I set so many things on fire with fireworks. They also let us buy model rocket engines. I wish we had lawn darts, had to be safer than playing with a darts and a small board.
Damn that was some good years. The whistle was absolutely the call for dinner for us I know some said street lights. Thanks, now I'll get back to my standing desk because my back hurts.
The ding dong ditch is ouch - a kid just got murdered cuz he was ping that and the homeowner shot him in the back as he was running away. The guy has been charged with murder. The kid was 11 years old. Imagine killing a kid cuz he rang your doorbell and ran away. What a snowflake fuck.
Older one here, (86) This is very accurate. Riding my bike all the way across town to play at the park, or even go as far as any graveyard, nothing about this wrong. Except for me, it wasn't slushies, but it was slurpies, (we have like 8 7/11s) and we could go to any one.
This is 100% how I remember it except for you’d bike up the street to the pool/courts to meet up with anyone so you didn’t have to use the phone. That’s just where you’d go. Sometimes no one would be there so you’d hop in the pool for 20 minutes and sure enough 2-3 people would be by
Dude, go back to Tumblr. The 'Privileged' argument is the dumbest fucking thing. Guess what? I'm white, and I wasn't 'privileged' for years until I moved in with my grandparents. You say you "got to enjoy this kind of childhood," don't get mad for other people and claim it's "Privileged" if you lived it.
Going hungry means I was "Privilaged" just because I'm white, huh? Yeah. Makes sense. Being homeless ALSO means I'm Privilaged, huh, just because I'm White?
I thought it was the former - bullies saying that to avoid the self reflection of how they were and still are shit. It requires some concept of morals/empathy though to care that much. Sometimes, older gens talking about parents though... there the victim yeah is trying to avoid reflecting it being traumatic.
My mom would do the whistle. My friends didn't believe it was her so they'd go with me to hear her do it again. This was 35 years ago lol and I would still snap to if she did it to me now at 48.
lets call it 30% of the time Using Gmaps measuring from my old home to one of the fields we played in shows a distance of 1043.96 ft. Which really isnt that far but seemed amazing when you are 11
I was talking about this with my brother the other day and he pointed out one of our common hang outs was around half a mile away from the house. So we could hear him at half a mile or so for sure.
In my case, it was be home before the street lights come on. Naturally, if you didn't, you'd get a beating when you did turn up. Friend of mine had a different role though with his parents. He had to either turn up at some point without police escort, or don't turn up at all, in which case just wait and see if he pops up on a milk carton. His younger siblings were his replacement for if he never came home.
Then of course our house had a dinner bell hanging on the front porch. My granner would ring it for dinner. Everyone headed home. If it was dinner time at our house, it was dinner time everywhere. Afterwards, back out until the street lights came on.
And we can build that world again in the US where all kids can roam and explore and build independence, but it means serious gun control, walkable communities, and access to free third spaces like libraries and parks.
Toddlers in Japan safely go out to run basic errands. Kids in the Netherlands can bike everywhere safely.
our street lights had 2 time cycles that were approximately day light savings but could be off by a month, so in the transition, there was a little grace period.
In my hometown there was no "touring the neighbourhood". When we moved to Germany, "touring the neighbourhood" suddenly became a reality, with the danger of getting kidnapped or stabbed.
MrFancyPanzer
I want to go back!
Painalschmainal
Classic times. Our woods had an abandoned semi trailer and bmx bike trails.
Mabans
Now we teach kids where to hide when a school shooter comes through your hallways.
theskepticinme
That was more my 80s experience. The 90s was similar but with more video games and ninja turtles. And fireworks.
TyrannusEquus
I set so many things on fire with fireworks. They also let us buy model rocket engines. I wish we had lawn darts, had to be safer than playing with a darts and a small board.
kazeshi
you ever have bottlerocket fights? they were amazingly fun. i mean sure you might lose an eye on a bad shot but it was worth it.
TyrannusEquus
I was one of those that had safety glasses for everyone. This way nobodies parents were upset and let us go at it
NomadFeetWanderingToes
https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1a3FmdXdjYjRuZTZ6a2lhMGMza2l5bXpid3loa3V6aGdoMGw0bzVmdSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/BF4npXkyM4ZsA/200w.webp
Whatwhatsomethingbutt
Now ding dong ditch will apparently get 11-year-olds shot in the back...
yokwe
This was also summer in the 1970s. Evil Knievel taught us to jump our bikes.
huffnpuff72
Sinpke jump was totally awesome then. These days according to DikDok you're lame if you can't do a double backflip with a barspin.
thegarts
I
Concur
Belugawrx
Yep..get rid of the banana seat and put on a 10 speed Peugeot seat
yokwe
and knobby tires. And those motocross bars with the horizontal strut. And an Ashtabula stem.
xenjamin
Pepperidge Farms remembers.
leviking
I read today that kids in america now is getting shot while they prank ring the doorbell?
