The freedom enjoyed by baby-boomers when they were children
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- čas přidán 17. 08. 2021
- It is not uncommon to hear older people bemoan the fact that children are now mollycoddled and seldom allowed out to play on their own or even to walk to school. No wonder they are so often overweight. If only they could spend more time playing outside, instead of sitting in their bedrooms staring at electronic screens. Of course, when we were young, there was not all this knife crime and there were far fewer cars on the roads. The world was a lot safer in those days.
We weren't being invaded by people who hate us.
They are the MOST ungrateful group of people I've ever seen
they had it safe and made it unsafe using their naive ignorance...
People say Hitler was bad, at least he killed himself, the older people in society to day that invited the enemy behind our gates, refuse to hold themself accountable.
Absolutely!
They don't hate you, and there were plenty of immigrants in the 60s, Indians, West Indies etc, maybe there's just too many now
@@ibraheemeastwood7022 "maybe there is just too many now"
"White british people in London 40%"
Yeah, maybe
The reason why there were more child deaths from traffic is simple: EVERY child was outside playing, there was nothing else to do then.
You're right in on sense, being outside was major part of 'play' but let also remember all the clubs and thing w could participate in & mostly for free...from scouts and guides, to local youth clubs, boxing/athletics clubs, also load of church events/clubs kids.... Yep, not to every kids taste back then but a load of kids I remember gave them a try...and werent hanging about street corners in gangs... Plus, us girls who liked camping/guides also Carrie our sheaf knives...can't recall any xxx!
It's all true, Depending on where you lived growing up! I recently spoke to a retired village policeman in Devon asking him for directions, After a while he said after WW2 he enlisted into the police force, His duties where to patrol 3 other villages and gain a working relationship and respect from the locals, After a 40year career the only arrests where made on two drunks on a Saturday night!!
@@keen2b - Reminds me of a story I heard about an old Devon widow who was so petrified by the stories she saw on the news that she only ever went outdoors in broad daylight. Her village had only one crime ever recorded on the books - someone cycling after dark without lights.
@@sirrathersplendid4825 Good thing the main stream media wouldn't try to scare us into staying at home these days....
@Richard Fox It's very difficult to be knocked over by a car when you spend all your time in your bedroom playing on CoD, and when you get lifts or escorted everywhere.
There certainly was not the level of knife crime. Children today are more likely to be playing on their computer than getting exercise. I was born in the baby boomer era and I walked to school. As someone who is near pension age I am very fit, still running marathons, swimming and hiking. Today children fed too much fast foods, don't get enough exercise and I see much more violence in society in general. I miss seeing the local bobby on the beat. I see too much graffiti, and less of a sense of community today.
I am of a similar age to you and I echo your sentiments 100%.
I'm not sure about the "See much more violence" comment. Even though the fear of violence is at an all time high, the actual incidence is at an all time low. One reason for the near non existence of the police, should you unfortunately need their assistance. I suspect this will lead to violent individuals acting with impunity, at least until they kill somebody. The "Gangs of New York" film is at least grounded in the basic facts of that time, and intervillage battles in my home country of Wales were a common feature. Maybe it is because everyone is at home now, but much violence is domestic and hidden, or drug turf related these days.
I was walking alone to school on my own at age 6/7, across a busy road and up a steep hill, about 1 mile in all. At the same age my uncle now 95 used to walk 4 miles each way.
You are so right, especially about the local copper, just hearing that he was spotted in your street or near your school etc stopped a lot of stuff before it started, I think our friend is way way out with this video, perhaps just a rush job this one, his maths dont stand up, I had a knife pulled on me and that was only the second one used to hurt someone at school in 12 years of so and more because we came from a large family and before my 12 years others in family had gone to that school, as for traffic not only the amount of cars now but the speed and the race mentality, they have to get from a to b at break neck speed, non of this old highway code, give way to pedestrians either exists now days.
Agreed other than I'm not sure about the violence being greater, it's certainly made more of, perhaps in order to make people afraid. Anyway whether it was 'safe' or not the point he misses is that we were not afraid! I was born in '61 and played out until teatime when I'd come home usually wet from streams and bruised from falling out of trees, bonfire burns. It was great! I loved the adventurous weekends and summer holidays. Fit, slim, healthy, no allergies, strong immune system. I'm the same today at 59.
Fear and addiction to screens is the downfall of our race.
I remember 'don't speak to strangers', 'keep Britain tidy' and 'look right, left and right again'.
Now its 'don't like white people' , 'keep Britain woke' and 'only look far left'
And don't forget getting your cycling proficiency badge. You know, all about stopping at red lights and not cycling on the pavement and stuff like that.
yeah we were street wise
And "If you want to know the time, ask a policeman".
Blair and of late the Tories have absolutely destroyed this once great and safe country now our children's future is looking very bleak indeed !
Very bleak! I fear for my daughter’s
czcams.com/video/JQmybTqgjaE/video.html
I'm terrified for my grandkids.
It starts at home....poor parenting.
Give me a period when it was safer than it is now? Lots wrong with the country but I think people are scared by the press/Internet to think it is more dangerous than it actually is.
There was less knife crime even though most boys had pen knifes on them
& milbro catapults & air guns too !
There was less knife crime because most boys had pen knives on them, and every one of them knew it.
David Cooper The Black widow catapult was the weapon of choice when I was a kid .
