Almost dying twice before I was 15 caused me to be more serious about staying alive than most people I knew growing up

After whooping Cough I noticed it the most as many or most children were kind of silly. But, it was the 1950s and children weren't often taken seriously either so many didn't make it mentally or physically because of this to begin with. You almost had to be sort of animalistic in your survival techniques as a child in the 1950s. You didn't share a lot of things with your parents often because you knew doing so might interfere with your survival or your freedom.

So, this seriously thinking about everything I found absent from many or most young people. And partly because of this I had to watch children and young adults die or get maimed a lot growing up until I was about 30 years old.

Though I was a risk taker physically in some ways I also was very careful what I said to people because I saw what happened and how many people wound up bloody or worse when they opened their mouth to say bad things about some people.

So, mostly if I was going to take risks it would be like climbing a tree, riding a motorcycle or racing cars or something like this or flying gliders or hang gliders or rock climbing. But, causing people to hit me by something I said is not something I was ever interested in. But, I also saw a lot of this and bloodied people in the 1950s and early 1960s until I was out of public school and into a private school for my last year of high school.