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Post by anxiousmom on Aug 7, 2014 23:26:05 GMT
I am a child of the 70's, and we did all of that. Some funny stuff there. We had a fun childhood. On summer holidays we'd get up, eat cereal and leave the house on our bikes. Sometimes we came home for lunch, sometimes we didn't. Dinner was always at 5:30 and we had to be home. If you weren't your Mom would send one of your brothers or sister out to find you. Eat dinner, out the door again. We had to be home when the street lights came on. Every kid in town did. The lights would come on and we would all scatter . And woe unto you to be the kid whose mother called them. Not only did you get teased, but your mom would SO not be happy when you got home. We played all day long, ball in the front yards, riding our bikes all over the place, going down to the drainage ditch (which was under a railroad track LOL.) I know a lot had to change to make our world safer, but I sure wish my children had the same freedoms we had. We, as parents, have become so fearful of the bogey man that I think we have skewed too far the other way.
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Post by momofkandn on Aug 7, 2014 23:30:44 GMT
I did all those things and survived. I let my kids have more freedom than some of their friends. But they do use their seatbelts every time. I guess I've found a happy medium between anything goes and total control.
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Post by marmargirl on Aug 7, 2014 23:31:01 GMT
We also sat in the bed of our dad's pick-up truck on trips to grandma's house. We had to sit down and hold on to the side but otherwise there was no restraint. I admit I do cringe nowadays when I see even a dog riding in the back of a pick-up. A sudden stop and serious damage can be done.
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Post by anxiousmom on Aug 7, 2014 23:32:23 GMT
We also sat in the bed of our dad's pick-up truck on trips to grandma's house. We had to sit down and hold on to the side but otherwise there was no restraint. I admit I do cringe nowadays when I see even a dog riding in the back of a pick-up. A sudden stop and serious damage can be done. Oh my gosh! We did too! Except that my grandfather would throw lawn chairs back there for us to sit on. LOL
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Nink
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,955
Location: North Idaho
Jul 1, 2014 23:30:44 GMT
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Post by Nink on Aug 7, 2014 23:34:02 GMT
We also sat in the bed of our dad's pick-up truck on trips to grandma's house. We had to sit down and hold on to the side but otherwise there was no restraint. I admit I do cringe nowadays when I see even a dog riding in the back of a pick-up. A sudden stop and serious damage can be done. Oh my gosh! We did too! Except that my grandfather would throw lawn chairs back there for us to sit on. LOL This really made me laugh for some reason. The visual of it I guess. Perhaps he was the inspiration for the Subaru Brat.
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Post by marmargirl on Aug 7, 2014 23:36:42 GMT
We also sat in the bed of our dad's pick-up truck on trips to grandma's house. We had to sit down and hold on to the side but otherwise there was no restraint. I admit I do cringe nowadays when I see even a dog riding in the back of a pick-up. A sudden stop and serious damage can be done. Oh my gosh! We did too! Except that my grandfather would throw lawn chairs back there for us to sit on. LOL That's funny. Can you even imagine seeing that on the road today?
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Post by johna on Aug 7, 2014 23:52:40 GMT
we used to have jarts, too. Loved those!
When I was in the 6th grade I was sitting on the monkey bars and my cousin came up behind me and tickled me. (GRRRR). I fell off onto my head on the blacktop. Oh, that hurt so bad. Didn't go to the doctor. Went home and went to bed. LOL. I actually had a babysitter that day, and she came by to check on me periodically. I was fine, I suppose.
we used to sit in the back of the station wagon, too, without seat belts. of course, once you have so many kids in the family you have to sit however, because there wouldn't have been enough seat belts.
I remember trying to slide down the slides without my legs touching the slide. LOL
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Post by johna on Aug 7, 2014 23:56:03 GMT
We also sat in the bed of our dad's pick-up truck on trips to grandma's house. We had to sit down and hold on to the side but otherwise there was no restraint. I admit I do cringe nowadays when I see even a dog riding in the back of a pick-up. A sudden stop and serious damage can be done. I have to post again. One time Dad used several of us kids as leverage in the back of his pickup truck to get up the icy hill by our house. Mom saw it and went ballistic! She told him to never use her children for that again! but we did ride home in the back up the pickup all the time. sometimes standing behind the cab, with the wind blowing in our faces. We were very fortunate to never have been in an accident like that. I would not have let my kids do that.
