How did we survive our childhoods?

[sonnyjane]

A better question is how did my younger brother survive his childhood!?!? I used to downright abuse him - I practiced "karate" with him, fed him soap and told him it was candy, used to lock him in the bathroom and not let him out until he promised to drink from the toilet (and we're talking that horrible blue water).... I would just kick and hit him all the time and when he went to my (hippie) dad for help, my dad just would say "hey little buddy, there are going to be people in this world that treat you badly and I won't be able to help you, so you have to learn to deal!".

As far as "how did we make it out alive???" moments, my brother and I used to jump down the stairs with a beanbag chair to cushion our fall... full flights of stairs belly-flopping onto a beanbag chair! We also had a full flight of cement stairs (at least 20) outside going down to our basement, so when it would snow, we would turn that into a "ski jump" and sled down the stairs. When we got to the bottom, we would crash into the cement wall but for some reason that never stopped us from sledding down the stairs!!

 

[Gypsy]

My favorite story is... I read TOO MUCH as a kid. And my mom would catch me reading at night (with flashlight) and would set the book she caught me with on fire as punishment right there in the trashcan in the bathroom until it was ash. True story.

Holy crap, Gypsy. My mom would yell at me to put down the book and play outside but she never burned them!

My mom has the temperament of a hand grenade. I spent a LOT of my childhood in 'duck and cover' mode.

 

[Rosebloom]

I either had some very "advanced" parents or the biggest worry worts ever because I never got to do any of this cool stuff!!! Most exciting thing I did was walk to school by myself a few blocks away. Didn't wear a helmet when biking but had to wear seat belts after my parents bought a car with them.

However, the really dangerous thing my parents let me do? Occasionally skip sunscreen. I am very fair skinned and played outside all day. I've had some serious skin cancer issues in the past. Also they were constantly spraying us with super powerful bug sprays so I'll probably grow a third arm any day now. (Actually that could be quite useful... Bring on the deet!).

Who knew that I could have been watching Divorce Court in the middle of the day, eating sugar straight from the bowl and playing with mercury?!

 

[amc80]

Who knew that I could have been watching Divorce Court in the middle of the day, eating sugar straight from the bowl and playing with mercury?!

The mercury thing is awesome...yet scary!

 

[TooPatient]

Born in 1985.

I rode in the back of pickup truck (grandfather driving) fairly often. I also got to sit in grandpa's lap and drive the car (probably 5-7 yrs old). My parents used to drive a bus.... not a VW bus, this was an old school bus they bought to drive. No seatbelts. They just stuck me in a baby carrier sitting on one of the seats. They got rid of this by the time I was 2 or so.

One of my memories of when I was younger is of hiding under a blanket while the police stopped my mom for speeding. The car only had 3 seats so my parents and my younger brother sat in the seats and I crouched in the little space behind the seat.

I was home alone for hours starting by 7 years. My favorite place to play was in the woods behind our house. Lots of fun out there! My grandfather had to call the police a couple of months ago as someone was shooting a gun in the woods

My friend (2 years younger than me) and I used to spend lots of time walking or biking around. Usually within a few blocks of the house, but sometimes up to a mile or better. No one ever really knew where we'd be and had no way to reach us. (cell phones must be a great help for parents now!)

Now.... my brother!
I convinced him that the berries in our yard were good to eat. We had to get medication to make him throw up all night (he was 2 or 3). I got to have popcorn and watch cartoons while he was busy getting rid of berries.
I tied him to the front door once. Got in trouble for that one!
He got to sample "powdered chocolate" from the garden. Three days in a row -- hay, if he's dumb enough to fall for it again, who am I to not let him keep eating?

My father used to leave us alone for hours and go out to the bars (starting when I was about 7 and my brother was about 4). He didn't always leave anything for dinner so I'd have to find something in the house to feed my brother. There were times when there was only enough for him to eat so I wouldn't have dinner. The place was filled with cigarette smoke and made me sick. If it got too bad, they'd open the windows. Of course there really weren't any blankets. I gave my one blanket to my little brother so he wouldn't get sick and usually just curled up under my jacket or my bath robe. "breakfast" wasn't usually until 2pm or later, if it happened at all.
Oh... and the tap water was contaminated. I always thought it tasted funny so I wouldn't drink it. Turns out I was right! (gas station just up the hill had a leak)

 

[Rosebloom]

Born in 1985.

I rode in the back of pickup truck (grandfather driving) fairly often. I also got to sit in grandpa's lap and drive the car (probably 5-7 yrs old). My parents used to drive a bus.... not a VW bus, this was an old school bus they bought to drive. No seatbelts. They just stuck me in a baby carrier sitting on one of the seats. They got rid of this by the time I was 2 or so.

