My father had a really ugly scar down the inside of one thigh. One year he was the first to leap into the water from the small bluff over the swimming hole formed by the creek. No one was aware someone had dumped a load of large concrete chunks with rebar sticking out here and there into the hole over the winter. Somehow the rebar missed the big arteries and veins and the other boys got him back to town. The coal mines in that part of Iowa were still running, and the local doc had lots of experience with trauma injuries.
Assorted of my male relatives from that generation occasionally observed it was a miracle they had survived their childhoods.
I’ve heard similar stories. Honestly I recognize that helicopter parenting is insane and free range parenting is likely for the best but when you hear about what the old timers did for fun it’s not hard at all to see where the helicopter parenting impulse came from. Especially now that kids just up and dying routinely is no longer a thing.
I was a free-range kid in a small town (well, ~4,000 people total). At the end of second grade, Dad presented me with a wristwatch and said, “Dinner’s at 6:00. If you’re not here, you go hungry. Regardless, be home fifteen minutes after the street lights come on.” Free was a relative thing at that time and place. If you weren’t careful enough, someone’s aunt or grandmother saw you and called your mom. Briggs’ stuff doesn’t ever seem to show that sort of network.
Some comedian had a lot of material about “the adult conspiracy”.
Oh yes, the country network was an absolute thing! You could range far and wide but the country folks always were monitoring your every move. One of the many things I love about the city is the privacy and anonymity.
My father had a really ugly scar down the inside of one thigh. One year he was the first to leap into the water from the small bluff over the swimming hole formed by the creek. No one was aware someone had dumped a load of large concrete chunks with rebar sticking out here and there into the hole over the winter. Somehow the rebar missed the big arteries and veins and the other boys got him back to town. The coal mines in that part of Iowa were still running, and the local doc had lots of experience with trauma injuries.
Assorted of my male relatives from that generation occasionally observed it was a miracle they had survived their childhoods.
I’ve heard similar stories. Honestly I recognize that helicopter parenting is insane and free range parenting is likely for the best but when you hear about what the old timers did for fun it’s not hard at all to see where the helicopter parenting impulse came from. Especially now that kids just up and dying routinely is no longer a thing.
I was a free-range kid in a small town (well, ~4,000 people total). At the end of second grade, Dad presented me with a wristwatch and said, “Dinner’s at 6:00. If you’re not here, you go hungry. Regardless, be home fifteen minutes after the street lights come on.” Free was a relative thing at that time and place. If you weren’t careful enough, someone’s aunt or grandmother saw you and called your mom. Briggs’ stuff doesn’t ever seem to show that sort of network.
Some comedian had a lot of material about “the adult conspiracy”.
Oh yes, the country network was an absolute thing! You could range far and wide but the country folks always were monitoring your every move. One of the many things I love about the city is the privacy and anonymity.