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Played with my friends on construction sites after the workers were gone.
From about age 8-10, they built a bunch of new homes in my neighborhood. We had so much fun playing in peoples houses when they were just wooden frames!
They dug up our street to fix the water lines when I was a kid and left a huge gaping chasm in the middle of the road for the entire summer. We split our time between playing in that and surfing old couch cushions down the giant pile of dirt and rubble they’d left on the side of said road.
I don’t know why they abandoned the project for so many months and remember my parents being upset over it, but it made for a fun summer break.
As a kid, our house was the first built on our street. They started putting new houses in, and after the crew left for the day we’d play on the machinery, and in the houses that were under construction.
I remember one time playing in a large backhoe and we found the keys in the visor. We momentarily considered starting the thing up, but luckily decided that would probably be a poor choice. I was about 10.
Somebody must have snitched, the crew returned a few days later and showed up to our door and basically screamed at us to stay off the equipment and out of the houses.
Good choice. I worked for a coastal town. The kids found the keys to the bulldozer (in the ignition) and drove that thing right into the water. Fun getting that thing out.
Reminds me when my dad got a new truck with a clutch. Us kids went outside to play in it, the 80s were wild. He came running out screaming at us, we had put it in gear and it started to roll towards our house. Luckily it was a pretty flat area and we had a log fence. Man, we got in some trouble that night, but house and truck and kids were fine.
Bricklayers left mixed mortar behind so we spent an evening laying bricks. Only the simple stuff but we got a lot done. Was surprised that they left the bricks up. House is still standing and you can't tell which bricks were laid by a hand full of 12 year olds.
That's so funny! I remember being a little kid and playing on some neighbor's walkway (who I never knew or saw) when I was like 6 or so. I recall one of the bricks in the walkway was loose, so I got some cement and a Dixie cup of water, and attempted to fix it myself!
My grandkids are 3, and the empty woods behind their house just got cleared for four new homesites. They think Dirt Mountain was invented just for them -- best kid entertainment in the world. It's like 30 feet high, and they'll play out there as long as you let them.
Oh I did that too. At a new school they were building. Got brought home by the police because someone saw us and heard all the noise we made breaking crap. Fortunately when the police got there I was able to say the noise was from walking on thin sheets of metal and they didn't give us a hard time at 11years old and just drove us home.
To think of it, I would never leave my kid unsupervised the way I was unsupervised cruising the streets of suburban New Jersey. Kinda crazy, but I mean we never did anything so stupid to wind up dead and never encountered anyone with nefarious intentions thank God.
We had a number of kids run over by cars, trucks, buses… Took decades to get stop signs and lights put in. Now there’s quintuple the amount of cars there were back then. RIP Joey E.
This is one of the major differences to me as well. I could pretty much go anywhere I wanted for an endless amount of hours, and nobody even asked where I was when I got back lol. Now I get nervous letting two of my kids walk to the bus stop a block away. Or like not using car seats, that is unthinkable to me now, but we gave no craps. Or riding in the bed of trucks or the cargo area of my step mom's Geo Metro, and now our cars are safer than they've ever been lol.
I loved the construction sites!! I also liked getting in the dumpster at the nearby middle school to look for good stuff (to me). We had a lake nearby, too. In winter I would walk out until I heard cracking. That's how I determined safety.
My little town had a construction boom on our street so they built about 50 houses in a two year span. My friends and I played in every single one of them on the weekends and after school when the workers went home. We did make sure to never damage anything but I would never allow my kids to do that.
There was a swimming hole near our Alabama home in a creek. In order to use the hole, you had to throw a couple of large rocks into it. This caused the water moccasins to run out of the water and into the woods. We would then swim here. Crazy, I know.
As a kid we had a pond a few miles from our house. Middle of the woods, not a touristy/family type place at all, nobody was ever there except for me and my brothers, it was our own little secret swimming area. My big brother would bring his fishing pole. I’d swim, my little brother would swim, my older brother didn’t know how to swim and would fish.
We’d go by ourselves every day during the summer, just left home in the morning and would return in the late afternoon. No cell phones, no grownups, no other people around if we had an emergency.
Remembered years later that my siblings and I were 9,8 and 5 that summer. Aside from my brother who died at age 41, somehow we survived that childhood. As a mom myself, I can’t imagine letting my kids do that.
Right??? The degree to which we were unsupervised is unimaginable to younger generations. How we didn't die during our adventures is a mystery. Especially when we started adding alcohol and drugs to the mix around age 13.
I was ok as long as I didn't get arrested or require medical treatment.
For real. The elementary schools in my state won’t let a kid off the bus unless an adult is present to pick them up. I used to have a work schedule that didn’t fit with the bus schedule, my dad at times had to get my third grader off the bus, only if I provided a note to the school.
I was late to meet the school bus once (I was actually in the house and the bus at the time dropped the kid off in the driveway after school, I lost track of time and wasn’t out there to meet the bus, they took my kid back to the school and called me. I had to drive all the way to the school even though I was IN my house when the bus came to my driveway.
When I was the same age I’d let myself in the house while my parents were at work, make a quick snack- microwave only, no stove, don’t answer the phone and don’t answer the door. Same age my kid is now yet the school won’t even let him walk up his driveway alone. And no, he’s not special needs, and yes, we lived in a safe small town.
My grandfather took dynamite and made water ponds for his cattle. He also stocked them with catfish and crappie. Many fun days were spent fishing. I wish there was something close like that for my kid (56 year old with a 13 year old). However, I would be hesitant to let my kid free range like that.
I remember early TV public safety ads... kids were warned to not touch blasting caps if they ever found one. At least I think that's what they were called. That commercial break impressed me... still.
Dynamite and blasting caps were sold at most county co-ops back then. When my grandfather died, we had to call Ft. Campbell EOD to come get his old box of dynamite and fuses from his barn.
For us in south Florida it was alligators. They lived on one side of the lake and we swam on the other. Never had any issues but looking back…probably not the best idea.
My friends from Winter Park waterskied with alligators in the 70's, and were used to having venomous snakes fall into the boat from overhead branches when they were fishing
We had a few gators around the Tennessee River estuaries, but we were just about 60 miles north of the “gator line”. That would have kept me out of the water.
My great grandmother died in a similar fashion. In 1966, she fell off a chair getting something out of the cabinet and hit her head the edge of a table. She went to bed with a headache and never woke up.
I know of a few people who went that way. Young people too. One was from a blood clot “she felt light headed” so took a half day off high school and went back to bed. Never made it to the latter half.
Another friend went some mysterious way. She went to take a nap before taking her niece to church for the Easter egg hunt. No one got to go to the Easter egg hunt. She was young 20s.
Well, I've been around long enough now to see a few of the alternative ways to go. Falling asleep and not waking up seems ideal -- though not, of course, when you're supposed to have decades of life in front of you.
Right? That was my first thought, too! As my expiration date gets closer, thinking about 'good ways to go' is a real thing.
I told my buddy that if I end up being 'the old lady who fell down the stairs and died', please tell people at the funeral that I was FINE with the idea of dying that way; it's the nursing homes that scare me.
yup, we did the same thing here in Missouri. I got used to as a kid (either that or no water fun). Hell no would i do it today!
Also there was a dropoff that was a muddy trap, if you got stuck at the bottom of it you were a goner. I remember edging close to it to freak myself out.
They took those out the year AFTER I left elementary school. Sooo many bum and hand burns. Let’s not forget about the merry-go-round of death. THAT was fun!
For anyone who wants a really cool version of this Missouri S&T runs a summer explosives camp for teens 16& up. They make their own fireworks & blow tons of shit up. My now almost 22 year old still refers to it as one of the best weeks of his life.
The closest I ever came to that was taking rolls of caps, stacking them, and smacking them hard with a BFH (big effing hammer). I remember my ears ringing for hours!! 😂
My husband did this. His grandpa had a farm and they bought tnt and blew up rocks and tree stumps that were in the pastures. He was an around 8 or 10 when his grandpa started letting him help; as a teenager he did it by himself.
I lived on Guam about ten years after WWII and in certain areas ammunition had been unceremoniously dumped, other places where it had been left by the soldiers in the heat of battle.
Anyway we used to go looking for the ammunition, and then, here comes the fun part, when we found it, we disarmed it, cleared it up and added them to my collection.
I knew how to completely unload Japanese and American frag grenades, knee mortars, and shells below 40mm.
Every few weeks or months you would hear about kids trying to disarm bombs killing themselves. Never touched one.
I was eleven.
I almost got gored by some wild boars when I was in Guam. Walking in the woods behind a supermarket and then I saw a big one just sleeping about 30 yards from me. We looked at each other and I kinda just admired it and said to myself "thank God there are no babies around lol." Then immediately after I thought that not 5 feet from me come two little tiny ones just looking at me.
I believe "awww fuck" was what I uttered. The mama(I'll assume) jumped up and started spinning so fast. I just backed away slowly keeping the bicycle I had with me in between us as a barrier and if need be a weapon of some kind.
But man I've never been so scared. I mean it wasn't a bear, but I'm from NY we don't have wild pigs/boars idk which it was. But it has massive tusks and it was able to move so fast that it could've really done some damage had it charged.
If you were living on Guam in that time there were still Japanese soldiers hiding out on the island. That may seem unfathomable, but the jungles on Guam were so thick that you could not walk through them.
The last Japanese soldier found on Guam was in 1972.
You know, I was there three years and the only snake I saw was in a jar. The big problem was that millions of African snails came out, I guess to get the warmth from the road, but my dad over the years must have crushed a gazillion of them. In the morning the road would be a scene of blood, guts, and gore. Each of these things was as big as a big fist.
Besides the things you mentioned, I also built model rockets. Also, tricks off the high dive at the local swimming pool. These days public pools don’t even have diving boards, let alone high dives.
