11 Things Pennsylvania Kids Did Every Summer in the ’70s That Would Worry Parents Today

Ask anyone who grew up in Pennsylvania in the ’70s what their parents knew about their summer whereabouts.

The honest answer: Roughly nothing between breakfast and supper.

Somehow, the whole neighborhood made it home every night.

Here’s what Pennsylvania kids got away with every summer back then, and why it would worry parents today.

Swimming in the Crick

Summer in ’70s Pennsylvania started at the nearest creek, which half the state pronounced “crick.”

Pennsylvania has 86,000 miles of streams and rivers, second only to Alaska, and kids treated every mile of it as a public pool.

Nobody tested the water first.

You learned which rocks were slick, which swimming hole hid a snapping turtle, and how far you could walk home in wet Chuck Taylors before the blisters won.

Today, that same afternoon would involve a water-quality app and three text check-ins.

Biking Until Dusk

A ’70s Pennsylvania bike had a banana seat, a sissy bar, and no safety equipment of any kind.

Helmets weren’t a debate because nobody owned one.

Pennsylvania didn’t put a bicycle helmet rule on the books until 1991, and the current law still only covers riders under 12.

Kids rode two towns over, launched off plywood ramps, and coasted down hills they wouldn’t let their own grandkids near today.

Throwing Lawn Darts

No ’70s Pennsylvania barbecue was complete without Jarts, a lawn game built around foot-long weighted metal spikes.

Kids played barefoot, usually while an uncle offered pointers from a lawn chair.

Federal safety officials later counted an estimated 6,100 emergency room injuries from lawn darts between 1978 and 1986, most of them to children.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) banned their sale outright on December 19, 1988.

The CPSC says any set still sitting in a Pennsylvania garage belongs in the trash, not the yard.

Riding in the Way Back

The way back of the family station wagon was the best seat in 1970s Pennsylvania, and no law said otherwise.

Kids sprawled on the vinyl, waved at truckers on Route 22, and slid across the cargo floor on every curve.

Pennsylvania didn’t require child car seats until 1983, and adult seat belts waited until 1987.

The only restraint system in most cars was a mother’s arm flung across the front seat.

Jarring Fireflies

Catching fireflies was practically a civic duty for Pennsylvania kids, and in 1974, the state made it official.

Elementary school students in Upper Darby petitioned Harrisburg, and the firefly became Pennsylvania’s state insect on April 10, 1974.

The evening’s catch went into that mayonnaise jar with grass in the bottom and holes punched in the lid.

Most kids dumped the jar out by breakfast and started over the next night, and nobody called it a science lesson.

Drinking From the Garden Hose

No Pennsylvania kid between June and August walked inside for a glass of water.

The garden hose handled it, warm rubber taste and all.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now warns that fixtures never meant for drinking water, garden hoses included, can pass along lead.

In 1976, the only known hazard was a brother pinching the hose while you drank.

Pajamas at the Drive-In

Drive-in night meant Pennsylvania kids climbed into the wagon already wearing pajamas because everyone knew how the second feature ended.

Shankweiler's in Orefield opened on April 15, 1934, the second drive-in ever built in America, and with the New Jersey original long gone, it's still showing movies this summer.

Kids claimed the tailgate, the speaker box hung on the window, and the mosquitoes ate better than anyone at the snack bar.

Half the audience was asleep by the second reel, and dads carried them inside at midnight.

Bouncing in the Pickup Bed

Riding loose in a pickup bed was ordinary Pennsylvania transportation in the '70s, from the hayfield to the Dairy Queen.

Wind, gravel, tailgate: Every inch counted as seating.

Pennsylvania didn't restrict truck-bed riding until 1998, and even the current law carves out exceptions for farm work and parades.

In 1975, the only rule was to hold on.

Walking to the Corner Store

Every Pennsylvania neighborhood had a corner store, and every kid walked there alone with a sweaty quarter.

Swedish Fish and Mary Janes sold for about a penny apiece, and the man behind the counter counted them into a paper bag one at a time.

Six-year-olds made the trip solo, crossed two streets on their own judgment, and nobody blinked.

Try sending a first grader four blocks for candy today and count the phone calls.

Chasing the Fog Truck

Early '70s Pennsylvania kids pedaled behind the township mosquito truck on purpose, racing through the white cloud it sprayed down the street.

For years, that fog was often DDT, a pesticide the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned at the end of 1972.

Parents waved from the porch.

The worry of the day was supper getting cold, not what was in the cloud.

Smuggling Bottle Rockets

Fireworks were the great contraband of a Pennsylvania summer because the state's 1939 fireworks law kept residents from buying anything that left the ground.

Highway stands sold the good stuff to out-of-state buyers only, so kids' stashes came home from vacations and cousins in Ohio.

Pennsylvania didn't legalize aerial consumer fireworks for its own residents until 2017.