Was It Easier Being a Kid?

I was watching some children in the neighborhood playing. Some were doing something with a ball. Others (this was weird) were sitting at the curb texting. Now, while I’m happy that they are apparently at least somewhat literate, at least enough for texting, I couldn’t help but wonder if something gets lost?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m no Luddite. I think technology is a lot of fun. But, I think it also changes the childhood paradigm…certain with the sorts of technology we have today. I admit, that might not be a bad thing. There is some speculation going on that the human brain is in the midst of an evolution because, with the aid of digital technologies, our minds are being used into new ways. We have to process information differently. They can no longer move at the agrarian pace of even a century ago, but instead filter and process at a rate not even seen during the early decades of the space race.

Television

My world, when I was but a kidling, was typical enough. Every place I lived, there were four channels: ABC, CBS, NBC, and an independent station. I suppose most places also had PBS, but that didn’t really become a “thing” until Sesame Street came out, but that wasn’t until I was beyond its pre-school target audience.

TVs had tubes. Lots of tubes. Lots of really hot tubes that burned out at times, like light bulbs. Vertical hold always seemed to be an issue…as was the alignment of the antenna. Only a couple of stations would be really clear. The other ones would be OK, but only OK. Good luck if you tried getting an out-of-town station…that meant adjusting the antenna. Worse, it meant putting it back to how it was afterwards.

Did I mention that television was in black-and-white? It surely was. Color didn’t really come in until I was in elementary school. If you watch TV-Land today, you see that transition. The first season or two of shows were in black-and-white, and then poof, they were in living color! Color was a very big deal.

Since the only way to watch TV, really, was to gather around the set and everyone watch the agreed upon show (a/k/a what Dad wanted to watch), if you didn’t like what was on, you just went off to do something else. Me? I built models or read comic books (they weren’t “graphic novels” back then).

I did have some favorite shows back then, among which were: Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek (yes, even in elementary school), The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and Gomer Pyle, USMC, The Flintstones, and Batman (and in reruns, The Adventures of Superman). During the day (and Saturdays), I’d watch things like Astroboy, Gigantor, Tobor, the 8th Man, Marine Boy, and (breaking away from the anime that I was apparently attached to) Skippy, The Bush Kangaroo, Mighty Mouse, Underdog, The Jetsons, Rocky and Bulwinkle, Roger Ramjet, Spider-Man, and Marvel Super Heroes.

The Marine Boy opening (this song has been stuck in my head since the mid-60s):

An Iron Man cartoon from Marvel Super Heroes (don’t expect much in the way of animation…this was TV cartooning on the cheap):

And a little Roger Ramjet (which begins to explain, a little, how it is that I see the world in a skewed sort of way):

And before I skip out of this television realm, a commercial that, like the Marine Boy theme has stuck with me since I was a kid. I really latched onto the second verse. I thought it was funny. I thought it was sort of cool not going along with the crowd. And maybe it also presaged my future vegetarianism. (If you only want to see the commercial, skip to the 3:00 mark.)

Oh, those by-gone days when there were ten less minutes of commercials every hour, and commercials were often 1-minute long.

The Job of Childhood

Obviously, even though the TV world wasn’t exactly bereft of entertaining fare, there was still a lot of time to kill every day (especially for a kid, when days seem to last for-ev-er). So we did what you’d expect: we went out and played (or were kicked out of the house to play).

Now, imagine a world where, on non-school days (and especially in summer), kids leave the house around 9am or so, maybe come home for lunch, and likely aren’t seen until dinner-time, if not later. That’s what it was like a lot of the time. We’d go out into the world, gang up with our friends, and do stuff. It could be going down to the school to play some baseball, or maybe play football in a friend’s yard. Or…we might wander off to the woods were weren’t supposed to venture into. Or we might just sit around telling dirty jokes and learning about “things” off the street.

Amazingly enough…we survived that. Being off on our own for the better part of the day. We learned how to cope with the surprises the world can throw at you. The unexpected discovery. The unanticipated pack of hooligans. Whatever it was, you adapted and improvised (not unlike the Marines…just with fewer guns).

