We played with a Slippin' Slide, a water wiggle, bottle rockets, BB guns, sling shots, rocks and yard darts in the middle of the street simultaneously.

maroon barchetta said:

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Emotional Support Cobra said:

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Quantum Entanglement said:

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How are you people still alive?

Surely you wore helmets when on your bikes? Surely your parents were active in arranging play dates? Are you in therapy because you got spanked for sucker punching a much smaller kid?

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My parents literally had a bugle they would blow when I needed to be home. I am not kidding. The goal was that I would return early so that I did not have to be humiliated by being summoned by the bugle

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My cousin's house was kinda Grand Central Station for kids in his neighborhood.

When we all went to another house or yard or the park or the church yard or the fire station to play or do dumb stuff like bust out lights with pieces of brick or really hard dirt clods, my aunt would step outside and whistle when it was time to come home.

You could hear it for blocks.

In the Star Trek remake, when Kirk is in the bar fight and Pike shows up and whistles and everyone stops what they were doing? That might have been modeled after my aunt's whistle.

It might as well have been a bugle. We would all hightail it home. Lots of other kids would show up just to see if this was a case of her handing out popsicles, or handing out ass whippings. You just never knew.

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Hah. My dad would whistle for us to come home as well. It was a very particular sound--high/low/high--that carried a long way and was unmistakable. If you weren't home shortly after hearing that whistle, you were in trouble. If you couldn't hear the whistle because you were too far away, you were in deep **** when you got home.

Quantum Entanglement said:

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Reminded me: We would chase behind the mosquito truck until we couldn't keep up then the fog cloud would surround us as we gasped for air. I don't want to even think about possible consequences in my old age.

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I did this. I'm old. You'll get used to that 3rd nut.

Same - we were kicked out and not let in until around lunch. After lunch it was out with you again until the street lights came on. Such a fun childhood with so many memories.

The Real Napster said:

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Quantum Entanglement said:

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How are you people still alive?

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There were some losses. But dammit, the odds were in our favor and we lived man. We lived.

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this is a vastly underrated post!

It was nothing for the parents and older kids to drive around town with a six pack in the front seat, empty beer cans and bottles rolling around on the floor board.

Quantum Entanglement said:

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How are you people still alive?

Surely you wore helmets when on your bikes? Surely your parents were active in arranging play dates? Are you in therapy because you got spanked for sucker punching a much smaller kid?

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Only the strong survived. And no, we didn't wear helmets while riding our bikes. We sometimes didn't even wear shoes. We did build ramps to jump them off of picnic tables, towed them behind cars or motorcycles to get more speed for the ramps, and attached windsurfer masts to an oversized skateboard to go windsurfing in the Baybrook Mall parking lot on Sundays when the blue laws were still in effect.

We would jump ditches like Evel Knievel.

My house did not have AC until I was about 15.

It made for a lot of summer days at the pool or playing at the kids house that we didn't like that much, but their parents had the best AC.

We always had scabs on our knees and elbows from bicycle wrecks. All the parents knew each other and if you got hurt you went to the closest mom.

If you didn't get stitches and a tetanus shot at least twice each summer you were shunned. Extra credit for a cast everyone could sign.

jja79 said:

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If you didn't get stitches and a tetanus shot at least twice each summer you were shunned. Extra credit for a cast everyone could sign.

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We spent so much time running around on hot asphalt barefoot that when we went to Alaska for a summer the kids there thought we had a super power. The callouses on our feet were so thick, we could run across the gravel on the street barefoot and not even flinch.

BassCowboy33 said:

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pdc093 said:

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Many of you would be like the young man in this clip. But us olds, WE REMEMBER....(Language NSFW)

I did the same things growing up. https://t.co/1ovBArwxWQ

— Rosealinda (@rosealinda) June 6, 2023

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I grew up in the 90s, and like to half-heartedly joke that we were the last era of free-range children. I distinctly remember getting put outside during the summer and not being allowed to go back in, lol.

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Same here. 90s kids were the last of an era.

My Saturdays were a 2 hour allotment to watch cartoons (the only time they came on except for Charlie Brown holidays) before I was given a sandwich and thrown out of the house to play with friends. The return was a big deal. Back before the street lights came on or hades to pay.

JaxDad said:

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My Saturdays were a 2 hour allotment to watch cartoons (the only time they came on except for Charlie Brown holidays) before I was given a sandwich and thrown out of the house to play with friends. The return was a big deal. Back before the street lights came on or hades to pay.

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We tried to tell my mom we were going to come in when the street lights came on when we first moved into our rented house when we lived in Alaska in the mid 70s. Unfortunately she said no, since the streetlight didn't come on until about 1:30am.

Moral High Horse said:

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I can still recall the taste of hose water. Fun fact: a lawn dart landed threw my shoe directly between my toes. It was a glorious time to be alive.

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I've got a photo somewhere of me playing lawn darts with my uncle. I was probably 7-8. Great 4th of July family fun.

