Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

1963 here, we were on the loose every day, we had a tree fort and stayed up all night and roamed the streets all night. We used to take our 9hp row boat, head up the river I lived on and cut ice burgs off the shore, get on it with 5 guys and the boat and head down the river, we used to hit docks with it and tear them out, we had no control over it so it wasn't our fault :), we would run across the ice as it broke behind us, I fell thru many times but always found the hole and climbed out. My mom watched from the house as we were on an ice flow and when it hit the solid ice it went under and we all had to crawl on the ice flat so we did not go thru, she just laughed at us when we got in and took a cold shower that burned. And LOTO they are dirt CLODS :) I had one in the eye once, went to the river and dunked my head and opened my eye and washed out the dirt. I broke my arm on a bike really bad and set it myself in the woods, the bone did not break the skin but it was sticking out. We left in the AM and when the whistle blew we came home for dinner, no watch, no phone, we just knew it was close to time and made our way home. We would load the boat with friends, head down the river and camp. All in all we just made our own fun and we paid the price for our mistakes. I mowed 10 lawns for gas money for the boat and did other odd jobs to earn money. It was a great time to grow up and as it looks now those days are over. The biggest lesson was to be accountable for my actions..it was always my fault, no one else's, I paid the damages with money I earned, I paid 1000s over the years. I worked every day, played every sport, and still had ok grades. I even worked 50 hrs a week in college and still finished in 4 years.

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

Anyone ever throw lawn darts? :D
Now those will leave a mark!

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

Ah, lawn darts... the good old dangerous toy days. We used to visit relatives in the suburbs of Chicago and play lawn darts from the condo complex about 12 stories up. THAT was fun.

I do not even think you can get a Tonka in steel anymore.

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

Born in 1955.
Used to play and climb trees that were about a mile away from the house when I was 5. We also had 4 sets of rail road tracks that belonged to the Pennsylvania RR that we played on. There were several freshwater streams and ponds we played in too.
Supervision? What supervision? We played by ourselves where ever we wanted. We came home when it got dark or we got hungry or, in the winter, cold. We never played indoors, except when it was raining.
We did have one older kid that chased us with a hatchet once, but he disappeared shortly afterward.
TV? Black and White, 6 channels. Didn't get my own radio till I was 8.

It's a shame we can't trust anyone any more. Todays kids have to supervised at all times. Not because they may hurt themselves or fight. It's to be sure some deranged pervert doesn't try anything.

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

I think they were called JARTS. Anyway they were fun.

1964 here. Had maps of the whole drainage system in our neighborhood. 3 story tree house (subdivision was new when I moved in, had lots of wood and nails available). Walked to the skating rink every Friday and Sat. Mom had a rule you could only come in and out of the house in summer time 3 times a day. Usually only home for lunch and dinner.


Jan

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

1966.

Outside was freedom. Nobody played inside. Even in the winter.
TV was something that happened at night. You watched what was on. Only one channel came in "good" anyway. You didn't need a "clicker."
And on the weekend was Battle of the Network Stars.

Bicycles. Rode em for miles and miles. Didn't even care how far. We had forever.

We would jump anything with anything. Bikes, wagons, whatever. If Evel could jump all those buses...

Striped clothes... you know who you are. White belt, too.

Suburbs were new. Cars were old.

Catholic school. Nuns were nuns in 1972, and you didn't mess with nuns. (Or cops, or the neighbors, or your parents.)

When did something wrong, our parents knew about it before we got home.
It seems that the adult neighbors actually knew each other.

Tied bleach bottles to the bottom of anything we found to make a boat.
We'd go door to door for more and more bottles, for more and more bouyancy.
Hell, we'd go door to door for anything. And the people would give it to us.

Extreme sledding. With jumps.

Dirt bikes. With even more jumps. We would hurry up and get our yard work done so we could spend 12 hours a day grooming our berms on the empty lot. Remember EMPTY lots? Were you a Yz? a Kz? or an Rm? Suzuki RM80 here.

Night time neighborhood games like kick the can, and our neighborhood favorite "go to court." Plus, the ever provocative "truth or dare." Dare you to ding dong ditch the crazy old scary guy in the dark house!

Olympic "ding dong ditch" champions.

Walk onto the par three golf course with one set of clubs and six kids.

Slept outside in tents, and no crackheads came wandering by.

Actually had a lemonade stand once. And a paper route.
MDA Carnival.
Collected glass soda bottles for the deposit money. Serious cash.

Collected beer CANS. Who remembers "Old Frothinslosh"?

Dad drove Impalas exclusively. Broke his heart when he had to switch to a Buick Century.

Used to tie wagons to my bike. Practice for trailering later in life?

We dug holes too, some would qualify as mines these days. City would shut us down.

Boy was there some cool stuff out in the garage in 1970. Who said mercury? we loved mercury. And paint. Good paint. Oil paint. You got it, we'd paint it. Sometimes you didn't want it painted...oops.

Snuck into the movies through the exit. Or walked into the back of the drive in. We had no money.

