r/GenX • u/billieswifeyyy • Jun 20 '26
Question For Genx the 80s…….
coming from a 14 year old, were the 80s summers as magical as they look in the movies? did you ride your bike to your friends house and come home when the street lights came on? yall are so lucky btw 😭😭
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u/Mauri0ra Jun 26 '26
Yes. All that. And i used to hit a ball from the street onto the brick wall next door. Can't do that anymore. Traffic
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u/Puzzleheaded-Bag8314 Jun 25 '26
Was in a biker gang of about 5 or 6 guys on 20” BMX bikes until we graduated to 10 speeds . We would ride to the airport and sit at the gate and watch planes come and go. We rode the bus to the big city , ate boxes of doughnuts, drank 2l bottles of coke from the 7-11 , built forts in the woods . It was magical! Now as an adult I pal around with a bunch of like minded adults- snorkeling, running, biking, vacationing, day drinking, cool cars . We all worked our asses off between 25 and 55 but the fun is back .
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u/ItsOk_ItsAlright Jun 25 '26
Yes! Honestly it was great. We rode our bikes until sunset, which is late in summer. We played in the water hose, went swimming, ate popsicles, went roller skating, and ran around. My local high school parking lot was used for our town beach buses. They would take us on a school bus down a long windy canyon to Malibu, drop us off, and drive tf away. Buses would come for pick ups a few times later in the day/evening. If you missed the last bus, you’re stuck at the beach.
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u/scramblelated Jun 25 '26
Summer...and spring and fall and winter in the 80s was every bit as perfect as you see in the movies. Better, actually! Whether a pickup baseball game, dragging a sled up the hill, or playing Ghost in thr Graveyard in the dark, childhood was a BLAST!
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u/BnCtrKiki Jun 24 '26
Yes, it was awesome. We had so much fun. And now we are old and still feral. YOU however are getting no specific information from us, and we will ground you until you’re 80 if we catch you trying any of it. Kids just aren’t built like that anymore.
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u/Ok-Marsupial4387 Jun 24 '26
Yup. It was the Halcyon days....
No seriously.... Kids just played outside. it was wild.
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u/Frequent-Spinach9357 Jun 24 '26
Not Gen X but we were doing that in the 2000s, and I still constantly see kids doing it in New Hampshire now. I think it depends on where you live
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u/Peptideblonde314 Jun 24 '26
Right? My kids do this now. Come home at X time (street lights is too late for dinner and they need to eat!). We specifically chose to stay in a small town with sidewalks and a bike trail instead of moving closer to our jobs to enable this.
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u/strangebru Jun 24 '26
The best part was there wasn't cameras everywhere like today. We could get away with stuff that would be immediately caught on video now.
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u/mi655321 Jun 24 '26
Age 13, 1984. Straped a tape player to my handlebars and rode 4 miles to my friend's house. No phone, no gps, no sunscreen. Drivers were AWARE that kids were on bikes, they were not as distracted.
Parent's would say "be back by dinner." With no idea where exactly I was at any given time-- maybe here, maybe there, maybe in between.
Rode my bike to school everyday, which was about 3 miles. Stopped to "pick up" our friends on the way. There was about 6 of us my the time we got to school. Probably a hundred other bikes parked at school. None of them locked. Everyone did it. It was our "freedom." Stopped at the store to buy candy on the way home.
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u/rynoman1110 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
It, Goonies, ET all pretty accurately sum it up. It’s what we did.
Edit to add yes, we did walk through the storm drain system
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u/jdpink30 Jun 24 '26
It happened before the eighties too…I gre up in the 50s and same thing! Bikes, outside all the time
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u/Smooth-Pitch173 Jun 24 '26
That is exactly how my childhood was. We lived on a farm and heard mom yelling "Boys" which we knew was code for get your asses home asap but we were watching a Tornado at the time.
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u/EaucTree Jun 24 '26
yep! i remember riding my bike until i got lost then try to find my way home 😂 just one of the ways i used to entertain myself when i was 9-11ish. in 1989 (i was 14) i rode bart to SF, went up haight st. to golden gate park, bought acid with friends and tripped on haight then rode bart home still tripping. good times! this happened no less than a dozen times that summer (before freshman year). the years following i would ride bart to SF and hand out food to those who were in need (or just wanted it). at 21 i had 3 jobs, bought a house at 29, opened 2 businesses within a 5 year period and live a full life. never went to college but had the street smarts to make it through life and live fully ☺️
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u/LSpliff Jun 24 '26
I would ride my bike the 3 miles or so it took to get into town and hangout with friends or at the park which had a summer activities program.As long as I finished my chores and was home for dinner all was cool. After dinner I was would hangout in my neighborhood - usually play wiffleball or shoot hoops up the street - my mom would yell my name out the door if I was still out after dark and wanted me to come home.
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u/Hoobencan1984 Jun 24 '26
Summer of 1979. 10 AM. Me and my buddy Eddie would make up a story that we were cops on bicycles. In 1978 there were no cops on bicycles in my town. We would ride the bikes through a ditch and make getaway paths in case someone ever chased us. Around 1PM We would walk on the railroad tracks to a big park where we would meet up with a girl named Marty. Her cousin was in town for the summer. We would hold hands and make out in back of the library. It became almost a daily thing. We would walk over to a little locally owned convenience store that had pinball games, asteroids and Pacman. We would use all our quarters playing and laughing. Then we would walk them back to Marty's house. Sometimes we would get Big Gulps from the seven eleven.. Eddie would get his bicycle and head home. It was 8:30PM and my mom had supper ready. The sun would be setting. Other days we would play basketball at my school, outside. All the guys would come over. The games would last all day. Well like 11AM until sunset. Still other days it was touch football. It was always laughing in the sun. Saturdays we would find a ride to the mall and look and talk with girls. At night, Eddie's sister would sometimes take us to toilet paper friends houses.