One of my memories of when I was younger is of hiding under a blanket while the police stopped my mom for speeding. The car only had 3 seats so my parents and my younger brother sat in the seats and I crouched in the little space behind the seat.

I was home alone for hours starting by 7 years. My favorite place to play was in the woods behind our house. Lots of fun out there! My grandfather had to call the police a couple of months ago as someone was shooting a gun in the woods

My friend (2 years younger than me) and I used to spend lots of time walking or biking around. Usually within a few blocks of the house, but sometimes up to a mile or better. No one ever really knew where we'd be and had no way to reach us. (cell phones must be a great help for parents now!)

Now.... my brother!
I convinced him that the berries in our yard were good to eat. We had to get medication to make him throw up all night (he was 2 or 3). I got to have popcorn and watch cartoons while he was busy getting rid of berries.
I tied him to the front door once. Got in trouble for that one!
He got to sample "powdered chocolate" from the garden. Three days in a row -- hay, if he's dumb enough to fall for it again, who am I to not let him keep eating?

My father used to leave us alone for hours and go out to the bars (starting when I was about 7 and my brother was about 4). He didn't always leave anything for dinner so I'd have to find something in the house to feed my brother. There were times when there was only enough for him to eat so I wouldn't have dinner. The place was filled with cigarette smoke and made me sick. If it got too bad, they'd open the windows. Of course there really weren't any blankets. I gave my one blanket to my little brother so he wouldn't get sick and usually just curled up under my jacket or my bath robe. "breakfast" wasn't usually until 2pm or later, if it happened at all.
Oh... and the tap water was contaminated. I always thought it tasted funny so I wouldn't drink it. Turns out I was right! (gas station just up the hill had a leak)

Ok, it's kind of a miracle you're alive! Wow - that's a lot to go through as a kid!

 

[Haven]

This thread is mostly hilarious!

Gypsy--I was so sad to read about your mom burning your books. I used to sneak books and read them in a bed tent, too, but I think it thrilled my parents, to be honest. I had a camp friend whose mom used to punish her by draping her baby blanket over the corner of the refrigerator and making her sit at the kitchen table and pine away for her blankie. The image just makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry.

I can't believe so many of you played with mercury!

 

[innerkitten]

I can relate to some of these.

My parents were hippies and smoked w**d around me and hung out with some unusual and sometimes weird people. The Angels of Light who were a weird performance group from the 70s and many of the underground cartoonists from the 70s. I love my parents but don't feel it was the best environment for me as a child.

 

[AmeliaG]

My favorite story is... I read TOO MUCH as a kid. And my mom would catch me reading at night (with flashlight) and would set the book she caught me with on fire as punishment right there in the trashcan in the bathroom until it was ash. True story.

Holy crap, Gypsy. My mom would yell at me to put down the book and play outside but she never burned them!

My mom has the temperament of a hand grenade. I spent a LOT of my childhood in 'duck and cover' mode.

Damn Gypsy, your mom was something else. My mom let me read whatever I wanted to, it caused the teachers some raised eyebrows. The one thing that wouldn't happen now is all the cute nekkid photos they took of us as babies and proudly displayed in our home. Those pics left nothing to the imagination but it was all in good fun.

 

[innerkitten]

I remember being out all day as a kid - and I was raised in the 60's. Out "playing" --- you know--- running, skipping, biking, hanging out, hide N seek, etc. and when my mother rang a bell, it was time to come home and wash up for dinner. We did have to help out - we had to tidy our rooms (this relates to the thread on teenagers) and we had to be polite and call our parents friends (or anyone older) MR & Mrs so and so. We drank water from a hose, we didn't wear helmets, we walked to school unattended, came home at dusk, rode in the backseat with the windows open & no seat belts, played in dirt and then ate snacks at a dolly tea party! It was amazing what we didn't know then, but we survived till now!

I'm sure all sorts of things did happen, but we also didn't have the media bombarding us with the info 'as it happens'. Simpler times, that's for sure.

I remember playing out all day too. I was born in the very early 70s so it was the norm for some kids. But we used to go all the way across the city sometimes.

 

[Puppmom]

Sonny, if your brother is anything like mine, he gave you a good a$$ kicking when he was big enough. My brother is 15 months younger than me and I pretty much tortured him for the first 10 years of his life. Then, one day, he was bigger and stronger than me. We had an argument once and I got physical with him as usual. He punched me so hard in the stomach that I couldn't breath. My mom stepped over me while I was laying on the floor - guess she just figured I was getting my due or that I was being overly dramatic.

