What was it like, when you were a kid?

[cupman]

I just remember the freedom of riding your bike all over town, throughout the neighborhoods, etc. Anymore there's a lot of sickos out there and parents are on much higher alert. My brother wouldn't ever let his daughters roam the streets like we did as youngsters.

 

[JulieNKC]

Quote:

 

[teach1rusl]

As kids, we practically lived outside, and we had very little in the way of boundaries - we went everywhere by foot and on our bikes. We had party lines, and got the 3 big network channels. I remember a girlfriend's family getting a microwave oven (I think I was about 13) and being afraid to eat a hotdog she cooked in it...lol. When the "ToothFairy" would bring a quarter for lost tooth, we'd be ecstatic, because that would buy a lot of penny and nickle candy down at Jack's Market. Sometimes my brothers and I would hike along the curvy backroads searching for pop bottles that had been thrown into the ditches. We'd get a nickle for returned bottles (more candy money...lol). We got to go into town for McDonald's about once a year, and thought that was the greatest thing ever.
We were poor, so I don't know how we ever ended up with an Atari system, but we did somehow, when we were teens. Pong and Asteroids were the two games we had, and we thought they were amazing!!

So high tech!!

 

[LegginMF12]

When I was a kid there were no cellphones or cable or internet. You actually had to walk over to the t.v. to change the channel. I never stayed inside during the summer. I bought my own pony with my own money at the age of 12 and paid for her feed. It wasn't uncommon for me and my friends to leave at 4 am to go riding and not get home until midnight. No cordless phones either. ( I didn't have a whole lot of supervision) drivers ed was a required course at school and it was free. I remember when the Z channel came out, getting our first microwave, the first cordless phone and the first cellphones, I didn't experience the internet until I was in my late 20's. It was perfectly acceptable to kill and eat rabbits and chickens for dinner alongside veggies from your own garden and milk from your own cow. Mom made all birthday cakes from scratch, buying one pre-made from the store was unheard of.

 

[verity]

]The only place in town that was air conditioned was the movie theater, and that wasn't until my late childhood. Milk, bread and Watkins products were delivered to your door. After Christmas, us kids 'recycled' the trees by making forts out of them. Going out and playing in the rain was a special time. When it got hot we just sat under a shade tree, talked and played with caterpillars. Long distance phone calls were only made in cases of emergency and required the assistance of the operator. Doctors made house calls. Polio was a big worry. Teachers were respected. There were certain foods that you could only get in season. We mowed the grass with a push-type reel mower. The house was heated by a coal-fired furnace. Summer evenings were spent sitting out on the porch.


Hey, did you grow up on my street?!

 

[mamaKate]

I grew up in a rough neighborhood on the north edge of St.Louis. We had a party line telephone but decent tv. Both my parents worked, so we weren't allowed to go outside when they were gone. During the week, we read an average of a book every other day. On the weekend, we could walk to the corner store and buy a nickel candy bar or a 10 cent cupcake. There were a couple of nights in the mid sixties when my dad guarded the door with his loaded .22 because there were angry mobs running and yelling through our neighborhood.
Then, in July, I had one annual week of heaven. We'd start out at 4:30 in our big Ford sedan; six people with no seat belts or air conditioning and the dog in the oversized trunk (lid blocked open for air). It was a 5 hr drive; I can do it in 2 1/2 today with the road improvements, although now I'm driving the other way.
We'd pull into my grandparents' dusty front yard as Mammy and Pa stepped outside and he yelled in his gravelly Cherokee accent "Hellooo! Little girl!" They lived in a 3 room house that had no running water until I was 10. The house was cooled by a belt driven fan that pulled in at least an eighth of an inch of road dust per hour. Pa had a cow for milk, killed a calf every year, played the banjo and told the most awesome ghost stories. He and I believed every word. Mammy grew and canned her own vegetables, churned her own butter and sewed all her clothes--even underwear. I never head an angry word come out of her mouth. Their tv had one channel and Pa didn't let us turn it on much. I loved to wait on the porch and watch for neighbors driving by. My sister and I would sit in the sandy driveway and make sculpures, climb trees and step around cow patties and sweet gum balls in the pasture.
When my Grandma died, she was dressed by her daughters and "laid out" for visitation on her own four poster bed in their big living room. The line of cars outside was too long to see the end.

