At least some here will have some memory of 80s and 90s. All through 80s and into 90s teenagers, minor children, would just show up at the start of club rides. If you showed you rode. Waivers? Releases? No one had heard of such. Parental consent? Then as now any club had an abundance of attorneys present and we just rode without any concern for liability. Behaving as we did and as the children did is simply inconceivable now. The present and the past are different.
Helmets happened in mid-80s. They were not automatic until end of 80s. Resistance to helmets was mostly based on the fact that we did not fall off our bikes. Fred fell. Racers did not. Head injuries? Who? No one we know. Get hit by a truck, yeah, you could get hurt. Otherwise a non-issue.
Going back to where no one remembers. My first race was 1967. I was 15. Just out for a ride and bumped into a race. In time for the Junior race. Juniors were 15, 16, 17 back then. Officials put a leather hairnet on my head, pinned a number on my jersey and away we go. No entry form. No entry fee. No release. No possibility parents could have been informed. Those officials were not careless or reckless or stupid. Same group who would be the officials around here the next twenty years. Even five years later just no chance the same men would have done the same thing so casually. But they were taking no risk. Riding that race was a lot safer than riding alone. It was a fast ride. John VandeVelde won, a year later he would be at Olympics. Other pacemaker was Olaf Moetus. Still a monster. And every rider in that race was looking out for the new kid and doing a good job of it.
Current riding is about as safe a sport as Russian roulette. It was not always thus. It does not need to be thus. If you ride in a group today be careful. Be prepared.