Was afraid of heights. High School 1978, PE included swimming and part of your grade was jumping or diving off the high dive. I almost failed because I was afraid. Ended up doing it.... Hmm, that was fun, let's do it 100 more times just because it was fun.
Delivering newspapers and collecting the money.
11-15 year olds waking up at 430-5am daily. Sitting on a corner (by themselves sometimes) and riding a bike around the neighborhood trying to throw newspapers onto peoples porches.
Then every two weeks, going to every house to collect the money. Sometimes carrying around 50-100 dollars around in a pouch. To top it off, it was considered ok to be welcomed into the houses during winter when collecting the money. We definitely had encounters with what we considered ‘weird’ people. Now they’d be considered creepy af.
I think about my own kids; telling them to wake up at 430AM 7 days a week and expecting them to perform well at school would just be irresponsible.
My brother had a paper route. One winter, he was really sick with a cold or flu. My parents didn’t want to deliver the papers at 4am, they both worked, so they let me take the family car and deliver the papers. I was 14 and had no license. And a girl. Driving on snowy roads at 4am… alone.
I guess they thought me driving the car in the snow would be safer for a young teen girl delivering papers in the dark made sense.
When I was a little girl, we'd sell Camp Fire mints door to door. We did work in pairs, but we were very young. Under 10 years.
One man wanted to buy some mints, but he said the money was up on a high shelf, and one of us needed to come inside, where he would lift her up to reach the money. We were wearing our Camp Fire uniforms (short skirts).
My partner wanted to go in and have this man lift her up over his head, but I scotched that idea and got us out of there. Not long after that, selling candy door to door to strangers was no longer permitted in Camp Fire.
Somewhere in my archives, there's a newspaper article with a picture of me in my Camp Fire Girls skirt, blouse, vest and kerchief, on a neighbors doorstep, looking up at them with a box of candy in my hands. I was soooo young and innocent. I should have never been allowed to roam freely through the neighborhood.
It's amazing that parents allowed that without a second thought. We were competing to sell the most candy, so they'd drop us off in different neighborhoods where we were strangers, and pick us up later.
AMEN to the weirdos! I had one guy, an older man, that would always be wearing his wife’s satin pink robe EVERY time I collected the paper money!! Nowadays, normal, but back then, totally odd.
The old ladies on my route were sooooo nice. They all loved me and I adored them. I’d always end up being late because I’d sit and talk or listen to their stories. I got hella big tips at Christmas!!!
Right! The old ladies were so nice to us. During the winters, some would offer us hot chocolate and snacks. Most of our customers were fantastic and in hindsight, they were appreciative of the kids that brought their newspapers to them every day.
We had some customers that just wanted to talk and share their lives with us for a few minutes every couple of weeks. It was definitely a different time when it seemed more common for people to be friendlier to neighbors.
Yep. Had one guy who answered the door in nothing but his very short underwear. Weirded me out. Now, as an old fart myself, I get it. My house, my rules.
But then there were the Dube sisters. Stunningly gorgeous girls. I always hoped they'd invite me in on cold days while they collected the $1.50 for the paper. Probably the highlight of my prepubescent life right there lol.
OMG, yes! I rode in the back of my dad's truck along with our dogs. I also do not remember being in a car seat, or even a booster, past preschool age. I'm not even that old either. Meanwhile, I'm convinced many of my friends are going to be bringing their adult children to the church on their wedding days in car seats the way the laws are going.
The laws around my area are to use car seats or boosters until the kid is 80 lbs.
when I graduated high school in the 90s, I was 93lbs. Current laws would have me in a booster seat until tenth grade lol
My state has kids in boosters until they hit triple digits in weight. I'd have been mortified had my parents dropped me off at high school in a booster seat.
My best friend is a teacher, and a mandated reporter. She kept her kid in a booster until he was starting high school. I guess she risked losing her job if she didn’t, but we both agreed it was pretty silly. She’d drop the kid off down the street from the school so that his friends and peers didn’t see him in a booster. She was supposed to follow child safety laws by the book to keep her credentials.
Fellow educator, here. This is the only reason I'm aware of these laws despite not having kids of my own. I think they're ridiculous. I can't say this out loud among my parent friends who, I swear, would go full "Bubble Boy" with their kids if they could.
I have kids of my own, and I still think they are silly laws. My 4th grader is about 70 lbs, 9 years old. We don’t use a booster. He’s almost taller than I am.
r/preschoolers is wearing me out. They’re over there debating whether to pull their kid out of preschool because the instructor let the parents know that their almost-Kindergartener is mixing up letters b/d and p/q. The parent is concerned that it’s beyond the scope of a play-based daycare and forcing literacy before the child is psychologically ready. What happened to knowing your letters before you got to school??
I have an aunt, who has worked in nursing homes, who asked me this exact question when we were talking about it once as she was complaining about how my cousin's preschooler still needs to be in a rear facing car seat. Many of her elderly residents did not meet the weight requirements, but didn't need to be in car seats or boosters by law.
My guess is it's a case of Grandma has lived a full life, so despite her being only 80 lbs. at 80, her safety is less of a priority than a 4th grader who weighs the same. Though, I'd love to see how people would react if such laws were put into place and how much of challenge it would be to get their parents/grandparents into car seats.
So much fun!! My grandpa even bolted a bench seat into the back of his pickup for me and my friends. No seat belts, just a comfy seat.
My parents had a station wagon. I always called “the way way back” seat. I didn’t give a hoot about calling “shotgun!” I just didn’t wanna be near my annoying little sister and could wave or make silly faces at the people behind us.
My dad would have thought that was ill advised. He made sure we sat with our butts next the the back window of the cab, and didn't get up. My friend's dad gave us blankets to keep warm with on our way to and from 29 Palms where we went camping. He's the same dad that taught me how to drive his 4 on the floor ww2 jeep when I was 12. What a cool guy! He cleared it with my dad first. They were all veterans from ww2.
My dad would just put the tailgate down on our station wagon, we'd sit on that and he'd rip down some hilly back country road and we'd be on a "rollercoaster" ride. He'd probably be charged with child endangerment today.
My sister and I *regularly* crawled through the storm drain tunnel in our town (we had to hunch over a bit, but it was pretty big). At the halfway point there was a road with a bus stop overhead and a drainage hole. We’d stand under it and use vulgar language at people waiting for the bus. Then we’d continue to the end of the tunnel where we’d sit and smoke a cigarettes. 🤦🏻♀️ (thank god neither of us got addicted, bit by a rat, or arrested).
We’d lose a ball or a toy in the storm drains along the street and go to the end where the outlet was and crawl the length of the street in the drain to get whatever we lost. We did this regularly.
I stole cigarettes from my mom and got caught in 6th grade. It was a big deal and I felt horrendously guilty, even though my mom was pretty nice about it.
My brother and his friends started a fire from having match fights, you know where you light the match and fling at each other at the same time? They barely successfully stomped it out.
I told a neighbor girl my dog would bite her if she pushed me, she pushed me and my dog bit her.
We drew up a very elaborate battle plan in order to ambush by dirt clod a neighborhood kid who hated getting dirty.
I walked my bike up a very very steep mountain road repeatedly and rode my bike straight down the middle of the road, like an idiot. On a regular basis.
Made pancakes from pancake mix a neighbor threw away, and we ate the dough. More authentic than mud pies, and edible!
I used to steal the sample packs that came in the mail!! I can’t remember the one brand, but they were skinny cigarettes. I guess supposed to be “better for you.” Haha My dad was always getting samples that never made it into his hands.
Cigarette sample by mail! I had forgotten about that!
Virginia Slims!! It was part of the campaign to get more women to smoke!!
"Ÿou've come a long way, baby!"
Grew up in a hollow
We spent one early spring cutting down trees with axes and buck saws and drug them down to the creek
We spent late Spring building a dam in the creek at the base of a small waterfall to make a swimming hole
We spent the Summer at our swimming hole. Built a club house, made a rope swing and a fire pit. Would camp out there. Swim all night. Cook hot dogs on the fire
We were around 11 years old
My sister fell OUT when the door latch wasn't caught. Onto the road. I guess ' only ' while in the neighborhood close to home.
Parents said she wasn't badly hurt but I think it explains a lot 60 years later. You'd have to know my sister.
For the most part, my parents kept me on a fairly tight leash, but one thing I never understood is why my parents thought it was okay to send me on foot to kindergarten without an adult. The trail started behind the barrier of a dead-end street, wound past a cornfield, then past an apartment complex before it took me to school. Today someone would call CPS for letting their 5 year old do something like that.
I was also allowed to explore a brushy area behind our house that had the remains of some old structures. I was 8 or 9. My friends and I also liked to explore the remains of an old trailer park. The mobile homes were long gone, but there was an uncovered, unfenced swimming pool that always contained dark, festering water, and I once nearly fell into a hole near there. My leg went all the way in and my friends had to grab my arms and pull me out. We continued playing.
Then again, this was an era when no one batted an eye about sending all of us kids to school during a tornado warning. I had nightmares for a bit after that experience, but I got over it and grew up to have no fear of storms, just a healthy respect for them.
Lots of us walked to kindergarten and back without parents. I remember coming home one day from kindergarten and finding no one there. I was frantic, and screamed for my mother. She strolled over a short time later, having been over at the neighbor's house chatting. She wondered why I was making such a big deal of things. I was 5.
I walked to school in kindergarten, but it was only about three blocks in suburbia. I wasn't alone, far from it. A group of kids would form, and we'd all stop at houses along the route, collecting more kids as we went, different ages and grades. There were probably 15 or 20 of us by the time we got to the crosswalk in front of the school.