I thought of a few more:

- we would *ice skate* on the hardwood floors by spraying them with furniture polish and sticking my mother's sanitary napkins to our feet. I probably had a few undiagnosed concussions as a result!
- we would take my brother's mattress (crib size because he was in a toddler bed) and ride it down the steps
- my dad was a bartender so my mom would drop us off at the bar while she ran errands and we would hang out with a bunch of drunks (who else is at the bar on Sunday afternoon?) and play pinball and drink birch beer. Again, we thought this was a great time!
- my dad once made me walk on a pond that was iced over. Guess what? I fell through!

The other thing that we did was play in the street pretty much daily. I lived in the city with cars parallel parked on either side. We would play games in the street and, when we saw a car coming, we would move just far enough out of the way so they could pass.

I realized later that my parents (and those of most of my friends) just wanted us out of their hair. They didn't really care much about what we did unless we were getting on their nerves. Irritating my mother was the ultimate offense and I was an expert at that!

ETA - I'm off to google the properties of mercury because I'm wondering how you could "play" with it!

 

[Puppmom]

re: playing outside. If it was deemed nice out by my parents, we weren't permitted to play in the house. Wonder what my parents were doing in there while we were outside all day?

 

[sonnyjane]

Sonny, if your brother is anything like mine, he gave you a good a$$ kicking when he was big enough. My brother is 15 months younger than me and I pretty much tortured him for the first 10 years of his life. Then, one day, he was bigger and stronger than me. We had an argument once and I got physical with him as usual. He punched me so hard in the stomach that I couldn't breath. My mom stepped over me while I was laying on the floor - guess she just figured I was getting my due or that I was being overly dramatic.

Ha! My poor brother was a late-bloomer (3 years younger than me), so by the time I went off to college, he was still a puny little thing. He is taller than me now, but we're a bit too old for rough-housing anymore so he never had his chance at revenge.

I also just remembered that I "ran away" CONSTANTLY. At least once a week I would pack some snacks and run away to the nearby playground. I would stay there for hours all alone and I was only 5 or 6, but my parents didn't mind. They even did the "Oh you're running away? Well good luck out there!" spiel and sent me merrily on my way lol.

 

[Enerchi]

I remember the mercury 'balls' in science class! It was so cool - no idea how the teacher contained it normally, but she'd drop a clump on each of our desks and we could divide it and then re clump it (probably a better technical term for it) and if it fell, then the single 'ball' became like a bajillion teeny ones rolling around the class room floor! It was fun! Now I'm wondering if that causes forgetfulness - because that's what I've decided I'm now going to blame it on! Yup - mercury exposure in public school!

These are awesome memories you guys are sharing - I'm loving this!! Thanks!!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I can relate to some of these.

My parents were hippies and smoked w**d around me and hung out with some unusual and sometimes weird people. The Angels of Light who were a weird performance group from the 70s and many of the underground cartoonists from the 70s. I love my parents but don't feel it was the best environment for me as a child.

hahaha I was born in the early 70s, also, to hippy parents. Scary thing is it too a few months before my hippy mom realized she was pregnant. Who knows what when on those first few months!

Everyone has cool car stories...that is one thing I never experienced because my parents didn't own a car until I was 12. We lived in close enough to the city and walked everywhere. I use to walk through really scary parts of town by myself. I'm really surprised I was never abducted. One time, I was even put on the wrong bus by someone (at a summer camp, maybe?) and ended up in Pike Place Market by myself (and this was in elementary school!). Since my parents didn't have a car, they couldn't come pick me up

 

[canuk-gal]

Hi:

Went duck hunting frequently with my Dad and used a shotgun. 10-14 years old?

cheers--Sharon

 

[Gypsy]

I can relate to some of these.

My parents were hippies and smoked w**d around me and hung out with some unusual and sometimes weird people. The Angels of Light who were a weird performance group from the 70s and many of the underground cartoonists from the 70s. I love my parents but don't feel it was the best environment for me as a child.

hahaha I was born in the early 70s, also, to hippy parents. Scary thing is it too a few months before my hippy mom realized she was pregnant. Who knows what when on those first few months!

My mom thought I was a cyst or polyp, until a doctor told her she was pregnant. And my folks were 'liberal' (though not hippies) with substances so I often suspect there was some illegal smoking while I was in the womb too, and definitely drinking.



I played in the streets all day too. I never really went more than... okay so I went up to a mile and a half over (google says 1.6 miles). No phone here either. Just ride the bike, hang out, climb trees, pick fruit, come back when it was getting dark.