ColBiff
Damn that was some good years. The whistle was absolutely the call for dinner for us I know some said street lights. Thanks, now I'll get back to my standing desk because my back hurts.
ElBivo
The DARE shirt, perfect.
layinginbedfeelinglikeaquesarito
Good old days
thedarkcanuck
Man... remember when there was a middle class?
ivymantled69
ALSO finding porn in the woods
grandfalloon
My buddy wrote a song about that.
kyro
I came here to ask if anyone else found woods porn. Thrilled to know the experience is apparently universal
MonkeyFunkingFunker
With pages stuck together
MadamPuddifoot
The ding dong ditch is ouch - a kid just got murdered cuz he was ping that and the homeowner shot him in the back as he was running away. The guy has been charged with murder. The kid was 11 years old. Imagine killing a kid cuz he rang your doorbell and ran away. What a snowflake fuck.
GemsAreOutrageousTrulyTrulyTrulyOutrageous
As a millennial ('89), this is... Pretty 'effin' accurate. Except I needed to be home by the time the street lamps turned on.
BeckyNosferatu
Older one here, (86) This is very accurate. Riding my bike all the way across town to play at the park, or even go as far as any graveyard, nothing about this wrong. Except for me, it wasn't slushies, but it was slurpies, (we have like 8 7/11s) and we could go to any one.
janeQdoe
Sauce?
IRCBrink
RogCkn101
There was nothing worse than calling your friend and you had to talk to their mom for a bit
kriswinters
I'm in this picture....and I'm okay with it.
ChopOnBrother2021
This is 100% how I remember it except for you’d bike up the street to the pool/courts to meet up with anyone so you didn’t have to use the phone. That’s just where you’d go. Sometimes no one would be there so you’d hop in the pool for 20 minutes and sure enough 2-3 people would be by
RElGNMAN
mouthfullofpebbles
This is bittersweet. Even if I feel that everything in this sketch is 100% true, as a girl I mostly went through the 90's feeling fat and sad.
LaserCheese
Surprisingly accurate.
laserfrog
Teens in the 90s, so Gen X and older Millennials
laserfrog
Then as there were smaller yeards, zoning stopping gas stations and businesses, it became drop offs at the mall. This is also very suburban.
eion85
This is privileged and suburban and largely white.
When enjoying the dopamine hit of nostalgia we can't ignore that the good old days weren't good for everyone.
I got to enjoy this kind of childhood, but not everyone did, and not everyone who did enjoyed it.
BeckyNosferatu
Dude, go back to Tumblr. The 'Privileged' argument is the dumbest fucking thing. Guess what? I'm white, and I wasn't 'privileged' for years until I moved in with my grandparents. You say you "got to enjoy this kind of childhood," don't get mad for other people and claim it's "Privileged" if you lived it.
eion85
Clearly you don't understand what the word privileged means in this context.
Being white absolutely gave you privileges over other people. There are many things you never had to worry about just by being white in the US.
Go unpack your baggage in therapy.
BeckyNosferatu
Going hungry means I was "Privilaged" just because I'm white, huh? Yeah. Makes sense. Being homeless ALSO means I'm Privilaged, huh, just because I'm White?
Captkiller
We can totally ignore it because not everything requires a soap box.
laserfrog
yay bullying
eion85
I'm told it's character building. Of course the people telling me that are victims of bullying and just seeking to pass on that needless trauma.
laserfrog
I thought it was the former - bullies saying that to avoid the self reflection of how they were and still are shit. It requires some concept of morals/empathy though to care that much. Sometimes, older gens talking about parents though... there the victim yeah is trying to avoid reflecting it being traumatic.
Exyr
Bullshit. Parents just said be back when the street lights come on. They didn't whistle or care if you were there for dinner.
DonaldTrumpsFlaccidHairpiece
Eh, Several of my friends had whistle parents. Usually after 2 or 3 peeled off, the rest of us went home. Most times, it was getting dark anyway heh.
thegarts
I had to be home for dinner. 5:30
Exyr
Are you like 30?
thegarts
☝️☝️☝️
Grimmrog
they whistled for lunch
Exyr
How are you hearing a whistle? We were literally miles away.
Grimmrog
it was more like loudly screaming across the entire village xD
Penetrecia
My mom would do the whistle. My friends didn't believe it was her so they'd go with me to hear her do it again. This was 35 years ago lol and I would still snap to if she did it to me now at 48.
