GMU econ prof, NYT bestseller, father of 4, author of Myth of the Rational Voter, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, Case Against Education, Open Borders, & BBB

As kids we used to break into construction sites to steal planks and nails for our tree houses.

ug

There's also old, rusty playground equipment.

Were kids in the 80s just like, "oh boy I got a bag of rusty nails for my birthday, can't wait to bring this on my field trip to the no-shoes-allowed junk yard and then take a nap inside the nearest farmer's antique thereshing machine?"

Tagline material.

the u.s. is full to bursting of rotted out houses, farms, equipment, etc

go to any small town and there's a good shot you'll see more shacks than houses

rural america, shit probably urban in some areas. I lived in the sticks for a period and there were a lot of old abandoned farm implements in the woods that were absolutely rusted out

I grew up in rural Ireland and nearly everything was rusty. Half of the cities were rusty tbh, anywhere outside of the city centres is not that well-maintained.

But I grew up in the 2000s and when I wasn't allowed to play video games I would just start exploring farm equipment and playing with hammers. I guess it just depends on your environment

Yes though it did/do be like that in many parts of America. I remember my father telling me about his friend who died playing in silos in Nebraska as kids. Not rust but ya kids be playing on old and new farming equipment alike.

running around without shoes as a kid is how I learned about tetanus!

Playing in subdivisions where the outer areas weren't fully built, playing in alleyways between houses that would become dumping grounds for random things after a decade of occupation, kids building "club houses" with whatever scraps of lumber and nails we could steal from other houses back yards or early stages of construction, having friends who lived in rural areas where we'd play/wander in barns and abandoned houses. We'd break bottles and have rock rights for funsies, too.

But for the most part, the tetanus from rusty metal things is like from the early 1900's that just got passed down, out of context, as a matter of fact.

I was playing football in a field with an old barbed wire fence and the quarterback was a little inaccurate while I was a little overzealous. I waited in the ER for several hours like a good American, mostly because I was at work and they made me.

I was never specifically told to be afraid of tetanus either, but that may be because all kids got mandatory tetanus vaccines where I grew up. I still have a faded scar on my arm - I think it was the three vaccines in one shot thing, nowadays it doesn't leave a scar afaik, but back then you got a star-shaped mark and a minor swelling for a few weeks. And when pushing around other kids, somebody would always go "not in the vaccine!" when they caught a stray, painful punch in that part of the arm.

I only renewed it in my mid-20s after stepping straight onto a long rusty nail. I also decided to get some other vaccines filled in back then, like TBE.

edit: I actually looked it up and the scar was from a tubercolosis vaccine, tetanus et al didn't leave any marks

I grew up in the sticks and being around tools and shit was very normal. Often rusty just from age and use. Lots of remains of old sheds or torn down houses etc out in the woods too, or active projects on your own land, barbed wire, etc. To me it doesn’t seem unusual at all to see or be around that sort of stuff and we were always up to date on our tetanus shot because of it. Even just getting poked by a tree branch or something is a tetanus risk, any puncture wound should be treated as one