I noticed on this beautiful Sunday morning that my neighbor is taking his two young boys roller skating and I was thinking how times have changed. The little boys had nice new skates like they use now with the boots attached and they had on helmits, knee and elbow pads. At that age I had, like all kids, metal skates that you put on your "shoes" (we didn't really use sneakers much) and you needed a skate key to attach the skates to your shoes. Of course before you used them you had to oil the wheels or they would squeak. The skates clamped on to the soles of your shoes and if you hit a bump, they would fall off causing you to fall and often times, scrape your knees. We always had scraped knees. If we skated a lot, we wrapped rags around our knees because band aids were expensive and would not cover those big scrapes. We would find a big hill and skate down it. That was scary as the only way to stop was to fall. Our parents were never with us as no one would steal us and there was no cell phones so we knew to come home before dark.
We kids were in good shape and had street smarts. We knew where to get a drink of water (there was no bottled water) and occasionally free food.
We collected tadpoles, daphnia, frogs, turtles and lightning bugs. The entire year was spent outside as there was only black and white TV and there was nothing on anyway.
I am not sure how many kids live on my block as none of them even go outside. When I babysit, I always take my granddaughter to the park, sleigh riding, or boating. Even if it is raining or snowing. Kids belong outside.
Just my opinion of course and if I offended anyone, get over it.
There is this show on now called Naked and Afraid and I saw it twice and what a bunch of wimps. The girls are much better than the "manly" men on the show. They were supposed to be picked for their survivor skills but the men on that show are wimps. They leave them on an Island, naked with nothing and they are supposed to survive for 21 days. The men spend all the time complaining and practically crying. One "survivor" was afraid of spiders, snakes, sharks and alligators. That was the "man".
They were starving, living on snails and a few worms when the place was filled with large caiman which have like 40 lbs of delicious meat that tastes like chicken. He was afraid of them. It rained a lot and they were really disgusted of rain. Like really! :bablefish
I lived in a jungle for a year and when it wasn't pouring, it was just raining hard. We had plenty of snakes, bugs, tigers, elephants, (plus the enemy) and I lived just fine. OK I didn't have to eat bugs, but I would if I had to, and C Rations were not much better.
I am amazed at the "wimps" they put on a show that is supposed to be "experienced" survivalists.
What a bunch of Sissies. :sad2: