“So what does growing up old school mean?” wrote Tab LaFollete. “It means that you lived in one of the greatest time periods in America to be a kid. It means that you played outside every day, all day long, and that you got dirty and hurt. You did things you weren't supposed to, and you probably had some close calls, but you lived through them; now those are the funny stories you tell of ‘remember when’.”

The dad, granddad, author, and PE teacher spent several years trying to recapture the essence of growing up in the '60s and '70s, in what he calls the “glorious, carefree years.” LaFollette eventually published his book, "Growing Up Old School: Re-live what it was like to be a kid in the 60s and 70s," in 2017.

In his nostalgic account of life in that era, LaFollette explains, "You probably got picked on by some bullies, but you probably played plenty of pranks yourself. Gas was under a dollar, and your dad would let you sit on his lap and drive the car on back country roads."

He talks about how parents smoked, drank, and cussed and how getting a hiding was a common occurrence. "We had great music and played it loudly; we danced, and grew our hair long, and lived everyday like it might be our last," pens the self-proclaimed "old geezer".

LaFollette is not the first to speak of the 70s as a carefree time. “Life was innocent and simple,” wrote author and content creator Jules Torti on her blog. In the post, titled “A Lament for Innocence: Growing up in the 70s”, Torti reminisces about life back then. “Lawn darts and charcoal barbecues started with lighter fluid. We didn’t sanitize our hands. Xanadu, our dog, washed our faces.”

The author believes kids of today have more anxiety because they're disconnected from nature and glued to technology. "Do kids need mindfulness sessions?" ponders Torti. "Shouldn’t they just be pushed outside and away from their tablets and iPhones? I know there’s probably an app for tree-climbing and grass stains, but c’mon. We need to be told to rediscover our 'wildhood' and introduce kids to earth basics like dirt, worms, and trees? Wow."

Torti was born in 1974. She describes the time as a "childhood postcard" and goes into detail about how most of her youth was spent roughing it and having fun outdoors.

"I had to sit down almost daily to have sticky sap cut out of my hair from perching in the pines behind our house, making crappily constructed tree houses (or dodgy ladders to wobbly platforms, at least). We had chronic gouges and scrapes from endless hide n’ go seek sessions at my cousin’s farm and hiding in the belly of the combines, under greasy farm trucks in the barns," remembers Torti.

"At day’s end, we were ripe with pig manure, swamp mud, full of burrs, and scratched all to hell from racing through the cornfield rows. Our faces would be stained with orange or purple Kool-aid. Nobody was allergic to peanuts. We survived on peanut butter alone."

Writer and mom Nicola Young also has fond memories of the 1970s. "Life was all about the outdoors. Children’s TV programs were only on at certain times of the day, and we had no electronics to distract us," she remembered. "We used our imagination (and cheap toys) to occupy us — and we never got bored." Young says back then, children rode on real bicycles, skateboards, or rollerskates. They played real sports. Not virtual reality within the confines of their homes.

Young goes on to say that her children still don't believe her when she tells them that there were no afternoon television shows during her childhood. "And they can’t believe there were just three channels, and children’s programs only came on for a couple of hours in the morning and then again in the evening," she adds.

"Instead of being glued to screens indoors, we spent time outside with our friends and, even in winter, we would stay out until the bitter end, using only the light of the street lamps to play," wrote the mom of three. She says she's grateful she grew up in the seventies and not today.

In another take on the topic, one article tackles how it’s a miracle most of the kids of the ‘70s actually survived. It was a wild time to be alive. Lawn darts, no seat belts, dangerous playgrounds, no sunscreen, no bike helmets, lack of adult supervision, allowed to get seriously hurt, and second-hand smoke (everywhere) are listed as the major threats to children of that time.

"The lawn darts game I specifically remember because my mother once accidentally threw one and hit my dad’s new car," writes Gary Gould. "Fortunately, it never hit me or other children in the family."

He concludes by saying that "kids today don’t have to deal with the same daily threats to their well-being as we did growing up," adding that "While I think it’s good to be safe, sometimes I think we were better prepared to face the world than many of them are today."