Did those born in the 50's, 60's and 70's have a better childhood?

[Ben Kenobi]

I was a weird kid

I can't say I share the same thing about cleanliness, but as for for keeping quiet and reading books, I've had similar experiences to you. Of course, everyone in my family is a bookworm, both my mom and dad, so no one really blinked an eye. Of course, I had some good friends who lived much differently, and who could never understand why I would read things like the encyclopedia.

[st_swithin]

Rogan Josh, Freud would have LOVED you.

I once tried to read the dictionary from start to finish, but I got as far as 'F' and decided my brain was as full as it was ever going to get. I was the only kid I knew who would concurrently read books on mycology, medieval fashion and Egyptian mummification practises.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by child of Thor
It seems the 'MacDonalds' generation is also providing problems for western military recruitment too. I read an article a few months back about how todays kids were getting many more injury's during training, thats if they passed the entrance tests

Strange you should say that - our infantry school is in trouble for failing around 50% of recruits on fitness grounds.

I coach children's sport - about half the boys have little or no motor skills. I'm talking about healthy 8 year olds who cannot throw or catch a ball

Its painful to watch.

[molly bloom]

I grew up thinking that bombed out ruins were normal. The area I lived in first in Coventry was Hillfields, near the Alvis plant, which was targetted several times during the war (along with the centre of Coventry of course).

You could see armchairs in the air in rooms left hanging in the sky, and half houses like a pop up book with all their history for the world to see. Great mounds of bricks and wood and glass everywhere. It wasn't until the early seventies that there was enough money to rebuild. We had free milk in the morning in infant school and junior school (stopped by one Margaret Thatcher when Education secretary), and I always walked to both of those schools, being proud of when I was allowed to do it alone. I looked forward to being a latchkey kid because it meant responsibility, not delinquence on the part of my grandparents. But I first saw wild birds when I went to grammar school- a robin and a blue ***- so I missed out on the country. But I loved staying indoors and reading anyway- I devoured all the Greek myths, the Norse myths and the Song of Roland, a monthly junior encyclopaedia and history books from the adult section of the library. You're never alone with a book....

[Peter Triggs]

Uncle Sparky
When I was growing up, Winnipeg had about 500,000 people, so it wasn't exactly a small town.
...
I don't remember needing a house key until I was about 12 or 13 - we never locked the house unless we were going out of town overnight.

I was born and raised in Winnipeg, came to Oxford in 1970.

My best friend, who lived down the street, went to a different school than me. We would always meet up at his house after school. But since I got out earlier, I'd get there first. So I'd just walk in and wait for him, the door was never locked.

When I was back in '87, his dad had put bars on the basement windows. No more unlocked doors, that's for sure.

I was talking about this to another Winnipeger and she said "Yeah, we didn't lock our door either, but remember nobody had anything worth stealing in those days." Is that all there is to it? I suspect not: there's undoubtedly a lot more drugs around now and that's one of the main causes of crime.

Another thing is murders. I don't remember ever hearing about a murder. There must have been the occasional murder but they were pretty damn rare. Now Winnipeg has something like 30 murders a year (correct me if I'm wrong about this). It's not just Winnipeg. I walked past a television today and caught "In recent years Hollywood has been having 50 to 60 murders per year. In the 60's it was about 4."

child of Thor
Still i used to do mad stuff as a kid with my mates, like making pitch fork fireing catapults and bows and arrows etc.

Oh, you've reminded me. You can make a really neat firearm with a 'Blockbuster' (a type of firework, don't know if they make them any more) and an 8 or 10 inch length of pipe whose interior diameter will hold the firecracker. Craftsmanship requires that you mount it on a small length of 2x4 with some nails bent over to hold it in place. You put the Blockbuster in one end with the fuse exposed, a Cat's Eye (marble) in the other. Light the fuse and 'Bang', there goes the Cat's Eye.

So, we used to fire them from my backyard across the lane into the neighbours' garage door. (Hey, this was a long time ago. God knows what would happen to some kid who tried this now.) One time something went wrong. It didn't hit the garage door, just disappeared.

A couple of days later, a kid in my class - who lived across the street from the people whose garage door we were aiming at - said "Something really strange happened to our new front window. There's a little hole in the outer pane of glass. The insurance man said he'd never seen anything like it."

I've kept quiet about this for over 40 years.

[Alexander's Horse]

Now Main Street's white washed windows, and vacant stores....

[Uncle Sparky]

Originally posted by Peter Triggs
...was never locked.

When I was back in '87, his dad had put bars on the basement windows. No more unlocked doors, that's for sure.

I was talking about this to another Winnipeger and she said "Yeah, we didn't lock our door either, but remember nobody had anything worth stealing in those days." Is that all there is to it? I suspect not: there's undoubtedly a lot more drugs around now and that's one of the main causes of crime.

Another thing is murders. I don't remember ever hearing about a murder. There must have been the occasional murder but they were pretty damn rare. Now Winnipeg has something like 30 murders a year (correct me if I'm wrong about this). It's not just Winnipeg. I walked past a television today and caught "In recent years Hollywood has been having 50 to 60 murders per year. In the 60's it was about 4."

Sure, we had stuff to steal. But like I said, we knew everyone in the neighborhood... and old Mrs. McKinnon always knew who was where doing what with whome.

... and yes, there are a lot of murders in Winnipeg now. These are mostly gang related and about half of them occure in about an 8 square block area. If you're middle aged and not involved with hard drugs or prostitution, odds of you being murdered are very low.

