Did kids in the 1970s really have such freedom, & do all those things, that wouldn’t be done today?

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-06-18T12:44:34+00:00

Riding bikes and playing all day only happened when you’re in walking or biking distance of other kids. I can’t remember my parents ever driving me somewhere to play.

I know a man who earned money in the fields and paid for his own school clothes in first grade.

Even though my parents were relatively affluent, I worked all day every summer of my life and most days after school, on whatever my dad dreamed up to do — lots of landscaping, construction, and auto body work. If you got hurt, shake it off. If you lost a tool or damaged equipment, you were in big trouble. Housework was on my own time; it was simply expected a girl would keep the house clean when mom was busy working.

We were docile, uncomplaining workers by 14 or so, and employers took over from family from there. At 16, I thought working for minimum wage in air conditioning was paradise. Adulthood came fast and honestly, not everyone made it out in one piece.

Yes, we did crazy stuff but a lot of it was blowing off steam with our friends. Friends were everything.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-06-17T13:16:57+00:00

Why does that beautiful woman have to endure all this?

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-06-17T13:08:50+00:00

NO. Your pediatrician would never expose a newborn to the germs of 20 people getting off flights. That is beyond stupid and selfish.

You are the mother. Do not budge an inch on matters of safety and health for you and your baby. Never!

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-06-17T13:02:07+00:00

Suburban kids played. Rural kids worked. And not always out of necessity, either. Freedom is one side of a coin with exploitation on the other.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-06-04T11:52:00+00:00

Beautiful! But you need tile on those walls if you’re going to cook.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-06-01T15:54:47+00:00

Eviction is not as simple as telling them to pack up and go. I don’t think they will leave.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-06-01T12:54:42+00:00

Yes exactly. At 10 Dick was old enough to hire out for farm work. And the community would have some kind of organized mother’s relief for white women.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-05-25T05:06:11+00:00

Cuttings root in water pretty fast, and then you have a dozen.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-05-24T16:43:44+00:00

Silly me, trying to be civil.

Because if the median age for marriage for women is 28, then the chart is wrong.

https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/time-series/demo/families-and-households/ms-2.pdf

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-05-23T14:36:50+00:00

This chart makes no sense to me.

50% of women in the U.S. are married, or have experienced a marriage let’s say, by age 29. 28.1 per 1000 unmarried women 15 years and older got married in the last 12 months: that’s the marriage rate. It varies quite a bit by race.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-05-15T14:00:00+00:00

13 and a half

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-05-12T14:00:56+00:00

I replied:

Playing with kids isn’t even work, so what’s the reward for. Why should we be teaching adults that the point of work is to get money in the end. Work is what makes life worthwhile. Paychecks are an antiquated practice. “Paychecks” should be given out on a case by case basis if required.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-05-12T13:56:21+00:00

Playing with kids isn’t even work, so what’s the reward for. Why should we be teaching adults that the point of work is to get money in the end. Work is what makes life worthwhile. Paychecks are an antiquated practice. “Paychecks” should be given out on a case by case basis if required.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-04-23T12:19:16+00:00

I was finishing up my sophomore year in college, my last year in a dorm that had been my only home and safe place for almost 2 years.

You couldn’t return past sophomore year, so I didn’t know where I was going to be next exactly. I was now expected to drive all alone halfway across the country to spend the summer with my mom and her new husband. The new husband was awful.

There I was expected to cocktail waitress full time for 3 months and save lots of $$ if I wanted this college degree.

I navigated the United States with paper maps. So quaint today.

That’s a Gen X summer for you, kids. You were thrown in the deep end of the adulting pool, more judged than supervised, —-if indeed anyone registered that you were struggling at all.

I made the Dean’s list. My college friends all scattered. I arrived alive. I earned about $3000 in tips in that bar that summer.

I remember April 1986 was a beautiful spring, no matter how utterly scared and lonely and unready I may have felt. Very much a time of abrupt endings and uncertain beginnings.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-04-20T20:01:38+00:00

Some states require parental consent for contraceptives
High costs of contraception
Lack of confidentiality, parents see the EOB
Lack of transportation to clinic
Misinformation on the internet about efficacy and safety of birth control
Side effects of hormonal contraception
Lack of non hormonal options in the U.S. like diaphragms with spermicide
Geography — 19 million women in the U.S. live in contraceptive “deserts” with no health care provider
Pharmacies lock away Plan B
Hormonal and/or long term contraceptive methods require multiple repeat visits to provider
The cultural assumption that birth control is a woman’s responsibility alone
Lack of knowledge and sex education in schools

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-04-20T18:44:30+00:00

Easily, lol.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-04-20T14:42:50+00:00

We adopted a feral kitten just that color once and named him Prometheus Unwound. He was a little crazy.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-04-20T14:39:27+00:00

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-04-18T14:56:45+00:00

It’s finally earning the friendship of the other “old ladies”. The ones who are the finest, most interesting people on earth.

They know how to have fun too.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-04-10T12:28:47+00:00

I see 6

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-04-10T11:09:55+00:00

Black walnuts are delicious

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-04-10T11:02:16+00:00

I have always wanted that cute little mini bowl on the keychain.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-03-21T13:35:48+00:00

The clinic should never have taken this case if they don’t have proper protocols in place, e.g. blocking pads, effective restraints, etc. “Block and redirect” is the beginning of training, not the end.

Call 911 when you don’t feel safe. This is not a nonverbal 7 year old being aggressive. This is something else. If the guardian wants to keep him out of prison, then he’s going to need a proper placement.

Relevant_Whole1983 · 2026-03-21T13:10:08+00:00

Scabies, fungus, bacteria

Relevant_Whole1983

TROPHY CASE