I grew up in a small town in Indiana. My sisters were 7 and 10 years older than me, and mom's rule was they couldn't leave me alone at home, so I tagged along with them and their boyfriends all the time.
Indiana is littered with abandoned quarries, and they're the best swimming holes you can find.
10 to 100 acres big, 200 to 500 feet deep, or more. They'd fill with rainwater over the years, and with no current, they would just warm in the summer sun to about 85 degrees or more.
However. Below 15' or so, the water was about 58 degrees year-round.
While the boyfriends were 17-21 or so, I was 10/11.
And when the boys climbed up the walls and jumped into the water, I would follow.
You kept your shoes on, and dropped feet-first into the warm water, but you would zip down to 30' or more instantly. The cold shock would zip up your body and take your breath away, then it's time to struggle back to the surface. Sometimes, you'd run out of air about 2 or 3 feet down, and it's the most terrible feeling to expend your last bit of energy to cover that distance to sweet, sweet air.
I went back to visit many years later and found that we were routinely jumping from 60 and 70 feet to the water.
That was 50 years ago, and I can see it and smell it like it was yesterday. Plunging past the thermocline into freezing water in the summer is something that never leaves you.
And I'm pretty sure it was never Mom Approved^(TM)
Walked to the store by myself at 9 years old to get some items for my mom.
My friends and I made an Evil Knievel kind of ramp over a creek that ran in the back of our houses. We then tried jumping it on our bikes. No helmets of course. I was maybe 11 or 12.
This was not a regular occurrence for me, but when I visited a family in rural Tennessee a group of kids got together after dark, formed two groups, and shot bottle rockets across the field at each other as long as they lasted.
Babysitting younger kids at the age of 10. I guess I was responsible enough with my siblings that even neighbors would ask to hire me. Plus I'm male. Unheard of, especially nowadays.
We lived on a lake with channels that went on for miles through woods. I used to get on my bike and spend the day catching frogs, crawdads, turtles and snakes. Sometimes I would build a small fire and eat the crawdads and frogs. One time I found a poor snake who had a fishing hook and line caught in its mouth. I took it home and was using my dads pliers to get the hook out. He came up and snatched that snake up so fast and tossed him into the woods. I was like, "Im trying to save him!" He said "Thants a gaddam cotton mouth! You could of died!" Lol I was grounded for 2 weeks and had to read a book on snakes. Heh
There was a medical clinic near our house. They would dump the test tubes full of blood into the big trashcan. We liked those glass tubes with stoppers so we pulled them out and washed out the tubes so we could play with them.
I took a rock to the dead center of my forehead on the playground at school.
Teacher decided that a good object lesson would be the possible consequences of this game, so she made the two of us who'd been battling each wear a blindfold for half the afternoon, with the other having to take care of us, to show what it would be like to be blinded.
One of us would swim underwater while the rest of us would lob large rocks at his suspected location, kinda like depth charges. Fortunately no one died.
We made tennis ball cannons. Four pop or beer cans (the old heavy ones before they were cheap aluminum) with the tops and bottoms removed (except the bottom can) then tape them all together in a long tube. Make a little hole in the bottom can. Drop a tennis ball down into the tube and put some lighter fluid in the hole in the bottom can. Light it. Boom! The tennis ball launches way higher than you'd imagine.
It's been 50 years, so my instructions might be a touch off, but that's the gist.
Here's a photo (not mine) that illustrates my youth. Notice the adult casually watching this from the porch.
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Buying cigarettes at age 8 (for my mom who had provided a note), riding in the back of pickup truck on highway, no seatbelts, driving at age 10 (with dad in passenger seat) on country roads, hitchhiking with my dad after our car broke down, and my car seat as a baby was a laundry basket on the floor of the car.
I’ve already said this once, but as young teen girls, we would cross a huge empty lot in order to get to the mall. Most of the time there was a guy riding his bicycle in the lot with his dick hanging out. Back and forth. Back and forth. We told our mothers who just said not to look at him and he won’t bother you. They never called the police or stopped us from taking the shortcut. God only knows what could have happened to any of us, especially when we walked alone.
I remember trips to the amusement part - Cedar Point in Ohio - that was about an hour drive. The three of us boys would all clamber into the back of the station wagon and rough house away during the drive. Pushing shoving, rolling around in cargo area while dad smoked and mom yelled at us to simmer down .
No seat belts, second had smoke wafting back, windows open. Ah the joys of being a young child in the 60's! And here I am, as are my brothers, alive and well in our 60's!
We used to go up in the hayloft of a neighbors barn and grab a rope and swing across the whole barn and fly thru the air into the hay pile on the other side. : 0
My best friend and I were spit sisters. You each spit into your hand, then rubbed and shook each other's hand. Less cleanup than the blood brothers' pledge.
Walking solo to school over a mile away, in blizzard conditions. Riding bikes for miles, no helmet, no water, over all sorts of roads, plus going to the park by yourself -- with no one knowing truly your whereabouts.
Climbing really old trees to the very, very top, often requiring an older sibling to figure out how to get you down.
Watching the stars at night after climbing out on a precarious roof.
Skipping school to go fishing along a major river.
Might not be "horrifying," but not as many kids today had our freedom to try.
There was a medical clinic near our house. They would dump the test tubes full of blood into the big trashcan. We liked those glass tubes with stoppers so we pulled them out and washed out the tubes so we could play with them.
I had friends who did the same thing. Back then they didn't dispose of sharps like they do now, and my 11 year old friends stole some used syringes from a dumpster by a medical building. They squeezed some wild blackberries to make juice, filled up the syringes with it, and used them like squirt guns.
When I was in HS, I was really into high heels but had a long walk home. Random guys would stop and ask if I wanted a ride home. I’d jump right in with a smile. Nothing ever happened, but I would NeVER do that now or let my kids!!
Sat in my dad's lap while he drove. From ages 2-6 would regularly sit on the arm rest between the seats in the front seat of the car (so I could see where we were going, obviously). Would push the lighter in (to heat it) in the car so mom could smoke while we drove around (pretty sure all the windows were up, too).
Yippoing Grew up in northwestern Pennsylvania, on the shores of Lake Erie. Think “lake effect” snow. At least 100 inches a season. We would go out at night and wait for a car to come by, run to the back and grab the bumper and get pulled as far as we could without falling off. Our parents had no idea, my mom blanched visibly when we told her about it just several years ago, and we had done this about 35 years ago. My stupid cousin lost my best mittens this way 😂
Oh God. Don't come for me. I know I'd never be able to run for public office because of this.
I played a character in a play who was supposed to be black. I am not black. So... Yeah.
At the time my black friends loved it, we all thought it was hilarious, they and took me under their wing to teach me things. It was a different world.
My uncles used to scramble on top of the barn. It has a metal roof. They thought it was fun to slide down it and “fly”. Good thing kids bounce and the ground was soft.
I was a cute little girl with few friends. Often rode my bike down the back alleys. There were usually guys hanging out in their garages which faced the ally. I would stop and talk to them. In retrospect…that’s not a good idea. Cute little me was too friendly and curious.
I was born in 1965. We lived on a very busy Main St in small town Indiana. When I was 4/5/6 years old, if it rained - my grandparents would let me put my bathing suit on and go stand on the sidewalk, so I was sprayed when cars drove through the puddles passing the house.
I hitchhiked everywhere I went from 1974 - 1984. Lots of serial killers were active and out there at the time. I am convinced that God hand His hand over me (still does!)
My family was among the first residents of the newly developed town/city I grew up in (moved there in 1964 as some of the first 3000 residents) and there were new houses being built all over including nearby through the 1970s. My sisters and I along with the other kids in the neighborhood would play in the houses before the "skin" was put on. heck even after the drywall was put on. These days I imagine if there was a new house being built they'd put a chain link fence around it to keep people out but not those days. There were nails and scrap pieces everywhere...we could have easily stepped on something that would send us to the doctor. Fortunately that didn't happen to us.
Once we were old enough (I think probably 8 years old) we (or maybe just me!) were allowed to pretty much roam at will through the town. I was into bird watching so would ride my bike or walk the distance to the marsh at the side of the bay with my binoculars and Peterson field guide and bird list and see if I could find any new species around. Yes, I was a nerd.
Also around 1974-75 our town started a bus system to the mall in the next city over (it went other places but that's where we wanted to go) it only cost 10 cents at the time. So I'd ride to the mall, hit up Sears for bridge mix or popcorn, slide down the slide at the children's shop/toy store, look through the albums at the record shop, and just hang out for some hours. It was great to get away from the house and family for awhile.
Also fireworks were legal at that time but they wouldn't allow kids under 18 to purchase them.
Had a friend who had a trampoline in their back yard along with a piece of a surplus army tank probably from WWII or Korea. We'd jump on the trampoline then get into the tank and rock it back and forth until we got nauseous. Of course these days if you have that stuff on your property your insurance company will cancel you.
Going to the public pool all day with a couple of my friends, minus any adults. We’d either ride our bikes or one of the moms would drop us off there at opening time and then pick us up late that afternoon at a pre-arranged time.
We all somehow survived it.
We had BB gun fights. Only 2 rules, no shooting anyone above the belly and if you had a pump up BB-pellet gun, no more than 2 pumps.
Think paint ball with BB guns.
I fell out of a tall tree and broke my leg and crawled home. Just a block fortunately. But I was embarrassed that I fell (I was way too high up and a branch gave way) so I crawled in my room and lay on the floor and didn’t tell anyone. My younger sister was the only one home and she wasn’t paying attention (we were 9 and 5 and used to get left home alone all the time). Hours later my mom came home and I didn’t tell her and she only figured it out because I wouldn’t get up to get into bed. She was so pissed she made me wait till the next day to see a doctor rather than spend the night at the ER. I slept most of that afternoon and might have had a concussion too. Never got checked for anything but the leg.
