# How did we ever survive



## squatting dog (Nov 6, 2015)

Sometimes you have to wonder how we survived childhood.
some examples.

Lawn darts were a great idea. Give sharp pointy things 
to kids to throw!

Casts were a badge of honor for kids. And parents didn’t 
feel shame or neglectful when their kids broke bones. 

Slides were taller and playgrounds were more dangerous. 
And more fun

Piling up in the back of a truck and feeling the breeze 
in your hair was not only legal, but a pretty good time.

Being a kid and having a ride up in the front seat without 
a seat belt was always a good time. Especially when you were 
at the wheel.


----------



## Shalimar (Nov 6, 2015)

Lawn darts? So cool. That is a Canadian military term used to refer to paratroopers. Lolololol.


----------



## squatting dog (Nov 6, 2015)

Shalimar said:


> Lawn darts? So cool. That is a Canadian military term used to refer to paratroopers. Lolololol.




Now, I don't care who you are... that there is funny. :lofl:


----------



## RadishRose (Nov 6, 2015)

This was good, and so true!

I also recall and quite sadly, in the early 60's some kids who sat in the back of a station wagon with the rear window opened during long drives died from the exhaust fumes. I think it had something to do with other windows as well, certain air flows.


----------



## Shalimar (Nov 6, 2015)

Glad you liked it Squatting dog. That's Canuck humour for yah!


----------



## jujube (Nov 6, 2015)

I remember when I was visiting my best friend from college and we accidentally put a lawn dart through the hood of her father's new truck.  I can just about imagine what that would have done to someone's skull.  

My dad was a really good sport. We'd meet him at the end of the road and he'd let us ride in the open trunk or even on the car-top carrier down the road to the house.  If a parent did that today, someone would call Child Protective Services.


----------



## fureverywhere (Nov 6, 2015)

No not lawn darts, cap guns and boxes of caps. Can't find them online but boxes of paper caps. You'd set the whole roll on fire awesome!


----------



## Butterfly (Nov 6, 2015)

Yup, remember that -- made a great big noise!!  Great fun!

I remember once, being inspired by Tarzan, a bunch of us neighborhood kids tied a big rope to one tree and tried to swing to the other tree.  It was not a success.   I do remember, though that we all got a collective lecture from the mom of the kid in whose yard the trees were about whether any of us had any sense at all.  Nope, probably not, but it was fun.

Nowdays, if your kid falls out of a tree, someone probably calls Child Services.


----------



## squatting dog (Nov 7, 2015)

Just thought of another... 

The backseat was a playground where you could sit any which way.


----------



## AprilT (Nov 7, 2015)

I used to love riding in the back of the station wagon, those are some fun memories, especially riding on the highways.  I was rather disappointed the wagons went out of favor.

Now those jart things or something like them were banned due to many injuries children sustained including a few deaths.  They had been sold as a children's toy and yeah, some kids were getting pinned in the back by those things.   

see video at 2:08 or so


----------



## applecruncher (Nov 7, 2015)

I do remember sitting in the back (bed) of pickup truck with my siblings and other kids.

Lawn darts - yikes– nothing funny about them.

I also recall going on picnics at the river and taking off shoes, wading, squishing toes in the mud. I don’t think any of us ever cut our feet on anything, which is amazing considering that people threw glass bottles and beer cans into the river all the time.


----------



## RadishRose (Nov 7, 2015)

squatting dog said:


> Just thought of another...
> 
> The backseat was a playground where you could sit any which way.



This is exactly what I was speaking of in my earlier post, some children died in this wagon set-up due to exhaust fumes.


----------



## AprilT (Nov 7, 2015)

RadishRose said:


> This is exactly what I was speaking of in my earlier post, some children died in this wagon set-up due to exhaust fumes.



I honestly don't remember smelling exhaust was that a period problem, maybe before the late 60's early 70's?  I'm really asking because I'm curious, I remember the smells from the regular cars at gas stations where the gas an almost syrup like smell.  Maybe that why I have so many brain freezes, but then again the back windows were up most of the time when we went on long drives


----------



## squatting dog (Nov 7, 2015)

RadishRose said:


> This is exactly what I was speaking of in my earlier post, some children died in this wagon set-up due to exhaust fumes.



RR, Tragic as that was, I'd have to think that their car had a defective exhaust system that allowed carbon monoxide to build up inside. If a car had windows open, then it would have had a constant flow of fresh oxygen. Many times, we made a 12 hour trip in a station wagon with the rear seat facing backwards and the window down the whole time. never even a headache.