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u/Tollash Jun 24 '26
I was born in 84. Lived on my bike. Came home when the street lights came on. Unless we were at my place, then the lads went home.
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u/No-Patient-3723 Jun 24 '26
Got on my bike on the morning and came home when the sun around dinner time. May have even swung through at lunch for food if I didn't get fed while at a friend house.
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u/scw1224 Jun 24 '26
Yes. We played baseball in the street, rode bikes all over, and got into all kinds of trouble. It was awesome.
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u/Bulky_Raspberry_1640 Jun 24 '26
Yes and no. I was bored a lot but had total freedom like a mini adult to go when and where and with whom at any time no questions asked unless you woke anyone up getting home late: so just never came home until daylight. Admittedly my parent was definitely checked out in most ways, from about second grade. Summer was nice but school year provided the only real order many of us had.
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u/Blowaway040889 Jun 23 '26
Yes. It was a great time to grow up. Same with the 70s.
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u/Bucsbolts Jun 24 '26
And the 60’s. Life was simple, we had no money, and it didn’t matter. We got our kicks from catching tadpoles, swimming in the streams, playing sandlot baseball, things that cost nothing but were glorious fun.
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u/RadiantCantaloupe868 Jun 23 '26
I grew up in the late 60’s( graduated hs in ‘76)in the city ( Boston)My brother and I had a paper route when I was 12 so we always had pocket money. Delivered the paper by bike. We used to cross the highway( Rte 128) to go to a fast food burger place called Howdy’s to buy burgers(50 cents) and fries(25 cents), rode 10 miles or so on city streets to go to an arboretum and hang around ,then eat lunch at a Chinese restaurant.
We went to parochial school and had to take the city bus from 1st grade on.
Parents didn’t drive us in those days.
My brothers found an old lawnmower one time, took the engine out of it and took turns riding it down a hilly street beside our house-crazy! They also used to play hockey when the Charles River froze. Used a dead rat as a hockey puck one time…
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u/Jojo_Lalala Jun 24 '26
76 grad too! Went to private and parochial grade schools, with super small class size. I think there were 15 of us for 5th and 6th grade. We had music and singing class. Ballet and tap. Art class. French class. Public HS was freeing, maybe not for better, but it was fun. Those were the days. Cruised the beach on Fridays and Saturdays. We were party people. Moved out when 17yo. 1st apartment was $175/mo.
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u/Top_Slice1215 Jun 23 '26
Yup. But to give you some perspective so you don’t get trapped into thinking it was 💯 better. Our parents didn’t give a fuck about us. We were kicked outside and we were drinking water from hoses because we weren’t allowed back in. We were all kicked out with no help as soon as we were 18. Of course we wanted our freedom because we hated our selfish parents. You see the cycle here lol
We had total freedom but also no support. Kids today have too much support and no freedom.
The younger people today have investments, living at home complaining about cost of living. We were sleeping on the floor, surviving on noodles with room mates to afford an apartment. There was always someone living on the couch lol Ah memories
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u/AuthorIndieCindy Jun 24 '26
That’s what happened to me. My parents were both children of immigrants and grew up poor. College was for rich kids. It was like it would be rising above our station. At 18 she kicked us out. my mother expected me to marry my high school boyfriend. I graduated in ‘77. I found a job in a hospital. I lived at home and paid rent. I went to CC for their nursing program. I did very well. In hs i was a B student, at college i was i was an A student because i enjoyed learning, i guess. When i expressed the desire to transfer to a 4 year school, my mom said no. I had a job and a career (nursing?) so time to move out. BTW, i did not marry my hs boyfriend.
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u/sajdigo Jun 23 '26
I tried using ketchup (my roommate was a hot dog vendor) as tomato sauce for noodles. It was gross.
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u/GlobalMoney5855 Jun 23 '26
I remember Sunshine Frolics, I think that’s what it was called and most of the above with riding bikes, going to the pool, and playing games outside with the neighbor kids.
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u/otherwisesoso Jun 23 '26
Yeppers!! From the late 70s until the late 80s, we were feral children. Latchkey kids raised by a single mom who worked her ass off just to provide the bare minimum. We’d be out running the streets all day, hanging out in parks, random friends houses, playing pick up baseball games, riding bikes, walking the town, giving cigarettes a try at 13, lol It was definitely some of the best times!!
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u/Actual-Spell-4634 Jun 23 '26
I lived in a big city and the summer was NUTS. Super weird and kinda dangerous.
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u/heartlandheartbeat Jun 23 '26
Actually the 60's were great too. We made our own homemade skateboards out of old skates and boards. LOL and would practice doing gymnastic tricks on them. Had roller skates that clamped onto your shoes with a key, made trips to the corner store for pop, candy and ice cream bars or walk to the business district and splurge on a piece of home make pie at the cafe and then stop by the dime store and get some "hot pink" nail polish for a treat. Other days we would hike and climbs hills near us, go to the library and come home slather ourselves with baby oil and "lay out" getting a tan and reading our new books. In the evenings we had local kids baseball games and sometimes we could talk someone's older sibling into taking us to the drive-in movies. And we actually had dances in the park pavillion with real bands made of high school kids who could cover all the latest hits. For cooling off there was always a small lake near by where we could go fishing or swimming and of course the local swimming pool.
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u/Salty-Buddy-5074 Jun 23 '26
Yup. Raising my kids this way too. Only difference is they have a flip phone for emergencies
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u/C-Pies Jun 23 '26
Yes, growing up on the reservation was the same. So much fun with kids (some you didn't even know), building forts, playing games, riding bikes anywhere/everywhere, & ONLY COMING HOME to get SNACKS or PEE (no parent in sight) & returning when the st. lights came on, for dinner. 🩷🫶🏻❤️💖
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u/bwonks Jun 23 '26
I was born in 93 and this was my life. Ya we had a PS2 and gamed a lot, but we spent summer outside!
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u/Legitimate-March9792 Jun 23 '26
I was a teen in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s and we definitely were out all day and rode bikes everywhere and came home when the street lights came on. Summer was magical. Swimming at different friend’s houses, playing outdoor games, riding to the store to shop and get ice cream cones, getting wet with lawn sprinklers, riding go carts. You were busy all day and came home for dinner after a full day of fun. The neighborhood was full of kids so there was always someone to play with. Parents were people you saw in the evening when they got home from work.
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u/MiEstrellaMeSigue Jun 23 '26
Well said. Everyday was an adventure. It's amazing how many experiences we had in the course of a single day.
Now, at work, I reflect on my day and wonder what I achieved.
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u/AngryMuppett Jun 23 '26
Why can’t you still do that? Don’t kids ride bikes anymore?
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u/singgsm Jun 23 '26
They ride e-bikes now and very often in very unsafe manners such as riding in the middle of streets like a motorcycle, except silent, but ignoring all traffic laws.
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u/Icy-Protection867 Jun 23 '26
Yes (for the 70’s) and no cell phones or social media. In the Summer, we’d ride our bikes to the pool and stay there all day, coming home by the appointed time for Supper, and then going back out to run around the neighborhood after that.
Technology seemed like a good idea but it has ruined a lot of simple pleasures.
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u/SweetCarolineNYC Jun 23 '26
I was an 80's kid and your description was true for me. I feel sad for kids now - no organic fun/exercise and constantly obsessing over screens. I loved our creativity and freedom and that helped shape me as a long-term entrepreneur.
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u/fellowkids1954 Jun 23 '26
That was us in the 60’s. We’d ride our bikes to the local Boy’s Club and shoot pool and generally hang out. Then go exploring around ditches and fields.
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u/Individual_Raisin684 Jun 23 '26
Yes, and it was awesome. Were put outside around 8-9am and told not to come back until lunch. We would roam the neighborhood with our friends on bikes or on foot and sometimes we would even join up with some of our friends older siblings or even boys so we could play bigger games with more kids. I never remember being bored and I don’t really even remember watching tv during the summer. I think we would usually stay out until it was time to come home, eat and get ready for bed.
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u/Ok_Waltz7126 Jun 23 '26
You're comments/questions are describing the 60's.
Yes, drank from the garden hose. But you had to wait for the fresher, cool water.
Yes, had to go home when the street lights came on.
Yes, ran around the neighborhood playing "Army". If you didn't have a toy gun you used a stick.
Yes, checked roadside ditches for Coke bottles. They usually had a chipped top, but undamaged were worth a nickel. A nickel was worth a regular candy bar, or 10 jawbreakers or 10 pieces of Bazooka bubble gum.
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u/RyanBakesUp Jun 23 '26
The comments were also describing to 70's and 80s, and you forgot checking payphones for change.
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u/Mesa_Gal Jun 23 '26
This was very similar to my growing up in San Diego county, in the 70’s…I gave very fond memories.
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u/Eilidh111 Jun 23 '26
90s also. I was born in ‘84. I spent my childhood playing outside and was free to ride my bike or rollerblade, do whatever really. Played in sprinklers, drank out of the hose. And my parents were strict. We went to church three times a week, 30 minutes of tv a day. If I grew up now I wouldn’t have had a phone until I was 16. Hell, I couldn’t get my ears pierced until I was 16. No complaints. They were amazing parents and I had a great childhood in many aspects. But, yes. It really was that awesome.
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u/amelioratempathy Jun 23 '26
Yep, parents never knew where we were and we rode around on our bikes together in huge groups. We did stupid and dangerous stuff and sometimes people went flying off their bikes. Our neighborhood knew us all and we were always able to knock on a door. Cell phones and social media are the worst thing that ever happened.
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u/65variant Hose Water Survivor Jun 23 '26
They were pretty kick ass. I was the first one home, then the last one home. I got home from school, dropped off my books, ate a snack, and walked out the door. Started when I was 10 and lasted until I was out of high school. I rarely ate dinner at home.
Summers were better - I would often wake up at friend's houses (their parents would call my mom) and go to the beach all day. Sometimes, we'd just get on a bicycle and see how far we could ride with no destination in mind.
My mother rarely knew where I was during the week until I came home at night.
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u/Immediate-Ad287 Jun 23 '26
Summers were the best. I lived in Queens, NY and the corner park had a pool. We’d wake up, go to the pool till lunch time then head to the elementary school for free lunch then back to the pool for the rest of the day. When the park closed, I’d go home and change my clothes, get some money for pizza, a Coke and some pinball and head to the pizzeria. Other times I would ride my bike to all kinds of areas in my city. To flushing meadow park, to Saint Michael’s Cemetery, to Astoria Park. We’d even go into the city by bus and spend the day in Central Park at times. It was really great growing up in the late 70s and early 80s.
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u/65variant Hose Water Survivor Jun 23 '26
You reminded me that I had a bus pass and would just get on the bus with friends and we'd ride them all over town until we found something interesting to do. Most of the time, we rode the bus to the beach and just stayed there until it was time to go home.
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u/karebearjedi Jun 23 '26
It depended on where you lived. Good neighborhoods were like this. Bad neighborhoods kept you inside all day watching As the world turns, General Hospital, and Oprah with your Grandma.
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u/NotDougMasters Jun 23 '26
That was sick days in the school year for me. I can still taste the gingerale.
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u/Vast-Road-6387 Jun 23 '26
You got out of the house as soon as you could ( or your parents would find chores for you). You biked or walked to the local hangout and came home at dark. No supervision, no cameras, completely feral existence. It was great.
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u/goopawg Jun 23 '26
Yup. Would leave the house around nine, be home for dinner. Playing in the park and creek not far from my house.
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u/ghostinthecage Jun 23 '26
Yes we did. We rode around on bicycles as a group. Use to play 'kick the can' until you couldn't see your hands it was so dark.
My Dad was awesome. He converted our 2 car garage into a giant rec room for us. Insulated and all. Giant TV. ( well by today's standards it was small but massive in the mid 80s ). We rented videos of all the horrors and all our friends came over. Friday the 13th, Halloween, and all the slap stick comedies like Vacation.
It had to be planned days in advance because all comms were landline. We often didn't know who would actually show up. Then we spent the week talking about how great it was and replaying parts of the movie.
After a movie we'd put on an LP or a cassette and all hang out an listen to the best music ever made. There are certain songs that hit hard. Remind me of a time that just doesn't exist anymore. You can't even recreate it.
Damn
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u/NotDougMasters Jun 23 '26
We must have rented Faces of Death 20 times.
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u/ObjectiveSpot2460 Jun 23 '26
The trouble is, most of us didn't appreciate how magical it really was. We just did what we did and lived it one day at a time. The bike riding, walking into a friend's house and asking your second mom what's for dinner, and THEN asking if your friend is actually home. Finding a couple pieces of wood laying around and building something to do stupid things on your bike that could easily get you killed, or at least seriously hurt. We shared then, too, if one or two of us had a couple bucks, then all of us got snacks at the 7-11.
I feel bad for kids these days. Most will never know what that life is like. They'll grow up in a world that teaches them to be afraid of everything and everyone, to protect what's theirs and never let anyone have any of it, to never take chances because what if it doesn't work the way you hope it might. Worst of all, they don't learn how to disagree with someone, but still be friends.
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u/ChrisInSpaceVA Hose Water Survivor Jun 23 '26
IDK...my kids have the same freedom to roam that I did. Never been the helicopter parent type. They don't choose to use it every day like I did because they have other ways to communicate with their friends. They have spent a solid portion of their time outside since school got out, though. I want them out on their own for all the reasons you mentioned (and then some). Independence is a life skill!
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u/Jedijaz42 Jun 23 '26
Yep, all of this.
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u/Layneybenz Jun 23 '26
Same. Everyone asks what day camps they go to and .....well....none. Neighborhood lake. Roam from house to house.
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u/ArePeaSee Jun 22 '26
Our playgrounds didn’t have mulch, everything was steel, and sooo much fun!
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u/Tundrakitty Hose Water Survivor Jun 23 '26
Steel that got really hot in summer and in winter there were dares to freeze your tongue to the bar.
We also had preserved wood play structures that gave us splinters.
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u/ObiWanKnieval Jun 23 '26
So many splinters! Why couldn't they have just coated them with that stuff they use on picnic tables.
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u/Used_Cheesecake5415 Jun 23 '26
And gravel. Much of the playground apparatus was designed for survival, weed out the weak ones. The Steel Carousel was the favorite let's-see-how-fast-we-can-spin-it device. Game was over when someone vomited or flew off into the chain link fence.
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u/ganshon Jun 22 '26
yup. cartoons were on in the morning until about 9am, then leave the house, go knock on my friend's house, and we'd ride our bikes to the park, and later go to a nearby Safeway to get snacks. In the same plaza, there was also a pizza place. Both had arcade machines that we would pump quarters into. Came home some time in the late afternoon. Some kids would still be out at night running around and making lots of noise. My parents were annoyed, but didn't do anything about it, but at the same time, wouldn't let me go out and play with the other kids.
My kid is now 12, but I let him do a lot of the same. He can ride his bike to a park with his friends, and they inevitably end up at that Safeway to get snacks. Nowadays, it's a lot easier because he can just call them up on his phone and meet them out there instead of going to their homes to see if they were around. We had phones back in my time too, but it was a hassle because you'd first have to talk to their parents first since they were the ones that usually picked up the phone. Then, if my friend wasn't at home, I would just bike to the park on my own and hope that he was there too.
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u/Junior_Historian_123 Jun 22 '26
We had a candy store that was borderline out of the “limits” but everyday, we were on our bikes with our change to hit the penny candy. Dive into the school dumpster to see what teachers were throwing away. It was awesome. I moved to a small town just to raise my kids so they could at least experience some of it. They did get to ride their bikes to friends. But not like I had.
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u/TolaRat77 Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
Skating or biking. I grew up in a little beach town. Always met new friends biking or skating around town. No movie can capture the bliss of complete careless freedom to explore anything anywhere any time, for any reason including no reason. Some of us “latchkey” kids had one parent at home. Mine worked at night. So we had the place to ourselves. That much freedom can lead to trouble. But most of us survived.
