I did a lot of things growing up in the olden days that would never happen today.
There weren't seat belts in cars back then. So I rode around unrestrained in either the front or back seat. Sometimes on long trips, I would even lay down in the space just below the the rear window behind the back seat. I often rode standing up in the front seat between my parents. Most mothers back then had an automatic reflex of throwing their right arm across the child in the front seat if they had to braked suddenly.
If you happened to have one, the child's car seat would have been a fabric seat attached to two metal hooks that fit over the front seat back. The car seat usually had a small plastic steering wheel attached to the front. It really didn't do much to restrain a child. Mothers held babies and children on their laps...in the front seat!
As a child, I routinely ate raw cake batter and cookie dough. No one ever said anything about raw eggs being bad for you. There were no warnings on cake mix boxes about not eating uncooked cake batter. In fact, there were no warnings on any packaged or canned food that something in it might be harmful to your health.
If you bought a soft drink, it was usually in a bottle. The empty bottle was supposed to be returned to where it was purchased. If you did, you'd get a bottle deposit back of a few pennies.
And, of course, there were the many hours I spent unsupervised in the neighborhood. I walked all over and a lot of the time, my mother didn't know where I was.
How did our whole generation...and the ones before us...ever manage to survive the endless threats to life lurking at every turn? Now we protect children from so many possible and imagined threats that it's a wonder they enjoy life at all. Licking the beaters and the bowl ought to be civil rights guaranteed as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
ReplyDeleteI remember nursing a baby while I drove. Don't do that anymore. But I still eat cookie dough—it's my way of living dangerously.
ReplyDeleteThings were much more laid back in the 50s, that's for sure. During the summer I would spend sun up to sun down riding my bike. No one had to worry about me.
ReplyDeleteI also used to hike on over to the local gas station to buy Grandma's cigarettes and pick myself up a box of the candy version of "Lucky Strike". Guess those are a couple of things kids are better off without.
As to car seats, it was quite awhile before they were actually used to keep kids safe. I remember putting my son (now pushing 40) in some little plastic carrier and stashing him on the floor behind my seat. I must have had no seatbelts in the back seat of my car, or maybe there was no safe way to latch the carrier into a belt. I do remember going downtown to Firmage's and Ward's in Provo to try and find a car seat to purchase or order, but they didn't carry them.
Vicki - I had a plastic carrier for my oldest (he'll be 40 in December). I use to put him on the front seat next to me. One day, I had to brake suddenly and the carrier with him in it flipped over on to the floor. Given the ages of our oldest kids, we were both living in the Provo area back in the early 70s. My son was born at Utah Valley.
ReplyDeleteLinda and Vicki - I still eat raw cookie dough and lick the beaters and bowl when I make a cake. If I didn't get sick doing it 50 years ago, I'm probably not going to get sick now.
I still have the arm reflex in the car...with or without someone sitting in the passenger seat...explain that one!
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