And Somehow We Survived
When you are living in an episode of The Twilight Zone – like it seems we are right now – there is an ever expanding list of things you can and cannot do. Do a mask; don’t stand so close; do clean your hands; don’t cough or sneeze in public; do this…don’t do that. Makes me long for a simpler time when we did a lot of things in our day-to-day lives that you are not supposed to do now (and these are before Rod Serling appeared just a few short weeks ago). In no particular order, here are some things so many of us did growing up that you are not supposed to do now…and somehow we survived.
We used to play in the streets all the time. Kickball was a regular activity on the block I grew up on. When a car, you moved to the side and screamed “car, car, c-a-r, stick a pickle in a jar.” One nice thing I’ve noticed over the past few weeks it that people are actually out on the streets. Walking, riding their bicycles, playing games.
Speaking of bicycles, growing up I never wore helmet. In the summer of ’76, I went on an AYH bike trip to Cape Cod and The Islands. Rode on some pretty busy roads. Did we where helmets? Nope. In the 80s lived in NYC, rode my bike a lot, can’t remember wearing a helmet there either…but I did wear a bandana wrapped over my head but I don’t think that offered much protection.
Speaking of helmets, I never wore one skiing until a few years ago. Pretty sure I was one of the last ones to go helmet-less. There was large group of folks that would say “it’s warmer” or “I don’t even realize I’m wearing one.” That’s fine and I wear one now (although I didn’t ski at all this year) but I do long for warm daze of spring skiing and feeling the wind in my hair.
There was no childproofing. Sockets did not have covers; there were no safety mechanisms on kitchen drawers or cupboards. Infants rode in cars and airplanes without a baby seat…think about that one.
One of my favorites is you should never drink water from a hose. You’ve heard all the reasons: “That hose is made of chemicals” or “there’s bacteria” or “you don’t know how long that water has been sitting in that hose.” You wanna know what’s great about water coming out of hose? It’s wet and it’s usually cold. Did you ever hear of someone dying from drinking water from a hose? Yea…me neither.
In elementary school, once a week we were allowed to leave school and walk into town for lunch. Could you imagine being 9 or 10 years old and being allowed to do that today. The kids would probably love it but today’s “bulldozer parents” would have a meltdown. Side note – for this privilege, your parents gave you $1 which was enough for 2 slices and a soda.
And what about some of the things we ate. Spaghetti-Os, Chef Boyardee Ravioli (my favorite!), all those sugary cereals, and peanuts…and where did peanut allergies come from? I can’t remember one person who had peanut allergies when I was growing up. Sounds like some sort of Chinese conspiracy to me.
And through it all we survived. So to all those parents out there who watch there kids every move, here’s some advice. Stay in your lane, let your kids be kids, learn from the bumps and bruises, make mistakes, fall down and dust themselves off. We survived, you survived and they will survive.
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