It was normal back then... A thread about our youth

No seat belts in cars. It doesn’t bear thinking about now.

As gillyp said - seat belts. We often left to drive to our vacations early in the morning with me and my sister asleep on the back seat with pillows and blankets and so vulnerable!

Speaking of blankets - duvets weren't really a high until the 70s I guess.

My Nan was advised to start smoking by her doctor as a relaxant to help with the stress of her husband being away in the war and being at home with 3 kids 

Shaking my head....how times change!

Seatbelts didn't become mandatory in the UK until 1983! I was 22 by then! I can remember my Dad being furious about it 

Just off the top of my head:

-- smoking
-- no seatbelts -- we used to put a bunch of kids in the back of a station wagon and drive off
-- no safety things at playgrounds -- no mulch or the "rubbery" stuff that cushions underneath the various equipment today. In Pittsburgh we had "blue slide park" and we used to FLY down that slide with only concrete on either side of it all the way down the hill. (google it, it's a well-know playground but now of course it has safety in mind, even though the original blue slide is still there)
-- kids allowed to be gone all day with no contact with parents -- in the summer we used to make a cheese sandwich (with slices of American cheese, on white bread) or PB&J, and head off. We would hang out in Frick Park (see my blue slide park just above), sometimes deep in the woods, on our own. No such thing as cell phones back then so we were completely out of touch with any adult.
-- as kids, carrying a nickel in our shoe in case we needed a pay phone
-- clunky metal roller skates, with the key around our neck
-- no air conditioning
-- winters with real snow, several feet of it regularly

Climbing the ropes to the ceiling of the school gym with no mats under us!

Definitely roaming around all day and arriving back home when we thought it was dinner time.

Sticking my head out of the window of a train. My mother let me wander all over the train by myself. Likewise the ferry boat.

They allowed kids to smoke at our high school. There was a designated spot in the back of the school, it was like a covered deck. Your parents had to sign a permission slip, but no one checked them if you were out back smoking. I didn’t smoke but my brother did (parents did sign the slip) so we sometimes hung out back there. Your age didn’t matter, because there wasn’t an age restriction on buying them back then. Hard to believe they’d let kids do that now.

We neighborhood kids used to walk up to a convenience store when we were in elementary school. It was about a mile away. Our parents would give us a dollar or two & we’d buy candy and/or Icee’s. Sometimes my neighbor’s dad would give her extra money to buy him a pack of cigarettes (she was like 8 years old). She’d buy them along with her candy cigarettes and no one thought a thing about it. Once a pick up drove by and the guy flashed us. We called the cops when we got home, but I remember we were still allowed to walk to the store - guess the police and our parents didn’t think the guy lived in the area so it would be ok. Luckily we were.

Not only did we not wear seatbelts. My sister would stand up in the front seats between my parents and I would often lay on the back dash of the car to work on my tan as we would ride.

Speaking of tans, we’d slather up with baby oil & lie in our backyard in the hottest part of the day on our silver reflective blankets to get tans. Sometimes our moms would lie out there with us. I remember my neighbor’s mom using that Hawaiian Tropic oil because we loved the smell.

The neighborhood kids would all hang out all day in the summer & after we finished homework during the school year. All the parents knew all the kids and depending were we were, we’d go inside each others houses to get some water & cool off a little. We drank Kool-aid water from the faucet because the only bottled water then was Perrier and no one bought water then. Heck, sometimes we didn’t want to go inside so we drank water from the hose outside.

We’d play games like Red Rover, Mother May I & 1-2-3 Red Light. Or we’d all ride bikes, skate or ride skateboards (no helmets, no elbow or knee pads). Kids were out playing all the time.

I never see kids outside playing in the neighborhood now, I don’t know if the kids really even know each other now, it’s kind of sad that they miss out. If they do play outside, it’s because their parents took them to the park. I have never seen kids riding bikes in my neighborhood where I now live.

Our parents all knew each other & socialized (cook outs, trips to the lake to ride in one of their boats, or sit outside in lawn chairs & smoke while watching the kids play in the sprinklers or play lawn darts. Seems they don’t do things like that now, at least not in my neighborhood.

Clackers! Those hard plastic balls with cord that joined them to a central ring to be clacked around your wrist. Until there was one too many broken wrist bones 😊

When I was young, probably under five, I wouldn't be able to see outside the windshield of the car while in the back seat.
So I stood on the hump to look out while my parents were driving at 60 mph. 
No seatbelts then. I'm not sure if they had them (mid 60's) but probably most people didn't use them.

In the early 70's (?) we would hook the seatbelts in back of us instead of using them to protect us.
I probably started using seatbelts in the early/mid 80s.
About a week after, I was rear-ended slightly. I was not hurt but I had just bought a big unfired ceramic vase to paint. 
It was in my trunk and was basically just crumbs after that. 

Women couldn’t open a bank account in their own name here until 1975!! I was married, was a joint home owner, could vote but not allowed a bank account in my own name!

And children/infant car seats as well.  My parents did their best and used to tie down a plastic baby feeding chair to the car seat when we were little, (or try to run a belt around/through it somehow once we had cars with belts) and they put the baby in there, as opposed to carrying them on a lap, but in a crash--well, it would not have been a good situation.

Kind of seat I mean, in case anyone can't picture it:


My dad was a volunteer firefighter, EMT, & drove ambulances for awhile, so as soon as we had cars with belts we had to wear them.  He'd seen too many accidents in his time.

BUT, in a contradictory move, on long trips we were always allowed to have one or two kids just sitting/lying down in the "back-back" of the vehicle--whether it was a station wagon, or my dad's preferred vehicle for many, many years--the Jeep Wagoneer.  So if you sat in an actual seat--wear that belt!  But otherwise it was fine to bump all around the back of the vehicle like a piece of luggage. 

I can remember how hard it was for my dad when he quit smoking.  It took him several attempts, but I was just thinking yesterday about how many decades it's now been since he smoked, and how much healthier he probably is today because he kept trying to do so.  I wish you the best!

When seat belts became an option, I didn't wear one, until the day I saw a coworker in an accident on the way to work. After that, I ALWAYS have a seat belt on.