But, Pink, you and I lived in totally different environments. Remember that.
I went to high school in the 70s and had my first in 77. I took him to the park almost every day. This was in or near Chicago, IL so large populations and some very crowded parks. In my experience during the same time period nobody brought a playpen. The kids were all in the sand box or sliding or climbing or swinging. The infants with older siblings would stay in their strollers or Mom would hold them and bounce them. I remember one pregnant lady who already had a young girl and TRIPLET infants!! She would keep the littles in the stroller while her older girl ran around. Because she was Orthodox Jewish she hauled these kids around wearing a scarf over her head, long sleeves and a longer skirt and hose in the middle of July! Hot!
I felt sorry for her!
Nobody ever smoked in our parks.
Pink, I think we just lived in very different types of cultures, one not better or worse than the other...just different. Different ways of doing things. Different values. Different cultures. Where I lived Jewish culture was very prevalant as were other ethnicities and religions...Irish, Polish Italian, lots of Catholics.
The socio economic and academic culture I grew up in was wealthy to middle class. I didn't know poor people until I got older when I was poor...lol. . Where I now live, in a smaller more rural area, it is way different than the Chicago suburbs. I would not be surprised if this area was more like yours was. This is not a rich area or one that looks down at no college degree, as long as you work hard. I love it here. It is more like me then where I grew up. It is down home. It is friendly and chill.
By the time we moved here, Sonic was 4 and Jumper was 2. By then, the 90s I did not see playpens in parks and smoking was not done in parks anymore (even taverns ban smoking here now) but it may have been more like your home before the 90s. However, even up here, I did not see cloth diapers and very little hanging clothes out to dry, although some people do hang out mostly towels. One home we looked at while house hunting had a clothes line!
For a really interesting treat into the past it is always fun for us to drive through Amish country, which is close by. Now THAT is old fashion!
But you have to be careful of the horses and buggies! Do you have Amish near you?
I agree, SOT, we absolutely did experience two different environments from one another when we were younger and growing up.
Goodness, I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a single mothers name that I used to babysit for that didn't smoke, that's how high the smoking population was back in my day (where we lived).
As for playpens and things in parks and at the beach, we lived in a town with a high hippie population, so quite possibly that played a major role in how outings with babies and younger children happened.
I definitely remember Pampers babies, but cloth diapers were still king where we lived. Absolutely everyone used cloth diapers, safety pins, and rubber pants. Cloth was super-duper popular. All of the babysitting jobs I ever worked, cloth was the diaper of choice and all that was used. (One of the main reasons I diapered my own children in them). I remember only one or two homes that used a combination of both cloth and disposable.
Single income families were also par for the course at the time. Seldom (rarely) did you hear of a housewife or mom that worked. It was non-existent.
We have Mennonites that live just a hop, skip, and a jump away, but not locally, and a two hour drive from us is an actual Mennonite Community. You can buy bread, meat, and all sorts of garden-fresh vegetables from them.
Yes, smoking (here) is banned now, too, and almost everywhere, including the front of store-fronts, which I 100% support.
Sad to say, I don't see any new subdivisions where clothesline exist, but in older neighbourhoods like ours, traditional clotheslines can still be found, and in abundance, depending on what area it is, and many still use them.
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