@@M-S_4321 I had plenty of fights and no one ever pulled out a knife
@@musthaveacamel2157 You mean boys exercised self control and didn't pull their knives because it was just a fist fight?
In the late 40s & early 50s I used to roam with a gang of 8 to 10 year old-lads on the outskirts of a northern industrial town. Like many lads, we were daft, & did dangerous things - climbing on rotten beams in ruined watermills, falling out of high trees, once personally falling into a steep reservoir overflow chute and being flushed into a lower reservoir, playing with catapults, throwing 1d bangers, venturing wintertime on thin ice. Rarely told mum & dad what we'd been up to. Accidents, yes, but no stabbings, no violence. Freedom! It were great!
Never told my parents what I'd been up to either and it took me a long time to work out how it was that they seemed to know....they'd done the same things themselves. And my very respectable grandfather had poached salmon and trapped rabbits and when HE was a kid in the late 1890s.
I was a crack shot with my katty :)
Great days very industrial In my northern town we got up to all sorts we used to scrap alot but just fists everyone carried a penknife but the thought never entered our heads to use it on someone if you couldn't beat them with your fists youd keep out of their way some tough blokes around would give you a crack if you got out of order
One of the great things about Simon's channel is that it prompts us to share views and memories of life not so long ago, in so many different areas, and long may his words of wisdom continue to do so.
Yes we all had sheath knives. Never thought of or heard of any stabbings. Agree they must always happen amongst us as humans are inherently aggressive and dominant primates.@@Treeman196
In the “olden days” there were sanctions for crime, approved schools,Borstals. People did things but the threat of punishment was always there.
Absolutely correct 👍
And if you screwed with someone's child the father or neighbors would stomp you. Now call the police and they do nothing.
Plus , if you got caught for doin something Petty by the old Bill … a few slaps and that was that … the coppers could carry on doin their job … without all the red tape …
They have severe punishments now - they give you a lifelong criminal record for any petty offence. Trouble is, having a criminal record disqualifies you from nearly all careers other than crime.
yes poorsods
We were children. Safety wasn’t important to us. We didn’t worry about adult stuff. Not with bows and arrows and castles to be made to defend ourselves against our own imagined foes. Old tunnels had to be explored with makeshift torches. Streams had to be crossed on Tarzan ropes. Yes busy times and all in steaming hot sunshine. The only newspaper we saw was when mum and dad bought us fish and chips. It was a different world. It was a child’s world no analysis required.
It is not the responsibility of children to be safe, it's adults responsibility to teach them to be safe.
@@grannyannie6744 correct but we were all children and in the 1970’s our in the sticks, life was great because we had no responsibility except to enjoy ourselves.
Stephen, your post brought a smile of nostalgia as I can remember swinging across streams, climbing rock faces with no fear, exploring tunnels, long hot summer days and defending forts. But in my case the fort was real, built by the local council and you had to get there early or the older, stronger kids from the nearby streets would occupy it. If that happened you had to fight, and fight hard to get them out if they wouldn't share. And rocks, sticks (and some times knives) would get produced. I'm in my mid fifties now, but I also remember some of the events that went on back then, such as the kidnap and murder of Leslie Whittle by the "Black Panther", and the rise of the serial killer phenomena (by name) exemplified by the "Yorkshire Ripper". Back in the 60's 70's, Radio/TV and the written press covered these events but with less sensationalism driven by some political agenda. At least that's how I remember it.
@@JFDA5458 I remember the panther too. And there was a maniac called the fox who went berserk on housing estates. I think the foyle is the idea of risk. It seems to have penetrated everything. If I remember it came out of of catastrophe diagrams developed by NASA when the Apollo series of rockets were being designed. “What happens if this screw fails.”
@@grannyannie6744 it's adults responsibility to teach them to be safe. but not to fill them with fear.
I never come across anything like that when i was achild . Played from morning till early evening. Explored derelict houses , played on bomb pecks etc. Those were the days . In all that it made me street wise ,could look after myself and aware of dangers
I'm afraid that you are wrong on this occasion. Selecting random isolated incidents from the past 100 years bears NO comparison to todays crime rates.
Bet you found lots of treasure in the ruins 🪙 💎 💍 😉😉
i was born in the early 50s. Yes i did hear about someone had been murdered and cut to pieces , not by achild. My mother made me a ware of life . Bless her and she is still alive at the age of 95
Of course when I were a nipper in East London we had the Kray gang. Criminals but only bothered "non civilians". That and we had little stuff worth nicking meant less crime.
Can you remember those signs outside building sites, " children keep out - this is not a playground " , what ? it's the best playground ever !
They didn't know much about reverse phycology either...
I rember there were almost no fat kids, the one poor child overweight, the rest were as fit as a butchers dog, we ate twice a day in school holidays, toast for breakfast then out playing all day long, back home to wolf down our homemade dinner, maybe some supper before bed if we were still awake from all that playing
Those were the days, i remember them with joy, What will the kids of today remember about their childhood.
There is a video on YT called 1967 street scenes. . . . It is quite amazing looking at London in this time . . . There is not 1 overweight young person in it . . . . How times have changed.
Ps the video upscale to HD is amazing
Yes Tracey and it was more fun. You made your sandwiches and went out all day Swimming , Cycling. In those days bedtime was early as well. Your parents were more old school and school you never missed. Children of to day have missed out on a lot.
We had freedom and did not hide at home afraid of what might be.
