Today we talk about free range kids. My kids, who grew up in the 70's and 80's, think that they were sort of free range kids. They look back and are happy with the freedom they had.
For my growing up in the 40's and 50's free range involved much more . There wasn't much supervision of kids on the prairie farms as Dad's were busy farming and Moms were just plane busy with house work and many other things.
So, as well as being free range kids we had freedom with no supervision. Stuff was not locked up so we were drawn to guns. Now most farmers at that time had a very small rifle. Hunting wasn't done so big rifles were not around.
So it didn't take long before we started playing with guns. The shells were easily available on the farm. The storekeeper in town would sell us shells.
So the playing began. Hitting a stalk of grass was cool and you had bragging rights. How far your bullet went in a 2 x 4 counted. Tin cans were great targets. Seeing how far your bullet would travel was another pass time.
So there were usually 5 or 6 kids together. We had no instructions about gun safety and we really weren't supposed to have the guns. With that many kids running around , I can't believe someone wasn't hurt.
Taking a small tractor on new ice and applying one break made the tractor spin. We were all riding . Did we think of falling off? Never. Again it was dangerous with no parental supervision or permission.
So I often look back to those days and say "How did we ever survive?"
So this photo shows the culprits. Here are two sets of four brothers. We are cousins. We were the only kids in the district. We'd grown up since our gun days except for my little brother who now is about 70.
I grew up in a sugar plantation camp and life was a lot freer for kids. We definitely didn't play with guys though. Granted, we did occasionally have sling shots. We used to roam far and wide around the camp and our parents never worried about us. They knew we'd return when we got hungry or tired.
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in Illinois with our kids, we lived in a little community of about 96 homes and everybody sort of watched out for each other's kids. We let our kids wander around our little village without worry.
Times changed when my daughter moved in with her family. They kept close watch over our granddaughter and KC certainly didn't wander around like her mom and uncle did. It's rather sad that times have changed so much.
You had fun to roam around but you also learned by experience. We also had a good idea of what we could get away with and what would get ourselves into trouble.
Delete😳 the ice thing scared the mess out of me!
ReplyDeleteIce is much more solid here but you still have to use your head.
DeleteAlthough we grew up with guns that weren't locked up, my parents were too frugal so we weren't allowed to shoot them except with a specific purpose in mind.
ReplyDeleteWhat you talk about is survivor bias. You and your group survived and so it appeared safe. But in reality, as a genealogist, I have a tree full of grisly accidents on some of the off branches. Off the top of my head, I have a third great grandfather who buried an axe in his head while chopping wood and getting it tangled in a nearby clothes line. Another who died from a tablesaw accident that injected wood into his abdomen, several that got crushed by wagons, wheels, etc. I knew about none of this until I started looking into my past though.
There were no safety regulations . There were many accidents.
DeleteTo answer the question, how did you survive, I think it's a combination of you got lucky and you also had developed skills you didn't even know you had.
ReplyDeleteAll that exploring taught you a lot and put you in a better position for survival than modern kids who haven't explored and learned in the same way.
Kids are super competent if we allow them to build skills
We were lucky but because of experience we had some knowledge.
DeleteYou were lucky, I guess, Red.
ReplyDeleteWe had lots of luck. But we also had some experience.
DeleteRed, another interesting post. I’m thinking about how different it was for me growing up in a city. Yes, guns were a part of that and I remember my dad keeping a loaded shotgun in the corner of the bedroom and warning me if I tried to come in there in the middle of the night to make sure he knew it was me. I also recall going skeet shooting with him and thinking the shotguns were just way too loud. So now I wonder if my lack of interest in guns might have anything to do with why my hearing is still good in my late 70s?
ReplyDeleteYour hearing was taken care of even if you didn't know it. Kids operated machinery so hearing was affected. I also think there were some genetics to hearing.
DeleteThe good old days
ReplyDeleteI look back with pleasure.
DeleteYou were lucky for sure!
ReplyDeleteI remember as a kid being told to go outside and play many times, and my sister and I sort of watched out for each other. There were so many open areas that don't exist anymore. Overcrowding is real.
ReplyDeleteSiblings do watch out for each other.
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the 60's, very different as there were no guns around.
Thankfully I am not comfortable around guns and would not want one in the house. Take care, have a great weekend.
I think we're close to the same age and I had the same experiences growing up in North Dakota while you were in Saskatchewan. We used to go out at night in a car that had a spotlight and chase rabbits and leaning out of a window with a 22 rifle to try and shoot them. And i had a friend with a former hearse that would take us down to the Knife River when it froze and spin it on the ice just like you guys with your tractors. Yes, it's amazing we all lived through those crazy times.
ReplyDeleteYou remind me of doing the same thing at night. There were no big controls on vehicles. We just jumped in and went. We spent hours driving around roads and fields.
DeleteGrowing up on a small farm in Oregon, we were free to roam and our playmates were ususlly our siblings. My dad had hunting rifles, but they were stored away and we never touched them. I did join the Junior NRA and took .22 rifle lessons one year. I really liked target shooting.
ReplyDeleteYou remind me that we had neighbors living near us so there were more kids and more fun.
DeleteWhy Mr. Red! That photo looks like a bunch of really polite, nicely dressed boys that could never cause any trouble! Sounds like a fun time. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteWe had no guns, but like you we were a lot more free range. When we were eight and ten we used to hitchhike around town. We played in the street. We stayed out after dark roaming through the woods and playing in and around the ponds. We did lose a couple of kids to car accidents, so glad the cars are safer now. As kids many of us experimented with smoking, too. That was not a good idea . . . again, many have survived into their 70s, but some have not. Stay safe and well!
ReplyDeletefreedom was was beauty of childhood back then ,i feel so happy that i belong to times when life had some simplicity and freedom ,a fearless wander on hills and bunch of friends to play around and climbing on trees ,no fear of any stranger people at all seemed not just our own village but all few village around had familiar people .
ReplyDeletewhat you shared makes me shiver because guns can be life threatening .i can think of only one thing that kept you saved from any incident "pure luck "
i saw gun first time rifle at my uncle's house both of them had rifle hanging on their walls ,same was the brother in law of my father he also had few guns .i remember he would like to teach me how to hold and shot in my mid teens visit to their home (here in sindh) because i would show lot of interest in what and why and how
I was pretty much a free range kid.
ReplyDelete