Anyone else remember those toys that used to shoot toy missiles (I'd like to say it was a GI Joe toy but could be wrong). Apparently, those fuckers took out a couple of toddlers and they ended up gluing all the shootable missiles into place before resuming sales.
The late 70's and early 80's were a great time to be a kid. Â
I got my head caught in one of these turnsiles when I was five or six years old at a place called The Enchanted Forest, and the fire department had to get me out:
I got my head caught in one of these turnsiles when I was five or six years old at a place called The Enchanted Forest, and the fire department had to get me out:
Bahaha!
Up in Lake George? I think the diving horse is still there.
In the summer could be gone all day and only had to be home for dinner. In many ways it was a safer time back then even with all of those dangers. It is a much more dangerous world now IMO. Who would have thought of all of the shootings in schools back in that time.
I mean, we had a world that was all our own back then Â
We'd build forts back in the woods from scrap wood, back where no one else ever went and spent so much of our time there. We'd play in the creeks, climb trees, set off firecrackers. All of our parents would get arrested in today's world.
we used to have fireworks war. We used to shoot Roman candles at each other. We also used to get those yellow wiffle ball bats with the small hole up top and used them for shooting bottle rockets at each other because they allowed us to aim better.
The day after we moved into our new house, my dad pushed me out the door and told me "Get on your bike and go out and make some new friends", and that was it. I didn't come home for hours because I did meet some kids to play with. In 1984 there were always kids running around the neighborhood. Now? You never see kids younger than 12 or so roaming around without their parents.
Or is there so much media coverage and awareness of every damn bad thing that happens that we're more aware of it now?
There were child kidnappings back then too, I just don't think they got anywhere near as much attention (or when they did, maybe they didn't go much past the local region where the kidnapping occurred). If the metrics are to be believed, we're living in safer times (less crime, less violent crime).
RE: I mean, we had a world that was all our own back then Â
We'd build forts back in the woods from scrap wood, back where no one else ever went and spent so much of our time there. We'd play in the creeks, climb trees, set off firecrackers. All of our parents would get arrested in today's world.
Yeah we did the same building forts with whatever scrap building materials we could find. We used to dig these big wholes and tunnels put wood on top and cover them up with dirt on top.
It was great fun for playing war. I wouldn't trade my 70s child hood for any of today's technology driven youth
The day after we moved into our new house, my dad pushed me out the door and told me "Get on your bike and go out and make some new friends", and that was it. I didn't come home for hours because I did meet some kids to play with. In 1984 there were always kids running around the neighborhood. Now? You never see kids younger than 12 or so roaming around without their parents.
Exact same story, almost word for word. When we moved to a new house, same thing.
During the summer my parents would push me outside and tell I wasn't allowed to stay inside.
Steve, that's the misconception that has fueled the helicopter parent thing. If you grew up in the time from the mid-'60s through the end of the '80s, the world you lived in was much more dangerous with much higher crime rates. This is a much safer time than it was when I was a kid, but because of 24 hour media sensationalism, people perceive it as being more dangerous.
We'd build forts back in the woods from scrap wood, back where no one else ever went and spent so much of our time there. We'd play in the creeks, climb trees, set off firecrackers. All of our parents would get arrested in today's world.
Agreed. I am 49. I was 10 in 1975. Best summer of my life. We went out for the whole day in the neighborhood, coming back for lunch and the dinner. There was a park with a creek we used to go to. Or play ball. Build forts. Climb trees. Ride bikes. If it was raining, we'd play board games. And all without the Internet or video games.
1) Skitching
2) Snow Skitching (Ah, so fun)
3) Sledding Hills of the 70's and 80's were ummm, a tad more treacherous than the gently sloping roped off hills people go to now. Oh, and a wooden sled with metal blades to separate you from your digits.
4) Hitchhiking. My parents were divorced. My dad worked. How did I get to baseball practice in 4, 5 and 6 grade? Why I hitchhiked of course.
5) Remember the home chemistry sets? You know, the ones filled with all kinds of acids and Lye? Ka Blam!!
