How many remember seeing a large appliance being delivered and going to ask if might have the box? Going in mass to the local pool, swimming hole or creek in which case there were no adults? We played with firecrackers, cap guns, bottle rocks, tennis ball cannons, threw rocks at each other, rode our bikes down ridiculously steep hills, all without adults or helmets and pads.
I don't remember anyone ever getting really hurt.
I remember doing all of this as a child too. Unfortunately for me I almost became a statistic when as a 12 year old boy I was assaulted by a group of 21 year old men who thought I had flipped them off. I woke up in the hospital a few days later and found out I had such a severe concussion that I was moments away from surgery to open my skull to relieve the pressure. The doctors’ claim after the fact was that I was pretty lucky (to be alive).
My parents were pretty protective after that - I didn’t get to play hockey for a year, I was pulled out of phys ed several times (I did get beaned in the head shortly after this incident and ended up home bawling and puking from the migraine I developed as a result). To this day I suffer from migraines and it is 40 plus years later.
I don’t blame my parents for being protective after that incident - I’m pretty sure that was a normal response. They did gradually let me have more freedom and things were pretty normal for me after the first 6 months or so, but I was definitely more paranoid and aware of my surroundings afterward also.
In the end, there is a risk/reward choice all parents have to make about this, which is dynamic and based on several factors.
Your post was great. It took me back to my days when I was 9 years old until 11 or 12. We walked to school. We walked to a shopping mall, crossing one of the busiest streets in Roanoke (Hershberger Road), often with maybe 15 cents in our pockets. The mall was gigantic, or so it seemed. There was a gourmet restaurant with mints in a bowl at the desk when patrons left. We’d sneak a few of those. We’d put a penny (nickel?) in the sweet tart vending machine and see how many we could get by banging on the machine and jiggling the mechanism as we turned the crank. When we were “rich” (somebody had a dollar or two) we might go to the drugstore and get a banana split. There were balloons with prices inside. A banana split was 50 cents, max, but the balloons you chose might charge you 40 cents, 25 cents, or less. My buddy got his for 1 cent once!!
We played football without any pads or helmets. A neighbor would sometimes come out and be quarterback for both teams. We found an old mattress and dragged it to an apartment complex swing set, where we’d jump out of the swings and land on it. We always tried to do flips, but as I recall no one ever had the nerve.
Wow. Thanks for triggering those memories.
I hear you. My 8 brothers and sisters and I were free-range kids, and I raised my own children the same way.
Never mind the bike rides I mentioned. Another favorite pastime I had then was WALKING THE CREEKS. I would sometimes go alone but mostly with friends or cousins. We would find some point to start, sometimes close to the houses, sometimes well into woods, and take off shoes and carry them with us walking through the creeks, exploring for rocks and (fossils!) and creatures, fishing for minnows with nets and everything. We could sometimes wade a mile or so in those creeks. I got to know quite a few, never mind knew the one in my neighborhood like my hand (which was really surrounded by woods, except where close to the big highway - the entrance from there to our ‘hood was the best spot to sit and try to catch creatures, and walk through all the pipe underpasses).