Haven, I KNOW. That's what I would say to her when she'd burn them. "Other people would love to have a kid that read books as much as I do." She never appreciated the input though. On the plus side, what didn't kill me made me stronger. I just learned to read faster, and be sneakier. LOL. To this day I am an avid reader and I always have a book on me (it's much easier now with both nook and kindle aps on my phone, admittedly, but even before I was never without).

 

[Gypsy]

My father used to leave us alone for hours and go out to the bars (starting when I was about 7 and my brother was about 4). He didn't always leave anything for dinner so I'd have to find something in the house to feed my brother. There were times when there was only enough for him to eat so I wouldn't have dinner. The place was filled with cigarette smoke and made me sick. If it got too bad, they'd open the windows. Of course there really weren't any blankets. I gave my one blanket to my little brother so he wouldn't get sick and usually just curled up under my jacket or my bath robe. "breakfast" wasn't usually until 2pm or later, if it happened at all.
Oh... and the tap water was contaminated. I always thought it tasted funny so I wouldn't drink it. Turns out I was right! (gas station just up the hill had a leak)

I'm sorry honey, wow. Talked about "how did we survive!"
((HUGS))

 

[tuffyluvr]

I love reading through all of these! It's so funny that so much has changed in the course of just 20 years, and now so many things that were the norm are completely taboo. I was born in '79 and, as pretty much any child of the 70s-80s or earlier can remember--there were no car seats, bike helmets or safety equipment on the playgrounds!

When I was about 6 my sister and I went down the street to play at the school's playground unsupervised (a regular occurrence). I was hanging upside down on the gymnastics rings, and realized that my feet would fit inside them. I thought I was really clever until I struggled to get my feet loose and couldn't. I dangled upside down by my ankles until my sister ran home to get our mom to come free me.

Carpool was always about "double buckling"--that meant 2 sharing 1 seatbelt in the passenger seat and 4-5 kids in the back seat--sharing seatbelts or sitting on laps.

During the summer we were literally shoved out the back door and told "don't come back til lunch". There was a pack of 6-10 of us kids who roamed the neighborhood and the woods beyond. We went to people's houses that we didn't know--visited elderly neighbors without parental supervision (or parents even knowing where we were). There was an older guy--I remember him being a man, but he could have been a teenager that would take us out hiking and to a creek where we could swim. I remember thinking that he was great, but my parents definitely didn't know him. I cannot imagine any parent today being okay with these things. Now it seems weird to me too, but I don't know if that's because perceptions are different.

Haven--I went to Girl Scout Camp too! It was on Catalina Island and I don't think the safety was much better there than WI...We had to take a swim test--the advanced swimmers could swim out as far as they liked, the intermediate swimmers could go to the buoy and the beginners had to stay near the shore. There was only one lifeguard on duty, and at least 50 kids swimming in open ocean--oh, and Catalina Island has Great White sightings at least yearly. As a treat they would tow us around on a boogie board by powerboat. We were also allowed to check out little sabots to practice sailing alone. I came very close to sailing one into the pier one year :O We also had the canvas tent on a 12" high wooden platform--4 girls to a tent. There wasn't much to keep the wildlife put, and one night I awoke to one of my tentmates screaming. A wild buffalo was poking its head into our tent! They're harmless, but HUGE!

I think the best is my aunt: she would call my mom to ask her to keep an eye on the house (we lived across the street) while she ran errands or whatever and left my cousin while he was napping! No baby monitor or anything!

Honestly, I think people have gone overboard with children's safety... We survived rusty playground equipment and not wearing head to toe protective gear for riding a scooter. When I was working as a nanny I saw such crazy overprotective parents at parks, etc. I feel like its good for kids to learn negative consequences to a certain extent...Buuuuut...Then again, I don't have kids...

 

[texaskj]

I have never worn a helmet when riding a bike.
My best friend and I rode our bikes all over in junior high.
We would crank up her dad's riding lawnmower and give each other rides.
Rode double on a moped with my college roommate to go get more money for beer.
My mother can't swim a stroke and used to waterski on the Mississippi with just a swim belt.

 

[innerkitten]

re: playing outside. If it was deemed nice out by my parents, we weren't permitted to play in the house. Wonder what my parents were doing in there while we were outside all day?

I've wondered the same thing.

 

[HollyS]

I was a child in the sixties, and a teenager in the seventies. It's amazing what we did then, and, gosh!, why aren't we all dead??

Some things I remember . . .

