Growing up in the 70s, we did many activities with little to no adult superision. It taught you an important lesson on balancing risks versus reward.
You also learned alot about cause & effect and natural/stupid consequences 🙂
I never wore a helmet or knee pads while riding a bike, would sled down the biggest hill in our neighborhood with no helmet, and did back spins on the playground bars with no hands! Oh those were fun times!
Do these bring back any memories for you?
And when you came home with a scratch/bruise you know what was mom’s cure? The following:
Those were the days…
DCG
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No helicopter parents for me. I can’t imagine what it’s like for a child now.
Concur. I honestly can’t imagine, for well or ill, kids growing up like I did today.
The kid jumping off the ramp on his bike really brings back a memory! I was probably the same age, doing the same thing with a friend, only I flipped over my bike when I landed, split open my head, and had to go to the ER for stitches. Incidentally, I flipped over my my handlebars at the end of last summer, landed on my shoulders & elbows, and got some HUGE blood blisters. I probably permanently damaged my right elbow a bit, when I bend it a certain way at times, it feels like it’s ripping apart.
Still, no helmet! I’ve had a few wipeout when rounding corners too aggressively, and the scrapes that go with it.
Tether ball was also a blast, though a ball in the face could hurt some!
Even going into a field of undeveloped land, complete with some hills where we could jump our bikes, and also a pond, was a lot of fun as a kid.
The legal system took all the fun out of being a kid, cause now parents would sue a landowner of that same field if a kid got hurt today, doing what we did back then.
Love it 🙂
Is it any wonder America is breeding snowflakes, pajama boys, and precious narcissists?
No, it isn’t any wonder. I grew up in the 60’s too, and the activity I did the most was to run. I ran all over the acre yard which was known as “Joe’s Forest” as it was so beautiful, and we had evergreens, silver maple large trees, gorgeous roses which were fanned and went the length of our fence and we had wonderful fruit trees. I also regularly climbed trees, watched owls, robins, blue birds and butterflies. I rode just a regular girl’s bike, as they didn’t have 10-speed bikes then. I was always skinning my knees and arms, et al. I spent my childhood learning about nature in Joe’s forest. I am so sorry for the children who are so protected now from everything, that they are just absolutely “precious” – how horrible. And they spend so much time on computers that they have neglected drawing and painting with their hands, exercising their creativity and not experiencing so many other things. The narcissism is everywhere and it is sickening. The children of today are complimented for any thing that they do, and the phrase, “good job,” is so aggravating. Terrible.
I remember saving for almost a year to buy a new Western Auto ten speed bike, and riding it up Lamoille Summit, then riding it DOWN Lamoille Summit, fast enough to pass several cars. Got stopped by the Police right at the “Reduce Speed to 25 MPH” sign, and got my first speeding ticket at the tender age of 14. (It wasn’t a valid ticket, but I didn’t know that at the time.) 48 mph!
We used to ride our bikes up the highway North of town 7 miles to climb on some shale cliffs, VERY loose footing, about 50-60 feet high. A fall from that height would have probably killed us-big rocks and boulders at the bottom. In the Winter the big thing, coming home, was going as fast as we could down the highway, then riding off the highway into the snow drifts-fly and tumble or go over the bars and bury ourselves in deep snow. What FUN it was!
We played Hide-N-Seek, with a playing field of about 3 blocks in each direction. The end of the game was when the street lights came on, when most of us had agreed with our Parents was time to go home. ( I think that was probably a universal rule, we never mentioned it, but we all just naturally headed for home when the lights came on.) None of the neighbors seemed to care if we hid in their yards, as long as we didn’t break anything or run through the flower beds. ALL the things we did as kids taught us some life lessons that helped us later in life, some have carried us through very hard times. I have to pity kids today for all the life and life lessons they’ll never know.
Good Times!
Hide and seek played was played by both sides during the Vietnam War!!!
Every time I drive by the grade school I went to back in the 1950’s and see that they have removed the monkey bars, the slide etc. and have instead put in more tame forms of play equipment — I realize that is why today’s kids would rather play on an electronic game board. Today’ childhood for so many children has been ruined by wrapping children in “cotton wool” in order to protect them from harm.