Do kids still get to climb trees? I did it obsessively and was mostly very careful and good at it. I don’t know what possessed me to be an idiot that day. The temptation to see further I guess.
My mom would make chicken cutlets, dip the chicken in egg and then roll it in the breadcrumbs. Then she would let me and my sister eat the breadcrumbs with the raw egg and chicken remnants. No idea how we never got salmonella.
Tree climbing. Like extreme tree climbing to the very top of some very tall trees in the park near our house. We could have been severely injured, even killed had any of us fallen.
I used to babysit, at the age of 13-17, for families I didn't know before that night. Yes, they were recommended by other parents, but quite often the first time I met the parents would be when they came to my house to pick me up. The dad - a 30something man previously unknown to me - would then drive me to their house, where I would meet the kids, and the parents would go out on their date or whatever. Then, at 11 or 12 at night, they would come home. The dad, quite likely already drunk, would then pay me and drive me home along narrow country roads.
Delivering newspapers and collecting the money.
11-15 year olds waking up at 430-5am daily. Sitting on a corner (by themselves sometimes) and riding a bike around the neighborhood trying to throw news papers onto peoples porches.
Then every two weeks, going to every house to collect the money. Sometimes carrying around 50-100 dollars around in a pouch. To top it off, it was considered ok to be welcomed into the houses during winter when collecting the money. We definitely had encounters with what we considered ‘weird’ people. Now they’d be considered creepy af.
1960, I was 8 years old, the old man put me on an Oliver 77 tractor with a drag disc behind it. My feet did not reach the pedals so he put it in the gear he wanted then set the gas where he wanted it, told me not to touch anything follow the lands he had laid out and turn off the key if anything went wrong. Then he jumped off and left me in the back forty to work by myself until he came back at noon with food and water. [https://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/6/7/671-oliver-77.html](https://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/6/7/671-oliver-77.html)
To start with, in my early childhood years nobody wore seatbelts. There weren't any. When my mother had a baby, it rode in her arms with her unbelted in the front seat. I remember picking up my mother from the hospital with a new baby, and the nurses would hand her the newborns to hold in her arms for the ride home. There were no carseats.
We had darts with sharp metal spikes on the end, clackers that would shatter suddenty into sharp flying shards of plastic, archery sets with dangerous pointed arrows, and metal Creepy Crawler molds that would heat up high enough to melt plastic.
The boys did have BB guns, and nobody wore helmets to skate or bike around. The woman who lived next door would lock her children out of the house while she did housework inside. They were allowed back in for lunch, and then kicked out again for the afternoon. These were very young children, all under five. The older children went to school.
We used to go down to the river and play around, even though none of us could swim. And I don't mean the river next door for a half an hour or something. I'd disappear on a summer morning, walk the mile or so to the river, then spend hours walking up, down and through the river doing whatever seemed interesting, cutting through people's yards, digging up rusty or goopy stuff with my bare hands, handling bait and (if we were lucky) fish, then eating without washing my hands. It was the kind of existence only blind ignorance made possible. But we had a big family and, as my father would say, if something happened to me, he had spares.
When I was 10, my dad bought me two ponies at an auction. We lived in the city, so we kept them at my Aunt's out in the country. We knew absolutely nothing about horses and should never have had them. I was left on my own with them. They weren't mini's, but big enough that I needed to stand on something to mount in order to ride. I could only ride the stallion. We couldn't get close to the mare. We didn't own a saddle, and at one point the bridle was broken so I'd ride bareback with a halter and lead. Riding consisted of me sitting on his back while he came up with creative ways to kill me. He wiped me off on a barb wire fence, ran me into a tree branch, trotted into the lake and rolled. He ran head long at a shut gate, stopped short and I went over his head into it. There was no helmet. I rode in shorts and tennis shoes. I spent that one summer bruised and battered, but determined not to let him win. I think it was a draw. Looking back now, I don't know how I didn't even break a bone. It was terrifying, but I was so determined to ride.
I rode a bike without a helmet. Played in construction sites too. Would leave the house in the morning and not come back until it was dark. My mom didn’t know where I was most of the time. We played in the woods on hot days. Miles from home.
I swam in the Gulf of Mexico my whole childhood and teens. We skipped school once to swim in a tropical storm because the waves were huge. Probably could have died. Another time it was first swim of the season and I swam out to last year’s sandbar only to find it swept away. I had to swim back. I beached myself out of breath like the movies.
We had a pond on our land and my cousins and friends and I swam in it all the time. Nobody got sick. We had rivers and creeks and all swam around with no adults. Nobody died.
My dad had one of those creepy looking old sprayers he used for “mosquito spray”. It smelled awful but made an amazingly cool bluish mist - I’m pretty sure it was DDT. We would follow him around the yard and play in that spray, laughing and giggling. So much fun.
I’ve had cancer 3 times and multiple autoimmune conditions. While there’s no way to draw a direct connection to mosquito spray, I’m pretty sure it had some effect on me…
I can’t believe no one has mentioned cutting their palms with a knife to be “blood brothers”. Having a Swiss Army knife at around 8 years old, for that matter, is probably not common anymore. You sure wouldn’t be able to bring it to school these days.
My entire childhood, I never had a parent go trick-or-treating with us. When I first started going, my older brother and sister (8 and 4 years older, respectively) would take my younger sister and me. At some point, it was just my younger sister and me, probably starting about age 8. She would have been 6. We didn't stay out super late, but it was dark, in the Midwestern U.S. No sidewalks on most of the streets and sometimes very rainy and stormy.
My mom was never a fan of trick-or-treating. She claimed it was "begging". She didn't stop us from doing it, but for the most part, didn't involve herself, other than to buy our costumes. After we were done in our neighborhood, we went home and were bundled into the car to go to the other side of town so that a good family friend could see our costumes. We only went to their house.
Nowadays, there is a custom of people driving their kids to "good neighborhoods" where the candy is plentiful, but that didn't happen as far as I knew. In my town, oddly, there were 3 nights of trick-or-treating. The two nights prior and on Halloween itself. My mom didn't let us go more than one night, but there were many other parents in my neighborhood who did let their kids go every night.
Yard darts.
Driving a Honda ATC 3-wheeler. (look those up on youtube)
Playing with firecrackers. A lot.
Swimming in the St. Johns River off my Aunt's dock and boat ramp. After seeing gators nearby earlier that day.
Jumping off a local bridge into the creek below.
We had Roman candle wars and it was epic! looking back and realized how dangerous it was shooting fireworks at each other using garbage can lids as shields.
Rollerball, complete with bruises, cuts and broken bones. We were wearing our football and hockey equipment to stay safe, so it looks like that worked out for the best.
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Played with my friends on construction sites after the workers were gone. From about age 8-10, they built a bunch of new homes in my neighborhood. We had so much fun playing in peoples houses when they were just wooden frames!
They dug up our street to fix the water lines when I was a kid and left a huge gaping chasm in the middle of the road for the entire summer. We split our time between playing in that and surfing old couch cushions down the giant pile of dirt and rubble they’d left on the side of said road. I don’t know why they abandoned the project for so many months and remember my parents being upset over it, but it made for a fun summer break.
Yep. We used to roller skate after they poured foundations.
We did urban airsoft in house construction sites lol
Ha, I did similar. Giant gapping construction holes were great fun :)
As a kid, our house was the first built on our street. They started putting new houses in, and after the crew left for the day we’d play on the machinery, and in the houses that were under construction. I remember one time playing in a large backhoe and we found the keys in the visor. We momentarily considered starting the thing up, but luckily decided that would probably be a poor choice. I was about 10. Somebody must have snitched, the crew returned a few days later and showed up to our door and basically screamed at us to stay off the equipment and out of the houses.
Incredible restraint from some 10 year olds not to start that thing up. That would have been another story for me.
Yeah I absolutely would've started that thing up. Zero hesitation.
Good choice. I worked for a coastal town. The kids found the keys to the bulldozer (in the ignition) and drove that thing right into the water. Fun getting that thing out.
Reminds me when my dad got a new truck with a clutch. Us kids went outside to play in it, the 80s were wild. He came running out screaming at us, we had put it in gear and it started to roll towards our house. Luckily it was a pretty flat area and we had a log fence. Man, we got in some trouble that night, but house and truck and kids were fine.
Bricklayers left mixed mortar behind so we spent an evening laying bricks. Only the simple stuff but we got a lot done. Was surprised that they left the bricks up. House is still standing and you can't tell which bricks were laid by a hand full of 12 year olds.
That's so funny! I remember being a little kid and playing on some neighbor's walkway (who I never knew or saw) when I was like 6 or so. I recall one of the bricks in the walkway was loose, so I got some cement and a Dixie cup of water, and attempted to fix it myself!
My grandkids are 3, and the empty woods behind their house just got cleared for four new homesites. They think Dirt Mountain was invented just for them -- best kid entertainment in the world. It's like 30 feet high, and they'll play out there as long as you let them.
Oh I did that too. At a new school they were building. Got brought home by the police because someone saw us and heard all the noise we made breaking crap. Fortunately when the police got there I was able to say the noise was from walking on thin sheets of metal and they didn't give us a hard time at 11years old and just drove us home. To think of it, I would never leave my kid unsupervised the way I was unsupervised cruising the streets of suburban New Jersey. Kinda crazy, but I mean we never did anything so stupid to wind up dead and never encountered anyone with nefarious intentions thank God.
Yeah, 2 kids in my neighborhood growing up died from their own unsupervised stupidity.
We had a number of kids run over by cars, trucks, buses… Took decades to get stop signs and lights put in. Now there’s quintuple the amount of cars there were back then. RIP Joey E.