Exactly. History will look back on the early 21st century as being, 'The Age of the Coward'.
We look back when young unaware of crimes committed by children In fact so rare they appeared in newspapers. Our lives were simpler, no drugs on the street, we owned nothing to be steeled, other than diner money. We played in the street and quarries. We climbed trees and lamp posts. Pullovers for goal posts on the local green. Best tv for kids. Happy holidays in Bognor or Skeggy, the excitement of seeing the sea in the distance. The smell of petrol and leather in Dad's old car, could go on...
Yes , I caught the tail end of that childhood, born in 71 .
My thoughts too. Thank you.
Now Bognor is literally the most criminal town in the UK
Couldn't agree more, Poaching, fishing, Building cycles from scraped parts,We kids played outside what ever the weather,Look how things have changed youngsters today spending more time in than out,They know little about the natural world around them, More about computers and mobile phones and texting!!!!
keen2b sad but true , when I go to the forest mountain biking the only others I see doing it are old bastards like myself , I tried to get my son involved in the past but he had zero interest.
I wish I could’ve experienced one iota of the freedom boomers had when they were kids. Everything nowadays is so restrictive and over criminalized.
Freedom? Let’s just say there was a lot of boredom involved. One heck of a lot.
@@sirrathersplendid4825 You act like they knew what they were missing today.
@@HoratioKJV // I remember being quite bored when forced to be outside all day.
@@sirrathersplendid4825 As opposed to doing what?
@@HoratioKJV - Making Airfix kits, playing with toy soldiers, reading books, etc.
I was driving to school at fourteen years old. I had a gun rack stocked with a 12 gauge shotgun and a 10/22 rifle. I wasn't the only one. Never worried about a break-in.
10/22... the old Marlin?
@Richard Fox not true. hell, children aren't even in class these days.
@@Hiraghm
Sturm, Ruger and Co. 1964 model. A birthday gift from my Uncle for my ninth birthday.
Is your neck red ?
@@rule3036
Occasionally, after a day spent under the Summer sun.
Where I was brought up, those ‘bad people’ we were warned about, as seemingly everyone knew where these ‘bad people’ lived. Bonfires lit in middle of the road for guy fawkes night. We got sent to shops for cigarettes and no one batted an eyelid. As an 8 year old, I was left in charge of my siblings whilst mum went to the shops at the top of the road.
So much freedom, migrating between the gardens of friends. Out in the street playing 'piggy in the middle' until dusk. going out with our fishing nets to the big park in Dartford. Cycling into the countryside from the age of 10. Flying along on my rubber wheeled Jaco skates. The nearby new council estate had wonderful smooth pavements. Hopscotch on the pavement outside my house. So much freedon. I was born in 1946.
One of the great things about Simon's channel is that it prompts us to share views and memories of life not so long ago, in so many different areas, and long may his words of wisdom continue to do so.
When my friend and i were looking for butterflies in 1962 a man approached us and attempted to lure us away from the field in which we stood. He said that he knew that there was a "butterfly nest" in another part of the field. Even though we were only about 7 years old I knew that there were no such things as 'butterfly nests' - this piece of information may have saved our young lives.
Spot on. Happened to me . Not the butterfly thing but a man wanted us to get in his car . I ran then so did my friend. 7 years old but you new it wasn't right cause it had been drummed into your head
I was having this conversation with my mate, we met in and grew up in the 70's. Last of the best childhood times. No phones, out from dawn till dusk, no Xbox and the like to make you at stay at home zombie.
I grew up in the late 80s early 90s and the computers we had at the time were quite primitive compared to the ones today. They were usually used when it was too dark to play out or was raining. We played football went to the woods played on our bikes roller blades and skateboards were a big thing at that time as well. I think the kids being on the computers all the time is really quite a recent thing to be honest.
I remember as a kid we had a phone ringer mounted on the outside of the house because if the phone rang no one ,not us kids ,or our parents would be inside. Nobody watched TV or frankly even sat down much , it serves you well as you get older. At least so far!!!
But back then you could try and solve such problems because most people were indigenous British. Now you need a translator and dodge being called racist.
The solution will have to be much more severe and all consuming
Actually I used go carry a sheath knife on my belt when I was a pre teen but it would never have considered stabbing somebody with it.
I tell this to my mother constantly, the luckiest generation to have ever lived! I just think it's ironic, its most of their generation wanting diversity! 🤦🏼♂️
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The boomers were the most selfish generation.
The 1960s corrupted the mind.
Not me I was born in the early 50s I hate the way the country has gone into was brought up in the industrial north to a working class family I had a great childhood we had nothing like everyone else but we never went hungry dad made sure of that and mum both worked hard .I'm not looking back with Rose tinted glasses there was hardship but overall happy times
@@Treeman196 You have just described my childhood exactly.
Used to buy a Twin Rover ticket on a Saturday and travel all over London: could have ended up anywhere. Camped out in the woods in the summer, even crossed the channel to Dieppe with a friend from school, no older than 13, it was a different world.
We used to get the bus to Heathrow Airport, because It had the easiest shops in the world to steal chocolate bars from.
When I was a four year old, we'd often play on the railway tracks in Sydney's inner west. One day one of the older kids said you could hear the train coming if you put your ear to the rail. Even as a 4 year old I knew that pretty bloody stupid but still sends a shiver up the spine!