 

[desertdarlene]

I grew up in a "nicer area" in Detroit, so we had more things than the average person did. Most people had only one TV and no VCRs or Microwaves. If they had more than one TV, it was usually a small black and white one. Most people only had one phone and it was a corded one. No one had computers or computer games until the late 70s and they were pretty cruddy. We spent most of our free time playing outside and most TV shows during the day were geared only for adults until after 3PM or before 8 AM and during the lunch hour.

Also, just about every business was closed on Sunday except a few restaurants that usually didn't open up until at least noon that day. Until 7-11 came along, most grocery stores were open from 9AM to 7 or 8 PM. Liquor stores were sometimes open until 10 or 11 pm.

Most radio stations were AM at least during the early years of my life.

All kids walked to school, even kindergarteners with rare exception and usually without their parents.

No air conditioning was the rule, not the exception.

People wrote letters and read a newspaper in both the morning and evening editions.

People smoked just about everywhere in every business or public building.

That's all I can think of now.

 

[duck&chickencrazy]

When I was little I played outside all the time. I would go for long walks in the winter on our property in the woods (100 acres plus the neighbors property lol). I would always take the dogs with me. And it was even more fun when our one dog had puppies and I was able to take them on walks with me.when my mom wanted me to come in from outside she had to yell from the back porch and I would come running. I also loved to sit outside in the the hay or with any of our animals and read a good book until it was to dark to see. My sister and I were always coming up with new games to play outside. Baseball was one of our favorites. We would play that alot, just the 2 of us. I rode my bike all the time around our property. I remember after church one day my sister and I came home and played in the mud in our Sunday clothes. We were completely covered! Our mom was so mad

she rinsed us off with hose before we were aloud into the house. Both my sister and I helped our dad when working outside all day sometimes and whenever we got thirsty we would drink from the hose. I loved our Bon fires we would have from all the limbs we would trim from the trees. We would all sit outside and watch it burn with hot dogs and marshmallows. And during the summer we played in the water with the sprinkler at least 3 times a week! Playing in the mud was one of my favorite things to do in the summer. I was a pro at mud pies

I was always outside when I was little and loved every minute of it! I also went down to the bus stop by myself eveyday. It was a long drive way and you couldnt see the end of it from the house. Now my parents wont even let my little sister go down to the bus stop unless someone is with her and she is in 6th grade. And btw I'm only 19 (almost 20) so this wasn't to long ago.

 

[yomama]

No cellphones, pcs, and I didn't get limited cable till I was in my late teens. No airconditioning, except the box one my mom had in her room only. That was when I was a late teen too. No tv remotes. Spent most time outside, not coming home till mom yelled for dinner. Walking over 5 - 7 miles on a two lane highway with my brother, just to get some candy and soda at the closest market. Our neighbord hood was like a 2 mile loop out in the middle of nowhere. I was the neighborhood dog walker. I did it for fun, with only one of my neighbors paying me (they were the rich ones in the neighborhood).Started that when I was 6. Never worried about anyone snatching me. My mom worked all day, so me, my older brother, and younger sister were usually home by ourselves most days. Latch key kid, as they called it. Mom didn't get home till around 5:30, we got home at 3 from school. Summer time, we were home by ourselves all day till she got home. The big thing was going to the roller skating rink with friends. Didn't do that too often, since we didn't have alot of money. Rode our bikes alot in the neighborhood. We had a forest behind us that some guy owned. Beautiful, with acres and acres of paths made by dirtbikes and horses. If you went far enough, you would come to a creek. We'd catch crawdads and salamandors. Never worried about anyone grabbing us there. Never asked permission to go to any of these places either. Mom never asked where we were. Good thing we were good kids, lol! My favorite thing out of all of that was walking in the forest. It was so neat, almost kind of magical, if that makes sense. I was horrified when I found out they cut it all down and put in houses. Oh yeah, we lived in a culd-e-sac, so we played alot of baseball too.

 

[GaChris]

Waking hours were spent outside. I cannot remember being inside except to eat, bathe, and go to bed.

There were two ponds that were the best fishing holes I have ever been to, ever. Some nights a few of us kids would camp out there. We had to cross a cow field and a patch of woods to get to them.

We had 1 channel on the TV.

Only Dad worked. Mom stayed home.

We talked to our neighbors.