even though it meant a possible run-in with their short-tempered bull . . .
    Dinner was 6:00. Period. No excuses, unless you were sick or working. The menu had 2 choices: Take It or Leave It (meaning go hungry until breakfast).
    The height of entertainment at volunteer firehouse Field Days (annual competition, carnival and fund raising events) was the Donkey Baseball games. No waivers were signed, by either firemen or donkeys.
    Our dads shot of fireworks in our own yards, and we ran around with sparklers just as soon after dusk as our parents would let us on the 4th of July. (Some areas of the country still let you light them off yourself, but where I live in NY hasn’t for years.)

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  12. Merle Althafer Avatar
    Merle Althafer

    Our “gang” was about 5 or 6 of us neighborhood kids just hanging out or going down to the creek or pond fishing. What guns or weapons… we were having too much fun. No Curfew. No kidding!
    Plus, my Dad taught me to drive at 10yrs. old, at first down the back roads to home. When drivers-ed came around at 16, I was an old pro already.

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  13. Geneva Avatar
    Geneva

    That a terrific assortment of nostalgia. I can see my sister, my friends & I riding around town in the back of my daddy’s red GMC truck sitting in dining chairs with wooden cow rails all the way around.
    We could go barefooted in stores
    We floated watermelons & swam in ice cold creeks. A box of salt was used for both the melons & to dissolve leeches that would stick to us from the creek. Of course…we also swang on ropes off the bank. Once the lake by my house was built, we climbed the water tower to jump off & our “life preservers” were empty gallon milk jugs strung together by a rope tied around our waist.
    Our cars didn’t require so many inspection stickers, levels of insurance or grades of tint on the windows for legal purposes.
    My daughter sat on the console in my car & would fall asleep on my shoulder.
    My son sat on the console in my car that carried a loaded pistol. He never knew it was there & I didn’t freak out.
    UV protection was unheard of. Iodine in baby oil was my fav potion for sunbathing.
    We made our own hominy out of lye soaked dried corn in a big black pot over a fire in the back yard.
    Well water was the greatest & we never had fluoride added to it.
    I had to work on the farm with my dad. Our fertilizer was “organic” from cow poop. “Pesticides” were the chickens. I did my chores for mom & my treat was driving the tractor. I loathed housework & traded farm chores with my sister. I ♥ tractors!
    We churned our own butter & made our own sour cream from our grass fed, sweet feed & cotton seed meal fed – hand milked heifers. The bulls raised for meat were shot in the head, hung upside down to “bleed out” & we processed the meat ourselves.
    There were no microwaves, boxed frozen foods & Hopper’s drive in was a treat.
    We had to pick our own switches off the tree & they were kept in the living room in clear sight to remind us they were going to be used. I then kept switches everywhere for my kids, even at church in the bathroom & used them faithfully! I sent notes to the teachers informing them if my kids needed to be spanked at school, please do so & let me know b/c they would receive another one at home!
    OK, enough! I’ll stop 🙂 You are right….we made it! I am stronger, tougher & more resilient because of those times!

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  14. Ephraim Troyer Avatar
    Ephraim Troyer

    I got up at 5 in the morn, fed livestock,milked cows by hand,bedded the animals,fed the chickens,ate breakfast,walked a mile to school in 0degree weatherby 8:30. Got home from school an did it all over again. Drove to town at age 11 with horse an buggy,worked in the fields with a lot of farm equipment with a team of horses at age 6 by myself. Mowed the yard with a push mower without an ENGINE. There is lots more, an I would not trade it for anything. Would do it all over again.

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  15. Tom Manzer Avatar
    Tom Manzer

    We lived without fear and repect to our elders was a given.
    Our imigination was our friend and could put that imagination into action(sometimes with punishment)but there were few boundaries.
    My punishment was to go outside and play not go to your room nor such thing as time out.
    Socializing was in person face to face not facebook a text was a book at school.
    A smile was genuine our feelings we lived out and didnt bottle them up.
    A cut or bruise was a badge of courage
    We invented extreme our parents said boys will be boys

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  16. Dan Hayes Avatar
    Dan Hayes

    Tinker toys and erector sets shaped minds without OSHA.

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  17. Jeff Konieczny Avatar
    Jeff Konieczny

    We used to put a folding chair between the driver and passenger seats in our van on family trips so that we could sit “up front” and see better. (No seat belt OR helmet!) 🙂

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  18. Phyllis Hoff Avatar
    Phyllis Hoff

    We were taught by dominican nuns who had paddles and were not afraid to use them.

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  19. kelli sager Avatar
    kelli sager

    do you remember those winter snow storms when we couldn’t wait to get out there and make a snow fort , have a snowball fight , go sleding , go car skiing , and our parents never gave it a thought until it was dinner time , or time for bed ? those were the days . we would stay out all day & night for that matter and no one was concerned , now if the temp hits 0 close the schools !