It was only stupid if you stayed there when you heard a train!
We used to put pennies on the line and when the train went over it used to leave an imprint in the steel.
Inner city North Sydney, being a girl and oldest/first child my parents wouldn't let me out in the street alone. They considered it too risky. As an adolescent (to age 17) home before dark / sunset. Then they bought me a car and I got my driver's licence! Considered safer than public transport and the pedestrian streets!!! No seatbelts, of course.
@@edmundblackaddercoc8522
Bullshit, those track's are Bisalloy and hard as glass!
@@Allangulon In my experience, pennies stay on the rail, and double in diameter. I've still got one somewhere!
I'd rather be a child of the 1970s than a child of today.
I don't think most people would pick road safety as their number one concern. I would imagine, however, that the decline in community (letting your kid out with trust in the local community) plays a big part, especially in big cities. The gradual breakdown/dilution of said communities has wrought much damage in the past 40 years, the true extent of which we are still yet to see.
👍
@Dr Harold Shipman you're from the hood I see. 🤣 Man you need to get out and about in London. You'd soon change your views
I was one of those children who left home early in the morning to play with friends or go cycling. However the big difference between then and now is one of risk aversion. My parents knew exactly what the risks were and constantly drummed into me how to cross roads safely and to avoid unwanted social contact with adult strangers, advice which I always adhered to. Similarly everyone knew the risks of dangerous strains of flu such as the Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968, but the panic of risk aversion had not yet taken hold. Life went on as normal and people mixed freely.
Spot on my mum used to drum it into our heads abouts getting in cars with strangers talking to strangers Minding the road as she called it. Yet I minded the road and still got run over lol. It hasn't done me any harm and I'm a women, it makes you more aware I think . I live in a nice road but you never see kids playing out. I used to love to hear kids out playing now its gone. So people think letting there kids watch shit on TV and on phones will keep them safe ? I think that's more mentally damging then letting your kids out to play. We had neabours everone looked ut for each other . The same when my boys were playing out, we all kept our eyes on the kids , crazy how no one trust anyone anymore.x
Good point
I had been told that if somebody tried to grab me while I was walking home from school I should drop my books and run. I was very alert -- not because I was afraid, but because I wanted to carry out "drop your books and run," which carried with it a sense of adventure. I was also taught that if I got lost in the woods I was to keep walking downhill until I found water, then follow the water to civilization.
I will be 66 in 3 weeks time, and my parents were just like yours. Most of our generation survived the hazards of childhood, and I wouldn’t want to be a child now.
Our parents had lived through and survived world war 2. No wonder they believed it was safe to let their kids play out unsupervised when bombs were no longer going to fall on them. I grew up in Harlow, a new town set in countryside and woodland. There were so many kids in our street we were never alone and mum would warn us if any “nasty men” had been seen in the vicinity and we were to stay away. Naturally we would go looking for them! In a gang you are never afraid. When we were in 6th form there was a report that one boy had stabbed another in our class. The stabbed boy recovered and the perpetrator was expelled.
This is truly eye opening.., why is it not mentioned? Now that’s the question .. and thanks to your wonderful daily deliveries I’m more informed 💕
Well, I had a lovely childhood with a lot of freedom, but then I lived in a sleepy little town deep in the the south of the UK
Me 2 it's called london
Me too - played on the bomb sites in Stratford E15
45 years ago I got on a bus from London to Delhi - it cost £79, France Germany Austria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and through the Khyber pass to India - FREEDOM
Now that I would have liked to have done sir!
Wow
My childhood was plenty dangerous but we were not tolerated in the house
I "enjoyed" an unsupervised childhood, travelling around alone on Manchester buses, ignorant of Hindley and Brady cruising Manchester streets. I would be physically ejected from my home with instructions to play with "those boys", most of whom were on probation (with good reason). At my Catholic Primary school, God's love was taught to us at the end of a strap, a custom which was continued at St. Bede's College, a mediaeval nightmare masquerading as a place of learning.
How times change ! Today , St Bedes advertises itself as being a place where "children are taught to respect themselves and to respect and care for others" and has an Ofsted rating of "Outstanding" .
@@ianandrews6890
I have it on good authority that St. Bede's is a very different place these days (thank Heavens). In fairness to St.Bede's, I am glad to have had the opportunity to study Latin and some ancient Greek. I also studied German there (which later earned me my living). If only this had been possible without all the aggression.
These days the kids are all riding around in the cars, back then we all played outside all day, as far as knife crime goes, the biggest difference we see now, any criminal, is a total lack of respect for the Police, one certainly get a feelibg of being less safe especially in era where we should be more safe.
I grew up in a small town 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the early 1960s. I was the oldest of three brothers. We had absolute freedom to roam all over the town and in the woods. We did this on foot and on bicycles. This was the case years before I was 11 when we moved to Texas (where we also had freedom). We were warned of dangers from strangers, so it's not like the adults thought we were completely safe. But since it was a small town most people knew one another. It was common for my parents to know what we were up to even though we were rarely anywhere close to home. But I think adults back then accepted the fact that the benefits of freedom in childhood outweighed the dangers.
I was in England 1968-1974. As children we were free. I was able to go out all day and do what I wished. We had to be in before street lights lit up. Your summer sunset time was way later. I loved it.
