Anyone remember "Flexies?" They were like one man steel sleds with wheels, and you could get up to about 30-40 MPH on them. They were great, but too many kids were getting squished by cars and they outlawed them.
I never wore a helmet biking and still don't and my kids never did either.
Guns were among my favorite toys growing up, and my boys always loved plunking away at targets.
Every kid I knew had a knife and brought it to school.
We collected snakes in the woods behind our school at lunch.
We drank jungle juice.
We went swinging on questionable ropes over rocky gorges.
We hitchhiked all over the place
When we were still in elementary school, a bunch of us used to ride our bikes for miles and miles to go buy fire crackers and fire works. We used to set them off everywhere. Cherry boms were the best!
We used to ride our bikes to local quarries and go cliff jumping.
We played fast ball, hockey and tackle football without protective gear.
We played spin the bottle and other hormonal games at pre-pubescent parties.
We started driving when we were old enough to reach the pedals.
We got into many fist fights with people that are now our friends.
I could go on for ever, but suffice it to say we did all those things without parental supervision, and we're mostly all still alive and well.
My daughter's favorite toy has always been her trampoline.
For some perspective, I graduated in 1999, so I had to put up with a lot of the BS of being protected from myself... And I hated it.
Climbing trees of every height and every sort. And I cringe and start thinking about how I'm going to install wheelchair ramps in my handicap-unfriendly home every time my daughters climb above my head... But I let them do it anyway.
we used to make miniature blow darts by cutting a plastic q-tip in two and melting the cut end around a pin. (Shoot like spitballs out of a Bic pen tube)
Never wore a helmet (unless participating in a group that required it), got in plenty of gruesome bike wrecks; never once had even a scrape on the brain pan. Mangled just about every other part of my body pretty good, but nary a scratch on the ol' noggin.
I used to bike to scout camp, about 15 miles, bareheaded, then throw it on for the last 500 yards from the entrance of the camp to the campsite itself.
The damn things are styrofoam beer coolers, designed to help your brain overheat, reducing your cognitive abilities as you approach heat stroke. Need proof? All the sweat on your head, running down in your eyes, sopped up by the lining - that all represents heat retention. Sweat only cools you down if it evaporates. Put on a helmet, and it doesn't evaporate as well. Hello heat stroke!
Also, try to lay down on the ground with a helmet on. That's the position you'll be in after a wreck. If you hit hard enough to cause a serious head injury, you're likely to also have a neck injury and/or have been knocked unconscious. A standard bike helmet (unlike a football or most BMX helmets) WILL exacerbate a cervical spine injury, and can force an unconscious person into a position that compromises their airway.
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We work together every damn day. --Jon Stewart
I grew up with guns too. I still own and regularly use Red Ryders. My wife has one too.
We had a Green Belt by my house when I was 5-11with a creek running through it. Every Saturday the kids would gather around the widest section and have mud/rock fights till someone got hurt and we all ran away. All the parents new it because if anyone's parents were looking for them they would show up there and ask where their kid was.
I never even thought about it when I said that, i still play with my old lawn dart set, its great.
I had a BB gun by age 7, and a 22 by age 9.
I drove cars and pickups by 8.
Snowmobiles by age 5.
Had a dirtbike by age 6.
on trips when I was small my parents put me on the back window parcel shelf to sleep.
I was about 12 before the first family car had seatbelts, they were just lap belts even then, forget a car seat, no one knew what they were when I was a kid.
we never had lifejackets and were always out in the boat on summer weekends.
there was no cupboard door safety latches.
our well was about 4 feet by 4 feet wide, and was 60 feet deep, and was an open top style, so kids could fall in, we were told to stay away is all.
we never had helmets, even on dirtbikes, if it was cold we wore a toque.
On non-school days i would go out after breakfast, and just had instructions to be home by 6 pm for dinner, and that was from kindergarten on.
So my parents had no idea where i was many days from 8 am until 6pm from age 5.
I chopped firewood when young.
widdle sticks with a sharp knife, and yes sliced open my thumb and my grandmother stitched it shut for me at her house.
Now people worry too much.
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We do NOT need to raise taxes on the people. The government needs to spend less is the answer.
I never even thought about it when I said that, i still play with my old lawn dart set, its great.
I had a BB gun by age 7, and a 22 by age 9.
I drove cars and pickups by 8.
Snowmobiles by age 5.
Had a dirtbike by age 6.
on trips when I was small my parents put me on the back window parcel shelf to sleep.
I was about 12 before the first family car had seatbelts, they were just lap belts even then, forget a car seat, no one knew what they were when I was a kid.
we never had lifejackets and were always out in the boat on summer weekends.
there was no cupboard door safety latches.
our well was about 4 feet by 4 feet wide, and was 60 feet deep, and was an open top style, so kids could fall in, we were told to stay away is all.
we never had helmets, even on dirtbikes, if it was cold we wore a toque.
On non-school days i would go out after breakfast, and just had instructions to be home by 6 pm for dinner, and that was from kindergarten on.
So my parents had no idea where i was many days from 8 am until 6pm from age 5.
I chopped firewood when young.
widdle sticks with a sharp knife, and yes sliced open my thumb and my grandmother stitched it shut for me at her house.
Now people worry too much.
Haha. I don't even remember how many good sleeps in had in the back of my parents station wagon on long drives. Seat belts where unheard of and only fools that couldn't swim wore lifejackets.
Man we used to bounce around in the back of that station wagon. It was like a romper room on wheels.
Something has gone seriously wrong with the way we rear children in the last few decades. In a few years when everyone lives in a bubble, Darwin will roll over in his grave and say "I told you so".
The damn things are styrofoam beer coolers, designed to help your brain overheat, reducing your cognitive abilities as you approach heat stroke. Need proof? All the sweat on your head, running down in your eyes, sopped up by the lining - that all represents heat retention. Sweat only cools you down if it evaporates. Put on a helmet, and it doesn't evaporate as well. Hello heat stroke!
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