"This is dedicated to the children of the 60s, 70s & 80s. If you were a child during that time, this is your chance to look back. It's difficult to believe we've survived our childhood...
When we were little, our cribs were painted using lead paint. The medications didn't have childproof caps, front doors were usually left open, & kitchen cabinets & closets were unlocked. We drank water from a spring nearby instead of bottled water. No one thought twice about riding a bike without a helmet.
We left our houses early in the morning, played outside all day & returned home only when the street lights came on. No one knew where we were all day - we didn't own cell phones! It is difficult to imagine this now... We suffered cuts, broken bones, & lost teeth, yet no one ever thought of suing. We went through a lot, but we had friends! We would find them everywhere. We rode bikes, floated matches in creeks, walked on fences, climbed roofs & walked in swamps. How did we survive?
We played with sticks & metal cans. We stole apples from apple orchards & ate cherries with pits (somehow, they didn't sprout in our stomachs :-)). In schools, during recess, we sprayed each other using makeshift water guns made out of used medical syringes. We were made responsible for the consequences of our own actions.
In reality, the world holds more than 7 wonders, we just don't notice them. Would you agree that the first ever USSR-made aftershave was a wonder? Does anyone remember pieces of newspaper? How about another wonder of customary storage of ground meat in a sack outside one's kitchen window? Do you remember trying to reach for your pelmeni & having them all fall out? Or your mother saying, "I am buying this for you now, but it's for your birthday?" Or your grandmother's magic words, "Don't forget to return the empty jars!" (There was shortage of glass canning jars for a few years.)
Do you remember the milk in triangular packages? Toothpowder not only cleaned your teeth, but also silver... How about the automated carbonated mineral water dispensers? There was one glass for everyone to share! No one would even think to share one glass today... (Today it would be stolen after 5 seconds, & another 3 seconds later, the water dispenser itself would be gone). We shared one glass & were never concerned about catching germs (By the way, local drunkards also used the same glass for their business. It's impossible to believe, but they always returned the glass to its proper place afterwords!).
Many people put a white sheet on the wall & turned off the lights in order to watch slideshows. Many also spent hours under the special red light while developing photo film in the bathroom. Almost everyone who owned a camera developed their own film to make black-and-white photos. Girls, do you remember the game of rezinochki (a 3-person game using a long elastic string & various forms of jumping)? Surprisingly, not a single boy knows the rules of this game...How about collecting old newspaper & books for recycling in schools? I still have a question - WHY? The way we were..."
It IS surprising nothing happened to me. I remember having to stay home all by myself when sick with a flu at the age of 6 or 7. After taking a long nap, I was so bored, I inserted a hair pin into an electical outlet on the wall above my headboard, just to see what would happen... The skin on my right hand was charred black & took weeks to heal.
My friends & I regularly played inside abandoned trains(!) & construction sites & loved to sing in the underground water drainage pipes. We would walk all over town & take buses to unfamiliar places for exploration purposes. I remember being lost & somehow finding my way home more than once. Starting at the age of 7 I walked home from school alone. I was not tall enough to reach the key whole to open the front door, so our apartment was left unlocked all day so I could get inside.
Starting in the 3rd grade, I took a 7-day train journey from my home town of Tynda to Moscow ALONE in order to spend summers with my Dad & grandparents. My Mom was unable to take the whole 3 months off work, so she would just put me on the train & ask the train attendant & my train car neighbors to look after me. Once, during a really hot summer, most of my food supply spoiled after the first 2 days, so I had to rely on the kindness of strangers for meals during the next 5 days.
As a single parent, my Mom often took out-of-town trips for work, so when I was a teenager, once every few months, I spent several weeks at a time living completely on my own. I did a relatively good job cooking, cleaning & going to school, although sometimes I would spend most of the food allowance on my beloved books & then subsist on macaroni for several days in a row.
When we rode in a car, neither the driver, nor the passengers ever wore seat belts (It was still the same when my husband & I visited Russia in 2005. Those wild taxi drives without any protection were simply terrifying!). My grandfather would often give me a ride on the back seat of a bike (no helmets, of course). Once a goat crossed our path, & we both fell off the bike while trying to avoid hitting the animal. When I was 5 or 6, I also rode a motorcycle with my teenage aunt & her boyfriend without any regard to safety whatsoever.
I am sure glad the times are different now & I am raising my children in the US where child safety is important & they are cared for properly! I am certainly grateful to have the resources & education to help them grow up to be the best they can be.
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