StarscreamAndHutch
No streetlights where i lived. Mom’s power whistle let us know it was time to migrate.
randomthingsonthenet
"more or less" != "exactly like this"
ArcaneM37
My dad was a whistler. Super loud and distinct. He could find me across the crowded county fair with that whistle.
Kehy
There weren't streetlights for at least a mile around my house in any direction growing up. Mom and grandma just yelled for us to come in
notagoodspelller
My mom would call the neighbor mom: "Is my oldest there? Okay, your youngest is here. You feed mine, I'll feed yours."
veesee
We had the back 40 to play in and our next neighbor was like 5 km away. My mom was def a Whistler or she'd send the dog to find us.
Captkiller
I mean my dad whistled when supper was ready
Exyr
You were close enough to hear a whistle?
Captkiller
lets call it 30% of the time Using Gmaps measuring from my old home to one of the fields we played in shows a distance of 1043.96 ft. Which really isnt that far but seemed amazing when you are 11
Captkiller
I was talking about this with my brother the other day and he pointed out one of our common hang outs was around half a mile away from the house. So we could hear him at half a mile or so for sure.
Clayman8
I miss being young, not having a phone and being able to cycle everywhere...
charondaboatman
The 70s and 80s were a lot like that, too.
GrumpyClimber
My mum just used to say have a good day, dinner is at 6.
historycat
90s had video game arcades more than pinball.
Other than that, spot on.
SmashedYourGlasses
In my town pinball made a huge resurgence after 1990. Dr Dude, Funhouse, Twister.
thegarts
I concur
dripstone
only difference for me was that some newspapers would have been delivered by me at some point before and after the slushy drinking.
BJWTech
I had two routes for a daily morning paper and a weekdaily afternoon one. I loved having my own funds.
dripstone
yep! having money to buy the slurpys and play the video / pinball games at the 7/11 was key
InfocalypseRising
I like how the kids are from the east coast, the parents are from Minnesota, and the random pickup truck guy is from Texas
Rkfinecake
East coast?
VosperOfAntarctica
We did get around like that back then. Until the internet ruined it all
eion85
This was likely filmed in Salt Lake City based on the brand of slushie mentioned.
Feralkyn
Oh my god I didn't know it was real. I thought it was some joke off-brand they made for the video lol
EmergencyDonut
I just saw a frazil machine in Maryland. I had to look up the brand, never saw it before
eion85
Interesting
eion85
"come home when the street lights come on, and not before"
jammer909
In my case, it was be home before the street lights come on. Naturally, if you didn't, you'd get a beating when you did turn up. Friend of mine had a different role though with his parents. He had to either turn up at some point without police escort, or don't turn up at all, in which case just wait and see if he pops up on a milk carton. His younger siblings were his replacement for if he never came home.
dtallen243
Mine was be home or let it be known where you staying by 7pm or your ass will be hunted down
Tootsie1
Then of course our house had a dinner bell hanging on the front porch. My granner would ring it for dinner. Everyone headed home. If it was dinner time at our house, it was dinner time everywhere. Afterwards, back out until the street lights came on.
GemsAreOutrageousTrulyTrulyTrulyOutrageous
Fuckin' A.
eion85
And we can build that world again in the US where all kids can roam and explore and build independence, but it means serious gun control, walkable communities, and access to free third spaces like libraries and parks.
Toddlers in Japan safely go out to run basic errands.
Kids in the Netherlands can bike everywhere safely.
swedeonamoose
When the sun sets i used to hear, not during summers tho since the sun never set what so ever.
eion85
Street lights are binary. Less room to argue.
randomthingsonthenet
our street lights had 2 time cycles that were approximately day light savings but could be off by a month, so in the transition, there was a little grace period.
ChelVanin
If you wanted to hang out with friends, you first had to spend 30 minutes touring the neighborhood to find them.
Casually
Look for the house with all the bikes on the lawn.
bekkayya
yeah but that was cool because you'd run into other kids also touring the neighborhood and merge friend groups
Hmffff
I. Miss. Those. Days!!!!!!!! All the fun is gone nowadays https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1MGNqYmhxMDRvMHNlYTRjeTZsdTN6YjZxYTJoazUxampxd3VodWxsdyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/d2lcHJTG5Tscg/200w.webp
CloseupCaptionReaction
In my hometown there was no "touring the neighbourhood". When we moved to Germany, "touring the neighbourhood" suddenly became a reality, with the danger of getting kidnapped or stabbed.
europenudist
At least you‘d survive school the next day
Captkiller
plus they didnt have free slurpees at the 7-11
Grimmrog
where in germany was that? o.O
haggerton
Auschwitz.
corpofilth
Which is in Poland