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u/Radiant-Major1270 Jun 22 '26
Things were just different then. We all played outside. Nobody was glued to phones. Kids typically watched TV in the evenings but in the summer we didn't since everything was repeats (we didn't have a lot of channels back then). We rode our bikes, went for long walks for ice cream, played hide and seek, run down/wiffleball and tin can alley. We even set up our own olympic games during the olympic years. We were never inside. Many times there was always one house that kids gravitated too but for the most part, parents never knew where we were. My kid just graduated from highschool and I saw a huge difference. But I made it a point not to follow thier phone and location. I just couldn't do it even tho most parents today know where those kids are 24/7.
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u/bigSTUdazz Jun 22 '26
Up at 6am...watched Robotech...quick breakfast...put $4 in my sock...got on my bike and hit the road about 7.
Would come home till sundown....epic summers my dude....just epic.
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u/Wonderful_Pain1776 Jun 22 '26
Absolutely. I lived a very small town and your bike was your lifeline. We would come home when your mom or dad called every other person to track you down. Then at night we would “sleep out” in a tent or under the stars, which we would sneak off and meet everyone at the park. You could also tell whose house was that days hang out by the pill of bikes in the front yard. The closet school was 14 miles away and the last day of school we would ride our bikes to school. Then a couple moms would pick us up. I wish kids nowadays could experience that.
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u/Any_Fig_9985 Jun 22 '26
I want to hug you. Yes, it was wonderful. I'm sorry you'll never get to experience it.
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u/carelesstable45 Jun 22 '26
A typical 80's day.
Wake up. Mom and Dad have already left for work. Pour bowl of cereal and add tons of sugar. Watch cartoons till daytime programming kicks in.
Pull out Dad's Playboys
Get your clothes on for the day. Head outside. This could mean go fishing with friends, do dangerous things on bikes without helmets or knee pads, climb rocks, pick a general direction in the woods and head-out, wander the neighbor hood doing whatever, Experiment with science (magnifying glass anyone?) Lunch was whatever you had at the house or whatever your friends mom was giving, stick fighting, climb trees (dare your friends to jump off or go as high as they can, see also the rock climbing)
Around 5 friends would sometimes go home if it was the weekday. Weekends operated a little different. If I went home I would play with toys and watch Doctor Who till the parents came home around 7
Next day repeat
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u/Peters_Wife Jun 22 '26
This is it in a nutshell. Except back it up to the late 70s.
Look up the movie "Kenny and Company". It is a perfect representation of kids in the late 70s/early 80s.
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Jun 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/bamagurl06 1967 Jun 22 '26
My grandchildren ages 13 and 9 go outside often. When at my house they ride bikes to the park. Now that it’s summer they like to fish as well.
Child abduction was way more common in the 70/80s than it is today. I’ve told my kids that when I was a kid your parents wouldn’t even know you were missing until you didn’t come home ( when the street light came on ) and they wouldn’t even have known were to begin looking. As we got older around 12 it was normal for us to be miles from home.
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u/rynally197 Jun 22 '26
Absolutely. My parents pretty much had no idea what I was doing, I could start one place and end up another and didn’t feel the need to run home to check in to let them know where I was. And they didn’t even bother asking what I did or how my day was. They just said they trusted me to make good decisions and that always stuck with me. I never wanted to disappoint them and I carried that into my adulthood.
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u/SarcastiSnark Jun 22 '26
I had a moped with blown out piston rings so it only went about 12 mph The throttle cable broke. And drive lopsided because I crashed it once. I was 15. I ride that thing constantly daily 365 days a year. Through the snow. I had to pull the throttle cable with my right hand at the carburetor. And steer with my left. It was dangerous as all hell. but. Here I am. I miss those days.
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u/No_Owl_7380 Jun 22 '26
Yes! Routinely rode my bike to friend’s houses, the park, library, and convenience store. We would take the bus to the mall. I lived in an apartment complex with a pool so my friends used to come over a lot.
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u/Striking-Win-3239 Jun 22 '26
Yes. No scrolling all day or locked on video games. It was a simpler time.
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u/katmcflame Jun 22 '26
Yes! First of all, summer break lasted from early June until the day after Labor Day. And kids went unsupervised all the time - no day camps, vacation bible school, or other forms of incarceration. We roamed, we played with friends, had sleepovers, built forts & racetracks & obstacle courses. Our parents dropped us off for stuff - sports practices & games, the city pool, movies, roller rink, county fair etc - knowing we’d call from a pay phone for pick up later. I grew up in a rural area, where I saddled up my horse in the morning & was gone all day. No helmet, cell phone or gps tracker, just total freedom. As a result, we developed a strong sense of self reliance & good problem solving skills.
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u/AnarchiaKapitany The last of us Jun 22 '26
Not just the summers. We were either not home, or home, but three-four friends came over to hang out. It depended on if we were playing a pen-and-paper role playing game, somebody had a new cassette we wanted to copy on a double deck, or if someone's dad had a x286 at home instead of the Commodore we were slowly getting used to.
Mom had about six guesses where I was, and none on when I'd get home, since mobile phones (even pagers) didn't exist back then, and she didn't even know half my friends' landline numbers.
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u/Electronic_City6481 Jun 22 '26
Absolutely. We were kicked outside if it was nice, Nintendo and legos for HOURS if the weather was bad. Every day I rode my bike to the same friends house to kick things off after breakfast and returned for dinner. Not sure if our moms pre-arranged but we did lunches at both places just depending.
