27 Things '60s Kids Did That Would Horrify Us Now

Mothers everywhere may have been decreasing your oxygen and brewing fetal alcohol conditions while you were still in the womb. If you made it out in one piece, you probably later found yourself sitting on mom's lap or crawling around under the table while she was having an afternoon swig and a smoke with a friend, while pregnant with your little brother. Of course, our mothers weren't trying to hurt us, but no one really knew the damages these things could cause.

Little kids would sit in the passenger seat without a seatbelt. The "safety method" was this: Mom or Dad would fling an arm in front of you if they had to stop short. Infants rode sometimes in unattached baby seats. They were kept up front in the seat next to Mom—or in someone's lap! Bigger babies or toddlers rode in in shoddy car seats. Seat belts just went across the lap. Serious seat belts and appropriate car seat regulations did not arrive until the '70s and airbags in the '80s.

In the '60s, pediatricians encouraged moms to let babies sleep on their stomachs―which we now know is not a great idea. Plus, cribs had few of the safety measures in place today. Dangerous drop rails, slats so wide an infant's head could get stuck, places where tiny fingers could get caught, and choking hazards were just a few of the problems. Sadly, it took infant tragedies to lead to more manufacturing regulations.

Parents would childproof by taking a baby out of his crib and sticking him in a playpen. Or maybe a larger gated area. But once he got on all fours and crawled around, everything was fair game. Mom let little ones play with pots and pans while she cooked, but she didn't worry too much about the chemicals under the sink where you played. There was no such thing as childproof medicine bottle lids, or special latches for every cabinet, drawer, and door. Electrical outlets were there for stabbing with a fork, and small choking hazards abounded.

These days it takes a whole lot of planning to get a child to a play date (and a detective to check out if a location or home is safe). But in the '60s, you just called out to Mom: "I'm going to so-and-so's" and then walked to your friend's house alone, or hopped on your bike. Closest pals lived in fairly close proximity and you did not have to have an appointment to see them. You showed up, hung out, and sometimes stayed for dinner, too.

Cereal was breakfast. It came in multiple forms of wheat, corn, or oats. Some cereal was pre-sugared, like Trix and Cap'n Crunch. Others, like unsweetened corn flakes, needed vast amounts of spooned sugar to taste good. The sugar bowl sat on the table and you could probably spoon in four tablespoons before Mom warned you about getting a bellyache.

At local candy stores, you could go and, for pennies, buy all the sweets your mom didn't allow you to eat at home. You could sneak it home in small paper bags. You could also hang out and get an ice cream soda, malted, and egg cream, or soda loaded with sugar, and sit at a counter and drink the way adults straddled up to a bar. Kids often went in packs after school and no one worried too much where you'd been as long as it didn't spoil your appetite.

Since moms did not chauffeur kids around, you had to make an older sibling drive you places or you rode your bicycle. One of the first rites of passage was the day your father taught you to ride a bike. Parents expected you to fall and made you get back on and stop whining about scraped knees and elbows. Once you got the hang of it, you could leave the house and meet up with other kids on bikes and ride around together. No one ever thought of wearing a helmet―including our crazy big brothers who rode motorcycles―but now it's a law.

It seemed like mothers couldn't wait to kick their kids out of the house in the morning so they could get on with their chores or socialize with friends. They called you in when dinner was ready and let you back out, telling you to come inside when the street lights come on. As Jerry Seinfeld once said, "We were like wild dogs." Kids wandered around in packs, looking for stuff to do. Adults often had no idea of their kid's whereabouts for long stretches of time.

The '60s was the golden age of the tan–and no UV protection. Mom may have slathered you with suntan lotion, but to help your tan along not to protect your skin from harmful rays. Older kids would use baby oil with iodine in it to prevent burns and would use a reflector to bake themselves in the sun.

There was a time when officials opened hydrants for kids to cool off in the summer and they knew how to turn the water pressure down lower or put on a sprinkler feature. But that never stopped someone's clever older brother from opening it full force. Aside from wasting water, it had such powerful force it could easily knock down small children.