1960s CHILDHOOD PASTIMES FOR KIDS: 'NO TECH', JUST IMAGINATION AND INGENUITY... 😎

I found this on a great looking YouTube channel that popped up while I was browsing: British Time Capsule. 🙂

It describes in one short video, games and features of a 1960s childhood that have been described on here in more detail in articles that I've written and posted. They specify UK childhood games and pastimes, but I know from the articles that I've posted that they are very similar to childhood experiences pretty much everywhere. 😏

Was this a better childhood? Or is it 'old fuddy-duddy', nostalgic rose tinted specs to think so...? 🤔

Personally, having thought about it, I genuinely DO think that we had a better, more real, more adventurous childhood than kids do now. 😎

We had much, much greater freedom: and from that, greater self reliance, resourcefulness and resilience. And without hi-tech, and factory built sophisticated toys, we had to (and very much enjoyed) - make many of our toys on our own : bows and arrows from bamboo canes and string; crossbows from two pieces of wood, a couple of nails, and elastic bands: and clothes pegs for bolts to fire; swords made of sticks; buggies made from wood and discarded pram (baby carriage) wheels... Etc, etc, etc... 😎

We were out all day - playing football - for guys, or skipping rope - for girls; or neighborhood-wide games of hide and seek - where all joined-in; so too with cycling adventures to far off exotic parks (about a couple of miles away)... 😏

Then there was the stone throwing battles with the kids from the next street, or the next neighborhood - 😲... A cut here, a graze there - a few lumps and bumps... Maybe a clip 'round the ear 'ole from mum after she'd bandaged you up - for being so stupid... But then off you'd go, back to the battlefront... 😏

Woo...! Dangerous stuff, some of that described above... 😳 Health and Safety would be all over that like a nasty rash these days... 😳

But it was real. It was life... And, we were learning, resilient, resourceful, imaginative, adventurous little human beings - being just that... And being trusted to be that - and not being coddled: and also NOT being expected to be anything more than children; not being burdened by ludicrous issues and problems that went WAY above our age range ability to even comprehend.

That's what made our childhood better than now: it was real, adventurous, full of imagination, creativity, resilience, resourcefulness, and a wee bit of danger... And with it trust: trust that we knew where the danger limit was - we'd be sensible enough to stay within that. 😏

Nowadays...? It seems to me like the resourcefulness, imagination, and creativity have been replaced by technology - which has rendered them obsolete... Resilience and danger - and trust in our sensibility - have been replaced by restrictions and safety measures...

And with all these qualities purged out of childhood, they have  been replaced by kids being loaded up with new, unnecessary burdens and issues, which are beyond their developmental capacity to even comprehend - imposed upon them by supposed experts... 😔

The last part was a bit of a rant, I suppose...  Just ignore it if you'd rather... I may be wrong about it...

But anyway: this is another nostalgic look back at our childhood years. Was it better than now - or not...? What's your opinion... (M).

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