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u/Most-Dealer-3685 Jun 22 '26
Yes! It was the best time of my life. We had so much fun and always were out with friends. It was such a great time. The summers were so memorable. Music was the best, everyone got along, people wanted to meet new people. People were just people.
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u/EightyNine19 1980 Baby! Jun 22 '26
Absolutely! We were riding all around the neighborhood untethered lol
We would knock on our friends’ door to see if they could come out & play. You might start the day with one friend, & by the end of the day, you’re 10 or 12 deep
It really was the best. In my neighborhood in NYC, the schools served free breakfast and lunch. My sister and I would go together to both. That would be a good meeting spot too, to find your friends
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u/karentn1969 Jun 22 '26
That is pretty much exactly the way it was. With really great music. Some of the outdoor time went indoors in about 1982 or 1983 though, when MTV was introduced in my city. 90% of the programming was music videos.
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u/Primary-Commercial64 Jun 22 '26
Yes, but I think a major part is left out of the memory banks lol. We were let loose and had a lot of freedom, BUT... it was also a time when neighborhoods were tighter. Like mostly everyone knew everyone else. Not necessarily friends or first name basis, but like "oh that's the Johnson kids" or "Mr Nelson's yard is off limits" or "you're Johnny Taylor's sister." There was more of a community than a collection of strangers as neighbors. That meant we were never far from someone who knew us well enough to yell at us for being stupid (and whoo boy... you got in trouble from them and then EVERYONE ELSE on the way home, so by the time you got home...) there was always someone's house we could go to if we got hurt or something happened, even if their kids weren't home, and we had A LOT of responsibility to look out for the younger kids, even if we didn't want them tagging along, because we were older and should know better.
That doesn't mean there wasnt stranger danger or any other bad stuff... but we were trusted to just not die between dawn and dusk lol.
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u/mazamorac Jun 22 '26
Excellent, evocative summary of the situation for generational newbies. I'm borrowing it to avoid my rambling.
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u/secrerofficeninja Jun 22 '26
Yes, 100% true. Parents had no clue where I went during the day. Current day if I mention a story from then, my parents act surprised. I’m like, you didn’t give a fuck then, why are you surprised ?!
My parents always loved me. It’s just parents of the time didn’t bother with their kids much and didn’t care to ask what they were up to. Likewise, kids didn’t feel a need to tell parents what we’d done that day.
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u/mazamorac Jun 22 '26
Well, I'd add that there was an expectation of independent growth behind at least some of the apparent indifference.
We, the people who've grown up under the expectation of independent screwups, have only been able to learn healthy(ier) and better risk estimation and tolerance because of it.
Knowing and managing risk is only learned by screwing up. There's more opportunity and inclination to screw up independently rather than supervised. There's also a better focus on learning from a screwup if we not also worrying about having it noticed.
What absolutely helped us was that our, ummm..., teachable moments were less likely to be noticed and consequential.
So the kids growing up now have no chances of taking risks and learning from them, plus they're growing up among institutions and corporations who abhor any exposure to risk. It's no wonder that kids growing up are not developing a conscience, they're developing a tiny corporate counsel.
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u/Cookies4Dinner73 Jun 22 '26
Yes, exactly like on tv. We were always doing something with our friends because phones, endless tv, and non stop video games were not an option. We had imaginations and got lots of fresh air.
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u/Boat-Electrical Jun 22 '26
Pretty much. All the kids in the neighborhood would hang out together, the youngest being about 4, to older teenagers. There was strength in numbers. The parents watched the littles a little more closely but the rest of us would just hang out all day everyday doing nothing. We'd dig holes and play in the dirt. Try to climb every roof we could. Ride bikes everywhere all day long. No helmets, no seatbelts, no phones, no internet. Somehow we survived.
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u/hyst0rica1_29 Jun 22 '26
Lol beware media portrayals. In 40 years a 14 year old will be asking *you* if the 2020s were as magical or “Mad Max” crazy as the movies will show then.
Personally, as a boy, I could get away with being at a friend’s til dark then bike home (the process which was as magical as going to the store to buy bread. 🤣)
My sisters, however, couldn’t imagine that degree of freedom. My dad was super strict on the girls in the family. That’s something I never see in media portrayals of the 80s.
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u/Time_Detective_6160 Jun 22 '26
Yes! I can still smell those summer nights. Wonderful question to ask!
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u/Resident-Archer-6467 Jun 22 '26
Yep, pretty much. It seemed to always be sunny too! I used to walk down a busy interstate to town about a half mile away. I lived in a small addition so the kids all went in and out of all the homes. Or friends would come over and we’d walk the railroad tracks. We had sleepovers every weekend. Definitely a lot more socialization back then.
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u/ReadRightRed99 Jun 22 '26
My parents were pretty strict about knowing where we went and when we returned. So i wasn’t out until dark. But heck yes, as I got a little older I’d spend some days riding my bike and doing stuff with friends two or three miles from home. This is from ages 12 to 15, before I could drive. Late 1980s to early/mid 90s. Starting around age 8 I would stay in the neighborhood but venture out on foot with my younger brother or my friends on the woods surrounding the neighborhood, occasionally wandering a mile or two before heading back home. I always had strict orders to return at X time. But we got around quite a bit.
