I had never seen a bicycle helmet until I was about nine and stayed in a hotel with cable tv that had a bicycle race on. I asked my dad why anyone would bother with a helmet on a bicycle.

My dad had an old two-seater Toyota pickup from about 1978-82 and we never though twice about taking it when all going out to dinner. My sister and I rode in the back and loved it.

I have 4 kids and during my recent divorce, her lawyer cited letting the kids ride a couple of blocks (often less than one) in the back of my pick-up as proof that I am an unfit parent.:mad:

Holy crap, when I was stationed in Germany we always let or infant son ride behind the back seat of the VW Beetle in the well over the engine. We'd be in jail if we did that today.

He turned out just fine.

When we were younger, our Little League coach would pile the team in the back of his DUMP TRUCK for the ride to Dairy Queen after a win. Entire team standing up in the bed driving through town--nobody ever had a problem with it.

about the only thing I wanted to do but was warned not to was dig a full size tiger pit in the back yard after my father stepped into a scale model hole I dug and covered with branches and leaves.. and tunnels.. had to dig those elsewhere.we had power tools, motor bikes, go carts, guns, jarts, knives, bow and and arrows etc. to play with long before my teens. and I survived.. barely. my daughter had done more things before 12yrs old than most adult males. she could operate an excavator before she made 4.

Very few bycicle helmets here, only for very young children or road racing. And then you have that one mother who makes her children wear high visibility jackets (she wears then herself to) and helmets. It really stands out. I like to think that it also has to do with the relative lack of litigation comparing to the USA when things go wrong.

Times are very different.

We lived in Hawaii when I started grade school. For 1st grade I walked to school with my brother who was in 3rd grade. In my mind it was a mile each way. I do remember walking by a honeysuckle bush and we stopped regularly to suck some nectar.

I recently found the address of the house we lived in in Pearl City. 1146 Hookahi, St. It is only 1/4 mile from Pearl City Elementary.

Oh, and I wore shorts to school. No shirt, no shoes, just shorts. There was no such thing as sunscreen back then.

My mom always said, "come home when the street lights come on!!" We would be outside all day long.... playing street hockey with pads from an old couch etc. Whatever the season.... we always had something to do outside. I raced BMX and to wear a helmet was cool, but that was a Bell moto.... and only at the races. I have twin 10 year old girls now and have taught them sliding in the winter, how to build a fort in the snow banks... last snow storm was, how to do a dounut on their 4 wheeler!! 2 years ago, showed them how to skateboard on a half pipe. I'm re-living my youth with my kids!!!

Hilarious thread. Can relate to and did many of the same mentioned. Many way beyond todays parent imagination. Before a teen, '13' that is, played around workshop machinery, high voltage electric shenanigans, drove old Ford pickup way before a legal license to the dump.... and played in the dump, operated solo farm tractors and equipment (btw: no ROPS, eyewear, sunscreen). Oh yes, almost forgot... we shot guns of all type. Had them hanging in the porch on wall, unlocked, no trig. guard, wide open for anyone passing by and could look thru the big windows! LOL

edit. Now its fun to give the grandkids cool skateboards without body armor or helmet. The girls love the toy guns and cars.

I loved it when the lot next to the house I grew up in was developed. Piles and piles of dirt to ride my bike on. My mother insisted on wearing a helmet, but that was the only protection. Just a head full of excitement and an eye on the utility trenches.

We all had the be home by dark rule. One of my Air Force brat buddies spent three years in Alaska. He said they moved in to the house in Alaska, and he went outside to explore. He instantly found the other kids his age in the neighborhood and made friends. He knew he had to be home by dark. About 10 PM he realized he was real tired but it was not dark yet. He got home about 11 PM and walked in and saw his parents were sitting by the front door and they were pissed. They told him that he knew full well 11 PM was way too late and sundown was no longer his curfew. He was grounded for a while.

Excellent thread.


dragging wooden hydroplanes behind your bike, and always having to tuck you paint legs into your sock so it wouldn't get caught up in the chain/sproket.


Bike Lights, with the spring loaded knurled tip generator that you clamped to a rim and it buzzed on your tirewall.


Yes I had rollerskates that clamped onto the sides of your shoes. Hence a roller skate key.


bottle rocket fights, buy a gross of them 12 packs of 12 for 144 total. Bricks of firecrackers 2000 count long all lit off at once.


yes it was politically correct to play cowboys and Indians.


having to dig a hole in the dirt or hide in your tree house in a zip lock bag that Penthouse or Hustler magazine you stole from Uncle Alfred. Bush. oh my god the bush of the 60's and 70's.


Rockets, we played with Estes rockets, .049 U-control airplanes with that smell of blue burning nitro fuel that always stung the crap out of the propeller cut as you'd use your finger to turn it over.