That's a great point. I've often argued that. My wife is especially protective and I point out variations of this argument. then again, a lot of my wife's philosophies are born out of her being a sexual abuse victim as a young child.
there are millions and millions of children in this country Â
How many get shot in school? An infintesmal number. You might as well obssess about avoiding lightning strikes. In any case, I'm not seeing the connection between helicopter parenting and school violence.
BTW, the deadliest incident of school violence in American history was the Bath School disaster in 1927.
I think they outlawed them because some would bust and blinded some kids. Never had one burst but hey certainly busted up your wrists and hands pretty good.
But it's pretty much indisputable that pre-internet/cell phone technology and post-internet/cell phone technology times are completely different animals.
Look, if you didn't live in it, you can't possibly understand, and that's not a slight against anybody that came after, it's just a truth.
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I dunno..I'm 31. I think my generation is the last one that got to play outside.
every day in the summer and every weekend until them I hear the sounds of the neighborhood kids (mine included) playing street hockey, football, baseball, basketball, skateboarding, fighting, whatever.
maybe it's neighborhood dependent. Where I live 90% of the houses are younger families all with kids within a few years of each other.
It's similar to when I was growing up in a lot of regards.
Of course we parent differently now though.
Now, my biggest fear is something happens to my kids. many parents feel similarly, but that doesn't mean your kids stay inside all day. Sure, we know where our kids are now and they wear bike helmets and seatbelts, but it's because of what we know now that we didn't then or didn't really understand the options then.
RE: from the clickbait on the same page, old adverts Â
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
I mixed together a bunch of random stuff and it ended up exploding and turned part of our deck blue.
I went looking for a chemistry set for my son and I didn't realize how tame they had all become. My set from when I was a boy had all kinds of stuff with it that you could do about anything with. Likely dangerous sure, but it was a blast to experiment with!
Do you ever see children younger than 13 or so playing on the streets of your neighborhood without an adult in sight? Highly unlikely. It was ubiquitous prior to the early '90s. Or as the linked article mentions - how many of us were left alone in a vehicle while mom ran into the store for a few minutes? That will literally get you arrested now.
so I remember many of these things from the late 1970s. My sisters had an easy bake oven and I used to toss their dolls and crap in that thing and turn it on. I'm surprised we didn't burn the house down. Used to throw Shrinky dinks into it as well.
As for being safer, I agree that we are just more aware of things going on than we were in the 1970s. I remember the Adam Walsh story because he was roughly my age (I was a few months older), and the special they showed on TV scared the absolute shit out of me, particularly living so close to Paramus with all the malls that my parents would take us to.
I remember very clearly being taken to Sunrise Mall by my mother because they were doing a big event where you could have your kids fingerprinted for free.
sick if we weren't outside. Our end of the street was loaded with kids because we lived at the end of the block. Stickball all summer. Street hockey all winter, no helmets or mouth pieces. The colder the better.
Do you ever see children younger than 13 or so playing on the streets of your neighborhood without an adult in sight? Highly unlikely. It was ubiquitous prior to the early '90s. Or as the linked article mentions - how many of us were left alone in a vehicle while mom ran into the store for a few minutes? That will literally get you arrested now.
Quote:
Do you ever see children younger than 13 or so playing on the streets of your neighborhood without an adult in sight?
Every single day in my neighborhood.
My neighbors are always texting my wife to ask if her kids are at my house or if we know where they are. It's a lot like the older days. one of my neighbors whistles for his kids, LOL.
maybe my neighborhood is somewhat of a throwback, because all of us were kids in that era.
RE: Anyone remember the original glas made clackers? Â
I think they outlawed them because some would bust and blinded some kids. Never had one burst but hey certainly busted up your wrists and hands pretty good.
I remember walking across the playground and there were maybe a dozen kids just tearing those things up! It was like trying to get through a gladiator fight.
Do you ever see children younger than 13 or so playing on the streets of your neighborhood without an adult in sight? Highly unlikely. It was ubiquitous prior to the early '90s. Or as the linked article mentions - how many of us were left alone in a vehicle while mom ran into the store for a few minutes? That will literally get you arrested now.
That one about leaving your kids in the car is one that hits home right now.
There are so many times these days when I have my three year old and nine month old in the car, and I just need one simple thing in the gas station that would take thirty seconds, but now I either skip it or go through the whole ordeal of dragging the whole brood in there. I've even seen someone on the news as recently as a month ago getting arrested (!) for doing that same thing.