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Post by mama2three on Aug 8, 2014 0:26:17 GMT
I am a child of the 70's, and we did all of that. Some funny stuff there. We had a fun childhood. On summer holidays we'd get up, eat cereal and leave the house on our bikes. Sometimes we came home for lunch, sometimes we didn't. Dinner was always at 5:30 and we had to be home. If you weren't your Mom would send one of your brothers or sister out to find you. Eat dinner, out the door again. We had to be home when the street lights came on. Every kid in town did. The lights would come on and we would all scatter . And woe unto you to be the kid whose mother called them. Not only did you get teased, but your mom would SO not be happy when you got home. We played all day long, ball in the front yards, riding our bikes all over the place, going down to the drainage ditch (which was under a railroad track LOL.) I know a lot had to change to make our world safer, but I sure wish my children had the same freedoms we had. We, as parents, have become so fearful of the bogey man that I think we have skewed too far the other way. This describes my childhood very well too. My parents had no idea of how far we roamed, especially by the time we were in middle school. I used to ride my bike "all over the neighborhood" - which to me meant any town within a 25 mile radius! No cell phones, no asking permission. I was just "out for a bike ride". My mom would have had a heart attack if she knew how far away I was or some of the neighborhoods I rode through.
Kids all over the neighborhood played together. If you didn't know someone, you introduced yourself and ask if you could play too, always the answer was Yes. None of the "play dates" that happen today. My mom always had a freezer full of ice pops. Because you had to have enough for all the kids in the neighborhood. We couldn't have ice pops out in our back yard unless we offered them to all the neighborhood kids who were also out in their backyards.
And, if your mom had to yell for you (always the mom, never dad) you could tell she was really mad because she used your first and middle names.
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Post by mikklynn on Aug 8, 2014 0:37:25 GMT
Oh, yes, the waxed paper! I forgot about that.
I told my dermatologist my skin cancer was my mother's fault..."get outside and get some sun!" He laughed. Luckily it was just basal cell, so we could laugh.
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Post by travelscrapper on Aug 8, 2014 0:43:34 GMT
This looks like my childhood ~what memories this brings back!!! TFS--have to pass it on to my friends.
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Post by lovetodigi on Aug 8, 2014 0:47:08 GMT
Awwwww....memories.
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ddly
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,019
Jul 10, 2014 19:36:28 GMT
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Post by ddly on Aug 8, 2014 0:52:04 GMT
I remember all of these! My 17 y.o. dd finds them hysterical! I could never get jarts to stick in the ground. I was terrible at them.
I also never knew about wax paper on the slide.
Lisa D.
edited to correct harts to jarts
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whitneyz
Shy Member
Posts: 27
Jul 5, 2014 12:54:34 GMT
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Post by whitneyz on Aug 8, 2014 0:57:52 GMT
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Mystie
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Jun 25, 2014 19:53:37 GMT
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Post by Mystie on Aug 8, 2014 1:00:55 GMT
The only thing better than being one of the little kids was moving on up to being one of the big kids who could jump in the middle and make it go really fast. Such a thrill! One time we took a road trip and my siblings and I rode in the bed of my dad's truck with the cap on. We'd bang on the cab window if we needed to communicate with Mom and Dad. It was terribly exciting. And sleeping in the way back of the station wagon during a night trip...there's just nothing cozier. Nice memories! But I'm glad my nieces and nephews are growing up safer.
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Post by baslp on Aug 8, 2014 1:07:05 GMT
This says it all! Thanks for sharing
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Post by shinyhappytina on Aug 8, 2014 1:08:21 GMT
Yep to all of this...did it all! When my Grandpa passed away, I asked for the Jart set, had lots of fun memories from them...danger and all.
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Post by melanell on Aug 8, 2014 1:14:39 GMT
LOL! Those were great. Jarts used to sell like hotcakes on ebay, but then they banned them. This line cracked me up: "YOU MUST HAVE YOUR EYES ON THE KID AT ALL TIMES OR ELSE HE WILL DIE!". My mom had entire summers when she didn't really ever even know where we were. And wherever we were, there was no adult even pretending to be watching us! And the metal playgrounds. Dude, we were inventive. We sprayed the hose down the sliding board, or filled a pail or toy watering can with water to cool it off. We sat on our bookbags on the merry-go-round. We found solutions.
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Post by whipea on Aug 8, 2014 1:39:05 GMT
I was a kid of the sixties, pretty much the same. In the car I would ride and sometimes even sleep on the ledge behind the back seat where the rear window sloped.
I remember not once but a few times falling off a bike that was way too big for me, off roller skates that just hooked on to your shoes which never fit or off a wall in front of a neighbors house and hitting my head hard enough to be knocked out for a few minutes. Both parents worked (oh the scandal) and the sitter or a neighbor would call the doctor. The doctor would ask if I was bleeding, and if not he just said to give ginger ale for any nausea and if I wanted to I could go back outside to play.