----------



## Susie (Nov 7, 2015)

Dad fixed the rumple seat on the old Ford, so my brother Arthur and I could sit comfortably, while he drove us all over San Francisco, also the twin peaks  (the Easter Cross). (1950's)
Brother Arthur and I even rode our bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge.
We thought it was great fun, never considered it dangerous!      :cool2:


----------



## fureverywhere (Nov 7, 2015)

That video brought back memories. Best buddie's older brother had Creepy Crawlers, we weren't allowed to play with it but boy did we want to. The nuclear set and the flame thrower gun...you wonder what manufacturer thought those were a great idea...then again they used to x ray kids feet to fit shoes...oh and the Radon girls. I remember a neighbors Barbie dolls with the straight pins as earrings too.


----------



## NancyNGA (Nov 7, 2015)

How about this...there was _some_ kind of weird plastic back then, use in some toys, and if you put them in your mouth they would start to burn like fire.  Could be they were harmless, IDK.  Maybe I should start checking again to see if it's still around.


----------



## fureverywhere (Nov 7, 2015)

I'm remembering these balls you could smash together and they would shoot sparks, anyone else?


----------



## Bobw235 (Nov 7, 2015)

Growing up in NJ, we lived in a town that had a problem with mosquitos in the summer.  A mosquito truck would occasionally ride through the neighborhood spraying a fog that would help control the little buggers.....and of course we would take great delight in riding our bikes through what was probably some pretty hazardous chemical.  

I can recall that my parents let me ride my bike pretty much anywhere as long as I was home for in time for dinner.  Of course, there were no bike helmets in those days.
Yes, how did we survive.


----------



## jujube (Nov 7, 2015)

fureverywhere said:


> I'm remembering these balls you could smash together and they would shoot sparks, anyone else?



Blaster Balls.  Remember the little tissue-paper twists that came in a box and you threw them down on the ground and they made a popping sound - I think you can still get those?  The boys used to chomp down on them to explode in their mouths....I can imagine they kept a few dentists in business.

But for sheer mayhem, you couldn't beat the Daisy Red Ryder BB Rifle.  The boy next door got one for Christmas one year and shot me in the forehead by 2:00 in the afternoon (OK, I'll admit it was my fault.....I grabbed the rifle and pulled on it.)    I went running home screaming with a little thread of blood running down my face.  My dad sighed, dug the bb out and gave me a tetanus shot the next day.  I still have a little "dimple" on my forehead from that incident.


----------



## Butterfly (Nov 7, 2015)

We were also allowed to ride our bikes pretty much all over the place, as long as we were home for dinner.  Back in those days, at least in my neighborhood, parents would kind of keep a collective eye on the neighborhood kids and someone else's mother would not feel shy about coming out and telling you to quit doing that (whatever it was) or you'd get hurt -- or coming out and giving the whole bunch of you a talking to about something or other.  It was a community back then, and everybody kind of watched out for everybody, and if somebody else's mother told you to get out of that tree, you got out of that tree.   Not to do so would invite a phone call to your OWN mother, and you could look forward to being in deep doo-doo when you got home -- first off for doing whatever dumb thing you were doing, and secondly, for not obeying the other mother when she told you to get out of the tree.  Those days are gone, sadly.


----------



## Bobw235 (Nov 8, 2015)

Butterfly said:


> We were also allowed to ride our bikes pretty much all over the place, as long as we were home for dinner.  Back in those days, at least in my neighborhood, parents would kind of keep a collective eye on the neighborhood kids and someone else's mother would not feel shy about coming out and telling you to quit doing that (whatever it was) or you'd get hurt -- or coming out and giving the whole bunch of you a talking to about something or other.  It was a community back then, and everybody kind of watched out for everybody, and if somebody else's mother told you to get out of that tree, you got out of that tree.   Not to do so would invite a phone call to your OWN mother, and you could look forward to being in deep doo-doo when you got home -- first off for doing whatever dumb thing you were doing, and secondly, for not obeying the other mother when she told you to get out of the tree.  Those days are gone, sadly.


So true!  My mom would yell at my best friend to go put a hat on in the winter.  And yes, the moms were all connected back then.  Very different times.


----------



## Capt Lightning (Nov 8, 2015)

Ah the "good old days" when catching measles, mumps, chicken pox etc  were not diseases, but "rites of passage".  If any of the kids had German measles,  the girls would try to catch it so that they would be imune when they were of child-bearing age.


----------



## SeaBreeze (Nov 8, 2015)

Yes, it's amazing we're all still here to talk about it.   No helmets or knee pads, and we would also listen to someone else's mother if they warned us not to do something, there was always some mother looking out a window at the kids, or sitting on a stoop in the summer time.  No sneeze guards on baby carriers back then either, we had stronger immune systems for playing in the dirt, and never heard of any peanut allergies back in those days either.  Those were the good ol' days, some fond memories of childhood. :sentimental:


----------



## squatting dog (Nov 8, 2015)

It does make you wonder about the next generation doesn't It?


