Well I'm also an uncut American, born in 1956. As the only uncut member of my family, the parents didn't know what to do with it, so they did nothing. I was never given any guidance about how to care for a foreskin, but I never had any trouble from it.
I was a late retracter -- my foreskin was quite firmly attached to my glans, I equate it to the way your fingernail is attached to the quick, until I was about 9 or 10. Until then, I never saw my glans, not even the tip of it. I didn't really understand how the whole foreskin system was supposed to work until pre-pubescent spontaneous morning erections caused me to start "coming out."
I don't know if things would have been any better or any worse if earlier retraction had been attempted. I suspect worse. Forcing it back, or trying to clean it, might have led to the sorts of irritations, infections, itching, and smells that would have led to medical intervention.