There were no antibacterial wipes or hand sanitizers and I was rarely was sick. I shared food, drinks, pencils, pens and crayons. Ate out of the dog's bowl, brought tuna salad for lunch in a paper bag without the benefit of refrigeration, flushed toilets with my hands, ate grass, ate paste and crayons touched by other children who probably ate them too and I am still here.
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Nink
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,955
Location: North Idaho
Jul 1, 2014 23:30:44 GMT
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Post by Nink on Aug 8, 2014 1:46:51 GMT
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Post by jenjie on Aug 8, 2014 1:54:39 GMT
Our playground had that awesome slide. It looked like a clown. I've never seen it anywhere else until now!
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Post by scrappinmom3 on Aug 8, 2014 1:57:35 GMT
So true!
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bomo
Full Member
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Jun 26, 2014 15:54:49 GMT
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Post by bomo on Aug 8, 2014 2:01:31 GMT
I even swung by my knees from branches of trees and not a helmet in sight.
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marianne
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Not my circus, not my monkeys. . . My monkeys fly!
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Jun 25, 2014 21:08:26 GMT
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Post by marianne on Aug 8, 2014 2:22:48 GMT
I even swung by my knees from branches of trees and not a helmet in sight. lol - me too! and from the monkey bars (set in concrete) at the playground. I could hang on the low bar, reach down to the ground, and flip off the bar! good times!
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Post by Scarlet Ohana on Aug 8, 2014 2:30:38 GMT
That was my life in the 70's. No seat belts, and windows rolled up while my dad smoked away. Jarts when we went camping! And the playground...I remember they had these cool under ground tunnels made from concrete and my knees would get so scraped up.
Ahhh the good old days.
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Post by stefdesign on Aug 8, 2014 2:59:26 GMT
I'm a child of the fifties & sixties, but it was pretty much the same for us too. Seatbelts weren't anywhere to be found, and I often played and laid on that ledge on the back seat of the car under the window. We were such climbers... we'd jump from tree to tree, climb 25 ft. chain link fences like monkeys, leap from the roof of the shed onto a pile of sand over and over and over and over again. We made skateboards out of an old board, with metal rollerskate wheels nailed on. For comfort, a piece of carpet sample glued to the top made it a smooth ride, even though the smallest rock would make the wheels stop and we would fly head over heels onto the sidewalk. We also rode our bikes all over town, and beyond, and never locked them when we got to our destination. (Of course, we didn't lock the front door at our house either). I definitely had a more carefree childhood than my own kids. Times change.
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Deleted
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Oct 8, 2024 11:40:55 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2014 3:03:46 GMT
I grew up in the country on a dirt road. That's where I learned to ride a bike and I have the scars on my knees and elbows to prove it! My brother and I were allowed to ride our bikes to the hard road and down to a teeny little Mom and Pop gas station to buy candy and ice cream. I loved push-up pops! And I don't think we ever went home without a pack of candy cigarettes! Back then people didn't drive crazy fast like they do now. I wouldn't let my kids ride on that very same road nowadays.
In the summer Mom would pack us a lunch complete with a metal canteen of water and we'd wander the countryside all day. We had woods, a creek and rock caves to play in. When we had to come home, Mom would blow a whistle. That sound would echo in the valley and we could hear it pretty much anywhere. After the whistle, we had 10 minutes to get home. We had all kinds of fun.
We rode in the back of my dad's pick up and dump truck all the time. On the interstate even. We all knew better than to goof around while the vehicle was moving. But still, we're lucky no one fell out.
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Post by lbp on Aug 8, 2014 12:47:51 GMT
I LOVED Lawn Darts! Imagine my surprise when I tried to find them a few years ago and saw that they have rounded tips. What the heck??? Of course the Merry go Round we would get that sucker going so fast that someone was always swung off of it!
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Post by Judie in Oz on Aug 8, 2014 13:16:16 GMT
I remember the days roaming the neighbourhood in summer and winter. Summer we were on our bikes, down to the swimming pool, picking wild strawberries on the sides of the road. It was always a whole mob of kinds. We would go home for dinner and then back out until the street lights came on.
Winters we hung around the ice rink all day. If you were thirsty you grabbed an icicle off the chalet roof! Sometimes the people in there would give us hot chocolate, but not very often. (Just so no-one is confused, I grew up partially in Montreal, Canada.)
I tried not to coddle my boys too much. They did wear helmets, seatbelts, sit in car seats etc. My youngest, especially, was the neighbourhood vagabond kid. Everyone knew him and when he went too far up the street he would get sent home. I'm glad they had the chance to grow up a little like me.
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Nicole in TX
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,951
Jun 26, 2014 2:00:21 GMT
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Post by Nicole in TX on Aug 8, 2014 13:44:50 GMT
Thanks for sharing! I love the mom's shorts in the bike photo!
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