Lawn Darts, Anyone?

We want the best for our children, we want to bring them up in the idealized world of our youth, but the reality is that the good old days were not nearly as good as we remember them. A quick glance back on my earliest years reveals cotton candy and rainbows. Closer inspection exposes my Dad preparing for, going to, and returning from Vietnam for much of my first few year and my Mother’s worry and concern for his wellbeing. Inspection shows scandals and cover-ups of the Nixon Administration, rising oil prices, economic downturns, social unrest, nuclear-powered tension with the USSR, and the other realities of the early seventies. During my first three years, the Vietnam War was raging. My Father was trying to make it home safe from his deployment as a Navy Seabee. My Mother and I spent time with both sets of my grandparents and on our own waiting for his eventual return. He made it home safe. Far too many young fathers did not.

All-encompassing Big Picture worries, like War and The Economy, are not the only things leaving parents anxious and ridden with angst. There are Small Picture influences that some adults may not think twice about and others may obsess over. Back in the early 70’s, when I got around by toddling, Lawn Darts were popular.

For those of you who missed Lawn Darts whizzing by your head as a child, they were wonderful outdoor toys. They were about a foot long with plastic fins on one end and a pointy metal tip on the other end. Players took turns chucking these darts at targets up to 50 feet away. In a controlled environment, this was not too dangerous, but people rarely played Lawn Darts in a controlled environment. You played in busy backyards full of beer, people not paying attention to the pointy metal tips flying through the air, and lots of music and noise making it difficult to hear “HEY KID, lookout for the Lawn Dart!” How I lived to adulthood without a Lawn Dart embedded in my forehead is a mystery. For some reason Lawn Darts were banned in the United States in 1988 by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Lawn Darts were not the only Small Picture danger from my early years. Back then it was OK for pregnant women to drink and smoke; cribs, staircases, and fences had slats spaced wide enough for little heads to become stuck; child safety seats were unheard of; and seatbelt use was for wimps. Our pull toys had long strings we could wrap around our necks, it was fun to play with plastic bags, and lead paint was still in common use. There were no baby monitors, but we had walkers we could roll around in, highchairs without seatbelts, cloth diapers fastened with real pins, and glass baby bottles that shattered when dropped.

These things toughened us up so that those of us who made it too school could survive the red rubber dodge ball matches on cold winter days, trips down the 12-foot high metal slide on hot summer days, and games of tag on asphalt playgrounds. All this while adults sat back musing about how great kids had it compared to back when they were young.

The good old days were not as great as most of us remember, but they were not so bad either. You rarely see an adult walking down the street with a lawn Dart sticking out of their head or a red rubber dodge ball protruding from their midsection. Most of us had parents and other caregivers that loved us and wanted to do right by us. They were anxious over what kind of world we would grow up in, but they were doing their best and trying to make good choices.

At the end of the day, making the best choices we can in any given moment is the best any of us can do. We will make mistakes, but mostly we will get it right. The children in our lives will grow up with mostly fond memories and on closer inspection they will realize things were not perfect. Then they will have kids of their own and start the cycle again.