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  20. Fred Avatar
    Fred

    In the winter months we would gather TEAMs and have snow ball fights and who ever could pack them the tightest would usually win
    As teenagers we tell mom & pop we going ” bumper skiing ” be back after while .
    Get an old car hood flip it upside down and pull it behind a snowmobile with as many of us as could fit on it .
    When we were going to ” set the record ” jumping our bicycles over a ramp made of 2×6 and cinder blocks we would go get our parents to watch
    Good ole King of the hill and we didn’t need a hill
    No we didn’t need XBOX or WII these were our ” TOURS of DUTY ” and ” MADDEN 1975 “

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  21. Drew Avatar
    Drew

    Listening to baseball on the radio, at night, lying in bed,
    trying to fall asleep because it was 90 degrees in south louisiana – yes, no air conditioning
    When the nuns did spank you, you got it again when you got home from mom and count on grandma getting a hold of you too when she found out the nuns or the brothers spanked you.
    Party line telephones, ask your grandparents to explain.
    The milkman delivering milk in bottles.
    Eggs really do come from chickens.
    Friday night high school football in Louisiana where the whole town showed up for the game.
    You crossed the river on a ferry boat.
    Yes we survived and ahd a good time growing up

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  22. kirsten leisses Avatar
    kirsten leisses

    i wish i had grown up back in the day, seems like the reason for labels is because there is so much fake stuff in food nowadays! I was thinking about it and you never see a fat cave man … probably because physical labor was actually a requirement for survival… and high fructose corn syrup was yet to be invented/discovered. I love your blog and all the insight you provide. cant wait to see you at the major!
    kirsten

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  23. Robby Palmer Avatar
    Robby Palmer

    We dug holes as deep as possible, bringing the dirt out with a bucket on a rope!, then we would under cut, under the surface, digging a cave, to “hang out” in.
    We drug eachother behind a “3 wheeler” with a chain attached to a tire, in the summer! No helmets, pads or anything.
    We built booby traps, including pits, which you would “catch a tiger” in, covered with branches and leaves.
    Made our own vine swings from trees, with baling twine.
    Filled bugs with water, through syringes that were used to medicate the horses.
    My goodness, its amazing we didn’t die!!

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  24. john locke Avatar
    john locke

    we used to slide down the hill on an old car hood ( usually an old chevy), then have to drag it up the hill ourselves, never heard of a tow rope.
    my mother never said wait til your father gets home, she had a piece of old harness hanging on the wall. only had to feel that once to remember to behave myself.
    riding horses in the fields without a saddle or even bridle.
    planting our own garden, with the “natural” fertilizer.
    one tv and one phone ( Ma Bell black) and a party line (with the neighbor that was always on it)
    thanks for the memories

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  25. Amanda Moss Avatar
    Amanda Moss

    Phone numbers were only seven numerals (even fewer than that). When you called G-R-A-N-D-M-A, message was “at the tone, the time would be…” (My grandfather was working for Michigan Bell at the time, he would tell me it was his boss… hehe)

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  26. Adriane Klingbeil Avatar
    Adriane Klingbeil

    We played on wood and metal playgrounds…with giant swings.
    We played kickball with the neighbors.
    We ran across the street and played in the street.
    We walked or rode our bikes everywhere.

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  27. Don Schultz - Team VIP Avatar
    Don Schultz – Team VIP

    Your picture at the beginning of the Post applies to me. When I was a preschool kid, my mom would put a harness on me and hook me to the clothesline so I had free reign of the yard, or at least as far as my tether would allow me. I had a bad habit of going toward the street when untethered or unsupervised so this was my mom’s fix; I could play to my hearts content and my mom could have a peaceful heart. That was 50-some years ago. In the meantime I had many oppurtunities to partake in many of the other listed dangers and some not listed, like “free climbing” in trees without height restrictions or safety nets. Somehow I survived and thrived. Our goal as parents isn’t to raise kids “safely” but rather exercising good judgment in the process of living life to the fullest. I like this quote by Helen Keller, “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”

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  28. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    Ah, you must be a fellow Gen X’er from the Nomad generational archetype. “The Fourth Turning” is one of my favorite books. Check it out. 🙂

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  29. Alesha Romero Avatar
    Alesha Romero

    We had Tonka Trucks made out of real metal and yellow lead paint.

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  30. Jamie Bowlin Avatar
    Jamie Bowlin

    Thanks Chris for the reminder of the good old’ days. I remember carrying pocket knives to school and having guns in my trucks. I could buy glue, paint, guns and ammo all by myself. My dad would drag me on my sled behind his truck in the snow. It’s amazing I survived.

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