When I was a kid, I used to walk to school. It was uphill both ways and snowing and this was coastal SC.
Really, I would never let my kids walk to school now.
~rthomas
drinking water out of any hose.........and it was good
I didn't want to interject cynicism into a nostalgia thread, but I also don't think its entirely fair to blame parents for not putting their kids onto bikes to ride around all day unsupervised as a way to combat childhood obesity. The dangers (urbanization, preaditors, etc.) are just too much to allow the same practices as in "the olden days."
Read Bill Bryson's The Thunderbolt Kid about growing up in the 1950s from a kids point of view. Hilarious to those of us who did and instructive of a bygone era to the rest.
He states that 1957 was "the best year in American history" verifying what I have often thought--after the Korean War and before the rest, econcomy improving with many new items to increase standard of living etc. We could actually "cruise" all weekend on .25 cents worth of gas! Then came the Duke experience ('61) to cap it all off.
A digital calculator was your fingers, and it was Hi-Fi, not Wi-Fi.
I think parents are obligated to adjust to the times around them. Child abductions may have increased over time, but that's hardly and excuse to let your kids sit on their bums and stuff their faces with Little Debbies. Parents may not be able to turn their kids lose in the neighborhood anymore, but they are obligated to come up with other ideas to stimulate their children's imaginations, and engage in some good ol' fashioned romping around out doors.
I can't speak for my father, but a lot of you have already stated differences that sound like they could've come from his mouth.
I got to take advantage of growing up a Navy Brat, and having two of the most wonderful parents in the world. When we were stationed at Holy Loch in Dunoon, Scotland, my brother and I (at the ages of 6 and 7) walked to school without our Mom. When we moved to Bolling AFB in D.C., we spent our summers on bike or foot, checking in only to grab a glass of kool-aid and a bologna sandwich.
My parents also supplied us with a greater number of brain toys (Tinker Toys, Legos, Lincoln Logs, Construx, Erector Set) than pop culture toys (G.I. Joes, Transformers, MASK, etc.).
We had an Atari, but couldn't play it all day. Then we had the first Nintendo with R.O.B the Robot and the Gun, and we still couldn't play it all day. We were one of the last families to get a VCR.
As mentioned in a previous post, riding off on my bike with friends in the morning and not coming home until dinner.
Raking TONS of leaves into the street, jumping into them for a while, and then burning them in the street.
Playing outdoors for hours and hours -- both winter and summer. Sledding down the streets, skating on the local pond, walking home late in the evening, riding bikes without helmets, eating raw vegetables from the garden, drinking tap water from the hose, playing kickball/bombardment/dodgeball on the school playground.
Indoor activities: a great jigsaw puzzle on the cardtable at all times, card games & board games a weekly staple, playing music and songfests (with great harmony) happening on a regular basis, and watching butterflies in abundance and catching fireflies/lightning bugs in the summer.
Hanging upside down from trees, and jumping off the woodpiles. Cotton candy and salt water taffy on the Boardwalk.
Still smile at the memory (I grew up in north Jersey) that at age 9, with my friend -- age 10-- boarding a bus for the 45 minute ride to Newark. We window shopped, and had hotdogs and milkshakes at JJ Newberry's counter, then caught a return bus to Verona so we could stop at the White Castle...and then walked the 3+ miles home. A GREAT day. No one worried about us, no one had a cell phone or pager, parents were not concerned. After all, we were home for dinner.
We used to play a game called roller bat. Does anyone remember the rules to this game? It seems to me it was an alternative to baseball when we were playing too close to the house. Or did my neighbor just make it up?
We played "war" in the communal neighborhood garden. We'd divide into teams of 6-10 kids, and from opposite sides of the feild throw turnips at each other. It usually ended with one kid running home in tears because he got hit. We also did this once with home made spears. That one also ended badly for one kid. I still don't know how he has both eyes.
Yeah, I'll take that one... it's BS.
The "stats" overwhelmingly show that in child abductions the kid "knows" the abductor. Something on the order of 78%. If you're a kid and something terrible happens to you (murder, rape, molestation) it's probably gonna' be by a member or "friend" of your family.
Do "strangers" abduct kids and do harm, damn straight, but it's not nearly the problem the MSM would have you believe. The majority of the hysteria surrounding “stranger danger” is a creation of the 24 hour news cycle and cable news outlets
The problem-- too many parents preach this crap and make their kids afraid of the world. Not me. I teach my children how to navigate the world without fear. I do this by instructing them on how to deal with situations, of what to be wary, of what to be aware. My wife and I have a set of straight-forward rules and/or passwords for our kids that allow them to go out on their own and experience life. Our kids get no TV on school days and only an hour of “free” time on the PC (research is allowed).
When you have kids you see this surrender to fear’s prevalence throughout the day:
- Kid misses the bus so you have to drop them at school- drop off line is two miles long, choked with SUVs sitting at idle for 15 or more minutes, meanwhile, buses run half-empty.
- At bus stops, parents wait with their kids even though they live in crime-free neighborhoods and the bus stop is only two houses away.
- Speaking of bus stops, they’re placed about every 100 meters because Moms tend to get to worried so, they petition the school system for more stops. Heck, when I was a boy, I had to walk 1K meters just to get to the bus stop.
- After school no one plays outside. Why? Because mommy would rather have the kid in front of the X-box than outside where it's "dangerous".
- Want to volunteer and/or coach? Cool, just fill out these forms (about four pages) and be willing surrender your right to privacy because we need to insure you’re not a mental case/drug dealer/pimp/molester/sexual predator etc.
I've developed a name for what's happening now... the "X-boxing of America". Terribly sad.
I think you are correct that the perception of danger is higher than the reality.
On the other hand there has been a lessening of the idea of communal responsibility. In the neighborhood where I grew up (I'm 48 and grew up in a suburb of DC) almost everyone knew each other. This was in large part due to the fact that we had a neighborhood school (everyone walked), and almost all moms were stay-at-home parents. The connectedness in the neighborhood was quite high. Even folks who didn't have strong social relationships knew each other. If I went out to play, and was doing something wrong, I was either corrected by one of the moms down the street, or my own mom knew about it before I got home. On the other hand, If I went out to play, was a few blocks from home, and fell down and scraped my knee, I could stop at almost any house for a band-aid. Or a glass of water. Even if those kids weren't friends of mine, even if our parents were not tight, there was a sense of collective parenting.
I now live in a similar suburban neighborhood. However, almost everyone works. So kids don't come home from school at 3:00 and play, they go to after-school until 6:00. When they get home it is dinner time. There is far less just going outside to see who else is around, and a lot more arranged "play-dates". I know some of my nieghbors, but not many. If a neighbor's kid came to my house and asked for a band-aid or a glass of water, I'd certianly give it to him, but I'd be shocked.
It isn't the higher crime that makes folks feel unsafe, it s the lack of connections in thier own neighborhoods.