I was a child in the 1950s when there were very few cars. There were enormously more cars in the 1970s causing the deaths. This then dropped with congestion in the cities and children were deprived of the road as a play area. So things were better for children in the 1950s. Mrs Thatcher sold off school playing fields- a complete disaster for children.
My Grandmother was attacked on Peckham Rye by a local gang. This was the 1930s
I grew up in Birmingham in the 50,s and all my memories of that time are only of the freedom that I and my friend's had ,local park, canal tow paths,games in the road, no fears, and doing errands to the shops for my Mum crossing roads and here I am 75 good heaith and all the better for that time..
I saw some children in London last week,playing outside ..I had to sit down with the shock.My mother told us to come back home when it was dark..in the 1950s…we played football in the street for hours
I remember the Green Cross Code Man back in the 70’s due to the high death rate of children on the road, even so, I was out on the streets all day at the weekends from the age 7 with my friends, never experienced any problems, best time of my life!!
One of the Green cross code adverts was filmed right outside our house when I was about 6. My mum gave them all cups of tea. 186 onley road london. It was a lovely place back then. Now it's a S### hole
I preferred Tufty lol
Intresting fact, the green cross code man was played by David Prowse who was darth vader in star wars
One of those adverts was filmed in Tooting.
@James Smith I am talking about London as a whole. Come to think of it, any large city in the UK. I moved to rural Devon to escape the lunacy. Gang culture, shootings, stabbings. Where I live now, that seems like another planet to me. My only hope is the cancer does not spread to my little village (my piece of paradise) before I die.
Lord of the Flies is "real", rural and small town life is safer for children.
But growing up overly sheltered causes one problems later in life.
As a coach driver I am often moving kids and their teachers about. Believe me they are coddled in cotton wool all the while they are away from school.
I think its a very personal experience. I grew up in what was an old village which had become a outlying suburb of a city. There were still pockets of old farm land that we could ride bikes on, had bonfires for Guy Fawkes night, clamber around in the long grass pretending to be soldiers, we also went catching toads, frogs and tadpoles from an old pond. This was just across from my house on a very quiet road. Came home when my mum would call me in. Now its all houses and shops, no parks and heaps more traffic. Life was still tough and we had to aware of strangers as bad things happened. Now those kids in that street do not have this to explore and just be kids. Thats a pity. This was the late 70's.
What an astonishing figure for road deaths.
I was allowed at the age of 6 to ride my bike to the store 1 mile away. I was 8 when a man in a car pulled up next to me while walking down the street and tried to lure me in. I knew what to do and it wasn't get in the car , 1975.
I got accosted repeatedly by weird men in the 1970s. Worst time was when I was playing in the lifts in a multi-story car park. The guy pretended to be a caretaker. I ran off the moment he started fiddling with his flies.
A free range childhood, and an affordable home in adulthood.. Best time to be alive
I like that phrase: we were indeed “free-range kids”.
The biggest risk to children was other children. But never from knife attacks like now.
We played football on the street until 1962. When car traffic increased to cause multiple interruptions to our game. We then played on nearby grass.
Psychopathy is a universal phenomenon - they have always been with us, and always will be.
The more things change,
the more they remain the same
I grew up in the 60's & 70's did anyone else have to go to the newsagents with a note from their mum with authorization to buy a packet of cigarettes for her? also in the 70's every other advert on tv was a public service broadcast about cross the road & don't get in strangers cars.
Yeah, I remember My Mum sending me for ladies products embarrassing! But I got a 10p mix out of it.
Yep, did that for mum. Shop was at the end of our road and you had to cross outside your house in front of mum then wait when you returned to cross back again. It was completely normal. Every kid I knew did it. As for road sense: look right, look left, look right again, still works for me.
Not waving but drowning, remember that one ?
@@AJ-qn6gd Stevie Smith is one of my favourite poets.
I remember the seat belt as by Jimmg Saville!
Us 1950's kids had nothing really, but were so happy making go karts from old prams, running about in the fields making camps and climbing trees, making raff's on lakes, swinging from ropes on trees, going fishing and steam engine trainspotting all over UK, sneaking into locomotive sheds climbing up onto steam engine footplates, Cycling or walking for miles in all sorts of bad weather, and even doing a newspaper round before going to school for 10/- a week aged 12. As we never had any pocket money given to us. So we never stopped moving around.
I often played with knives when young .. I bought all sorts and sizes of knives when I was young.. My friends and I played and swapped knives at school... We played outside at playtime without any effort to hide our knife games...
We never stabbed nor heard of anyone having been stabbed..
I was at school 1970-1982....
Times have changed..
I'm a 1956 model and never had any of what you're saying Simon,
More kids got knocked over because of the sudden invasion of cars onto the street that ALL the kids played on.
We all had knives of some sort or another and I can't remember anyone getting stabbed. As we got older we would all have Air rifles, Catapults, Bowes & arrows. There was the odd accident but never malicious.
Familiar faces in the community and generally people never travelled very far. If there was a kiddy fiddler found in the community he would of been delt with by the Mum's & Dad's and the rest of the adult community before informing the police.
So I have to say I don't agree with you on this one.
Communities are not the same by far. People move around more and not settled, multiculturalism dose not work as it should.
But the world moves on and we have to adapt to it.
