Those Were The Days

[baymule]

Remember toothpaste in lead tubes? And riding your bike behind the mosquito fogging truck? Funny how the toothpaste companies never mention that part of their past history.

 

[journey11]

We rode our bikes all over town. I don't ever remember stopping to tell my mom where we were going most of the time. (I do at times remember being locked out of the house so she could clean, lol. We just went behind the bushes to pee. Drank from the water hose when we were thirsty.)

We would go down in the woods behind our house, fish and swim in the creek, stay all day building our little kingdom out of tree branches and such. We'd scoot across the sewer pipe to get across the creek, then go run all over our neighbor's fields and woods and over into the next neighborhood to play with our friends.

Once or twice we took up over the hill and walked through the woods about a mile and showed up at our grandma's house unannounced. She just sent us back the way we came after a while. I assume she called Mom to let her know.

We had a few close calls, mostly in the realm of near misses and small injuries, but nothing really bad ever happened.

I think we worry more nowadays and believe it is more dangerous than it really is because we hear every bit of bad news on the planet all day long through too much media. The news is so focused on reporting every gory detail for days on end, all for ratings.

 

[thistlebloom]

I believe there is more danger, because there is less accountability and the laws have no real teeth.
Look up sex offenders in your local area, you may be shocked to see how many are living nearby.

 

[so lucky]

Yes, but I wonder how many of those sex offenders got that life-long label by having sex when they were older teenagers, with a slightly younger girlfriend. I think there needs to be different "classes" of sex offenders. And not put this type of incident in the same category as sexual predators and classic pedophiles.
Oops, thread hijacking again!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Growing up on the farm I did all kinds of things that would get my parents thrown in jail for child endangerment or child abuse today, and that was just my farm chores and jobs. The risks I took putting up hay! Let's not talk about what my siblings and I did when they weren't looking. We survived, maybe with a few scars and such, but those that survived can say they survived. Most did. The ones that didn't survive are not on here says, well I didn't. I can remember a few bad accidents with kids, but most that died were from childhood diseases, not injuries, Many of us had things happen that could have been a lot worse. I had a lot of yellow jacket, hornet, wasp, and bumble bee stings. If I were allergic to bee stings I wouldn't be here today. I had some falls that if I had fallen just a bit different it could have been serious.

The world has changed, though. A lot more people live in the city as opposed to being rural so the family does not depend on the kids help to get by. In the city it is hard to keep kids busy enough to stay out of trouble, there are more bad influences around, and there are more people watching and ready to report things. They are afraid of lawsuits for interfering. My neighbors had no problems talking to us (or more) or my parents if they saw something we were doing they did not like. It's just a different social environment for a lot of kids.

I think a really big change is that we live in a world of zero tolerance to risk. I blame that a lot on instant communications. Growing up a few bruises and scrapes were expected. Today if a kid gets a bruise, the whole world seems to know about it and many will instantly (across the internet so they are anonymous) let the parents know how horrible a parent they are for allowing it to happen. Those who have raised kids know how quickly a kid can disappear or grab something. That doesn't mean they area a bad parent just because something happens, but today it is sometimes national news.

Then you have all the warnings. If something causes a one in ten million chance of something bad happening, then it has to be avoided at all costs. Kids aren't allowed to build up their immune system, you have to slather on sanitizer every time they touch something. They cannot play with certain toys or participate in some activities because they might get hurt, however unlikely. I mean use things like seat belts and car seats, those are reasonable precautions that work. It's not child related, but I once saw a warning on a step-ladder, if you climb on this you might fall off. They were not talking about the top steps either, the whole step-ladder. Ridiculous.

I kind of think the pedophiles and creeps were around, but we did not have the mobility available today. In a car on today's highways you can be a long way away pretty quickly, you can be anonymous on the internet, so I think they are bolder. You come into contact with a lot more strangers today than most of us used to. I think a lot of that stuff would have been hushed up back then, that's probably the biggest difference. Even today, most of these creeps are family, not strangers.

Yes, a different world. I don't know if it is better or worse, but it is definitely different.

 

[aftermidnight]

Yes, but I wonder how many of those sex offenders got that life-long label by having sex when they were older teenagers, with a slightly younger girlfriend. I think there needs to be different "classes" of sex offenders. And not put this type of incident in the same category as sexual predators and classic pedophiles.
Oops, thread hijacking again!

Hijack away, you're probably right on that so lucky.

Annette

 

[thistlebloom]

Yes, but I wonder how many of those sex offenders got that life-long label by having sex when they were older teenagers, with a slightly younger girlfriend. I think there needs to be different "classes" of sex offenders. And not put this type of incident in the same category as sexual predators and classic pedophiles.
Oops, thread hijacking again!

It's not too hard to find out what age they were when the offense occurred, and what it was for.
It's not even an across the board life-long registration. The DOJ has a tiered system for registry, according to the incidents that required arrest and conviction.

Unfortunately, I've had reason to learn a little about this subject. I wish it were not so.

 

[digitS']

If we were to say that there are x number of bad characters in y number of people, I guess we would have to say that there are well over 3 times the number of deviants and troublemakers per square foot now than at the start of the demographic generation in the first post.

In 1925, the world population was 2 billion. By 1970, it was 4 billion. "As of March 2016, it was estimated at 7.4 billion ..." Wikipedia. It's interesting that only the "high" UN estimate has the world population doubling (or, just falling short) in another 45 years. The "low" estimate is for it to begin leveling off in the next few years.

There were just over 100 million people in the US in 1925, just over 200 million in 1970, 323 million today. "The Census Bureau projects a U.S. population of 417 million in 2060 ..." Wikipedia. So, falling well short of doubling but, probably, still on par with world population growth.

I wonder what we can say about the contamination of our environment relative to this population growth. But, one might also make the case that we weren't so bad at reproducing ourselves during most of the last 100 years even if it appears to be slowing a little now.

Steve

 

[Nyboy]

Ellis Island records show in 1902 my Grandfather was 23 years old my Grandmother was 15 years old (they where married). I would bet my last dollar my grandmother was pregnant with 1st child at time. Today my grandfather would be labeled sex offender and in prison.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Depends on the state. In some states 15 is legal. Check out Mississippi and New Hampshire. If you look at the right hand column, it's a lot more than those two.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_marriage_in_the_United_States