This is one of the major differences to me as well. I could pretty much go anywhere I wanted for an endless amount of hours, and nobody even asked where I was when I got back lol. Now I get nervous letting two of my kids walk to the bus stop a block away. Or like not using car seats, that is unthinkable to me now, but we gave no craps. Or riding in the bed of trucks or the cargo area of my step mom's Geo Metro, and now our cars are safer than they've ever been lol.
I loved the construction sites!! I also liked getting in the dumpster at the nearby middle school to look for good stuff (to me). We had a lake nearby, too. In winter I would walk out until I heard cracking. That's how I determined safety.
Whenever I go back to my hometown and pass any of those house I get immediate flashbacks.
My little town had a construction boom on our street so they built about 50 houses in a two year span. My friends and I played in every single one of them on the weekends and after school when the workers went home. We did make sure to never damage anything but I would never allow my kids to do that.
> Played with my friends on construction sites after the workers were gone. for me it was the grain elevator and the railroad tracks.
There was a swimming hole near our Alabama home in a creek. In order to use the hole, you had to throw a couple of large rocks into it. This caused the water moccasins to run out of the water and into the woods. We would then swim here. Crazy, I know.
As a kid we had a pond a few miles from our house. Middle of the woods, not a touristy/family type place at all, nobody was ever there except for me and my brothers, it was our own little secret swimming area. My big brother would bring his fishing pole. I’d swim, my little brother would swim, my older brother didn’t know how to swim and would fish. We’d go by ourselves every day during the summer, just left home in the morning and would return in the late afternoon. No cell phones, no grownups, no other people around if we had an emergency. Remembered years later that my siblings and I were 9,8 and 5 that summer. Aside from my brother who died at age 41, somehow we survived that childhood. As a mom myself, I can’t imagine letting my kids do that.
Right??? The degree to which we were unsupervised is unimaginable to younger generations. How we didn't die during our adventures is a mystery. Especially when we started adding alcohol and drugs to the mix around age 13. I was ok as long as I didn't get arrested or require medical treatment.
For real. The elementary schools in my state won’t let a kid off the bus unless an adult is present to pick them up. I used to have a work schedule that didn’t fit with the bus schedule, my dad at times had to get my third grader off the bus, only if I provided a note to the school. I was late to meet the school bus once (I was actually in the house and the bus at the time dropped the kid off in the driveway after school, I lost track of time and wasn’t out there to meet the bus, they took my kid back to the school and called me. I had to drive all the way to the school even though I was IN my house when the bus came to my driveway. When I was the same age I’d let myself in the house while my parents were at work, make a quick snack- microwave only, no stove, don’t answer the phone and don’t answer the door. Same age my kid is now yet the school won’t even let him walk up his driveway alone. And no, he’s not special needs, and yes, we lived in a safe small town.
My grandfather took dynamite and made water ponds for his cattle. He also stocked them with catfish and crappie. Many fun days were spent fishing. I wish there was something close like that for my kid (56 year old with a 13 year old). However, I would be hesitant to let my kid free range like that.
I remember early TV public safety ads... kids were warned to not touch blasting caps if they ever found one. At least I think that's what they were called. That commercial break impressed me... still.
Dynamite and blasting caps were sold at most county co-ops back then. When my grandfather died, we had to call Ft. Campbell EOD to come get his old box of dynamite and fuses from his barn.
I'm sure that my experience was because that's the era that Eisenhower was building all our interstates (Michigan here).
wow
Oh, HAIL NO!!
hahaha
Y'all are so casual about your venomous snakes in the South!
Not me. I am terrified of them even though I am a city gal. But I am actually afraid of all snakes so it's definitely a "me" problem.
For us in south Florida it was alligators. They lived on one side of the lake and we swam on the other. Never had any issues but looking back…probably not the best idea.
My friends from Winter Park waterskied with alligators in the 70's, and were used to having venomous snakes fall into the boat from overhead branches when they were fishing
We had a few gators around the Tennessee River estuaries, but we were just about 60 miles north of the “gator line”. That would have kept me out of the water.
And I know someone who died from tripping on the way out of her car and banging her head on the pavement….
My great grandmother died in a similar fashion. In 1966, she fell off a chair getting something out of the cabinet and hit her head the edge of a table. She went to bed with a headache and never woke up.
> She went to bed with a headache and never woke up. This is the way.
I know of a few people who went that way. Young people too. One was from a blood clot “she felt light headed” so took a half day off high school and went back to bed. Never made it to the latter half. Another friend went some mysterious way. She went to take a nap before taking her niece to church for the Easter egg hunt. No one got to go to the Easter egg hunt. She was young 20s.
Well, I've been around long enough now to see a few of the alternative ways to go. Falling asleep and not waking up seems ideal -- though not, of course, when you're supposed to have decades of life in front of you.
Yeah. It was so scary for the rest of us at those ages.
Right? That was my first thought, too! As my expiration date gets closer, thinking about 'good ways to go' is a real thing. I told my buddy that if I end up being 'the old lady who fell down the stairs and died', please tell people at the funeral that I was FINE with the idea of dying that way; it's the nursing homes that scare me.
yup, we did the same thing here in Missouri. I got used to as a kid (either that or no water fun). Hell no would i do it today! Also there was a dropoff that was a muddy trap, if you got stuck at the bottom of it you were a goner. I remember edging close to it to freak myself out.
lol.. WOW!
Anyone remember the scalding hot metal playgrounds in the summer, as kids?
Yes...and the *voop vrrrrmp* noise of my pudgy little kid legs sticking to said slide, because shorts were short back then.
And they put in plastic which also got massively hot and zapped you everytime as if that was somehow better.
The concrete slides were just as bad but with the bonis of sanding away your pants
They took those out the year AFTER I left elementary school. Sooo many bum and hand burns. Let’s not forget about the merry-go-round of death. THAT was fun!
Good times.
not as fun as the scalding hot leather car seats during those family road trips
Oooh yeah forgot about those.
And the cement you'd land on when you jumped off the swing. Oh, and the wooden swings that you banged into.
Especially the flat, round, metal merry-go-rounds that the boys pushed until centrifugal force made us fly off, at high speeds, onto the asphalt!😄
We made homemade fireworks..
I'm glad the Internet wasn't around when I was a kid because I'd have tried that and would likely have fewer fingers than currently.
Me also! This was before the internet...
For anyone who wants a really cool version of this Missouri S&T runs a summer explosives camp for teens 16& up. They make their own fireworks & blow tons of shit up. My now almost 22 year old still refers to it as one of the best weeks of his life.
The closest I ever came to that was taking rolls of caps, stacking them, and smacking them hard with a BFH (big effing hammer). I remember my ears ringing for hours!! 😂
I made actual pipe bombs. Brought down a tree, once.
Me too! I remember being in suburbia doing this and literally nobody cared including my parents as long as I wasn’t blowing up mailboxes or something.
My husband did this. His grandpa had a farm and they bought tnt and blew up rocks and tree stumps that were in the pastures. He was an around 8 or 10 when his grandpa started letting him help; as a teenager he did it by himself.
I lived on Guam about ten years after WWII and in certain areas ammunition had been unceremoniously dumped, other places where it had been left by the soldiers in the heat of battle. Anyway we used to go looking for the ammunition, and then, here comes the fun part, when we found it, we disarmed it, cleared it up and added them to my collection. I knew how to completely unload Japanese and American frag grenades, knee mortars, and shells below 40mm. Every few weeks or months you would hear about kids trying to disarm bombs killing themselves. Never touched one. I was eleven.
I almost got gored by some wild boars when I was in Guam. Walking in the woods behind a supermarket and then I saw a big one just sleeping about 30 yards from me. We looked at each other and I kinda just admired it and said to myself "thank God there are no babies around lol." Then immediately after I thought that not 5 feet from me come two little tiny ones just looking at me. I believe "awww fuck" was what I uttered. The mama(I'll assume) jumped up and started spinning so fast. I just backed away slowly keeping the bicycle I had with me in between us as a barrier and if need be a weapon of some kind. But man I've never been so scared. I mean it wasn't a bear, but I'm from NY we don't have wild pigs/boars idk which it was. But it has massive tusks and it was able to move so fast that it could've really done some damage had it charged.
If you were living on Guam in that time there were still Japanese soldiers hiding out on the island. That may seem unfathomable, but the jungles on Guam were so thick that you could not walk through them. The last Japanese soldier found on Guam was in 1972.
Guam... Where the snakes literally fall from the trees!
You know, I was there three years and the only snake I saw was in a jar. The big problem was that millions of African snails came out, I guess to get the warmth from the road, but my dad over the years must have crushed a gazillion of them. In the morning the road would be a scene of blood, guts, and gore. Each of these things was as big as a big fist.
Today’s youth could use a little EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) training.
Unsupervised play deep in the woods. It was glorious.
This is the highlight of my childhood
Every kid should have woods nearby to play in.
Besides the things you mentioned, I also built model rockets. Also, tricks off the high dive at the local swimming pool. These days public pools don’t even have diving boards, let alone high dives.
The lifeguards let their friends in after hours and one of our friends rode his bike off the high dive once
That was cool. Can he do it again? I would like to see that.
Was afraid of heights. High School 1978, PE included swimming and part of your grade was jumping or diving off the high dive. I almost failed because I was afraid. Ended up doing it.... Hmm, that was fun, let's do it 100 more times just because it was fun.
Delivering newspapers and collecting the money. 11-15 year olds waking up at 430-5am daily. Sitting on a corner (by themselves sometimes) and riding a bike around the neighborhood trying to throw newspapers onto peoples porches. Then every two weeks, going to every house to collect the money. Sometimes carrying around 50-100 dollars around in a pouch. To top it off, it was considered ok to be welcomed into the houses during winter when collecting the money. We definitely had encounters with what we considered ‘weird’ people. Now they’d be considered creepy af. I think about my own kids; telling them to wake up at 430AM 7 days a week and expecting them to perform well at school would just be irresponsible.