Quote:

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We sometimes didn't even wear shoes.

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I guess I was around 10-11 when I made a bet with a buddy of mine I could go a week without wearing shoes. Started after Church & went until Sunday School the following Sunday. Such a sweet victory, but man you shoulda seen my feet.

The Guadalupe river was about 1/2 mile from the back of our house growing up. Momma yelling to come home wasn't an option, so a red blanket on the back fence was the signal to "get the F home now". Otherwise we were back before dark.

It was nothing for us to be gone all day swimming in the river, building fires, constructing forts, running traps, etc. The guy who owned the property gave us permission to ride his wild a$$ shetland pony in an effort to break it so his daughters could ride it. By the end of that summer, the pony wasn't just broken, it was damn defeated.
Some of the fun had:

• Re-enacting that scene form "Man from Snowy River" on the creek bank.
• Hooking up a commandeered sheet of plywood & making a sled/surfboard for the Shetland to pull.
• Learning to joust with a long piece of Chinaberry as a lance.
• Putting a bandana over the pony's eyes while someone climbs on top. The blindfold was removed and the pony smacked on the hindquarters when the "bronc rider" yelled "Let'r Buck!".
• Shooting a little Bear longbow at targets while at full gallop just like the Commanch.

When I was 11, Walmart would sell me Remington .22 Thunderbolt. $2 for 100 rounds and I was busy for the rest of the afternoon.

Dang, if my mom knew where we really rode our bikes to…

We'd take a Q-tip, cut off one end and split it. Then insert a needle with a dab of glue. Let it dry and you could insert in the barrell of your BB gun and shoot that dart across the street.

Weave a pin back and forth thru a roll of caps in the gunpowder dot. Gently pull the pin out and you had a cherry bomb firecracker.

I grew up in the 60's and 70's. It was too dang hot to be in the house (nobody I knew had AC. "Rich" folks might have a swamp cooler), plus the chance of being put to work. Outside unsupervised led to lots of fun times.

Loving some of the stories on this thread. Good times, man, good times.

Us 70s and 80s kids are the reasons why kids don't go outside to play anymore. Bunch of creeps, druggies, and a-holes roaming the streets terrorizing innocent people.

Hehateme1 said:

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I grew up in the 60's and 70's. It was too dang hot to be in the house (nobody I knew had AC. "Rich" folks might have a swamp cooler), plus the chance of being put to work. Outside unsupervised led to lots of fun times.

Loving some of the stories on this thread. Good times, man, good times.

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70s and 80s here and we had AC, but still spent most of our time outdoors. What was there to do inside? Playing Pong on the TV could hold our attention for maybe an hour or so, but dirt clod wars in the park, climbing around the creek looking for snakes, and putting model rocket engines into Captain Crunch cars was way more fun.

JaxDad said:

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My Saturdays were a 2 hour allotment to watch cartoons (the only time they came on except for Charlie Brown holidays) before I was given a sandwich and thrown out of the house to play with friends. The return was a big deal. Back before the street lights came on or hades to pay.

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Always knew we were in trouble if Daddy had to call us in from outside ADDING OUR MIDDLE NAMES if he had to do it twice.

Hehateme1 said:

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I grew up in the 60's and 70's. It was too dang hot to be in the house (nobody I knew had AC. "Rich" folks might have a swamp cooler), plus the chance of being put to work. Outside unsupervised led to lots of fun times.

Loving some of the stories on this thread. Good times, man, good times.

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I remember those little triangular car windows on the doors as the only way to vent air into the car. In our house we had one window A/C unit in the living room. I got in constant trouble for standing in front of it and blocking the flow.

JaxDad said:

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Hehateme1 said:

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I grew up in the 60's and 70's. It was too dang hot to be in the house (nobody I knew had AC. "Rich" folks might have a swamp cooler), plus the chance of being put to work. Outside unsupervised led to lots of fun times.

Loving some of the stories on this thread. Good times, man, good times.

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I remember those little triangular car windows on the doors as the only way to vent air into the car. In our house we had one window A/C unit in the living room. I got in constant trouble for standing in front of it and blocking the flow.

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Yeah, but they usually had a cigarette resting in front of them while dad was driving. So the air you got in the back seat was of dubious quality.

Those triangle windows were known as "crotch coolers" due to the cross breeze they provided in the front seat.

My parents used to call those the "wings". "Don't roll down the window, just open the the wing!"

maroon barchetta said:

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Those triangle windows were known as "crotch coolers" due to the cross breeze they provided in the front seat.

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Naw, the crotch cooler was the vent under the steering wheel.

The triangle windows on my '63 Impala would cross breeze cool your crotch.

Apache said:

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I miss those little windows. Bring back the high/low beam clicker on the floor board while you're at it.

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I heard they were going to have to do that anyways because the Cajuns kept getting their foot caught in the steering wheel trying to turn on/off their high beams.