How did we not know this was stupid?

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

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Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
When I think about the "wonderful" 1950s & 60s growing up, I wonder how nobody thought that a six year old kid couldn't walk a mile, to and from school, by himself (me)? And then later, in the 80s, and 90s, when kid's bike helmets became an issue, some thought helmets were just "PC" nonsense. The reason I brought this up was I saw a pic of 60s car ad that brought home the idea , "How did we not know this was stupid?"
I was wondering what else from our childhood was pretty stupid?
Can you really see driving 65 in this?
car.jpg
 

yep we all did it here too... one mile to school under 11, then 2 miles walk to school alone or with smaller siblings, without an adult .. on main roads.. summer and winter, rain or shine...when we 11 years old and over...

Same with the car there was no seatbelts in those days so we had to hold on for dear life being bounced around in the back luggage space ...
 

It has not been that long really since we had seat belts in cars. Even less since they made us wear them. When my father was 14 he went through the windshield of a Model A Ford when it hit a cow. The glass was not safety glass and he nearly bleed to death from the cuts. They gave him a transfusion at the hospital in the days when transfusions were not done very often. Looking back it was a dangerous world and still is in many ways.
 
chrislind2 said:
It has not been that long really since we had seat belts in cars. Even less since they made us wear them. When my father was 14 he went through the windshield of a Model A Ford when it hit a cow. The glass was not safety glass and he nearly bleed to death from the cuts. They gave him a transfusion at the hospital in the days when transfusions were not done very often. Looking back it was a dangerous world and still is in many ways.
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when I was around 21 ('76) the same thing happened to my sister when we were riding in a car driven by a friend. ( My sister in the front , me and friends in the back).. driver hit a tree head on and my sister went through the windscreen... she survived, but she was only 18, and to this day when she washes her hair and her scalp is soft she can still pick tiny shards of glass from her skull
 
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Yes, Walking 2 miles to and from school at 40 below (they didn't close the schools every time it snowed back then)
no gloves, no coat,
BAREFOOT! haha! (just kidding)
but not kidding about the temp as I had to thaw my hands and feet under cold water when I got home.

Tied my sled to the neighbor's back fender so I could go fast down the street, until he turned, at which time I rolled into the snow berm.

Yes, no seat belts! YeeHaa!

Spinning the car round and round at the intersections.

Driving up on the ramp at the train station and flying off the end of it! Woo-Hoo!

I thought helmets were stupid too until was out dirt biking at Glamouth and watched a biker go up a steep sand hill and cracked his head wide open! A helicopter had to retrieve him. I was thinking as I watched , how brave he was! But, It happens in a split second!
 
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I'm only guessing that seatbelts and kids helmets were brought to the attention of lawmakers when the number of deaths and severe injury started spiking. When I got a bike my first thought was getting from here to there faster. When I gave bikes to my kids, their first thought was "Let's build a ramp!" And I suppose people stopped letting their kindergartners walk to school when alarming numbers of them never made it there.
 
Murrmurr said:
I'm only guessing that seatbelts and kids helmets were brought to the attention of lawmakers when the number of deaths and severe injury started spiking. When I got a bike my first thought was getting from here to there faster. When I gave bikes to my kids, their first thought was "Let's build a ramp!" And I suppose people stopped letting their kindergartners walk to school when alarming numbers of them never made it there.
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Haha! Same thing when my Son got his first skateboard!
 
Robert and I were playing in back of a pickup; Robert declared he was a High Diver."...like the circus."
He dove off the back of the pickup, head first into a concrete driveway.
We were seven
 
hawkdon said:
I fell out of my father's truck as he made a turn, guess i
had not shut the door good enough, I was about 7 maybe...scrapes and succh was all....we continued on to work...
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I didn't fall all the way out of our Nash Rambler when my Dad took a turn, but i can sympathize. I was about four and had been standing between front and back seats (3 older sisters filled back seat). Window open i had both arms on frame of door, enjoying the breeze. When i felt the door swing open i clamped my arms down tight. Oldest sis hollered for Dad to stop. When he did, i was able to get down and get back in car. Mom freaking out, but i was too short for shoes to even get scuffed.
 
I would like to know how many hundred miles I accumulated as unfettered cargo in the beds of various friend's and relative's pickup trucks during my boyhood. Sometimes I was accompanied by a gaggle of cousins or schoolmates. Not uncommonly it would be my entire little league ball team.

Most commonly it was just me and one of my loyal mutts rattling around in the truck bed. About all we had to hold on to were the rivets in the bottom of the bed and that didn't provide much in the way of a solid purchase for boy or dog. On twisty logging roads we would be a blurred pile of sneakers, bluejeans and dog hair banging from one side of the bed to the other.

Sometimes, in confusion, while we were rolling around on each other my dog would end up chewing on some part of me while at other times I would find myself gnawing on a random piece of dog. After a particularly long and rough ride it would sometimes take me a week to get the taste of dog out of my mouth.
 
When I saw that pic of the little kids in the convertible, how did any parent not know that was stupid? Our parents loved us, and somehow, back then, we were kind of expendable. I remember the all the grief about people having to wear seat belts- it was big brother taking over. And I have to admit I did stupid stuff. Back then you could burn trash in used oil drums in the back yard. There was a new oil drum. my cousin, and I got in and rolled down this huge hill. But we never thought about where we would land. At the bottom of the hill was the main road in the town. Well, we came bouncing down the hill, and jumped into traffic. Screeching brakes, and cars all over the place. We staggered out, and left the barrel in the middle of the road. I was 4.
 

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