Were there safehouses for kids marked by blue handprints in the 80s?

July 27, 2010 9:15 AM

Was there a system in the early 80s where kids who needed help were encouraged to go to any house with a blue handprint in the window?

This is a fuzzy memory, but I remember around 1981-85 in Ann Arbor, MI being taught that if a stranger was out to get me or I was being chased by bullies to look for a house with a blue handprint in the window. I'm just curious if this was a real thing, I'm pretty sure it was but I can't find any confirmation. If anybody remembers I'm also curious if there was anything stopping bad people from putting the signs up in their windows.

posted by samph to Grab Bag (38 answers total)

In Canada there was a Block Parent Program with red signs when I was growing up. Could it have been something like that?
posted by sueinnyc at 9:18 AM on July 27, 2010

I don't remember it as blue, but otherwise yes, I remember such a system around that time (Cleveland area).
posted by jon1270 at 9:19 AM on July 27, 2010

In my neighborhood they had "block houses" where kids where supposedly encouraged to go for help. No blue handprint - just a sign that said "block house." I think some neighborhoods had "McGruff Houses" with a picture of McGruff the Crime Dog in the windows. The blue handprint could've been a local thing in your neighborhood.
posted by Ostara at 9:19 AM on July 27, 2010

There was/is the McGruff Safe Home program. Can't find the blue signs, but I vaguely remember them too.
posted by Ouisch at 9:21 AM on July 27, 2010

On the West side of Manhattan we had Safe Haven.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 9:21 AM on July 27, 2010

I remember a neighborhood watch program, but I don't remember blue handprints. I think ours had a dog silhouette? Like McGruff the crime dog... but it's a fuzzy memory so I'm not sure.
posted by patheral at 9:22 AM on July 27, 2010

If it helps, I have the same fuzzy memory (I moved to Ann Arbor in 1985). I was 20 then, so my vague recall is that it was more about being sort of vaguely aware of there being such a program. This is not confirmation, I know, and I don't recall details.
posted by not that girl at 9:22 AM on July 27, 2010

When I grew up in the 70s, there was a program for houses to set themselves up as safe harbors, very much along the lines of what you describe. It was organized by the school system itself, with the school involved in teaching children how to use such houses appropriately (yes on escaping bullies, no on asking for a glass of water for the hell of it).

The marker wasn't a blue handprint, though ... it was an illustration of a house.

This program once saved me during a pounding hailstorm with golf-ball sized hail. "I really should get the fuck out of here. Oh look, there's that sign they talked about once." A nice lady let me onto her porch.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:23 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Reference to the Block Home Program "an extension of Neighborhood Watch."
posted by Ouisch at 9:25 AM on July 27, 2010

I remember this in suburban Indianapolis in the late 70s/early 80s, but I think our handprint was orange.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 9:25 AM on July 27, 2010

I grew up in Metro Detroit. We had a similar program, except I remember the signs being orange and black... I believe they showed the silhouette of a house.
posted by meggie78 at 9:26 AM on July 27, 2010

In Australia we have the Safety House programme. Local groups monitor the neighbourhood to make sure that only authorised houses use the sign.
posted by rubbish bin night at 9:27 AM on July 27, 2010

I remember this very vaguely, but I could have sworn the handprint was black on a yellow-ish background. I also thought that it was only for businesses, not private homes, but other commenters are making me question that belief...
posted by saladin at 9:29 AM on July 27, 2010

This is so sad. If such a program ever did exist in my area (Savannah, GA), it was completely gone 10 years later. When I was a kid, they told us not to go in a stranger's house, EVER, even if they had cool toys and looked nice. This wasn't helped by the fact that we had a sex offender living juuuust outside the legal distance from out school.

Some neighborhoods had those neighborhood watch signs, but they always looked really old and in disrepair, like someone put them up a long time ago but the program had since been disbanded.
posted by phunniemee at 9:34 AM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

I was a small child in Des Moines, Iowa in the late 70s and I remember it being a blue star. There was a PSA/commercial that ran during saturday morning cartoons and I can even remember a snippet of the jingle: "Go to a blue star home~". I can't seem to find anything that backs up this memory though.