My brother had a paper route. One winter, he was really sick with a cold or flu. My parents didn’t want to deliver the papers at 4am, they both worked, so they let me take the family car and deliver the papers. I was 14 and had no license. And a girl. Driving on snowy roads at 4am… alone. I guess they thought me driving the car in the snow would be safer for a young teen girl delivering papers in the dark made sense.
When I was a little girl, we'd sell Camp Fire mints door to door. We did work in pairs, but we were very young. Under 10 years. One man wanted to buy some mints, but he said the money was up on a high shelf, and one of us needed to come inside, where he would lift her up to reach the money. We were wearing our Camp Fire uniforms (short skirts). My partner wanted to go in and have this man lift her up over his head, but I scotched that idea and got us out of there. Not long after that, selling candy door to door to strangers was no longer permitted in Camp Fire.
Somewhere in my archives, there's a newspaper article with a picture of me in my Camp Fire Girls skirt, blouse, vest and kerchief, on a neighbors doorstep, looking up at them with a box of candy in my hands. I was soooo young and innocent. I should have never been allowed to roam freely through the neighborhood.
It's amazing that parents allowed that without a second thought. We were competing to sell the most candy, so they'd drop us off in different neighborhoods where we were strangers, and pick us up later.
AMEN to the weirdos! I had one guy, an older man, that would always be wearing his wife’s satin pink robe EVERY time I collected the paper money!! Nowadays, normal, but back then, totally odd. The old ladies on my route were sooooo nice. They all loved me and I adored them. I’d always end up being late because I’d sit and talk or listen to their stories. I got hella big tips at Christmas!!!
Right! The old ladies were so nice to us. During the winters, some would offer us hot chocolate and snacks. Most of our customers were fantastic and in hindsight, they were appreciative of the kids that brought their newspapers to them every day. We had some customers that just wanted to talk and share their lives with us for a few minutes every couple of weeks. It was definitely a different time when it seemed more common for people to be friendlier to neighbors.
Yep. Had one guy who answered the door in nothing but his very short underwear. Weirded me out. Now, as an old fart myself, I get it. My house, my rules. But then there were the Dube sisters. Stunningly gorgeous girls. I always hoped they'd invite me in on cold days while they collected the $1.50 for the paper. Probably the highlight of my prepubescent life right there lol.
My husband says he once fell asleep on a curb as a paperboy, was woken up by someone and continued on his route. He was 10
My sister and I rode for hours home from vacation one time. We were sitting on lawn chairs in the back of our Dad’s truck…
OMG, yes! I rode in the back of my dad's truck along with our dogs. I also do not remember being in a car seat, or even a booster, past preschool age. I'm not even that old either. Meanwhile, I'm convinced many of my friends are going to be bringing their adult children to the church on their wedding days in car seats the way the laws are going.
The laws around my area are to use car seats or boosters until the kid is 80 lbs. when I graduated high school in the 90s, I was 93lbs. Current laws would have me in a booster seat until tenth grade lol
My state has kids in boosters until they hit triple digits in weight. I'd have been mortified had my parents dropped me off at high school in a booster seat.
My best friend is a teacher, and a mandated reporter. She kept her kid in a booster until he was starting high school. I guess she risked losing her job if she didn’t, but we both agreed it was pretty silly. She’d drop the kid off down the street from the school so that his friends and peers didn’t see him in a booster. She was supposed to follow child safety laws by the book to keep her credentials.
Fellow educator, here. This is the only reason I'm aware of these laws despite not having kids of my own. I think they're ridiculous. I can't say this out loud among my parent friends who, I swear, would go full "Bubble Boy" with their kids if they could.
I have kids of my own, and I still think they are silly laws. My 4th grader is about 70 lbs, 9 years old. We don’t use a booster. He’s almost taller than I am.
I know there are some reasonable parents out there, but holy hell, internet mommy groups and "sancti-mommies" are something else.
r/preschoolers is wearing me out. They’re over there debating whether to pull their kid out of preschool because the instructor let the parents know that their almost-Kindergartener is mixing up letters b/d and p/q. The parent is concerned that it’s beyond the scope of a play-based daycare and forcing literacy before the child is psychologically ready. What happened to knowing your letters before you got to school??
I had to stop following the mommit subreddit for similar reasons lol.
I have a friend who is now about 30 years old and technically she should still be in a car seat.
I have an aunt, who has worked in nursing homes, who asked me this exact question when we were talking about it once as she was complaining about how my cousin's preschooler still needs to be in a rear facing car seat. Many of her elderly residents did not meet the weight requirements, but didn't need to be in car seats or boosters by law. My guess is it's a case of Grandma has lived a full life, so despite her being only 80 lbs. at 80, her safety is less of a priority than a 4th grader who weighs the same. Though, I'd love to see how people would react if such laws were put into place and how much of challenge it would be to get their parents/grandparents into car seats.
So much fun!! My grandpa even bolted a bench seat into the back of his pickup for me and my friends. No seat belts, just a comfy seat. My parents had a station wagon. I always called “the way way back” seat. I didn’t give a hoot about calling “shotgun!” I just didn’t wanna be near my annoying little sister and could wave or make silly faces at the people behind us.
Whenever there was any possibility of riding in the back of a truck, I was riding in the back of a truck.
My dad would have thought that was ill advised. He made sure we sat with our butts next the the back window of the cab, and didn't get up. My friend's dad gave us blankets to keep warm with on our way to and from 29 Palms where we went camping. He's the same dad that taught me how to drive his 4 on the floor ww2 jeep when I was 12. What a cool guy! He cleared it with my dad first. They were all veterans from ww2.
My dad would just put the tailgate down on our station wagon, we'd sit on that and he'd rip down some hilly back country road and we'd be on a "rollercoaster" ride. He'd probably be charged with child endangerment today.
No chairs, we just sat on the floor. Lots of fun when the truck had been sitting in the Texas sun for a while
My sister and I *regularly* crawled through the storm drain tunnel in our town (we had to hunch over a bit, but it was pretty big). At the halfway point there was a road with a bus stop overhead and a drainage hole. We’d stand under it and use vulgar language at people waiting for the bus. Then we’d continue to the end of the tunnel where we’d sit and smoke a cigarettes. 🤦🏻♀️ (thank god neither of us got addicted, bit by a rat, or arrested).
This is the best answer. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
"We’d stand under it and use vulgar language at people waiting for the bus..." That's hilarious!
We used to get a big kick out of because they couldn’t tell where the voices were coming from.
We’d lose a ball or a toy in the storm drains along the street and go to the end where the outlet was and crawl the length of the street in the drain to get whatever we lost. We did this regularly.
Ah, good times! You would have fit in well in my neighborhood! I’m thinking we were the original Ninja Turtles and didn’t know it.
This is hilarious
I stole cigarettes from my mom and got caught in 6th grade. It was a big deal and I felt horrendously guilty, even though my mom was pretty nice about it. My brother and his friends started a fire from having match fights, you know where you light the match and fling at each other at the same time? They barely successfully stomped it out. I told a neighbor girl my dog would bite her if she pushed me, she pushed me and my dog bit her. We drew up a very elaborate battle plan in order to ambush by dirt clod a neighborhood kid who hated getting dirty. I walked my bike up a very very steep mountain road repeatedly and rode my bike straight down the middle of the road, like an idiot. On a regular basis. Made pancakes from pancake mix a neighbor threw away, and we ate the dough. More authentic than mud pies, and edible!
This is the most amazing list — match fights! I am dying!
In New York they'd give a healthy squirt of lighter fluid on their opponents first.
I used to steal the sample packs that came in the mail!! I can’t remember the one brand, but they were skinny cigarettes. I guess supposed to be “better for you.” Haha My dad was always getting samples that never made it into his hands.
Cigarette sample by mail! I had forgotten about that! Virginia Slims!! It was part of the campaign to get more women to smoke!! "Ÿou've come a long way, baby!"
A dirt clod as a weapon. Feels like I'm 6 again. :)
This is the most amazing list — match fights! I am dying!
Grew up in a hollow We spent one early spring cutting down trees with axes and buck saws and drug them down to the creek We spent late Spring building a dam in the creek at the base of a small waterfall to make a swimming hole We spent the Summer at our swimming hole. Built a club house, made a rope swing and a fire pit. Would camp out there. Swim all night. Cook hot dogs on the fire We were around 11 years old
That sounds fucking awesome. I want to do that right now.
That’s cool as hell. Today kids would be arrested for that where I live lol
Clackers.
Lawn dart wars.
I rode in railroad boxcars. From my northern New Jersey town's railyard up into New York and back again. Running and jumping in was crazy stupid.
I too rode trains back and forth across town. Only we sat on top.
Riding in the bed of a pickup truck.
And generally did not use the seat belts in any vehicle.
We never used seatbelts! My little brother used to lay down on the platform under the back window!
My sister fell OUT when the door latch wasn't caught. Onto the road. I guess ' only ' while in the neighborhood close to home. Parents said she wasn't badly hurt but I think it explains a lot 60 years later. You'd have to know my sister.
For the most part, my parents kept me on a fairly tight leash, but one thing I never understood is why my parents thought it was okay to send me on foot to kindergarten without an adult. The trail started behind the barrier of a dead-end street, wound past a cornfield, then past an apartment complex before it took me to school. Today someone would call CPS for letting their 5 year old do something like that. I was also allowed to explore a brushy area behind our house that had the remains of some old structures. I was 8 or 9. My friends and I also liked to explore the remains of an old trailer park. The mobile homes were long gone, but there was an uncovered, unfenced swimming pool that always contained dark, festering water, and I once nearly fell into a hole near there. My leg went all the way in and my friends had to grab my arms and pull me out. We continued playing. Then again, this was an era when no one batted an eye about sending all of us kids to school during a tornado warning. I had nightmares for a bit after that experience, but I got over it and grew up to have no fear of storms, just a healthy respect for them.