Dressed in our disco finest and went to "Teen Town" hoping to score. (you know, get some hand holding or maybe even a slow dance)

Then Van Halen came along. We were ready. No more polyester.
And then Charlies Angels...

Stereos. Anything loud. Stereo on bike. Stereo in tree house, stereo in locker at school....

Snuck Hamms beer out of the fridge. Took it down to the raft, listened to Van halen.

Those precious Hamms, passed among friends, tasted better than the beers we drink these days at the 1,300 dollar dock on the five digit go fast.

Next weekend I'm going door to door for bleach bottles. You guys can bring some pallets. Somebody shoplift the new Van Halen. And score a nickle off your big brother.
He keeps it in the glove box of his primer colored Barracuda.
I'll grab some Hamm's.
My parents will be out of town at Marriage Encounter.

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

How about Zarrex. (I think thats how it was spelled) . It was different flavored syrups that you could buy by the bottle. You crushed your own ice and made flavored snow cones with the stuff. Sometimes we tried to sell them in front of the house. Trouble is, most of the other kids in the neighborhood were just as poor as we were. Ah, but the mailman, he never let us down. Always had a quarter for us when we were open for business.
Never seen him eat one though. I think he tossed them in the trash when he got to his last stop right around the corner from us. The local pub. They sure must have gotten alot of mail, cuz it took him forever to leave once he got in there. God Bless Him.!! He even knew all our names...

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

Some great stories!!! If I wasn't so fat and tired from sitting in front of this PC I'd write a three pager about my childhood!! :D Ah the JARTS got hit right below the eye with one....luckily it was on the backswing of one of my sisters ugly friends!! :D

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

Yup, life was so different, just think what it will be like when our kids compare their childhood to their kids' and see the same correlation :eek: :eek: When will it ever stop? You can almost feel the self destruction. Not of all kids, there are some great ones, it is the gimme gimme bunch who have had no upbringing due to two income parents too busy keeping up with the Jones. :rolleyes: It is easier to pay them off than to pay attention, its called Mortgaging your kids future. :rolleyes:

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

1955 And Still Alive!!!!
what A Change From When I Was A Kid To My Kids Growing Up

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

No doubt Mitch.

And even when families didn't have two parents at home (mine were divorced in 1977, Marriage Encounter didn't work) there was still hell to pay from either one if we screwed up.

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

1955 here.

I too remember a lot of the same things others did. We too stayed out all day and did not come home until my mom started flipping the porch light on and off. Learned to swim in the Mississippi river younger than 5 years old, helping my dad raise shrimp boxes (something that was done in south Louisiana) way back then.
Going out with our pellet guns shooting robins and cooking them over an open fire.
Today's kids are missing out on a lot of stuff. What a shame........

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

51' for me.

It was ninth grade before I made it through a school year without being paddled.
(so what if David Wooten and I got caught hiding in the girls's bathroom, we didn't
see anything, but still got paddled)
(how were we supposed to know that playing volleyball inside the classroom at
lunch, while supposed to be working on an 'extra credit' project with Mrs.
Watson's world globe was an award she won from Michigan for teacher of the
year"?

Orange fights in the orange groves.
Playing real tackle football
Playing "smear the queer"
Skateboarding down "Suicide Hill", when the top line skateboards had Chicago wheels
and John Watson breaking his "butt bone"
Watching "Dennis the Menace" on Sunday nights and thinking he had "nothing"
Listening to the Beach Boys "Shut Down"
Hoping, praying, that some girl on JC Beach would show up in a bikini
Being taught right from wrong and being required to be accountable for our actions
Listening to the "brought to you in living color" on tv shows
DRIVE IN MOVIE THEATRES, man they were the greatest
"You meet the nicest people on a Honda"
Hell we even made it through the 60's without killing ourselves, well most of us
The movies "Easy Rider" and "Billy Jack" which I still watch anytime I can
Seeing the first 63' Stingray and not seeing any headlights

My own opinion is that when they took corporate punishment out of schools, THAT was the beginning of the end. Then "they" decided you couldn't even spank your kids at home for *^-#'s sake.

I'm glad I won't be here fifty years from now. It's all I can do to tolerate the world today.


Thanks for this thread. One of the best in a while.

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

How great it was....my addition, Tied ropes to out BMX bike's frame and roped stuff in the alleys to drag them around the neigborhood...loved the winter, it was the best time for riding your BMX bike...Rode in big packs garbage can kickin, you always wanted to be in front or you would get creamed by cans and junk...climded small trees to see who could bend the top down and let go the highest....so many more, we where goofs.

