https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-lawn-darts
in praise of lawn darts the basis for a civilization of free people resides in the skills that children learn from the benign neglect of unsupervised play in an un-nerfed world
many things are better since the days of disco, but child rearing is not one of them. i speak as a child of the 70’s. this was our cathedral. it was carnage. kids flying off, blood, bruises, fun. there was not a parent or a teacher in the entire country that cared. this was normal. this IS normal. childhood is supposed to have sharp edges and pointy parts. that’s where the most important learning takes place.
we had an archery set up in our back yard when I was a little kid. Big straw target, the whole deal. looking back on that, it was nuts. These were real bow and arrows, and yes we had neighbors on two sides. crazy. Kid across the street had a lawn dart that his little sister threw at him go through his foot. again, crazy. Blood curdling scream. again crazy. But no one died. And man did his sister grow up to be hot. bless her heart.
we lived a couple miles from the beach and my dad would shoot his hunting rifle at new years. He said it would make it to the ocean. And he wasn't the only one. I still have my doubts, but I was more worried about Flipper. sc
I occasionally try to find them, still can’t. Parts are available, but not enough to build them. A company in England had them, shipping was the issue. Easier to get opium from Afghanistan than lawn darts.
Thats so good. Having been "raised" free range in the 70s, I completely agree that there was tremendoua value in learning the lessons and joys of life early, free and unsupervised. Thanks for sharing that.