I was exactly the same mate, do you remember the pop out 177 Gats? We all had them Lol. West Drayton kid, but born in Perivale, ‘56 👍
My and my best mate have about 24 years between us age-wise and we both grew up within a mile of each other so we've had some interesting conversations about this over the years. At 14 he was working, selling cigs at school using dinner money to make clothes money. Me at 14 I was either out fishing or biking, or being told not to leave the tiny street for some reason. His parents barely enforced rules and he skipped school for years, mine enforced every rule and I never missed a day. I'm not better off at all in any way but youth
Still glad I had that freedom as a kid, my mates and I had a cracks of a time playing in building sites, finding things in creeks and playing cowboy and Indians in the scrub. We all carried pocket knives but I don't think it ever occurred to us to use them on each other, just trees and park benches. No watch, but had to be home by five or else. Not rose coloured glasses, plenty of grazed knees, a couple broken bones over the years and partularly bad cut when a workman lobbed a half brick at us.
Exactly. 100% my childhood... and I wouldn't change a bit of it. Funny you mention building sites.. oh lord, best memories ever. I learned the dangers of loft insulating material (i.e. fibre glass) when one poor kid thought it would be perfect for wiping his arse with. 😅
Traffic deaths, rather than simply comparing the numbers for 1965 and the present, you need to look at the number of 'interactions' - how many children were playing on the street, how many opportunities were there?
Knife crime - you seem to have trawled across the whole of the 20th Century to find stabbings, but I feel your video would be considerably longer if you read accounts of all the stabbing in London just this year.
The great thing is he has us all talking about it and reminiscing!
1971..less cars but 1 still took a short cut through me on my 1st Royal Enfield..thanks for 3 months in traction!!!
My late father was born in Sheffield in 1923, at the peak of the ‘Sheffield Gang Wars’. He didn’t seem to think that childhood then was a reason to celebrate (he was smoking by the age of 12 BTW). One self-inflicted ‘danger’ then apparently, was a craze for those with either bicycles (or ‘push bikes’ as we used to say), scooters or roller skates, to hitch a tow from the rear tailgate of passing lorries. Needless to say, he knew a boy who was killed doing that, when the coal lorry he was ‘riding’, came to an abrupt halt at the next property on their round! As for road safety in my youth - anyone remember the ‘Tufty Club’ or the Green Cross Code’ campaign (RIP David Prowse)?
Yep, I was born in 1965 and had a glorious childhood growing up in a small village in Warwickshire. Fields for miles, old water filled quarries were our swimming pool, old buildings our playground. Three essential items as a young lad :- a knife, a catty and a big stick. I remember the local village butcher had an old Commer van converted into a mobile outlet for his wares, an open backed affair. His son was a chill dude who used to drive the van round the local estates flogging meat, about half a dozen of us would see him coming and we’d pile in the back, he’d take us on a free trip round the estate just for the crack. We’d beg a few pigs eyes and pigs ears off him so we could repulse any girls.
Great story. Happy days indeed.
One of the great things about Simon's channel is that it prompts us to share views and memories of life not so long ago, in so many different areas, and long may his words of wisdom continue to do so.
I played out all day but we never pretended it was any safer .
When I was eleven I had a six foot wooden bow and six metal tipped arrows, a 177 air rifle and I always carried a pen knife and a heavy dart, I never hurt anyone but the local trees got sorted out good and proper. 🤣
Me too but it was sheath knife on my belt and a katty in my pocket :) Oh it was a Diana sp50 177 air pistol :) Those were the days :) Boy did those trees suffer.
Same age in 1968, made a bow out of a 6ft bamboo pole and leather boot laces . I had 3ft 'dutch ' arrows . I would lie on my back and work the bow and arrows with my feet apart and pull back string . I could fire it over the house to the fields behind .
One day i let go to early and the arrow went clean through the glass of my bedroom window and buried itself in the wall . My mum had only been in the room minutes before making the beds .😃
@@matoko123 🤣👍
@@raymondpiper8294 🤣👍
@@pilgrim.5630 absolutely true bud.
As an Australian who spent a couple of years of my childhood in England, you guys are ANIMALS as kids.
I had never encountered fist fights, spitting on fellow students and children that swear at adults before. I have to say if I let myself remember England, I feel a little traumatised 🤣
Interesting, my best mate visited relatives in Australia in the seventies and his description of the kids he met(he’d be about 12 at the time in the early seventies),was of violence,drugs/alcohol being the norm in a quite respectable working class suburb,he was bullied for being English and stated that everyone was fearful of the indigenous kids as they were super tough.
Where did you live and how old are you? I'm 54 and grew up in Surrey, I never heard a child swear at a teacher, ever! I said bloody once and was brought before my nan to repeat my bad word in shame. Fights yes. I spent 6 months in adalaide South Australia as a child with family, the children swore non stop and ran wild, I think it may be an area thing, I can only judge one area in Australia, I'm not sure if you mean the entire country or an area
@@georgehetty7857 that’s so interesting. I guess it’s all relative to area…
I went from cairns QLD where everyone was permanently happy and relaxed to Ryton, Newcastle! During lunchtime in cairns we used to go and catch guppies and tadpoles in flood waters.
In Newcastle during break, we’d stand on an asphalt rectangle for 30 minutes. 😑
@@georgehetty7857 yes being called a pommy and violent kids was the order of the day in adalaide, the kids were all aloud to smoke in front of their parents by about 14 as well, drinking was a huge culture and adults and children smoking drugs
@@traceyperfitt1231 well this is funny 😆
I actually live in Adelaide.
However I’m 36.