Originally posted by Horsie
Now Main Street's white washed windows, and vacant stores....

Sounds like Winnipeg ! They have tried (and are still trying) various things to change that. An Urban Planner ran for mayor last election and came in 3rd. Our current mayor likes to build phallic symbols, though he will probably step down in the spring to run federally.

[Joseph]

Growing up in the fifty was'nt bad. I was born in March of 44, started school in 1950. The only bad year that I had in school was the 8th grade. A kid decided he no longer like me and was able to turn part of the class against me. We had a class of 15 kids.
The nice things were that it cost a dime to buy a Coke, Pesi, etc. A dime to go to a movie. Model plane were $0.98. Shoes were $8.00. Gas was 0.19 to 0.23 cents a gallon.
Yes a kid could walk around without a parent and not be question by anyone.
In the area that I lived, everone knew who you were.
A dollar was worth a dollar.
A new car was around $3000.00 or less. A house was around $7000.00 to 10,000.00.
In Aug. of 65 I stated work at Mare Island Naval Shipyard and was making $2.72 per hour.

[Jac de Molay]

I was born in '70 and can relate to a LOT of things on that list.

It's not that "our" childhood or "their" childhood" was better. It's just that kids today are being turned into a bunch of feminized wussies whose lives are scheduled at every turn! Since when did just being a kid entail endless soccer practices and "arranged" meetings just to hang out with friends? What the hell happened?


Me at Ten years of age on any given summer night: Mom can I camp outside over at Dale's?

Mom: When will you be back?

Me: I don't know, later this week maybe.

Mom: Is it Ok with his Mom?

Me: (nods)

Mom: Get lost....

Nowadays, I drive thru some of the newer neighborhoods and don't even see kids playing outside in the summer. And what's with jungle gyms having nice, soft wood chips to cushion their fall??

What was wrong with good old-fashioned concrete with bits of glass and sharp rocks ?

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by Jac de Molay
"arranged" meetings just to hang out with friends?

oh yeah - it's minefield of kid diplomacy between the parents just getting 2 kids together.

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Strange you should say that - our infantry school is in trouble for failing around 50% of recruits on fitness grounds.

I coach children's sport - about half the boys have little or no motor skills. I'm talking about healthy 8 year olds who cannot throw or catch a ball

Its painful to watch.

It may have been in something like the New Scientist, or maybe a magazine article, it was using findings based on data from the UK's armed forces, but it also made reference to the same thing in America.

In a way i count myself lucky, I was born at the begining of the home computer revolution. So even though i took to computers quickly, i was also still intrested in exploring outdoors - making 'bases' in the woods, climbing and falling out of trees etc.
Lots of physical stuff that a lot of kids these days might look down there noses at?

I dont think its rocket science, but it seems to me if you grow up not physically active, and brain washed to eat fatty sugery foods, your going to suffer all through your life physically.

@Peter Triggs,

you gotta be careful what you say online else your 'kids experiment with fireworks' might be interpreted as lessons in bom* making And i agree that drugs seem to be the main factor in increasing crime rates - here in the UK as well as the US. Drugs are bad

[Dinner]

I barely remember the 70's but I can say with absolute certainity that the 1980's were the best decade to grow up in. The government and lazy parents hadn't changed things to much from the 60's & 70's but we still had computers and video games.

I can remember when "going online" meant booting up my C64 and then tieing up my parents' only phone line so I could use the modem to dial into one of the local BBSes. Most of the time the BBS's sysop was one of my school buddies older brothers and the only people who visited the site was our group of friends.

We also had playgrounds which hadn't been sanitized by the safety nazis. In fact the park down the block had a play set which was about 20ft high and it included a sky walk which had a handrail on only one side which was 15 ft off of the ground. My friends and I used to jump off of the skywalk and make fun of the kids who landed wrong. One day a kid broke his leg and his parents sued the city. After that the playground got taken out and was replaced by a rubberized crap playset which never got more then three feet off of the ground.

[Hueij]

Originally posted by Joseph
Growing up in the fifty was'nt bad. I was born in March of 44, started school in 1950. The only bad year that I had in school was the 8th grade. A kid decided he no longer like me and was able to turn part of the class against me. We had a class of 15 kids.
The nice things were that it cost a dime to buy a Coke, Pesi, etc. A dime to go to a movie. Model plane were $0.98. Shoes were $8.00. Gas was 0.19 to 0.23 cents a gallon.
Yes a kid could walk around without a parent and not be question by anyone.
In the area that I lived, everone knew who you were.
A dollar was worth a dollar.
A new car was around $3000.00 or less. A house was around $7000.00 to 10,000.00.
In Aug. of 65 I stated work at Mare Island Naval Shipyard and was making $2.72 per hour.

Hehe... You sound like the lyrics of the opening song of All In The Family

[DaShi]

Originally posted by st_swithin

I once tried to read the dictionary from start to finish, but I got as far as 'F' and decided my brain was as full as it was ever going to get.

That's nothing. I once tried to read the Bible from start to finish, but I got lost during the Exodus.

[MrFun]

Did children of minority races have a better life before this frivuluous thing called civil rights became law??


Were mentally disabled children treated better 50 years ago than today??

Did children of dysfunctional, or abusive families 50 years ago have the same resources we have today, that can help them at a better chance in life??

Did teenagers who were realizing they were gay likely to be treated better 50 years ago, than today.


I guess all this mushy stuff depends on whose perspective of childhood you're looking at.