----------



## Butterfly (Nov 9, 2015)

squatting dog said:


> It does make you wonder about the next generation doesn't It?



Yup!  I remember my mother saying "you kids get out from under my feet and go play OUTSIDE."


----------



## SifuPhil (Nov 9, 2015)

Chemistry sets.



Man, I loved these things as a kid. After I would get a set for my birthday or Christmas I'd run down to the basement where my folks let me set up my "lab" (the fools!) and immediately start building my next Frankenstein. I remember one of my favorite elements that was always packed into these sets - sulfur.

Many a happy hour I spent burning sulfur in the basement. 

I would even go to the local hobby shop on a Saturday, where they had a complete collection of Pyrex labwear as well as replacement chemicals, and blow my allowance on chemicals of mass destruction.

No more, alas. *sigh*


----------



## Bullie76 (Nov 9, 2015)

I can remember once two kids(not me) doing this in my neighborhood. Luckily no injuries.


----------



## squatting dog (Nov 9, 2015)

Bullie76 said:


> I can remember once two kids(not me) doing this in my neighborhood. Luckily no injuries.



 I was once playing cowboys and Indians with my brother and managed to shoot him in the back with a homemade bow and arrow. No real damage, but, my a$$ got good and warm when the old man got home.brother carries the scar, but not the grudge.


----------



## applecruncher (Nov 9, 2015)

Remember slingshots? And....BB guns? I had an uncle who was a real terror as a kid, and he had several slingshots and BB gun. His parents spoiled him and always defended him - even when he hurt another child or a pet. He was quite a bully and actually a sadist, even as an adult....someone to be avoided. (He died at 52, a lonely alcoholic.) Sorry for the tangent, but I couldn't help but think of him.


----------



## Linda (Nov 9, 2015)

These car seats were quite unsafe.  I remember our kids had one with a steering wheel on it.


----------



## Aunt Marg (May 2, 2020)

We survived, because (as far as I'm concerned) more common sense was instilled upon young and growing children back in the day (compared to nowadays), and because moms stayed home, there was almost always a set of watchful eyes on the children at all times, so when someone did something that was dangerous, they were reined-in promptly.

Lawn Darts? One of my very favorite childhood outdoor games! We used to play for hours!


----------



## fuzzybuddy (May 2, 2020)

What amazes me was that I had to walk to school. I lived one mile from the school. ( The policy was that you could ride the bus if you were over 1 mile from the school. If I lived next door I could have rode the bus, but I was just under a mile.) So I had to walk to school, and come home for lunch. Then back to school. Close to 4 miles a day- and I was 7. Nobody thought that was a big deal. Today, parents are suing the school district, if the school bus doesn't drop off the kids right in front of their home. I live in a development, Moms are sitting there, in their minivans, waiting for kids to get off the bus, while their homes, are just a few hundred feet away. When I was a kid, nobody was waiting for you, when you came home, via the bus.
My parents didn't make a fuss, because that's what they did when they were kids.


----------



## Aunt Marg (May 2, 2020)

fuzzybuddy said:


> What amazes me was that I had to walk to school. I lived one mile from the school. ( The policy was that you could ride the bus if you were over 1 mile from the school. If I lived next door I could have rode the bus, but I was just under a mile.) So I had to walk to school, and come home for lunch. Then back to school. Close to 4 miles a day- and I was 7. Nobody thought that was a big deal. Today, parents are suing the school district, if the school bus doesn't drop off the kids right in front of their home. I live in a development, Moms are sitting there, in their minivans, waiting for kids to get off the bus, while their homes, are just a few hundred feet away. When I was a kid, nobody was waiting for you, when you came home, via the bus.
> My parents didn't make a fuss, because that's what they did when they were kids.


Times have changed for sure. I was just 5, and toddling to school each day by myself (half days then... my kindergarten year), but the school was roughly 10 blocks away, so not far, but for a 5 year old, far enough. 

Then when I started junior-high, I walked as well, but I'm talking 7-8 miles (at least), and the only time I didn't walk regularly, was over the course of winter, at which time I took the city bus.

Was good for us kids though...


----------



## Fyrefox (May 3, 2020)

I also walked to and from school for the duration of my public school career.  My elementary school had no cafeteria, so we'd walk home for lunch, then back for the afternoon.  Hiking to high school was well over a mile, and we did it in all kinds of weather and temperatures...and we _liked _it!  If a classmate lived along your route, you'd meet up with them, and walk the distance together, having great discussions.  Outside of the occasional bully, the world was safer then, and walking kept us fit...


----------