Of course, at that time most homes had only one working parent. The other one was around. Their were always adults around in case something went wrong (generally a minor medical emergency involving blood). That’s not to say there weren’t dangers. Kids learned to stay clear of those “weird” older kids and adults. They weren’t safe. There were the scary stories of people who would grab you and take you away from your parents forever, or beat you, or kill you…stories we found out as adults were all too true at times. Still, even though we (at best) only half-believed those stories, few ever tempted fate–fewer still without a pack of friends as back-up.

The time wasn’t that much safer than now. Typically we’d hang out in the same places, often at the cool mom’s house. The main difference between then and now is that there were friendly eyes watching us. They were our backup in case we really screwed up. That backup isn’t nearly as ubiquitous as it was then.

Playtime

I wonder how my childhood would have been different had I had video games back then? I didn’t get to “play” on my first computer until the 60s were all but over…and even then it was pretty much just tic-tac-toe for the brief time I was allowed on. I had to come up with my own fun. Sometimes with other kids, sometimes alone.

I remember a lot of role-playing. Sometimes it would be something conventional: war, for example (or playing house, that one time Katie* roped me into it). Oft-times, with like-minded friends, it would be some sort of SF adventure. Rain and I would role-play Star Trek as we walked home from school most days. Me, John, and a few others would commandeer a piece of school yard gym equipment and imagine it to be a sub (it was perfect for being a sub).

So, I guess the games themselves haven’t fundamentally changed too much, just the manner in which they are played. Instead of virtualizing our minds into a cyberspace RPG, we play-acted. As we raced from one end of our “sub” to the other, we actually had to be physical…physical enough that I can’t think of anyone who would then be defined as obese. Of course, there were the occasional broken bones, chipped teeth, cuts, and wrenched joints—but we also gained a kinesthetic awareness that sitting on the couch just doesn’t quite convey.

I also think about the world of not only today but the future. Which kind of childhood is better preparation? Since I got to have both mixed together (being a geek from early on helped), I’d say that they both have their rewarding aspects. They also each have their drawbacks. While the brain my indeed be evolving to new ways of processing information, the body hasn’t evolved in kind. I think the two sort of have to feed off of each other.

Sex, Drugs, and Rock’n’Roll

I can’t help but chuckle when there is this alarmist outcry about how the young today are growing up too fast. You know, I don’t think they are growing up any faster today than they used to be…at least mentally and socially.

Back in the very early 70s, when I was still in elementary school, even I heard the talk about kissing parties where there was some wine and smoking (tobacco and weed) going on. Whether the talk was true or not (knowing some of the principles involved, I’m inclined to think it was true), the fact that 10-, 11-ish year olds (give or take) were talking/bragging about it shows that kids have always wanted to grow up faster than they should probably want.

It didn’t help that about 40% of the adult population smoked at the time, probably more drank (and drove), and those drug-takin’ rock-n-roll playin’ long-hairs that our parents objected to where actually quite good (I grew up with those hot new groups: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas & the Papas, etc.).

Let’s face it, when you looked at the comparison between the straight-laced parents in suits, ties, and dresses, and the younger generation with their long hair, bell-bottoms, and paisley it didn’t take a rocket scientist, or a kid older than 10 or 11, to figure out which group was having more fun.

It’s the same today. (Though I still think it’ll be easier for future gens to connect with the Beatles than 50-cent… but maybe that’s just because I’m old.) Kids want to grow up. They role-play. They sneak sips of their parent’s drinks. They do what the adults and big-kids do. Sure, they somehow have more access to the basic materials necessary to tart themselves up (probably because the parents are working), but in the end boys will be boys and girls will be girls. It’s sort of how the models were designed.

Was It Really Easier?

In all ages, I think children adapt to the world they are given. Why wouldn’t they? They don’t know any different. Looking back, we can see how their period of youth compared to others. I think the children of today have more obvious stressors that they are aware of than I did in my childhood. There was more freedom when I was young—more opportunities for independent adventure. Then again, I didn’t have a world’s worth of knowledge at my fingertips.

You know, as I think about it, it’s just as easy to be a kid today as it was back then. For kids, except when trapped in a hellish situation, it’s always the same. For adults, maybe it’s just harder on them, now. They know more. The abuses and atrocities that happen…well, what we didn’t know then we certainly know now. The kids don’t know. They just know their world. To them, their world will always revolve around parents and friends. That’s as it should be.

* Names changed