Friday, February 4, 2011

Flash Back- Baby Boomer play and safety features

(Sorry= this collage sheet is sold out) What did kids do for fun back in the Baby Boomer days? Back before every play activity required being plugged in? Lots of things!... and most of them required some very high tech stuff= actually talking face to face (no texting) and a little imagination (no video game program to drag you along for the mind numbing ride), and come to think of it--activity/movement was also part of our daily play (no sitting on the sofa all day, Mom wouldn't allow that. And we didn't want to anyway. We would have thought of that as punishment)!

We played jump rope, hop scotch,ring around the rosie, red rover and tag. We played cowboys and Indians. We played cops and robbers and used toy guns. And by the way, none of us acquired records as hardened criminals. At least no one I knew, so maybe I speak for myself here on that point.

But of course we also survived lead paint on our cribs, so that says a lot, and just imagine, that was coupled in with the slats most likely being spaced inappropriately, yet we survived babyhood somehow. Oh, and what about no helmets while tooling around on a banana seat bike or... how babies started traveling around town and the country with no such invention as a baby car seat--even in the family convertible, for gosh sakes!!
(find this vintage print ad HERE)

(find this vintage print ad HERE)

...or when we were a little older-- the station wagon, hanging out the back window. That was great, the wind in your hair. The "way back" is what we called the rear facing back seat in the station wagon. We always fought over that seat. Do you remember singing along to the old jingle, "See the USA in your Chevrolet"? Dinah Shore sang that one. Heck, the adults didn't even wear seat belts, it wasn't a law yet. Do not get me wrong, I think baby car seats and seat belts are very important. You young 'uns have to realize that life and knowledge and technology was different back then. People wanted to be safe, of course, but there were not all the same safety research experiments done and laws that are put into place to protect people, like in the 21st century. I am no car expert but it seems to me our family car was built like a tank. Was yours, back in to 1960's and 1970's? You Boomers know what I mean. What did you do with your time as a child, if you were born before cablevision and the internet?

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