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What, No Helmet?

This Fourth of July as I watch the fireworks going off, I’m reminded of my childhood when it wasn’t quite illegal for us to use firecrackers, bottle rockets, and even M80s. Were they scary? Sometimes, and yet my parents never forbade us to use them.

I grew up in the 70s and looking back, it’s a miracle I survived. I never even heard of a helmet for riding a bike, and I’d ditched my training wheels at the tender age of four. We could ride around the neighborhood all day without our parents even questioning where we were going.

As for fireworks, we’d heard the horror stories of kids getting their fingers blown off because a fuse had been too short, etc. When I was in first grade, I even remember hanging out at my friend’s house and trying to light a firecracker. To my shock, the entire book of matches ignited in my hand!

Right away, my friend’s helpful grandpa ran into the house, came back with a stick of butter, and slathered it all over my palm. Didn’t they know back then that that was BAD? Suffice it to say, I received what would be considered a 2nd degree burn, and for a week the palm sized blister on my hand resembled the soft white pads on the bottom of my cat’s paws.

I don’t know if my parents had gotten upset about it, they never showed it, nor said anything to me about it besides, “Be more careful.” And for the rest of my childhood, until the charm wore off, I and my maniacal brothers continued to play with fireworks, creating all kinds of mini-IEDs for blowing up ants, bugs, and making tiny rockets.

As I said, it’s a miracle we survived, because I would never allow my kids to do some of the stupid things I did. Who knows, it could have been my fingers that got blown off and I would never have been able to play the cello and go to Juilliard.

Now that I’m a parent, I might be a bit on the overly cautious side. And some of my more casual acquaintances think I’m too uptight about health and safety. But my philosophy is, if it doesn’t cause too much inconvenience, or deprive my child of a healthy life experience, then by principle, take the prudent path of caution.

Some of you know that a couple of years ago, a good friend of mine named Jimmy died in a scuba diving accident. Jimmy was a very experienced diver, and a former member of the US Navy. He knew what he was doing. And he’d probably gone diving solo more than once, though everyone knows you shouldn’t go alone. For him, it was probably a million in one chance anything could go wrong.

But it only took that one time, and nothing could bring him back to the people who loved him and whom he left behind.

My whole family was heartbroken, my children in particular, as they loved him like an uncle.

So a principle arose in our household. If that one in a million chance involves irreversible consequences, and the risk isn’t absolutely necessary, then go by the principle: “Health and safety first.”

What do you think? Am I too uptight? Do I need to relax more?

What about you? What kind of dangerous/reckless things did you do as a child that you’d never let your kids do?

Leave a comment below and tomorrow I’ll randomly select one person to win a free ebook of mine.

PS: Have a safe and happy fourth!


Joshua Graham is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, winner of the International Book Award and Forward National Literature Award. His thrillers include DARKROOM, LATENT IMAGE and BEYOND JUSTICE, and TERMINUS. Graham's works have been characterized as thought-provoking page-turners.

Legal Notice: All information on this website and blog are from Mr. Graham's personal experience and insight and should not be viewed in any way, directly or inferred, as qualified professional advice.

All creative writing on this website or Mr. Graham's books: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. (novels, short stories)