There was a house right around the block from me that had a blue star in the window and I remember being fascinated by the idea. Wondering if there was something special about those people or that house and finding the presence of that star in that house simultaneously alluring and suspicious and dreaming up scenarios of that might draw me to knock on that mysterious door and what I might see if I ever did. In hindsight that seems like pretty deep thinking for what would have been a 4-5 year old, so that makes me even more doubtful of the veracity of this particular memory. :/
posted by lilnublet at 9:47 AM on July 27, 2010

Yes we had this, in Bowie, MD, in the 70s/80s. I believe the handprint was red though, or maybe a white handprint on red background? Seems like a crazy idea now, allowing anyone who wanted to to invite scared kids into their houses...
posted by headnsouth at 9:47 AM on July 27, 2010

Had this in NJ, though like the others I'm not positive it was blue. Maybe red? Almost definitely a handprint, though.
posted by inigo2 at 9:50 AM on July 27, 2010

There was definitely something like this when I was a kid in Ft. Collins, CO in the '70s (and possibly into the early '80s). I recall that the handprint was black or dark gray.
posted by scody at 9:52 AM on July 27, 2010

I remember something like this from elementary school. Grew up in Maine, was in elementary school in the mid to late 80s.
posted by zizzle at 9:58 AM on July 27, 2010

Looks like some communities still have this. Here's current info for the Helping Hand Program in Naperville, IL.
posted by scody at 10:06 AM on July 27, 2010

I definitely remember this program (southeastern Wisconsin, early 1980s). The "blue handprint" rang a bell for me too, unlike the other commenters. However, maybe I watched too many episodes of FlashForward and have conflated the two things.
posted by desjardins at 10:07 AM on July 27, 2010

Back in the early 1970s our school district (suburb of Detroit) had a "Helping Hand" program. My Mom was a participant. Parents who wished to participate had to go through a very short training session (maybe about an hour) and then displayed a fluorescent orange sign in their front window or door that had the outline of an extended hand, palm-up. Kids who were either lost or were being bothered by a stranger could go to such a home and then the police were called, or the kids' parents, whatever.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:07 AM on July 27, 2010

Was in elementary school in NJ in the 90s. My school organized a similar program with orange handprints.
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 10:08 AM on July 27, 2010

We had the Helping Hand program in various location in Indiana.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:08 AM on July 27, 2010

Yes! We had this in suburban Denver in the 80's. Definitely a hand print. Maybe not blue - although baby blue seems right.
posted by jrichards at 10:23 AM on July 27, 2010

We had the equivalent to this in my neighborhood (suburb of Chicago) 5-10 years ago when I was a kid. There weren't blue hand prints though.
posted by kylej at 10:40 AM on July 27, 2010

I remember learning about this and being really worried that because I didn't live in a subdivision or neighborhood with tons of homes (and a walkable "safe house") that I was in danger of being kidnapped.

Stranger Danger fucked me up.
posted by k8t at 10:41 AM on July 27, 2010

We had something like this, but I'm not remembering blue hand prints so much as a little house maybe with a star in the doorway? Similarly hung in windows to designate a safe house for kids.
posted by citywolf at 10:43 AM on July 27, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks everybody, the fact that similar programs definitely existed leads me to believe I didn't make up the blue handprints. It is really weird to think about how something like this wouldn't happen today.
posted by samph at 11:17 AM on July 27, 2010

I remember the blue-handprint, metro Detroit in the 70's.

My folks had a card they kept in a window near our front door.
posted by bricksNmortar at 1:36 PM on July 27, 2010

I'm with lilnublet: Iowa, mid-80s it was a dark blue star. In fact, even just a few years ago, a few of the old people in our little old town still had them up.
posted by BlooPen at 1:38 PM on July 27, 2010

I'm with citywolf. In Fairfax County, Virginia (mid to late 80's) we had neon orange signs with a blue house silhouette on them. The house had a star in the middle so that the neon orange of the sign came through. The signs were sized so that they would fit in a windowpane. I think they tried to have houses along walking routes near schools as well as neighborhood school bus stops.
posted by scarnato at 2:34 PM on July 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Single data point: Safe Haven still exists in Manhattan at shops and what-have-you. So it's not quite an anachronism.
posted by zvs at 3:07 PM on July 27, 2010

I, like scarnato, remember orange signs with a black open star under a black roof, Fairfax County, Virginia, early to mid-80s.
posted by jocelmeow at 3:27 PM on July 27, 2010

I was just thinking about this! The program I remember from about the same time (maybe a little later) was called Safe Place. The sign is yellow and black, but otherwise it sounds like what you described.
posted by defreckled at 5:52 PM on July 27, 2010

We had it in my neighborhood in Baltimore, and one of the houses I passed on my walk to school had the handprint symbol in the window. This was circa 1982.
posted by missmobtown at 9:09 PM on July 27, 2010

In my town, ca. 1970, we had black rectangular signs with an orange hand symbol. As I recall, these programs were fairly common, but largely disappeared in the 1980s as fears/awareness of child molestation rose. They are being revived now with a focus on Safe Routes to School, walking school-buses, and so forth, but now with extensive background checks.
posted by dhartung at 10:23 PM on July 27, 2010

Baltimore suburbs, 70s-80s, I totally remember this, though the handprint may have been a different color.
posted by desuetude at 8:22 AM on July 28, 2010