Lawn darts, bow & arrow, riding lying down on the ledge in back of the back seat, secondhand smoke, walking a mile to school 2nd-4th grade and about 1/2 mile thereafter, bacon and poptarts for breakfast, no bike helmet - I'm probably dead and don't know it, like in The Sixth Sense.

They didnt have these safety options back then. Riding helmets Safety goggles Machine guards Flares Fire extinguishers Hardhats

There were Clickety-clacks which were pretty much just a couple of glass balls hanging from a string that you pretty much just swung and they clicked together really loudly...they got pulled after the glass balls started to splinter (big duh?). I remember wood-burning sets that we played with. Didn't kids burn themselves with them? Super Elastic Bubble Plastic which was pretty much a toxic blob of plastic that you put on the end of a big straw and blew bubbles with (never ate any, I'm sure some kid did). Then we also had lawn darts...I know those are illegal now! We never impaled each other with them. My brother and I had a Hot Wheels factory and I had some jewelrey making factory which was pretty much melting down platic pellets into a mold and creating your own Hot Wheels and jewelry. Don't know whatever happened to those...

I don't remember anything dangerous. People were just more careful. Kids didn't think danger lurked around every corner and they were taught to respect sharp things, fast things and hot things. And I think we were all a lot smarter about things, taught to observe and think, instead of having handrails on the earth to 'keep us safe'.

Riding in the back of an open pickup. Lack of car seats for kids. Lack of seat belts and latches on the front seats. I went through the back of the front seat and ended up in the front seat once when mom hit the brakes. I piled into mom's back once when my stepfather rear-ended a car. My babysitter's daughter and I fell out of the back of the car at a stop light once. We both hit our heads on the pavement and were knocked silly. Our legs and lower abdomens landed under the back wheels. Babysitter didn't notice us fall out, and when the lights changed the only thing that saved us was all the drivers around us laying on the horns. Other dangers: glass pop bottles that would break and hide curved shards in the grass like a snake waiting to strike. Metal churchkeys on aluminum cans that were often sharp. Once when I was in the ER, the guy ahead of me was waiting to have one removed from his throat. He'd taken it off and dropped it inside, which lots of folks did back then. When he chugged the drink he swallowed it. Horseback riding: dangerous, but safer than the ATVs that replaced it. Minibikes, climbing trees, playing street hockey without a mouth guard, playing baseball, tall sliding boards and swingsets, trying to pump the swing high enough to go over the top. Of course none of these things were as dangerous as the sedentary screen time that kids are doing now.

Not many. People are far to paranoid theses days. All the abductions and bad things that happen today, happened back then. You just didn't hear about it because tv was in it's infancy and the net wasn't even a thought in your daddy's mind. There is way too much information out there. I used to eat dirt and play with bugs and never wash my hands. Now every parent makes their kids wash with anti-bacterial soap, which in my opinion detroys your immune system. My g/f is fanatical about washing while I am the opposite. Guess who gets sick? Let kids be kids.

I dont know how we survived.. we played outdoors until dark and our parents didnt worry, we didnt always wash our hands before eating the food which had NO use by/sell by date, we sat in smoke filled livingrooms while our parents puffed away, also on public transport, trains/busses/airplanes were full of people smoking, my friends and i played in an old railway climbing on rusting/broken trains, nobody ever got hurt!!... we played in ponds/swimming pools in the local parks - there were no lifeguards, yet kids were happier!!!!

Grew up in the 1970's and early 80's -- How well I remember lawn darts. No way they would be sold now. My brother had a bow & arrow and we had bb guns. We had a go cart that we ran on the gravel road (same road as regular traffic) and before we got that, dad took the blades off of an old lawn mower and we rode that. We had nice bikes, but also an old 10-speed with no brakes that we'd coast down the driveway on, knowing we'd crash at the bottom. An old pogo stick that had no rubber on the petals, too. I sliced my leg open on that. The most fun, but probably the most dangerous was my dad fastening our sled to the bumper hitch of his pickup and pulling us from our house to our grandparents (about 5 miles), even driving in and out of the ditches sometimes, to make it more fun for us.

I just wanted to say that (I'll get hammered for this) but "they're" making things TOO safe and idiot proof. Like that commercial where the whole city is in bubble wrap and the guy jumps off the building and in fine print it says..(do not attempt) Sorry folks, but I still refuse to wear seat belts..it's my ass not anyone else's.

I remember lead paint and asbestos. They were everywhere in the public schools I attended. It's a wonder any us survived. Cough, cough, cough

Children from those days grew up fine-----they turned out tougher and less "molly-coddled" than today's wimpy little brats.

My doctor used to smoke during examinations.

You mean like Bucky's song?

This is a very insensitive question. Do you even have any idea how many children did not survive. How dare you even suggest that the safety laws we have now have not saved thousands of lives. There were over 5,000 deaths due to preventable accidents in 2006 and this was down 30% over the past 10 years.

Well, for one thing our parents didn't drive like racecar drivers. The cars of those days were far less dynamic. They were made more for transportation rather than dazzle, speed and being impressive. Parents took more time to be with their children..medicine bottles were always put out of reach..dangerous chemicals were always either locked up or put on high shelves. All the dangers our children face today come with so-called "progress"! Well, some of that progress is very regressive! :)I think the need for child-proof caps is more an endictment of lax parents than anything else! :)

I know in the Uk, there were very few cars on the road in the 60's and before so i guess there were less accidents because of that, and cars were alot slower then too. Ah them were the days!