by Daisy Luther theorganicprepper.ca(link is external) ...Raise your hand if you survived a childhood in the 60s, 70s, and 80s that included one or more of the following, frowned-upon activities (raise both hands if you bear a scar proving your daredevil participation in these dare-devilish events): • Riding in the back of an open pick-up truck with a bunch of other kids • Leaving the house after breakfast and not returning until the streetlights came on, at which point, you raced home, ASAP so you didn’t get in trouble • Eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the school cafeteria • Riding your bike without a helmet • Riding your bike with a buddy on the handlebars, and neither of you wearing helmets • Drinking water from the hose in the yard • Swimming in creeks, rivers, ponds, and lakes (or what they now call *cough* “wild swimming“) • Climbing trees (One park cut the lower branches from a tree on the playground in case some stalwart child dared to climb them) • Having snowball fights (and accidentally hitting someone you shouldn’t) • Sledding without enough protective equipment to play a game in the NFL • Carrying a pocket knife to school (or having a fishing tackle box with sharp things on school property) • Camping • Throwing rocks at snakes in the river • Playing politically incorrect games like Cowboys and Indians • Playing Cops and Robbers with *gasp* toy guns • Pretending to shoot each other with sticks we imagined were guns • Shooting an actual gun or a bow (with *gasp* sharp arrows) at a can on a log, accompanied by our parents who gave us pointers to improve our aim. Heck, there was even a marksmanship club at my high school • Saying the words “gun” or “bang” or “pow pow” (there actually a freakin’ CODE about “playing with invisible guns”) • Working for your pocket money well before your teen years • Taking that money to the store and buying as much penny candy as you could afford, then eating it in one sitting • Eating pop rocks candy and drinking soda, just to prove we were exempt from that urban legend that said our stomachs would explode • Getting so dirty that your mom washed you off with the hose in the yard before letting you come into the house to have a shower • Writing lines for being a jerk at school, either on the board or on paper • Playing “dangerous” games like dodgeball, kickball, tag, whiffle ball, and red rover (The Health Department of New York issued a warning about the “significant risk of injury” from these games) • Walking to school alone
Come on, be honest. Tell us what crazy stuff you did as a child. Teach your children to be independent this summer.
We didn’t get trophies just for showing up. We were forced, yes, forced – to do actual work and no one called protective services. And we gained something from all of this.
Our independence.
Do you really think that children who are terrified by someone pointing his finger and saying “bang” are going to lead the revolution against tyranny? No, they will cower in their tiny apartments, hoping that if they behave well enough, they’ll continue to be fed.
Do you think our ancestors who fought in the revolutionary war were afraid to climb a tree or get dirty?
Those of us who grew up this way (and who raise our children to be fearless) are the resistance against a coddled, helmeted, non-offending society that aims for a dependant populace. In a country that was built on rugged self-reliance, we are now the minority.
Nurture the rebellion this summer. Boot them outside. Get your kids away from their TVs, laptops, and video games. Get sweaty and dirty. Do things that makes the wind blow through your hair. Go off in search of the best climbing tree you can find. Shoot guns. Learn to use a bow and arrow. Play outside all day long and catch fireflies after dark. Do things that the coddled world considers too dangerous and watch your children blossom.
Teach your kids what freedom feels like.
excerpted from http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/the-last-rebels-25-things-we-did-as-kids...(link is external) please click through for full story and many links.