[HN Gopher] Snapshots of Kids Bike Jumping in the 1970s
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       Snapshots of Kids Bike Jumping in the 1970s
        
       Author : bookofjoe
       Score  : 12 points
       Date   : 2025-08-11 20:37 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (flashbak.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (flashbak.com)
        
       | mikestew wrote:
       | Convince me that the kid in the first photo clears the entire
       | line of kids before landing.
        
         | gibbitz wrote:
         | I had the same thought. The kid in the end is looking into the
         | camera like he knows he's about to be cut in half.
        
       | alexjplant wrote:
       | > less restricted, less supervised, less obsessively safety-
       | conscious things were - and it was fine.
       | 
       | Is this site made for the Facebook demographic? I was astounded
       | that there wasn't a poorly-made image macro of a minion with some
       | quip about drinking from a garden hose or rubbing dirt in your
       | wounds to accompany this idyllic gem.
       | 
       | Both of my parents have stories about people getting seriously
       | messed up or killed back in the day by doing dumb stuff on
       | bicycles or otherwise. My father was on a first-name basis with
       | hospital staff when he was a kid because of these types of
       | hijinks and always made my brother and I wear helmets when we
       | rode bikes. If we were skating pads were mandatory too. There's a
       | comfortable middle ground between never setting foot outside and
       | getting your viscera fatally crushed by a 130 lb eighth grader's
       | bicycle tire.
       | 
       | And yes, I've built and jumped kicker ramps, tore my knees open,
       | looped a bike (in both directions), skitched, gone OTB into a
       | ravine in the woods, etc. but the difference is that I never had
       | to go to the hospital or nearly died.
       | 
       | Cool photos regardless but let's not pretend that any of this was
       | smart. Having common sense and wearing protective gear when you
       | have fun is cool, not uptight.
        
         | LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
         | No risk? No fun! No pain? No gain. Call it evolution in action,
         | or something. The unfits get sieved out by winning darwin
         | awards.
        
         | gibbitz wrote:
         | This is a bit harsh on the HN community IMO. This was all
         | nostalgia to me and not about overprotective parents. that
         | said, looking at it in that light, my kids had none of the
         | experiences you did. I think the overprotective instinct of
         | this generation's parents has been steadily teaching them to be
         | more risk averse and protecting them from learning about how to
         | deal with undesirable outcomes to a point of irrational fear.
         | My kids are in this generation and despite having this opinion
         | they're surrounded by other adults and media that teaches them,
         | not how to deal with mistakes, but to avoid them at all costs.
         | I'm not advocating death and dismemberment, but there has to be
         | an in-between.
        
           | alexjplant wrote:
           | > there has to be an in-between.
           | 
           | 1000% agree and that's exactly the point of my comment. I
           | didn't mean that all of HN is like this, mostly just the
           | linked post, so I'll edit accordingly.
        
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       (page generated 2025-08-11 23:01 UTC)