Dodge-em Soakem Ball on the playground. Those little grapefruit size balls were perfect to raise a welt.

Rock or Dirt Clod fights, ruthless.

Red Rover Red Rover, send someone over.


the distinct "ting" of a magnesium bat hitting rock into the woods.


Any mud puddle was fair game to jump into repeatedly, or if large enough, toss a log or stick into it and throw rocks at "the battleship" to sink it.


Building dams in local creeks, I was an early engineer in hydro-physics.

Yes my Dad had a bent nail box, which I was free to use to build tree houses or dig the tiger pit to cover with boards and dirt as your private bunker., yes I straighten many nails!

Listening late night to your Crystal Radio from Radio shack, after playing with your 65 in 1 electronics set.


Light Brights were what, 6 pixels per inch, and a new piece of construction paper started a whole new "file"...............Etch-a-sketches were magical.


Break a thermometer, play with the liquid mercury in your hand palm

Watching the Saturn 5 rocket lift off at 2 AM because that moon landing was stellar cool on a 19" black and white TV with manual horizontal hold trim pot so it didn't roll continuously, "whats a remote control, oh yeah the audio clicker thing of the middle 70's". TV stations (yes all 3 of them) shutting down at night with the Test Pattern cross-hair targets and an Indian in Headdress at the center for focusing. Cable TV with a hacked cable box, of course soft core porn was scrambled but that didn't matter as you'd watch the fuzzy lines anyways.......

a Huge highlight of your day was when Dad said "Boy lets go off to the Tube Tester at the local store, all those wires and sockets on the tube tester was magical" we needed to repair the Heath-Kit stereo when you had to solder together your own circuit board.

We had a voice activated TV Remote control. Me.

I constantly heard my parents tell me to change the channel for them.

It's saddening for me to see what is transpiring. My GF's 14 year old is definitely missing out on life as it was for a kid. I try to get him outside, but he is reluctant to remove himself from his room where he is glued to the game console. It's pitiful. He and his buddies would rather play games online together than meet up and explore the world. Saturday was a prime example. His best friend lives maybe a half mile away, but he waited for his mother to come home to even ask if he could go over there to play games (inside), then had his mother drive him over there! I think it's ridiculous.

Every now and then we can get him out of the house, but not often enough in my book. He did finally try a team sport, he turned in his tuba for a set of pads and a helmet this past fall and played 8th grade football. He loved it! Then he tried out for basketball, but was cut. He does want to tryout for baseball in high school, but has never played the game in his life. I look forward to the opportunity to work with him on the fundamentals, but I honestly don't think it's going to be enough for him to secure a spot on a team. He is a good sport about it though, he understood that he was cut from basketball because the other kids were more advanced, and the reason was because they had been already been competing for several years. I've tried to introduce him to things that would afford him some quality in life, but it's been frustrating. He longer has his football I purchased, nor the baseball and glove I gave him, or the basketball... I'm not about to buy him a bike that will last a week! Of the things he still has that I bought are a BB gun he no longer plays with, and a helicopter he flew once or twice. I enjoy those though.

I can understand the entertainment value of a gaming console, as I used to have an Atari and a NES, but that stuff got old after awhile. All he and his friends want to do is hook up online and play for hours on end, every single day. The only time you see him is meal time or for the brief moments when he has to walk down the short hallway to relieve himself.

I was always outside. I knew the city streets before 6 years of age. It's going to be hilarious when this youngster gets his license. I can hear the conversation now, "how do I get there Ruben"? Use the GPS on your phone!

I strictly limit the amount of gaming my kids do. I send them outside but there's few other kids outside and I live in a huge neighborhood with a lot of kids. They are all inside playing video games.

If you give your kids a little more leash, not everyone will follow suit. So the default is to play video games with the other kids. Sad.

Shot an arrow straight up to see how high it would go. Never did find out. Two of the three of us got under the picnic table on account of we heard about 'What goes up…etc.' That other one of us stood there looking up for the arrow. He found it.

It landed right between his feet! First time I ever experienced a cold sweat.

The second involved an M-80, a mailbox, a soupcan of gas and eventually a cop.

Yup. My son has a PS4. He has also played competitive sports since he was 4 and loves them. He also doesn't get some of the hardcore games ( at 10) that his friends have, like Call of Duty. It's all about balance.

Speaking of balance. We used to ride our bikes without helmuts ovur a to bye fore layd acrost the dichis just four funn.

Nun of hus are werss for ware fromm it, neether.

Doesn't sound like the kids are the problem in this situation.

Speaking of parents. My dad got tired of me whining about how slow my new bike was. So he challenged the neighbor kids to a race on my crappy bike. He won. Easily.

He got off the bike and said, 'It isn't the bike.'

To this very day none of my tools have ever worked right, either.

Coinkydink?