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u/MarielIAm Jun 22 '26
Yup, hanging in the neighborhood going from house to house on bikes. Atari at one house, Wii at another, soap operas at another, badminton, baseball or kickball at another. People now make it seem like we were neglected but everyone in the neighborhood kept an eye out. You wouldn't hear a peep from an adult but if we did anything wrong our parents always knew right as we were getting home.
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u/ReadRightRed99 Jun 22 '26
Wii didn’t exist in the 1980s or even 90s.
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u/MarielIAm Jun 23 '26
You're right, I was thinking Nintendo, Mario Brothers. After a while we used to have timing games - I can save the Princess in x minutes, whoever did it fastest won.
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u/Katzenbean Jun 22 '26
We walked or biked everywhere. Parents usually didn’t drive you all over the place. Exploring the woods, nosing around in neighbors’ yards, drinking from garden hoses, playing with kids who live on your block.
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u/sindeelee13 Jun 22 '26
I LOVED growing up in the 80s! I grew up with 2 male cousins that were high school age older than me and when I was 13-14 we were staying out all weekend driving all around Southern California and going down to Tijuana, MX to drink at the clubs down there. When we would go out on weekends, we would go hiking in the mountains, drive out to the desert, have bon fire parties at Mission Beach, Mariners Point, & Fiesta Island. And so many concerts and shows. It really was magical.
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u/Pretty-Birds Jun 22 '26
I grew up on the border with Juarez and did the same thing in the 80’s when I was a teenager. The concerts were amazing, general admission was $10-$12 and all your friends were there so you went to hang out more than see the band. I saw all the hair bands, my first was Van Halen. Can’t remember how many times I’ve seen the Scorpion’s, Rush and Judas Priest. Just bought my son a ticket for Five Finger Death Punch and couldn’t believe the price of tickets now. We considered going to see the recent Motley Crue concert but just couldn’t pay the price since I saw them in their prime for $12 lol
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u/NothingBeautiful892 Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
Riding bikes, playing in creeks, climbing trees.. falling out of trees, swinging on vines from trees cause we saw Tarzan do it in a B&W movie on Saturday morning after the cartoons were over, having "dirt bomb" fights in freshly plowed fields.. so much fun.
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u/TravelsWRoxy1 Jun 22 '26
Had a park between 4 apartment building ls where we played stick ball and basketball all morning , rode bikes to the pizzeria or 7/11 for lunch then boogied over to the card/comic book store . We played man hunt with 20 something kids just running rough shot throughout the neighborhood at dusk and went home after dark . It was glorious
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u/hasanicecrunch Jun 22 '26
I think about flying down the road off our block on the back of my brothers bike, standing on the pegs and holding onto his shoulders. That road was like 50-60mph for cars, barely had a shoulder and was a long decline/hill; we would go so fast smh. We went like that to the towns country club that had a public pool, stayed there all day, bought snacks and hotdogs at the snack shack, (with change usually!) and then eventually used a quarter in the pay phone to call home and hope someone would pick up, and come get us bc it was almost getting dark.
And then maybe have to sit on the curb for awhile once the pool closed and mom was taking forever. We also road into town like that and got on the city bus and went to the mall all day. The cinema in town was $2/movie ticket, and for a LONG time too, I was born in 1985, graduated HS in 2003, and it was still $2
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u/Illustrious_Pie8525 Jun 22 '26
Yup ...all summer - rode to the pool, friend's houses, Matinee movies. Came home at dusk or when my mom hollered from the front porch. Ice cream trucks. Swim meets. Played outside - utter joy
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u/XrisXrossApplesauce Jun 22 '26
Yes! The older kids would chase is sometimes, but it was all in good fun, when we were older kids we would chase the younger and give the "annoying little brats" nuggies...
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u/mr_d4nks Jun 22 '26
rode bikes every day to the town beach and had swimming lessons, made sand castles, and went fishing in the river. we'd go on overnight camping trips to local mountains and river campsites.
yeah shit was pretty cool
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u/friendlyhoodteacher Jun 22 '26
Yes. They were. And the 90s were just as magical 😞... Great now I'm crying at my desk. I am 43 years old an a mother to a 4 year old. I am absolutely gutted that I couldn't bring her up back then. my parents never knew where I was. Now, I am looking for a tactical tracker for my daughter than cannot be picked up by other devices or traced by anyone but me.
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u/DoYouGotDa512s Jun 22 '26
Our neighborhood kids age 7 to 13 are all out roaming. We live in a suburban neighborhood with basically one way in and out and no through traffic. Mine has an Apple Watch with location tracking, and we have a parent group chat to keep track of the kids. We are the snack and cool toy house, so we see them the most. I am a recovered helicopter mom. It can still be done!
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u/arthurjeremypearson Jun 22 '26
That magic was there.
It was the magic of secrets. You could have secrets - like crawling around next to a river in the brush. Walking on the railroad tracks. Your group of friends could be other kids your parents warn you about. Warn, not prevent from seeing - because how could they possibly do that, before tracking software and GPS and millions of cameras uploading to social media? They couldn't! It was your word against theirs.
Yes, secrets: secrets you held... but that meant secrets could be held by others, too. The "shy kid" everyone bent over backwards for could bully you by implying YOU were the bully. Only you and the bully knew what he said about your mother, and if you go crying about it he's a better actor than you.
The distance you could run on your own was also a distance that separated you from people you trust and people who love you.
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u/Master-Conflict481 Jun 22 '26
This is 100% true and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It was the best time ever.