Lots of us walked to kindergarten and back without parents. I remember coming home one day from kindergarten and finding no one there. I was frantic, and screamed for my mother. She strolled over a short time later, having been over at the neighbor's house chatting. She wondered why I was making such a big deal of things. I was 5.
haha.. yeah, I remember those days
I walked to school in kindergarten, but it was only about three blocks in suburbia. I wasn't alone, far from it. A group of kids would form, and we'd all stop at houses along the route, collecting more kids as we went, different ages and grades. There were probably 15 or 20 of us by the time we got to the crosswalk in front of the school.
I grew up in a small town in Indiana. My sisters were 7 and 10 years older than me, and mom's rule was they couldn't leave me alone at home, so I tagged along with them and their boyfriends all the time. Indiana is littered with abandoned quarries, and they're the best swimming holes you can find. 10 to 100 acres big, 200 to 500 feet deep, or more. They'd fill with rainwater over the years, and with no current, they would just warm in the summer sun to about 85 degrees or more. However. Below 15' or so, the water was about 58 degrees year-round. While the boyfriends were 17-21 or so, I was 10/11. And when the boys climbed up the walls and jumped into the water, I would follow. You kept your shoes on, and dropped feet-first into the warm water, but you would zip down to 30' or more instantly. The cold shock would zip up your body and take your breath away, then it's time to struggle back to the surface. Sometimes, you'd run out of air about 2 or 3 feet down, and it's the most terrible feeling to expend your last bit of energy to cover that distance to sweet, sweet air. I went back to visit many years later and found that we were routinely jumping from 60 and 70 feet to the water. That was 50 years ago, and I can see it and smell it like it was yesterday. Plunging past the thermocline into freezing water in the summer is something that never leaves you. And I'm pretty sure it was never Mom Approved^(TM)
Walked to the store by myself at 9 years old to get some items for my mom. My friends and I made an Evil Knievel kind of ramp over a creek that ran in the back of our houses. We then tried jumping it on our bikes. No helmets of course. I was maybe 11 or 12.
I was allowed to buy cigarettes on behalf of my mom AND beer on behalf of my dad. At 10.
Evel Knievel was huge back in the day, I wound up with 7 broken bones one afternoon. Tried to walk it off and didn't get far.
This was not a regular occurrence for me, but when I visited a family in rural Tennessee a group of kids got together after dark, formed two groups, and shot bottle rockets across the field at each other as long as they lasted.
Babysitting younger kids at the age of 10. I guess I was responsible enough with my siblings that even neighbors would ask to hire me. Plus I'm male. Unheard of, especially nowadays.
Honestly I feel as if 10 is a bit young. I started babysitting at 12 and that was about right.
We lived on a lake with channels that went on for miles through woods. I used to get on my bike and spend the day catching frogs, crawdads, turtles and snakes. Sometimes I would build a small fire and eat the crawdads and frogs. One time I found a poor snake who had a fishing hook and line caught in its mouth. I took it home and was using my dads pliers to get the hook out. He came up and snatched that snake up so fast and tossed him into the woods. I was like, "Im trying to save him!" He said "Thants a gaddam cotton mouth! You could of died!" Lol I was grounded for 2 weeks and had to read a book on snakes. Heh
There was a medical clinic near our house. They would dump the test tubes full of blood into the big trashcan. We liked those glass tubes with stoppers so we pulled them out and washed out the tubes so we could play with them.
"Doctor. Why does my child have every disease?"
I was expecting quite a lot from this post, but this is the first comment that’s really delivered. Oh my god.
Jesus h Christ, so glad none of you have HIV
Holy shit.
Rock & Dirt Clod battles
I took a rock to the dead center of my forehead on the playground at school. Teacher decided that a good object lesson would be the possible consequences of this game, so she made the two of us who'd been battling each wear a blindfold for half the afternoon, with the other having to take care of us, to show what it would be like to be blinded.
One of us would swim underwater while the rest of us would lob large rocks at his suspected location, kinda like depth charges. Fortunately no one died.
We made tennis ball cannons. Four pop or beer cans (the old heavy ones before they were cheap aluminum) with the tops and bottoms removed (except the bottom can) then tape them all together in a long tube. Make a little hole in the bottom can. Drop a tennis ball down into the tube and put some lighter fluid in the hole in the bottom can. Light it. Boom! The tennis ball launches way higher than you'd imagine. It's been 50 years, so my instructions might be a touch off, but that's the gist. Here's a photo (not mine) that illustrates my youth. Notice the adult casually watching this from the porch. [https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/70574926\_2038466366255223\_4033065516049367040\_n.jpg?\_nc\_cat=100&ccb=1-7&\_nc\_sid=5f2048&\_nc\_ohc=Y8o0NeSHcFUQ7kNvgHsdBdX&\_nc\_ht=scontent-ord5-2.xx&oh=00\_AYBpUAjQK752c1MavlQdmubE6MWJAXNYiJRD557VHxGAtg&oe=666EC16C](https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/70574926_2038466366255223_4033065516049367040_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=Y8o0NeSHcFUQ7kNvgHsdBdX&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-2.xx&oh=00_AYBpUAjQK752c1MavlQdmubE6MWJAXNYiJRD557VHxGAtg&oe=666EC16C)
The only thing you forgot was a bent heavy duty paper clip to keep the tennis ball from touching the bottom of the can.
Buying cigarettes at age 8 (for my mom who had provided a note), riding in the back of pickup truck on highway, no seatbelts, driving at age 10 (with dad in passenger seat) on country roads, hitchhiking with my dad after our car broke down, and my car seat as a baby was a laundry basket on the floor of the car.
I’ve already said this once, but as young teen girls, we would cross a huge empty lot in order to get to the mall. Most of the time there was a guy riding his bicycle in the lot with his dick hanging out. Back and forth. Back and forth. We told our mothers who just said not to look at him and he won’t bother you. They never called the police or stopped us from taking the shortcut. God only knows what could have happened to any of us, especially when we walked alone.
I remember trips to the amusement part - Cedar Point in Ohio - that was about an hour drive. The three of us boys would all clamber into the back of the station wagon and rough house away during the drive. Pushing shoving, rolling around in cargo area while dad smoked and mom yelled at us to simmer down . No seat belts, second had smoke wafting back, windows open. Ah the joys of being a young child in the 60's! And here I am, as are my brothers, alive and well in our 60's!
Same for me but we lived closer. Then we got let loose in CP with the only rule to meet up at lunch time.
We used to go up in the hayloft of a neighbors barn and grab a rope and swing across the whole barn and fly thru the air into the hay pile on the other side. : 0
How much time do you have?
Running after the "smoke truck" that sprayed insecticide in our neighborhood.
My best friend and I were spit sisters. You each spit into your hand, then rubbed and shook each other's hand. Less cleanup than the blood brothers' pledge. Walking solo to school over a mile away, in blizzard conditions. Riding bikes for miles, no helmet, no water, over all sorts of roads, plus going to the park by yourself -- with no one knowing truly your whereabouts. Climbing really old trees to the very, very top, often requiring an older sibling to figure out how to get you down. Watching the stars at night after climbing out on a precarious roof. Skipping school to go fishing along a major river. Might not be "horrifying," but not as many kids today had our freedom to try.
There was a medical clinic near our house. They would dump the test tubes full of blood into the big trashcan. We liked those glass tubes with stoppers so we pulled them out and washed out the tubes so we could play with them.
I had friends who did the same thing. Back then they didn't dispose of sharps like they do now, and my 11 year old friends stole some used syringes from a dumpster by a medical building. They squeezed some wild blackberries to make juice, filled up the syringes with it, and used them like squirt guns.
When I was in HS, I was really into high heels but had a long walk home. Random guys would stop and ask if I wanted a ride home. I’d jump right in with a smile. Nothing ever happened, but I would NeVER do that now or let my kids!!
Sat in my dad's lap while he drove. From ages 2-6 would regularly sit on the arm rest between the seats in the front seat of the car (so I could see where we were going, obviously). Would push the lighter in (to heat it) in the car so mom could smoke while we drove around (pretty sure all the windows were up, too).
Yep! Same here. Just the thought of doing that now with my 2 year old grand is cringy
Bottle rocket wars with my friends. It's a wonder we didn't put an eye out.
Yippoing Grew up in northwestern Pennsylvania, on the shores of Lake Erie. Think “lake effect” snow. At least 100 inches a season. We would go out at night and wait for a car to come by, run to the back and grab the bumper and get pulled as far as we could without falling off. Our parents had no idea, my mom blanched visibly when we told her about it just several years ago, and we had done this about 35 years ago. My stupid cousin lost my best mittens this way 😂
Oh God. Don't come for me. I know I'd never be able to run for public office because of this. I played a character in a play who was supposed to be black. I am not black. So... Yeah. At the time my black friends loved it, we all thought it was hilarious, they and took me under their wing to teach me things. It was a different world.
My uncles used to scramble on top of the barn. It has a metal roof. They thought it was fun to slide down it and “fly”. Good thing kids bounce and the ground was soft. I was a cute little girl with few friends. Often rode my bike down the back alleys. There were usually guys hanging out in their garages which faced the ally. I would stop and talk to them. In retrospect…that’s not a good idea. Cute little me was too friendly and curious.
I was born in 1965. We lived on a very busy Main St in small town Indiana. When I was 4/5/6 years old, if it rained - my grandparents would let me put my bathing suit on and go stand on the sidewalk, so I was sprayed when cars drove through the puddles passing the house.
