"It's Great To Be Alive!" | Vintage Safety Manual

My mother was a school nurse and, like this booklet, took a grim view of horseplay and thoughtless behavior. From earlier than I can remember, we were told of the dangers inherent in everyday life, and how to avoid them. "You certainly don't want to be crippled for life," was a fairly common statement around the house, and that was the presumed outcome for children who ignored safety rules.

In fairness, adults didn't have a lot of options in those days, so using abject fear was a common parenting tool. There were no reflective bicycle helmets or knee-pads for skateboarders, no designated bicycle lanes, many fewer supervised activities, and we didn't even have seat belts in cars until the mid-1960s. When accidents happened, they were usually pretty grim.

Gene Gable is a technology consultant and writer who authors the "Scanning Around With Gene" blog at CreativePro.com.

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