How Did We Survive Childhood

Washngton Times | December 29, 2003 | Wesley Pruden

[catonsville]

Here's what my Internet correspondent reminded me of (and if you see it on the Internet, it must be so):

"According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s probably shouldn't have survived. Our mothers put us in cribs covered with bright-colored lead-based paint.

"There were no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bicycles into traffic (bike paths were unheard of), we had no helmets. If we didn't feel like pumping a bike up the hills, we could always hitch a ride with strangers. There were no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was particularly special.

"We drank water from an old garden hose, not from a bottle. One bottle of bellywash could be shared with up to four friends, drinking from the bottle, and no one died. "We gorged on cakes, pies, candy, bread and butter, and anything we could find with lots of sugar in and on it, and we were never overweight because we were always running through the 'hood.

"We never heard of 'play dates,' and left home in the morning and played all day, and the only rule was to get home before the streetlights flickered on. No one could reach us because nobody had a cell phone. "We spent hours building go-carts from lumber and nails scrounged from neighbors' garages and raced them down the hill to discover only at the bottom of the intersection that we forgot the brakes. Running into the bushes was good enough.

"We fell out of trees, played with BB guns until we got a .22 rifle on our 12th birthday, fought "war" with dirt clods, broke bones, lost teeth, stepped on nails and caught fishhooks in noses. Nobody's daddy had a lawyer. "We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and most eyes survived intact (the worms didn't).

"We walked into our friends' houses whenever we felt like it. We chose up sides for ballgames, and if somebody didn't make the team, he learned to deal with it. There was nobody to counsel the losers (who would have felt insulted if there had been). "The generations that suffered these deprivations made the best of it, producing the explosion of innovation and ideas that transformed the world.

"Kind of makes you want to run through the house with a pair of scissors, doesn't it?"         

[catonsville]

I love Wesley Pruden, the successor to Menken. This was part of his column today.

We have become a society that no longer lets kids be kids. We are robbing them of a childhood

[TomGuy]

Eat dirt.

It was a well known fact that, as a child, if you consumed your weight in eating dirt, you'd live a long, healthy life.

lol

[stuartcr]

I think it is due more to the fact that this is not the same world as then, things have changed. That is why we could do all those things relatively safely.

[kinghorse]

We listened to Honky Cat by Elton John not Kill the Honky by Grandthugfizzlerapcrapass.

We played Coleco Football with the magentized playing field, not Dues Ex on X-Box where we can take the corpses and toss them in a burning barrel so as to watch them crackle and burn.

Technology and advancement of all things multicultural hasn't helped today's kid one iota. It just makes their minds lazy and their attitudes harsh.

[SamAdams76]

I first became acquainted with "play dates" when I moved my family into a somewhat tony suburb to save them from growing up in the city (as I did). I'll never forget my wife telling me that my 5-year-old son had a "play date" scheduled for the following day. "A PLAY WHAT?" I thundered. I never heard of such a ridiculous thing until that day. What a sissified society we have become.

[Taliesan]

My brothers and I would routinely crawl under trains on the way to the cliffs and caves outside of town, where we stayed until dark.

What I know about boyhood I will never tell my son's mother.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Dirt is an excellent prophalaxiz for earache. Just look at the kids who have earaches all the time. The momma's won't let them eat dirt!

[Buell_X1-1200]

This story reminds me of all the Legos my younger brother ate ... only to find them later in his diaper :-(

[nmh]

My childhood was alot happier than what kids have today. There were no pretentious "play dates". We "socialized" with whom we played with in our neighborhood. We didn't need health clubs since we had pools and played games like army and had tree houses. Oh, I could go on and on but I'll end it with. I feel sorry for kids today.

[Taliesan]

My older cousin taught me how to climb down the well after the cat.

We would catch lizards and take turns holding them up by the tail while the other boys shot at it with a BB gun.

We rode the ponies bareback down to the pond, where we swam in reed-infested water.

sigh.

[Search4Truth]

Children then had families, homes and full time moms. That was of course before feminism.

It is the American mother that we have lost, and the American father soon followed.

[MotleyGirl70]

Great post!

I remember playing kickball with all the neighborhood kids until it got dark out. We had all kinds of crazy rules. What a blast that was though!

[mikegi]

Not every raises their kids like bubble-boys these days. Here's our 4 year-old daughter riding with Mom on our neighbor's Harley:

[randog]

Children then had families, homes and full time moms. That was of course before feminism.

It is the American mother that we have lost, and the American father soon followed.

Bingo. To expand on that, the American neighborhood has lost its full-time moms. It was OK to run around the hood all day because someone's mom was withing eyesight and earshot to keep an eye on things. They were the neighborhood cops back then.

[MineralMan]

"I love Wesley Pruden, the successor to Menken. This was part of his column today.
We have become a society that no longer lets kids be kids. We are robbing them of a childhood"

Well, we survived, it's true, or we wouldn't be writing here on FR. However, lots and lots of kids didn't survive those years. Lead-bearing paint killed thousands of kids. Kids died from head injuries on their bikes. A good friend of mine died when his head went through the windshield of a car...before seat belts. So many folks died in motorcycle accidents from head injuries.

We survived, but it's worth thinking about all the ones that didn't, too.

[Old Professer]

The people may have changed, the world is patient.

[Snerfling]

We live in a part of Orange county that still has not emerged from the 50s. There are tons of kids all over the place riding their bikes, screwing around, etc - all by themselves.

We have a kid next door who is 7; he's got two friends (boy/girl twins) that ride their bikes/skateboards over whenever they feel like it.

The only problem is money - you gotta pay the freight to live by the coast and be in the right school district. However, at least the property taxes are a write-off - saves on private school.

[MotleyGirl70]

Children then had families, homes and full time moms.

So true. My mom was a full-time mom. She was always around for us no matter what. She knew where we were, what we were doing and was always involved in our lives. I'm fortunate enough to say to this day I have the best parents in the world.

[Blood of Tyrants]

We played dodge ball and no one needed counseling for their "feelings" when they were hit.

When a bully would pick on us, we would screw up our courage and fight back. If we got a black eye, it was usually worth it because the bully got a fat lip and would seek easier prey.

We didn't have Ritalin because we got rid of all our energy outside.

We didn't have air conditioning and were perfectly happy to sleep out on the back porch in the summer.

We had four TV channels, only two of which were clear enough to see well and Saturday morning was the only time you could watch cartoons.

We dammed up a creek to deepen our swimming hole and the EPA didn't care or even exist.

[azcap]

It is my one most dear prayer that upon their deaths every legislator who has ever voted to mandate car seats be placed in a car seat in hell for all eternity.