All we kids had a pair of those keyed skates that were good for about a half a block before they came loose on the toes and it was face plant then secure them again. We rode our bicycles to the movies, parked them out front usually in a bicycle rack without any chains or locks. We never owned any helmets unless it was a football helmet. Never wore a seat belt and the only thing to this day I consider as irresponsible is to vote for common criminals. I laugh at the foolishness of wrapping a plastic helmet around a child's head to ride a tricycle or little bicycle. All of these things I see today are the results of someone that had a vision while sitting on a park bench doing nothing but dreaming of ways to inconvenience or take away personal rights of everyone. Much like this attack on our basic rights today. We've all become soft and willing to allow the thieves and politicians to sit on more park benches. I wish I were back in 1948 and I would give 10 years of my life to be able to do that. In the end everything always goes back to square one just as soon as the population finally accept the fact they have lived the life of a fool. To me the way I live today is exactly what the criminals of the nation want, they're just sheep herders and doing a great job. I remember a time when a blown tire causing the car to run into a ditch was an accident, not a criminal offense. We have so many laws it is irresponsible, as soon as we walk out the front door we all become law breakers, if you forgot your wallet with that license or PROOF OF BEING SCREWED by the insurance thieves YOU ARE CRIMINALS. The answer by the thieves in DC is to write more laws and punish the innocent and therefore the population of more real thieves and criminals grow exponentially with each new silly decree. The framers would be shocked if they could see us now. I love my America, not today's poor excuse of America. Now I think I'll go get a cup of coffee and hope I am not arrested for drinking two cups today. Slo Joe is all giddy now that they were able to stuff enough ballots again. I don't care what Trump said or done 40 years ago or any other day. I am voting for Trump again because he did what he said he would do even while being targeted by these peons that write laws for all of us but not themselves. If that is considered irresponsible I don't care. If I am still alive in 2024 it means I had two more good years. I doubt seriously there would be any good candidates to vote for by that time other than Trump. Nothing but people wanting power and fame and a taste of that money floating around in DC.
A couple of the things I can think of is that bicycles weren’t initially made for the ladies and that crossbar actually served as a place to put the seat. The initial pedals were installed on the front wheel axel so the seat had to be closer to the front. Even before the pedals were installed, the whole middle bar was a seat and all a bicycle really was is a walker on two wheels. To that, even when the bar was omitted and the seat moved back for a female’s use, it was probably understood that males are bigger and heavier than females and the added reinforcement provided by that bar was necessary.
I had many of the same experiences as the above. I had to walk miles to school every day, uphill both ways, in the snow. We all walked about a mile; sometimes with friends and syblings, sometimes alone. I was lucky to live in a neighborhood that abutted county property above a highway. Lots of room to play. there was a woods along the road and a sand quarry. Tree houses that would not pass building inspection. Great sledding hills that ended near but not on the highway...ponds for skating with those double bladed, belt attaching, skates for little kids... Back then it was an honor to sign, and have signed, plaster casts of broken bones. Parents would basically throw their kids out of the house till dinner. There wasn't much to do in the house anyway that wouldn't drive mothers nuts. I assume if a dangerous person was out there, they would have been caught and dealt with by attentive police and officials. Did not hear of any in our area. Laws were simpler. And reporting extreme transgressions to your parents was threat enough. My kids could have some similar experiences in the country. I would tell them their boundaries and throw them out. If I lost track of them, I sent our sheltie out to 'go get the kids' and her barking let me know how far they were. My grandkids were kept inside except for organized activities they were driven to. It was sad. And very stressful on my daughter who had a stressful job, a sickly husband and the kids' schedual to keep track of. This was in a New England town not NYC or Chicago. But she could be charged with neglect if she wasn't aware all of the time. I don't remember much stress. My jobs could be attended to but when I was home I I could be very zen. The times they are a changin'
I remember the about roller skates with keys ," Brand New Key" by Melanie? Last time I heard that a stripper was performing her strip act to it at the last Burlesque club.I was working there as a waitress. The framers wouldn't even know where they were at if they woke up here.America is no more
We used to roll down a hill in a shopping cart if we found one abandoned in our neighborhood. We also used to play grand national, a game we invented ourselves by running into peoples gardens then jump over the fences from garden to garden, I can still hear the occupants yelling at us! (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)
Drinking water straight from a stream or river. While, even when I was a kid, there were warnings about filtering or boiling water for drinking while in the woods, in practice we'd simply drink from the river or stream, and sometimes even from lakes if the water looked clear. We didn't go home when we were thirsty, and we didn't carry filters. While we had to carry them (or canteens) in Boy Scouts, we didn't generally use them. Locally, we had an idea as to which lakes or ponds not to drink from but, otherwise, we'd simply drink straight from the source. I never heard of anyone getting sick from it. Come to think of it, when we ran an Internet cafe, people would stop by after hiking the Appalachian Trail, since I live at the northern end of it, and they'd sometimes hang out every day for a few days rounding out their hiking journals or waiting to be picked up, and some of them said that, while they carried filters for when the water didn't look clear, they normally drank straight from streams along the way.
Looking back, it almost seems like just about everything that we did as kids would be frowned upon in these days. We played outside in our neighborhood until around 10 at night in the summer, and none of the parents worried about us . In winter, we were still often outside playing in the snow and sledding. Some of the kids did what was called “hooky-bobbing”, which was where you had your sled and grabbed the bumper of a passing car and let it pull you along. That was definitely not safe, and not even legal, although kids did it anyway. When I was out riding on my horse, we always drank from creeks when we were thirsty, and never considered it might not be a good idea. The horses drank the water, so obviously, it seemed fine to us kids, too. One time, my friend, Norma, decided to lead her horse over the railroad trestle, which was definitely not safe, and if her horse had missed the tracks, she would have fell , broken her leg, and probably would have killed both of them falling off of the trestle. And we had no idea when a train might have come along either. I was praying for her the whole time she went across, I was so worried.
Any fast moving river over rock usually acts as a natural cleaning filter. The Llano River is a good example. We drank from it and did do our beans and other cooking using the water, it was so clean you wouldn't know the difference from bottled water.. I doubt centuries of Indians living on the River they ever bothered with boiling. Now of course today's population boom might make the river not so clean but I haven't been there for decades so I wouldn't know how clean it really is today.