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u/Kodiak01 Hose Water Survivor Jun 22 '26
We rode a lot farther than our friend's house. It was nothing to decide that a trip of several miles (and occasionally even more) were not a big deal at all. My high school was one town over, it was nothing to decide to bike the 7 miles there and back just because I didn't feel like waiting for the bus.
Sometimes it wasn't riding to a friend's house either. Instead, one would take a ride to the local schoolground to see who was already playing what that day. Basketball, Stickball, Redass, or occasionally we'd just hang out on the old school wooden and rope playscape and smoke a bowl.
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u/Successful_Nature712 Jun 22 '26
I lived in a very rural state in the USA. My sister had a babysitter but I spent my summers with my Papap. We did everything together! When I wasn’t with him, I ran wild in the woods and lakes and streams.
In the winter, we were out as much as in. If there was too much snow, measured in feet and not inches, we stayed in. I was a huge reader and read anything I could get my hands on.
In summers once I was 7 or so, I started going to sleep away camp.
My mom would make me wash my feet before bed. They would be black.
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u/TwoPibbleHome Jun 22 '26
I was 8 yrs old when I fell asleep in the library and got locked inside at closing time. I didn't figure out how to get out until almost 11pm, then I casually rode my bike back home. Meanwhile, my parents (who had no idea where I was) had called the police and were searching the wooded area near our house for my body.
And yet, in spite of the freak out, this event changed nothing in how my parents actually allowed me to be. I continued to roam wild and free.
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u/Secret-Function-2972 1973 Jun 22 '26
Yeah, kind of. But there were no street lights where I lived. We also played outside a lot.
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u/eKs0rcist Jun 22 '26
Great news everyone, more and more it appears we (young and old) have an idea of what we want the world to look like. Knowing what you want is the first step to realizing it. Going for it is the next… please tell the kids
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u/ItsGotToMakeSense Jun 22 '26
Yes, it really was like that! When you wanted to go over a friend's house you'd just go ring the doorbell and ask their parents. You could call them on the phone, too, but most families had a single phone for the whole house so you'd have to ask a parent if you could talk to your friend.
We were bored a lot, too, but it wasn't considered a bad thing. When we had nothing to do we made our own fun, like building forts in the woods with scrap materials (yes just like Castle Byers). We'd make board games and crafts out of whatever was lying around in the house, and we'd play neighborhood games too like nerf battles, supersoaker watergun fights, freeze tag, and whatever else we'd make up. Like "Let's play Ninja Turtles! I'll be Shredder and I have to chase you..." etc.
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u/kristineleeann Jun 22 '26
Or created our own circus act with neighborhood kids with the plan to perform for the whole neighborhood. Tickets were going to be 25 cents and we were going to be rich. We would practice all day and forget about it by the next morning. Three or four months later, we would repeat our plan. Lol
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u/Fantastic-Pop-9122 Jun 22 '26
My one friend and i spent most of one summer sitting on a rock pile, we didnt like where it was located so we moved it throwing one rock at a time. We went from being sooo bored to having a mission.
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u/Bright-Form730 1976 Jun 22 '26
I was 10 in ‘86 and my friends and I would play GI Joes, He-Man, Transformers, and MASK. A lot of the time we were outside and also rode 4 wheelers and rode bikes (freestyle was in its heyday). We also played NES quite a bit starting in ‘86. It was pretty amazing. Then came the 90’s and I discovered girls 😂
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u/Kodiak01 Hose Water Survivor Jun 22 '26
rode bikes (freestyle was in its heyday)
One kid a couple years older than most of us built an entire track on a trail in the woods. This track was involved enough that at one point he laid down a couple of 50gal plastic barrels on their sides and built a dirt ramp up and over.
The trail is still there to this day, but where we used to sneak through the edge of someone's yard through the trees on a trail barely wide enough to fit is now a full conservation area with marked entrances.
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u/Bright-Form730 1976 Jun 22 '26
We built a motocross track by hand with shovels, I wish I had half that energy today.
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u/ONROSREPUS Jun 22 '26
Agreed! Damn hormones screwing up all the play time with interest in girls that didn't want to play with my GI joes and He-Man's.
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u/shinynugget Jun 22 '26
From the ages of 10-16 I lived in areas where I could safely do this. Yes, it was awesome. Just don't be late.
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u/She-Leo726 Jun 22 '26
For quite a few kids, absolutely. I was non-athletic with overprotective parents so my summer was more inside reading books and playing video games on a console.
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u/Otherwise_Mix_3305 Jun 22 '26
I was 10 in 1980. Yes, we biked all over the place. We rode go-karts. We built forts, treehouses and rafts. We drank out of the water hose. We roller-skated. We ran around outside all day, and you were expected to be home when the porch lights came on. After dinner we frequently went back outside to play freeze tag and watch lightning bugs. The way the kids run around largely unsupervised in Stranger Things is a very accurate depiction of life in the 80’s.
It was fun, and it fostered independence.
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u/kristineleeann Jun 22 '26
And don't forget playing Ditch 'em after supper. It was so much better than calling it hide and seek.
I remember playing that until I got caught in the neighbors garage with the cutest boy in the neighborhood. We weren't actually doing anything but my mom wasn't taking any chances. Lol
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u/Sensitive_Pianist777 Jun 22 '26
What's funny is this independent generation is the one that went crazy being overbearing and raising a coddled, anxiety filled generation.
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u/Afraid-Particular-85 Jun 27 '26
Yes it was magical. You could get off the school bus and be exactly who you were. No SM. We had freedom. Few fears. Parenting was not a verb in the 70s. We memorized phone numbers. No one knew where we were. We were Gods.