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More of a humorous nostalgia thread than anything, but someone at work mentioned CFL bulbs and mercury hazards...and it just made me laugh.
When I was a kid, mercury was an occasional toy to be rolled about in our hands and picked up off the tabletop with a piece of paper.
We had cool toys like Lawn Darts -- those forearm-length heavy missiles with the sharpened metal tip -- meant to be tossed high in the air and land near the feet of the opposing team.
We had Clackers -- heavy balls on a cord, which occasionally got used as a bolo instead of a toy.
We played with nunchucks and throwing stars.
We rode bikes without helmets, and skateboards without knee, elbow, and wrist protection.
We stayed outdoors all day, most of the time nowhere near mom and home, for most of the summer hours.
Our houses had lead paint inside.
I could go on and on...it is just amusing to me that we were so less protective back then, and so many of us are still alive and kicking even after doing so many things that would horrify today's bubble-wrap parent.
I wouldn't call kids wimps but they are challenged...some of them are...they can program VCRs and DVD players and TIVOS, text, email, and so on but a lot cannot do simple tasks like tie shoes!!
At age 10, riding *miles* away from home on my bike, hanging out with the guys on motorbikes trying to keep up while they jumped up and down the sides of a creekbed.
Crawling through storm drains watching for black widows.
Crawdaddy fishin with a piece of bacon trying to avoid the cottonmouths.
Playing with fire.
Carving wood with a pocketknife.
Bows and arrows and pellet guns.
Camping outside while the coyotes prowled around my sleeping bag.
Taunting a billy goat and getting bucked down a 30 foot ravine.
And I was the undersized, coke-bottle-wearing, weakling nerd.
I remember lawn darts! Can't say that I ever played with mercury, though I did have a pretty nice chemistry set with a few toxic materials. My Vietnamese neighbors owned a set of nun-chucks, and one of them shot me in the nose with a bb gun. To this day, my parents have absolutely no idea that I nearly lost my sight that afternoon.
Now that I'm parent, I probably wouldn't set up my kids with most of those toys, particularly my son, who spends enough time in the emergency room as it is. That said, I do let my children wander the neighborhood unescorted, which sends the bubble-wrap crowd into a frenzy. Even my very best friend thinks I'm too laissez faire, but we just agree to disagree about such things.
And our parents can sit on that same porch explaining how we were wimps because they never had time to play with Jarts or Clackers, they were too busy with their chores and walking 5 miles to school in knee deep snow (and in a dress because girls couldn't wear pants to school)...And their parents could tell them stories about how they were coddled because they only had an outhouse and had to empty and clean chamberpots and chicken coops....Each generation has it's own character and to think that any generation is "less" because of the privileges that were earned or invented by the generation previous is kind of a waste of time IMO.....
ETA - just saw the "more of a humorous" comment - so sorry if I misinterpreted - read too fast!
LOL, I remember the lawn darts, too! I also remember lighting my own firecrackers, as young as 7 years old. Where I grew up, all fireworks were legal, and my parents let me light all sorts of things off by myself. I remember running and jumping over a barbed wire fence trying to outrun something I'd lit that was chasing me. Still, I'm grateful for some of safety devices us modern parents have, such as carseats, etc.
Each generation has it's own character and to think that any generation is "less" because of the privileges that were earned or invented by the generation previous is kind of a waste of time IMO.....
ETA - just saw the "more of a humorous" comment - so sorry if I misinterpreted - read too fast!
LOL yes, it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek humor. Each generation has its own set of difficulties. I'm just being silly
LOL, I remember the lawn darts, too! I also remember lighting my own firecrackers, as young as 7 years old. Where I grew up, all fireworks were legal, and my parents let me light all sorts of things off by myself. I remember running and jumping over a barbed wire fence trying to outrun something I'd lit that was chasing me. Still, I'm grateful for some of safety devices us modern parents have, such as carseats etc.
I remember the bigger kids in the neighborhood daring me to ride my bicycle out on the partially-frozen pond...and doing it...and falling in, sneaking home nearly blue to try to get in the house and get warmed up without my mom seeing me.
What about those little pieces of flint you could put in a toy guy and "pop".
I remember lawn darts.
I took a picture of my boys playing in the leaves last week and sent it off to family & friends. It was awesome...the leaves were vibrant & my boys had huge smiles on their faces with leaves in their collars, etc.
I got an email back "Aren't you afraid that they will get ticks or bite by a spider?".......................................... .......I didn't know what to say other than laugh.
But I think bikes + helmets are a good call these days. Let's keep in mind that for many of us, bikes in our days, along with the tricks kids do now on bikes, are not comparable. My strawberry shortcake bike only went so fast.
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And our parents can sit on that same porch explaining how we were wimps because they never had time to play with Jarts or Clackers, they were too busy with their chores and walking 5 miles to school in knee deep snow (and in a dress because girls couldn't wear pants to school)...And their parents could tell them stories about how they were coddled because they only had an outhouse and had to empty and clean chamberpots and chicken coops....Each generation has it's own character and to think that any generation is "less" because of the privileges that were earned or invented by the generation previous is kind of a waste of time IMO.....
Still, I'm grateful for some of safety devices us modern parents have, such as carseats, etc.