RE: Love it!! Great post Greg. In the '70s, not only did we not use Â
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
We did exactly that as well! And even crazier shit on skateboards.
Do you ever see children younger than 13 or so playing on the streets of your neighborhood without an adult in sight? Highly unlikely. It was ubiquitous prior to the early '90s. Or as the linked article mentions - how many of us were left alone in a vehicle while mom ran into the store for a few minutes? That will literally get you arrested now.
Quote:
Do you ever see children younger than 13 or so playing on the streets of your neighborhood without an adult in sight?
Every single day in my neighborhood.
My neighbors are always texting my wife to ask if her kids are at my house or if we know where they are. It's a lot like the older days. one of my neighbors whistles for his kids, LOL.
maybe my neighborhood is somewhat of a throwback, because all of us were kids in that era.
It's nice that your neighborhood is like that, I'm glad to hear it. Living here in NYC, you'd think someone came and snatched all the school aged children. Most of their day is structured activities, so you don't see kids playing outside on their own anymore. I'm not sure if it's entirely the safety issue, or just the way things are now with kids going from one activity to another (baseball practice, basketball practice, etc.).
you neighborhood sounds very much like an exception, pj Â
me and my neighborhood buddies invented or adopted a millions games to play outside...running bases, suicide, marco polo and sharks and minnows in the pool...hours of whiffle ball, street hockey, touch football that was always much rougher than it sounds.
Usually not an adult anywhere nearby. We rode our bikes all over town. Somehow, we not only survived, but had a blast
And who didn't crack their head or break or bruise themselves up on those metal jungle gyms now and then?
My wife and I make it a point to encourage our children Â
to go outside and play on their own. It is so rare now that we have met people that would say oh you have the children that play outside all the time. Who ever thought that would be something so unique.
-Drive Ins
-Five and Dimes
-Soda Counters in Drugstores
-Creature Features
-Saturday Morning and Afterschool cartoons (I know cartoons exist today, but Saturday morning and two hours after school were the ONLY time periods then. No 24 hour, round the clock, multiple networks like today).
because I couldn't speak english, growing up in Manhattan in the sixties was a blast. Exploring the subway system all over the place, taking the ferry to Stagnant Island and back for free, playing baseball in Sheep's Meadow, or Riverside. Basketball at any playground. Other games such as ringalario, booties up, kick the can, handball, slapball, johnny ride the pony, etc... You were never home, in fact you were never in your own neighbourhood. Stealing apples for the fruit stand and wanting the store owner to chase you... Subway surfing on the 7 line over GCP... So much fun was to be had... Going to Yankee Stadium for doubleheaders for 50 cents and getting a bat, ball or cap... Watching the hippies get stoned and then screw out in the open in Central Park... So many memories...
Well, we did at school during recess, but after school we played tackle. There was a complex of townhouses near my home where a lot of kids from my school lived. On one side of the complex there was a huge grass field, and we'd play these massive games of tackle football, sometimes probably as large as 20 on 20. This was all kids in grades 3-5. Blood was not uncommon by any means. Clothslines were less common but not unheard of.
I can also remember me and my best friend playing one on one football. We'd line up head to head and just ram into each other. And, of course, there was the now-taboo named Smear the Queer, which was just an excuse to pummel each other.
Sounds like it. We moved two years ago June, and our old neighborhood wasn't like this. There was a house across the street with 4 kids and my kids and their kids (we both had a set of twins in the same grade) would play, but that was it. Kind of like a ghost town.
But it was because the neighborhood turned over, their used to be a lot of kids, but they grew up, got married, moved out and left empty-nesters for the most part.
Now, no exaggeration, there are maybe 30 - 40 houses in this neighborhood, and 90+% have kids all within a few years of each other.
there could be a summer camp out there in the neighborhood.
And the few houses that don't have kids are planning to move within the next couple years (according to the rumor mill).
Slightly off topic, but when your kids are a little older the Goochland Drive In is a lot of fun.
Already on the list. I'm thinking of trying it out this summer when Alex turns four. That's probably roundabouts my first memories of a drive in, at that age.
