In Retirement looking back on things we didn't have or didn't do

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We didn't have seat belts in cars so every ride has us bounching around. The boys sat in the far back of the station wagon (every family seemed to have a station wagon ) seeing everything as we passed it. The first time out of the back when we were allowed to be with the regular people was eye-opening.

Car AC didn't exist so the car rides were brutal during the summer.

Sunscreen existed, but nobody really used it, We'd get burnt then head back out into the sun.

There wasn't antibacterial soap either - we played in the dirt all day and cleaned up at the end.

We didn't worry about things like EEE or Lyme disease, even though we spent a lot of time in the woods.

Video games weren't a thing, so you only stayed inside if you were sick. If we stayed in for any other reason, Mom put us to work, so we rarely stayed inside.

Helmets were rare, and if you wore one, people thought something was wrong with you. Once, I convinced my brother Andy to wear a bike helmet for a stunt ramp I set up. I was planning on selling tickets but our Mom found out and shut it down fast. I missed out on a fortune and he missed out on either fame or hospitilization. This was the time of Evil Knievel so we wanted to go big. The plan was for my brother to go to the top of the street we lived on which was a very long street, pedal his bike as fast as he could, turn into the neighbor's yard which was 7 houses from the end of the street, ride up the ramp, be airborne for an undetermined amount of time then land in the yard in an undetermined location. The danger involved is what probably made my mother cancel the promotion. Oh what could have been. In my defense I did convince my brother to wear the helmet.

We never got rides to school - we walked, no matter the weather. Once during a snowstorm, we thought school would be cancelled, but my dad insisted it wouldn't be so he wouldn't let us listen to the radio to find out. We walked to school through the storm and thought is strange that we didn't see any other kids. When we got to the schoolyard it was empty so we walked back home upset about having to make the walk but glad we didn't need to go to school that day.

Growing up, we were forced to attend church every week, even though our parents only went sometimes such as on Easter and Christmas. Sometimes to make sure we went they quizzed us on the sermon that day.

Parents didn't tell us what the curfew was, we knew to come home when the streetlights came on.

TV for kids was only on until noon on weekends, and there wasn't much during the week. A lot of the time we were outside playing sports, listening to records or listening to the radio.

Parents didn't schedule anything for us - we played games like Hide and Seek, Red Rover and Red Light Green Light then when we got older we played sports all day.

We drank water from garden hoses or water fountains at the parks - There wasn't Gatorade or any energy drinks.

My father thought it was great when the first McDonalds opened near us in Revere MA. I think at the time hamburgers were 25 cents. He would take us there sometimes on Saturdays.

We didn't worry about safety because we were always in groups with siblings and neighbors.

We went trick-or-treating without adults, and the streets wer packed with kids. We never worried about tampered candy, but we'd skip the apples and popcorn, focusing on the candy. Our parents didn't mind us eating candy as long as we brushed our teeth before we went to bed.

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