Maybe things also vary from decade to decade.
It was bloody dangerous in the sixties. Kids were always falling and drowning in the Manchester Ship Canal around the corner. Zero supervision. Mothers too busy down the hairdressers or shops etc.
@Rob Rovers True, murders and deaths were very rare as I recall in the 70's. When they did happen they were massive news. These days it's happening almost daily, and barely gets coverage. Sad times.
I won't say, "Oh, it was so much safer back then!" about my childhood, but I would say it was a lot more fun. Riding in the back of a pickup truck. Taking off on my bike in the morning, coming home when the noon whistle blew, heading out again, and coming back when the street lights came on. I am sad for my grandchildren that they don't have that freedom.
I , and many friends of mine, certainly played outside for many years in the "good old days." We cycled for miles, went fishing and camping in the forest and we would be out all day. We had great fun with no problems. We still talk about what a great time we had. I am not sure what your childhood was like, but it seems you missed out.
Born in 1963 and growing up through the troubles in Northern Ireland I can honestly say I never heard of a single instance of knife crime between children within a 5 mile radius of my home.
its the guns and the bombs that presented the danger
Freedom has nothing to car accidents my life as a child was more free than anything that can exist today.
I used to hang out at the pak across the road with a group of kids from the same street. There were a mix of ages so the older kids looked out for the (slightly) younger ones. We were out all day, just having fun and causing no problemsx if the weather was bad we'd go to the pub - one of the gangs parents owned a local establishment- her and her sister had the whole middle floor to themselves - happy days!! xx
One of the great things about Simon's channel is that it prompts us to share views and memories of life not so long ago, in so many different areas, and long may his words of wisdom continue to do so.
I was born 1966 & there was only one car in the street, playing football & games in the road & learning to ride a bike there was common 'till mid 70s. As for knives most boys had' Bowie' knives hanging from our belts, widely sold in local shops, no one stabbed each other. If you had an argument with someone & it escalated you fought one on one with your fists. Only cowards fight with weapons, biting someone is something a dog does. I had a great childhood & loved going off on an adventure with friends, once coming back on horseback with the owner, much to the amusement of people in the street.
The number of examples that you give throughout the '60s, happens in one weekend now.
Used to walk the streets of my neighbourhood alone from 3 yrs old in the mid 70’s . Later played in sewerage pipes , derelict houses, forests, building sites . Even went hitchhiking at 8yrs old. Rubbed shoulders with tramps , skinheads, glue sniffers. Yes, we were more daring, independent, active, adventurous and all the better for it.
My dad, who is now 80, grew up in the Bronx. When he was a little kid he used to ride the subway all over NYC all by himself. He remembers going to Coney Island on his own when he was 8 years old. It was the norm back then. Sounds like a golden age to me!
It would be interesting to see knife-crime figures for each year in the 90 year span referred to in the video. I suspect life in multicultural Britain would look much more hazardous. Also, playing "spot the date when mass immigration began" may prove amusing.
Knife crime was higher, Teddy boys always carried knives. guns were also more available due to weapons left over from the war. Cars didn't have the safety measures they have today.
@@oldboygeorge7688 How old are you? I’m sure that you aren’t speaking from experience. As a youngster, most kids had a knife, and those of us that were in the cubs or boy scouts carried sheath knives. We had catapults, bows and arrows and air rifles, but I never saw anyone use a weapon in a fight. It was fists only. I, like many others in the comments, would be out playing from morning till night and we travelled miles on foot or on our bikes without any problems.
Yes the teddy boys reportedly carried flick knives, but I don’t remember anyone getting stabbed. We were warned by our parents of the dangers of speaking to strangers, so were careful who we spoke to. In my experience, gun crime which was very rare, became more prolific after the law on gun ownership was changed. It seemed that once people couldn’t own certain types of guns on a licence legally the only people with guns were criminals.
I don’t know where Simon spent his childhood, but he seems to have had a very different experience to most people like myself who were born in the 1940s
We did this in the 70',s too, I can remember a flasher in the village when I was a teenager, a murder in the nearest town.
During the depression, my grandfather would have my father fetch a pail of beer for him when he was a child. I regularly went to school and stopped off at a mom & pop shop for a soda pop and candy bar to have with my lunch.... and walked home again.
I can remember when I was about 7 or 8, my dad calling me, and me running across the street to get home... and on the way I was run over.
By another kid on a bicycle. I got up, finished running to my dad, and wondered why he was asking me if I was okay.
A lot of these memories people have, I suspect, are from growing up in small towns, not large urban centers.
We weren't as sheltered then as children are now. Those of us who survived were much more free, and IMO, more stable adults.
Among my fondest memories is riding in the front seat between my father and mother. Most of the cars had a fold-down armrest in the middle of the bench seat, which I called the "baby seat" and believed had been installed so that I could sit on it and see over the dashboard.
Modern candy-asses would clutch their pearls in horror at the idea of a child not being strapped in the rear seat like a NASA astronaut; but then again, cars back then weren't designed to become tuna cans upon impact, either. Also, part of driver's education programs' teaching was that the best way to survive an accident was to not have one.
Needles I had a very horrible, very abusive in every possible way. At just 4 years old my mother put me on a train from near the top of Colorado going to TN to grandma's which I wish I could have just lived with. Mother didn't even put my older sister by 9 years on the train with me. The conductor worried himself about sick, worried someone would do something. If I had to go to the bathroom, he'd look for a lady to take me but he didn't just leave. He stood outside the bathroom door. He checked on me very often and made sure I wasn't hungry or thirsty. He was absolutely a good man. I can not imagine doing that to one of my kids.
