citizen cyclists making urban spaces liveable

13 April 2011

The Amazing Wham-O Wheelie Bar!

Continuing somewhat of a theme for a minute...
This brilliant 1966 TV Commercial was tweeted out by the wonderful Lenore Skenazy from Free Range Kids (@FreeRangeKids) and in my humble opinion needs to be seen by as many parents/non-parents and kids as possible.
I'm a mother, I get it, I don't intentionally put my child's life in danger but I also remember a day when we allowed our kids to live.  To make mistakes, to learn from them, to ride bikes barefoot and yes dammit, to fall off a hurt ourselves occasionally but more importantly to be allowed to live.

So indulge me this little piece of nostalgia and enjoy.


2 comments:

Farrel said...

I enjoyed listening to Lenore on ABC's Q&A. She makes a lot of practical sense. In saying this, it's instilled in us, biologically to protect our children and... our culture has permitted this over-protection. Either way... I hope when I have kids I don't become this overbearing father!

St Etienne said...

Lenore is an inspiration to me as I was given the same kind of freedom as a child that she gives to her own son. The modern-day helicopter parenting thing is a very depressing feature of our times, and my own son will not be caught up in such paranoid madness.

This ad reminds me of my youth when we spent whole afternoons after school doing tricks on bikes. And yeah, we crashed a hell of a lot too. Those were the days.