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

Summer games I remember: Jarts, dodge ball, 4 man baseball-right field hits are an out, war in the woods, building forts, kick the can, tag in pine tree woods at night so you never can see who is it, tennis, going to the beach was a treat, a lot of bike riding, jumping and major crashing, vacations with the whole family (5 kids), sleep overs, camping, bottle rockets, sweet tart tubes, junior baseball, skateboarding, go karts, Tonka toys!!!Oh I had such a huge construction set, army toys, Corgy toys (very detailed small toys and cost a pretty $$) Match box sets with the orange track and the car wash that had the foam wheels to shoot the car, 45 rpm records, black and white TV with rabbit ears, secret knocks on the wall to talk to your brother in the room next to you, skinny dipping (still do...to much fun...HAHAHA), fight with your closes friend and made up 5 min later and act if nothing happened. Children held responsible for their own actions. Looney tunes every Saturday morning and Walt Disney every Sunday at 7pm. Popcorn, tree forts, CB radios, playing cards in your spokes, playing in bails of hay. Spin the bottle and always had to kiss the ugly girl.
Winter time: Skitchin' (hold on to the back of a plow and getting pulled for a few miles until the sander was kicked on to get rid of us), snow ball fight, snowforts, snow balls thrown at cars...today the dent too easy. Alpine skiing, snowmobile rides, snowmen, one peice suit that was always too big or small, sledding on the Flexible flyer and getting your tongue stuck on the metal part just below your chin.
Times have changed a lot, since being raped by my Priest as a child, I am like a hawk watching my 4 yr old and 1 yr old. Never out of my site. Trust is gone in todays cities. I cannot wait to buy a house in the country where I grew up taking on my first job working on a farm. You learn responsibilty, who you are and what you are. Today, people sue for opening coffee between their legs and buring themselves (True story) I think they should be dropped in a vat of hot coffee to teach them a lesson. Times have changed...some for the better, others for the worst.
Born in 64' Really miss those days.....

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

LMOA, That is so true

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

69, here We would catch cuda's under the bridge and see how long they could live in a condo's pool. :D lmao

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

Great thread!

64' here.

Never saw the inside of the house during daytime. I was riding bikes downtown at about 10 years old. Kicked a meter-maid in the ass when she was bending over. My friends and I spent the rest of the day ditching the cops. When I got home they where there waiting. I had to spend the rest of the summer cleaning cop cars.

I used to ride over to the local airport, hang around and try to poach a ride. I flew around with people who's names I never knew. My mom knew what I was doing, knew I loved airplanes and saw no harm in letting a perfect stranger take her kid out for a flight.

We had BB gun wars all the time. I took three BB's in the face. My mom dug them out with tweezers and threw a band-aid over the holes. Never did that again. Stuck to dirt clod wars, it didn't hurt so much.

When I was tall enough to reach the pedals and see over the dash my dad let me drive. he would send me downtown to pick up beer. That would never happen today.

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

:eek:

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

Oh man, did no one ever catch lightening bugs and put them in a jar in your room when you finally did have to come in the house? We had the dirt clod fights but we put M-80's in ours. When you could still buy M-80's Of course, we got caught smoking cigarettes to light them with. We thought it was a good reason! Then every kid on the block would get a gallon milk jug, cut a hole in the side and fill it with persimmons. Only the very hard ones and the rotten ones. When we were all loaded up, let the fighting commence! And no one complained when someone got hurt. Shoot, when I got knocked out of the tree and broke my wrist, we all sat around and laughed. Until someone noticed how funny it looked. So we finally went to find my mom. There were bike wars, skateboard wars, smear the queer, Philadelphia football, and helping Mr. Hawkins rebuild that '65 Mustang. Then it was all about getting the chores done so I could lay in the sun in peace. With my radio blasting of course. I fell asleep once and my dad dripped Coppertone on my stomach and told me a bird crapped on me. Those were the days....

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

I too was concieved and born in 1966. All of the above brings back some wonderful memories. BB-gun fights, building forts, tree forts (as high as possible!), fishing in EVERY waterhole, creek, river, and lake we could ride our bikes too. All this at age 13 or so.... my girlfriend has a 13 year old son she does not let out of her sight! She and I have had this discussion many times. She only lives 1.5 miles away. I told her to let him ride his bike over here and go fishing (I have a really good fishing pond/small lake right across the street in a big park) and she won't let him. NO main roads, no busy roads between here and there, just residential streets. She is simply afraid someone will snatch him. Knowing this kid, they would just give him back!! LOL!!!!! He loves to fish but she is really paranoid about things that "could" happen.

I got my fair share of bumps, cuts, bruises, and really near misses as a kid. We had an empty lot across the street, we were the last house on a dead end. Could ride our bikes from the top of the driveway to the huge ramp we built at the edge of the other side of the road and see how many of our friends we could jump over as they lay down behind the ramp! I cleared 6 guys once!!! No Helmut!! And if you happened to get hit by a car, it would have had to have been either my mom or dad!!! ALL, and I do mean ALL the neighborhood kids hung out at our house. Creek in the side yard, woods in the back yard, and there was that RAMP!!! They still live in that house, but sadly there is now a house across the street. Bummer.

'Foul

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

Foul, your ramp story reminded me of a good one....We used to set up the ramp and line up matchbox cars and jump them to see how many you can clear...problem....if you land on them they have wheels and they take off and so did we a few times!! No wonder my legs and arms look like I was abused as a child!! :D

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

1954

Re: Were you born before 1985?
 

You know what though, after last weekend it is good to be old :) It is up to us to instill these attributes in our children, they can have the same memories, just different. :)