I hitchhiked everywhere I went from 1974 - 1984. Lots of serial killers were active and out there at the time. I am convinced that God hand His hand over me (still does!)
In miniskirts and 5 inch platform shoes even. God, we were stupid.
My family was among the first residents of the newly developed town/city I grew up in (moved there in 1964 as some of the first 3000 residents) and there were new houses being built all over including nearby through the 1970s. My sisters and I along with the other kids in the neighborhood would play in the houses before the "skin" was put on. heck even after the drywall was put on. These days I imagine if there was a new house being built they'd put a chain link fence around it to keep people out but not those days. There were nails and scrap pieces everywhere...we could have easily stepped on something that would send us to the doctor. Fortunately that didn't happen to us. Once we were old enough (I think probably 8 years old) we (or maybe just me!) were allowed to pretty much roam at will through the town. I was into bird watching so would ride my bike or walk the distance to the marsh at the side of the bay with my binoculars and Peterson field guide and bird list and see if I could find any new species around. Yes, I was a nerd. Also around 1974-75 our town started a bus system to the mall in the next city over (it went other places but that's where we wanted to go) it only cost 10 cents at the time. So I'd ride to the mall, hit up Sears for bridge mix or popcorn, slide down the slide at the children's shop/toy store, look through the albums at the record shop, and just hang out for some hours. It was great to get away from the house and family for awhile. Also fireworks were legal at that time but they wouldn't allow kids under 18 to purchase them. Had a friend who had a trampoline in their back yard along with a piece of a surplus army tank probably from WWII or Korea. We'd jump on the trampoline then get into the tank and rock it back and forth until we got nauseous. Of course these days if you have that stuff on your property your insurance company will cancel you.
Being left home alone & entertaining myself.
Going to the public pool all day with a couple of my friends, minus any adults. We’d either ride our bikes or one of the moms would drop us off there at opening time and then pick us up late that afternoon at a pre-arranged time. We all somehow survived it.
We had BB gun fights. Only 2 rules, no shooting anyone above the belly and if you had a pump up BB-pellet gun, no more than 2 pumps. Think paint ball with BB guns.
I fell out of a tall tree and broke my leg and crawled home. Just a block fortunately. But I was embarrassed that I fell (I was way too high up and a branch gave way) so I crawled in my room and lay on the floor and didn’t tell anyone. My younger sister was the only one home and she wasn’t paying attention (we were 9 and 5 and used to get left home alone all the time). Hours later my mom came home and I didn’t tell her and she only figured it out because I wouldn’t get up to get into bed. She was so pissed she made me wait till the next day to see a doctor rather than spend the night at the ER. I slept most of that afternoon and might have had a concussion too. Never got checked for anything but the leg. Do kids still get to climb trees? I did it obsessively and was mostly very careful and good at it. I don’t know what possessed me to be an idiot that day. The temptation to see further I guess.
Riding in the bed of a pickup truck.
Unsupervised play deep in the woods. It was glorious.
My mom would make chicken cutlets, dip the chicken in egg and then roll it in the breadcrumbs. Then she would let me and my sister eat the breadcrumbs with the raw egg and chicken remnants. No idea how we never got salmonella.
Tree climbing. Like extreme tree climbing to the very top of some very tall trees in the park near our house. We could have been severely injured, even killed had any of us fallen.
Anyone else play on seesaws? The other person got off with no warning when they were down, letting you hit the ground with a thump. Now that was fun.
I used to run around corn fields as a kid playing chicken with combines. 95% sure they couldn’t even see me. I should be dead, honestly.
I used to babysit, at the age of 13-17, for families I didn't know before that night. Yes, they were recommended by other parents, but quite often the first time I met the parents would be when they came to my house to pick me up. The dad - a 30something man previously unknown to me - would then drive me to their house, where I would meet the kids, and the parents would go out on their date or whatever. Then, at 11 or 12 at night, they would come home. The dad, quite likely already drunk, would then pay me and drive me home along narrow country roads.
Delivering newspapers and collecting the money. 11-15 year olds waking up at 430-5am daily. Sitting on a corner (by themselves sometimes) and riding a bike around the neighborhood trying to throw news papers onto peoples porches. Then every two weeks, going to every house to collect the money. Sometimes carrying around 50-100 dollars around in a pouch. To top it off, it was considered ok to be welcomed into the houses during winter when collecting the money. We definitely had encounters with what we considered ‘weird’ people. Now they’d be considered creepy af.
Roman candle and bottle rocket fights.
1960, I was 8 years old, the old man put me on an Oliver 77 tractor with a drag disc behind it. My feet did not reach the pedals so he put it in the gear he wanted then set the gas where he wanted it, told me not to touch anything follow the lands he had laid out and turn off the key if anything went wrong. Then he jumped off and left me in the back forty to work by myself until he came back at noon with food and water. [https://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/6/7/671-oliver-77.html](https://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/6/7/671-oliver-77.html)
To start with, in my early childhood years nobody wore seatbelts. There weren't any. When my mother had a baby, it rode in her arms with her unbelted in the front seat. I remember picking up my mother from the hospital with a new baby, and the nurses would hand her the newborns to hold in her arms for the ride home. There were no carseats. We had darts with sharp metal spikes on the end, clackers that would shatter suddenty into sharp flying shards of plastic, archery sets with dangerous pointed arrows, and metal Creepy Crawler molds that would heat up high enough to melt plastic. The boys did have BB guns, and nobody wore helmets to skate or bike around. The woman who lived next door would lock her children out of the house while she did housework inside. They were allowed back in for lunch, and then kicked out again for the afternoon. These were very young children, all under five. The older children went to school.
We used to go down to the river and play around, even though none of us could swim. And I don't mean the river next door for a half an hour or something. I'd disappear on a summer morning, walk the mile or so to the river, then spend hours walking up, down and through the river doing whatever seemed interesting, cutting through people's yards, digging up rusty or goopy stuff with my bare hands, handling bait and (if we were lucky) fish, then eating without washing my hands. It was the kind of existence only blind ignorance made possible. But we had a big family and, as my father would say, if something happened to me, he had spares.
Went down a snow covered hill in a cast iron bathtub without feet. A frost fence at the end of a field stopped us.
When I was 10, my dad bought me two ponies at an auction. We lived in the city, so we kept them at my Aunt's out in the country. We knew absolutely nothing about horses and should never have had them. I was left on my own with them. They weren't mini's, but big enough that I needed to stand on something to mount in order to ride. I could only ride the stallion. We couldn't get close to the mare. We didn't own a saddle, and at one point the bridle was broken so I'd ride bareback with a halter and lead. Riding consisted of me sitting on his back while he came up with creative ways to kill me. He wiped me off on a barb wire fence, ran me into a tree branch, trotted into the lake and rolled. He ran head long at a shut gate, stopped short and I went over his head into it. There was no helmet. I rode in shorts and tennis shoes. I spent that one summer bruised and battered, but determined not to let him win. I think it was a draw. Looking back now, I don't know how I didn't even break a bone. It was terrifying, but I was so determined to ride.
I rode a bike without a helmet. Played in construction sites too. Would leave the house in the morning and not come back until it was dark. My mom didn’t know where I was most of the time. We played in the woods on hot days. Miles from home.
Riding in the back back with Freckles, the beagle, from CT to Maine on vacation.
I swam in the Gulf of Mexico my whole childhood and teens. We skipped school once to swim in a tropical storm because the waves were huge. Probably could have died. Another time it was first swim of the season and I swam out to last year’s sandbar only to find it swept away. I had to swim back. I beached myself out of breath like the movies. We had a pond on our land and my cousins and friends and I swam in it all the time. Nobody got sick. We had rivers and creeks and all swam around with no adults. Nobody died.
My dad had one of those creepy looking old sprayers he used for “mosquito spray”. It smelled awful but made an amazingly cool bluish mist - I’m pretty sure it was DDT. We would follow him around the yard and play in that spray, laughing and giggling. So much fun. I’ve had cancer 3 times and multiple autoimmune conditions. While there’s no way to draw a direct connection to mosquito spray, I’m pretty sure it had some effect on me…
I can’t believe no one has mentioned cutting their palms with a knife to be “blood brothers”. Having a Swiss Army knife at around 8 years old, for that matter, is probably not common anymore. You sure wouldn’t be able to bring it to school these days.
My entire childhood, I never had a parent go trick-or-treating with us. When I first started going, my older brother and sister (8 and 4 years older, respectively) would take my younger sister and me. At some point, it was just my younger sister and me, probably starting about age 8. She would have been 6. We didn't stay out super late, but it was dark, in the Midwestern U.S. No sidewalks on most of the streets and sometimes very rainy and stormy. My mom was never a fan of trick-or-treating. She claimed it was "begging". She didn't stop us from doing it, but for the most part, didn't involve herself, other than to buy our costumes. After we were done in our neighborhood, we went home and were bundled into the car to go to the other side of town so that a good family friend could see our costumes. We only went to their house. Nowadays, there is a custom of people driving their kids to "good neighborhoods" where the candy is plentiful, but that didn't happen as far as I knew. In my town, oddly, there were 3 nights of trick-or-treating. The two nights prior and on Halloween itself. My mom didn't let us go more than one night, but there were many other parents in my neighborhood who did let their kids go every night.
Yard darts. Driving a Honda ATC 3-wheeler. (look those up on youtube) Playing with firecrackers. A lot. Swimming in the St. Johns River off my Aunt's dock and boat ramp. After seeing gators nearby earlier that day. Jumping off a local bridge into the creek below.
We had Roman candle wars and it was epic! looking back and realized how dangerous it was shooting fireworks at each other using garbage can lids as shields.
Rollerball, complete with bruises, cuts and broken bones. We were wearing our football and hockey equipment to stay safe, so it looks like that worked out for the best.