It's a Wonder We All Survived
Posted: Friday, May 08, 2009
by Terry Mitchell
http://commenterry.blogs.com
Today's trend toward overprotection and mollycoddling of children makes me wonder how those from my generation survived childhood. Yet we made it to adulthood even without all of the consumer protection laws and child advocacy. If you can believe it, here are some of the things we had to endure:
1) Most of us did not attend kindergarten, much less preschool.
3) Nearly everywhere we went, people were allowed to smoke.
4) We played with toys that were small enough to swallow and had sharp edges.
5) We rode bikes and skateboarded without wearing helmets.
6) We played unorganized and unsupervised sports, including football, without any of the proper safety equipment.
7) We often left for school after skipping breakfast, and there was none available for us when we got there.
8) We were allowed to buy soda and chips from school vending machines.
9) Most us of us were forced to behave in public places, including schools, at the risk of corporal punishment – which we got a taste of now and then.
10) We rode in automobiles without child safety seats and were frequently not buckled up.
And – you know – despite all of this, I think we did just fine and grew up to become fairly well-adjusted adults, thank you.
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Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)Yeah Terry, you might say us baby boomers lived recklessly, but we did survive through those days, good article.David, thanks for reading and commenting. I know safety is important, but I worry that today's kids seem to be missing out on so much of the adventure that we experienced.
I couldn't agree more Terry, we turned out pretty good!You're a baby boomer, Brianna? I just assumed that you were much younger. :-)
I remember those days and they sure seemed a lot more fun than today. I even remember riding in the back of a pick-up truck with no seat belts or camper shell. No one got a ticket for that back than either.God blessYes, Michelle, the good old days are gone forever.
I was just thinking about this subject the other day. I remember walking through the woods with my BB-Gun, climbing trees, playing on tire swings, making homemade bows and arrows, making elastic guns, riding our homemade racing carts down steep hills. Why, we even used an old washing-machine tub as a toy. We would curl up inside the tub, then someone would give it a shove and down the grassy slope we would go. What a rush!!!David, it sounds like your childhood was even more fun than mine!
Very good!Looking back, it is amazing we survived. I can remember the teacher passing put instructions on what to do if we were to experience nuclear fall-out. I distinctly remember the drawing- dozens of "dots" descending on our school, and, next to it, a drawing of a kid under his school desk with his head between his hands. It's incredible I didn't have a heart attack.Fortunately, Ken, I missed most of that. By the time I started to school, much of the paranoia about a Soviet nuclear attack had subsided. We did get a little of that, but I think they were finally realizing that the Soviet Union wasn't suicidal.
I have this cool idea for an invention: You put a velcro patch on the back of a toddler's jacket, and the parent has a gun, like an air gun or rubber band gun, where the projectile is a big velcro disk that shoots out, kind of like a fly-swatter, attaching itself to the velcro on the child's back. Then, you can reel the kid in. Useful in shopping malls and busy sidewalks.
When I think back to the childhood adventures of me and my brothers, I am amazed we all lived to tell about them. Of course, my mother still doesn't know about most of them.
I hung myself once. That's right. I made an "elevator" out of a cardboard trash can and a rope. I threw the rope over a tree limb, tied a noose around the trash can, and pulled myself about four feet off the ground when the noose slipped over the trash can, then slipped around my body, then tightened around my neck as I plummeted to the ground. Lucky for me my knot tying skills were no good, because the knot gave, and the rope "stropped" my neck, leaving a wicked rope burn.
When Mom noticed a long, red welt on my neck it at the dinner table, I broke my silence and bawled out the whole truth of my escapade.Did any of your school teachers notice the mark on your neck? These days, when they notice such things, they are required to report it to child protective services and then the parents are subject to an investigation.I'm 50, can I still report Mom?Sorry, but I think she is probably covered by the statute of limitations. :-)
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