HOW DID WE SURVIVE?

     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 Have Decided...

      I have decided, well somebody decided, that I will no longer climb my step ladder in the winter!

      We were watching the kids across the street decorating their house for Halloween. Their dad was on the step ladder putting up orange and black lights. At that time the micro manager said, "We're not putting up Christmas lights this year." That was it. The decision was made. Done! Over! Okay, I was told that if I wanted to live in this house I could not go up the step ladder.

And the ladder leans in

Great window reflection!

     Now putting up Christmas lights here has been a tradition. We've had the same house since 1970. We've had the same set of lights since 1970. The lights have gone up in the same place since 1970. You get the drift. This is a well established pattern. Simple. Except for one thing. A step ladder is needed.  Now the step ladder is really not high enough, so I have been standing on the very top of the step ladder to get the lights on at the peak. Complicating the matter is that one side of the ladder has to be on soil and the other side is on cement. There's usually lots of snow. Sometimes the ground is frozen and solid so there's a firm base. Sometimes the ground is only partially frozen and will suddenly give away.

    So it was decided that the old guy would not go up the ladder any more to put up Christmas lights. It is risky. Step ladders aren't user friendly. 

   I have always been a risk taker. Now I realize that if I fell on the floor I might hurt myself and if I fell from the top of a step ladder it might be game ending. So I have happily come to a conclusion and made a decision.

    Have you made any live changing decisions?

Why I Moved My Smoke Detector

      Last week my friend, Dee, fell and broke ribs , a vertebrae and had some spinal damage. It was a shock to say the least.

     Dee has lived in her house since 1965. She was about 26 when she moved into her house. Over the years you get comfortable with your house. You know your house. There are things the house tells you and you get to know ever part of it and how to use it. You tend to do the things you always did as a young person.  You forget that you get older.

    Dee was having a birthday party for a grand daughter and they were putting balloons up on the lights. The sturdy old oak pedestal table was used to climb up to the lights, just like it had always been used. This time it over balanced and Dee was pitched over the open stairway and fell to the bottom. She's lucky to be alive.

    It made me stop and think about risky situations and places in my house. I'm historically a risk taker. It was time to take a sober look at things.

    The first thing that came to my mind was a smoke detector at the top of my stairs. The smoke detector had been placed so that it was above the second step down. So as you changed a smoke detector battery, not only were you on a step ladder at the top of the stairs, you had to lean out over the stair well. That's the point at which I said ,"This risk has to be eliminated." 

The two screw holes show how far I moved the smoke detector so that it wasn't over the stairs.

Look way up and see the tiny little smoke detector

    So I learned something out of Dee's tragedy.

    I hope others will look around and change risky situations or behaviors.