There also seemed to be a huge amount of Public Safety Campaigns aimed at children in the 70's. Strangers, fireworks, road safety, etc. This indicates that there was a problem large enough that Government would do something about it.
But it didn't stop us from living!
@@matoko123 That's right.
In 1965 most, if not all children WALKED to school, perhaps that would have some implication on how many got run over.
I'm a child of the 50's and can certainly confirm that I spent many hours outside with friends and other kids without adult supervision. I also walked to and from junior school, about a mile away, on my own or with other kids every day. One of the main reasons this changed was more to do with fear of paedophiles and other 'deviants' rather than being a victim of violence or road death. One of the best books addressing this issue is 'The Coddling of the American Mind' by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff.
A comedian once quipped that his mother warned him "Never talk to strangers" and, as a result of this advice, he had never met anyone in his entire life.
But I do think for people growing up several decades ago (the 1960's in my case) we learned how to recognize and handle danger far more realistically than many kids today.
Whether it was 'safe' or not the point you miss is that we were not afraid! I was born in '61 and played out until teatime when I'd come home usually wet from streams and bruised from falling out of trees, bonfire burns. It was great! I loved the adventurous weekends and summer holidays. Fit, slim, healthy, no allergies, strong immune system. I'm the same today at 59.
Fear and addiction to screens is the downfall of our race.
How many acid attacks and truck attacks were there in the 60s? Can't wait to tell my kids "sorry son, we had more freedom in the 80s".
60s/70s when a murder in the country would without exception make the 10 o'clock news and everyone was shocked.
People still had morals and things still made sense. A sense of community and people had respect for eachother on the whole. Children were exactly that, children, and didn't rule the roost. You did what you were told or there were consequences. You respected your elders and they were worth respect.
Better days for sure.
I was recently driving through a local rough area where I live in England. And took a picture of two young lads skinny little runts a bike each at the side of them, their t shirts on the floor and they were sat cross legged eating sweets in the sun. It took me right back to the 70's. I had to take a picture because it's such a rare sight these days
That was risky!
Me and my younger brother were hit by a car while I was riding my bicycle through a busy intersection back in the 60's. We were hospitalized and released after minor injuries.
I’m a baby boomer..conceived when the troops came home..eighty years old..on our road of 91 houses there were no cars. We skipped played whips and tops, snobs, skated, raced trollies..no cars.
Unfortunately most baby boomers couldn't give a damn about the world we will be living in.
Every old geezer in history thought things were better in the old days.
When I started school aged five my mother accompanied me for a few weeks. After that I was expected to walk to school by myself.
I remember a game that was popular in the early '60s called chicken. We would deliberately run in front of cars to see who was the bravest. Crazy thinking back.
We used to play splits. Throwing a knife to stick into the ground between your opponents legs :)
@@matoko123 I remember that game. We even played that in the scouts, mind you not whilst any of the leaders were watching.
We played that in the eighties. Never gave a single thought to the poor drivers...
I never saw or heard of any such things growing up in a small industrial village. Perhaps we were sheltered from the news. But as for freedom, we certainly had that. It’s always a trade off between safety and freedom.
i seem to remember a post of yours talking about young boys carrying pen knives, and the fact that it was the "norm" good old days? make your mind up simon.
I was a Teenager in the 60s/70s London, Their was a lot of violence in particular with gangs and football, knives was sometimes carried and used, however it was rare and killing another gang member was was even more rare, Gang never went out to kill someone like they do these days, The violence these days has not been seen since Medieval times, Which England seems to be going back too.
From three years old I played out in the street mainly because there were few cars , when an odd car came through our ball games we would just holler Car and we all stepped back that was in1960 onwards. I feel so privileged to of lived in the 60 as a youngster ..it was complete freedom ,we only bothered going home to get fed and watered ..but our parents were not lax in parenting control …we had a camp where terminal 4 was built in London airport where a small dump of building rubble had been scattered .
Hi Simon you are talking about young people. My day 1948 (7yrs) I did wander with friends staying out all day. By the early fifties I caught a train into Cardiff for the day. Not long after that I was allowed to go by rain as fast as Barry Island. Those days did exist. There were nasty people about but the police took the appropriate action as did the courts.
We all had knives back then, catapults, bolt bombs, airguns, bows, spears, we were reckless daring each other to do dangerous things, we were tough resourceful and fearless, our parents drank and drove, there were no seatbelts, often we would all pile into an old van or the back of a pickup to go somewhere but mainly we walked ran or cycled, nothing was ever decided without a fist fight. We lived outdoors and had a rude health, yes there were a few casualties but we just got on with it. Different times.
Imagine that happening today. The media will be having a fit, and the police will be gleefully giving every child a lifelong criminal record for "posession of offensive weapons".
Steve : You've just described my childhood . Thanks !
Growing up in the 50s was the best time of my life. I'm so sorry my Grandkids are having to grow up in the evil society we have now.
Being told by my mum you are either inside or out not both, was a regular thing. The only rule was come home before its dark.
As a older person a boomer. I never had any fear of playing out side.
I would like to see percentages.
I still believe it is good for children to play out side despite the risks.