I Hope Idaho Kids Don't Get Hurt Bobbing for Apples

We’ve become a nation of wusses! Did you bob for apples as kids? I realize I grew up in a time before the tech revolution, and fun was something we often found outside and while playing with other kids.

At Halloween, we had neighbors who would throw a party inside a barn. There would be cider (I still love the stuff) and cinnamon donuts. A big part of the evening was bobbing for apples. A big drum was filled with water and the apples floated on top. You folded your arms behind you and took the plunge. Nobody died. No drowning, no listeria, and no warts.

I was curious this morning about bobbing for apples. I wondered if kids still did this, or is there a sanitized video edition that keeps them dry and only simulates the experience?

That’s when I came across this site. Good grief!

Look, I don’t like seeing kids with colds and the like, but we picked up the flu, chickenpox, and mumps at school, not over an old rain barrel. We walked to school across a rickety old wooden bridge with trains passing below. We went door to door raising money for the PTA, without our parents in tow. We went to the park and played unsupervised. I went into people’s homes every Saturday to collect for my paper route.

My brother and I would pull carrots from the garden and eat them before they were washed. We played tackle football on the surface of an old railroad yard.

My folks were too busy to be helicopter parents, and my mother had a saying when I complained about other kids. “Fight your own battles,” she would say as she worked in the kitchen.

No wonder today’s young people need cry rooms and puppies in the workplace.