A friend's dad would pick up his 3 kids in a VW beetle, and give a ride to any neighborhood kid who lived on the way. We would be sitting on each other's laps; eight kids stacked two deep, with my sister and another boy in that pouch thingy that hung behind the back seat, and usually someone straddling the stick shift. What seatbelts?

Riding as one of 3 kids on a bike: one on the bar, one on the seat, one on the fender. What helmets?

(Damn near) every adult smoked, everywhere, all the time, every restaurant, every office, every store, in the car, on planes, on buses, in your face 24/7. It's a wonder I haven't succumbed from all of that second hand smoke. What cancer?

 

[monarch64]

Born in '77. Let's see...

Played with fireworks, spray paint, "chemistry sets" with matches, bb guns, pocket knives, all under the age of 8.
Learned to drive at 12-13, spent time driving the Cadillac over mole hills in the yard at my father's insistence.
Had the run of 60 acres from sunrise to sunset during the summer, was never inside until I became a sulky teen who only wanted to read books in her room. Our mother used a referee whistle to call us in for meals.

There are tons more, but these were what popped into my mind right away. No way any of these things would ever happen today! We sure had fun, though.

 

[Rosebloom]

My favorite story is... I read TOO MUCH as a kid. And my mom would catch me reading at night (with flashlight) and would set the book she caught me with on fire as punishment right there in the trashcan in the bathroom until it was ash. True story.

Holy crap, Gypsy. My mom would yell at me to put down the book and play outside but she never burned them!

My mom has the temperament of a hand grenade. I spent a LOT of my childhood in 'duck and cover' mode.

I've been thinking about this often since you posted it. Yikes. I'm so sorry - that must have been quite difficult! HUGS!

 

[iLander]

I grew up in the '70's. I used to walk a half mile to the store with a friend of mine, we were 6. Inexplicably, the store was stuck in 1935, and had wood floors and barrels of peanuts and stuff. It was very odd. This friend and I also strapped wooden boards to our arms and we were convinced we could fly off her porch railing. We chickened out, though.

One day, I missed the school bus, and having a mom similar to yours, Gypsy, I decided not to tell her. So I walked the 2 miles to school. I was 6.

I got rezoned to a new school, and my parents never drove me, even if it was raining. I rode my bike everyday from second grade on. I still have scars on my knees from falling off the big hill.

I rode my bike everywhere by the time I was 12, and on the weekends I'd be gone from 10 am to dark. I rode my bike to the community pool, the mall, my friends, up 5 miles each way. No helmet, and no sidewalks. I took the city bus to the library, and all over town. I just had to be home by dark. Or else. To this day, I still get anxious around dusk and would prefer to be at home at night.

It wasn't all fun and games, though. I attracted a stalker who followed me around town for months, and I was more scared of my parents so I never said anything to anyone. I didn't have any money, so I sold my school lunch tickets for $$ McDonalds food for the weekend. I could get a coke, a small burger and a small fry for $1.

It was awesome. I think I'm much more independent than kids are today. And more aware of the dangers.

 

[honey22]

Gypsy, the same thing happened to me! I got sprung so many times with a flashlight under the doona, probably why I love to read now for hours on end.

No babyseats for us when we born, it was a bassinet perched on the bench seat of the Holden or whatever Aussie tank Mum and Dad used to drive. I have always been anti-smoking. Mum and Dad have smoked all my life. I once found the pics Mum tried to hide from me. There is Mum breastfeeding me and smoking at the same time! I was horrified and she apologetic

 

[Gypsy]

My favorite story is... I read TOO MUCH as a kid. And my mom would catch me reading at night (with flashlight) and would set the book she caught me with on fire as punishment right there in the trashcan in the bathroom until it was ash. True story.

Holy crap, Gypsy. My mom would yell at me to put down the book and play outside but she never burned them!

My mom has the temperament of a hand grenade. I spent a LOT of my childhood in 'duck and cover' mode.

I've been thinking about this often since you posted it. Yikes. I'm so sorry - that must have been quite difficult! HUGS!

I survived. And gone to much therapy. LOL. I'm okay now. Thank you for your concern though honey.

 

[Gypsy]

Gypsy, the same thing happened to me! I got sprung so many times with a flashlight under the doona, probably why I love to read now for hours on end.

They burned your books too?? I've never had anyone else had that happen!!!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Gypsy, the same thing happened to me! I got sprung so many times with a flashlight under the doona, probably why I love to read now for hours on end.

They burned your books too?? I've never had anyone else had that happen!!!

My husband had his CDs burned! lol Not books, though...

Sorry this happened to you, Gypsy!

This thread makes me wonder what little kids will be saying in the future..."I can't believe they let us use cell phones and drink from plastic water bottles!"