That said, I have an adult outdoor Halloween party that I do every year, with a giant screen and surround sound system, that I plan on using for the new "family outdoor movie night" when my kids get a little older, as a family tradition during the summers, like every Friday or Saturday night.
Something about sitting outside at night in the summer air, on a big screen...
It was a simple, "Who got shot in school?". I was pointing out that in the spring of the 1970 that students indeed were killed while attending school. I thought it met the qualification. Apparently, your standard is only young kids getting killed by young kids.
I don't have a problem with bike helmets, for example. But I want to give my kids a helluva lot more freedom than is customary today, and, unfortunately, much more than my wife does. She won't even let our son go out to the bus stop by himself in the morning, and it's literally directly across the street from our house. You can see him through the window while sitting on our couch. He's a smart kind - why do we have to treat him like an imbecile?
RE: Briit, I didn't realize Steve's question came with qualifiers. Â
It was a simple, "Who got shot in school?". I was pointing out that in the spring of the 1970 that students indeed were killed while attending school. I thought it met the qualification. Apparently, your standard is only young kids getting killed by young kids.
I think it's actually you misinterpreting what Steve meant, since we were referring to our everyday childhood school experiences, not war protests on a college campus with the national guard, but I could be wrong about that.
My parents probably treated me the same way their parents treated them, and so on and so forth.
Times have changed.
I will never allow, in this day and age, my children to do what I was allowed to do because I legitimately fear for their safety.
Not disagreeing, but I can distinctly remember my grandfather and father waxing nostalgically about how great things were when they were kids and how different they were when I was a kid.
So that was my initial point. Sure things are different now, but I was saying that the older generations said the same about our generation.
I had a cousin who lived next door to my grandparents on Grand St. in Â
Little Italy. Every summer, from about age 10-14 I would stay there for a week or 2. He and I went everywhere alone. Subway, bus, all parts of town. MSG had a bowling alley back then that we would go to. The Ferry, Museum of Natural History, by ourselves.
RE: Love it!! Great post Greg. In the '70s, not only did we not use Â
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Yeah, I remember clearly one summer I was a human scab from wiping out on my bike too many times thinking I was Evil Kenevil
Playing outside all day in the summer until the streetlights came on and your dad bellowed (seriously you could hear it a mile away) out the back door for you to come home...not only normal, it was EXPECTED of you.
I never would've thought that that world would disappear. I'm just glad I was a part of it while it still existed.
My parents probably treated me the same way their parents treated them, and so on and so forth.
Times have changed.
I will never allow, in this day and age, my children to do what I was allowed to do because I legitimately fear for their safety.
Not disagreeing, but I can distinctly remember my grandfather and father waxing nostalgically about how great things were when they were kids and how different they were when I was a kid.
So that was my initial point. Sure things are different now, but I was saying that the older generations said the same about our generation.
Of course... But when you look at the big picture... There weren't as many differences between the 50's and the 80's as there are between the 80's and the 2000's, you know? Yeah, behavior and little things here and there...
But the technology explosion of the 90's I'd compare to the Industrial Revolution. The internet was a major turning point in mankind. It is all encompassing. It changed the way we live completely.
RE: RE: Love it!! Great post Greg. In the '70s, not only did we not use Â
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Yeah, I remember clearly one summer I was a human scab from wiping out on my bike too many times thinking I was Evil Kenevil
I have a slightly chipped front tooth as a souvenir. And my bottom lip healed a little funny on the inside. Ruined my career as a trumpet player before it started. Like Ralph Kramden, I could never hit that high note again.
I am 30 and my generation is the last one that is going to remember what life was like before cell phones and the internet. Kind of weird to think about. I grew up calling friends houses if I wanted to get in touch with them, I never had a cell phone in high school and didn't have a computer until like 6th or 7th grade.
I have a younger brother who grew up in a completely different world than I did and we're only 8 years apart.
Our neighborhood still has a number of original owners (from the 80s) so there aren't too many kids. My sons bus stop only has 3 kids (for about 20-25 houses). There are some younger couples that have younger kids so I imagine we will see more soon.
Some of the residents of my town still recall the Megan Kanka murder with tears, so I guess there is some hesitation about free-roaming kids from people that were around during that time.
I'd probably be OK with my oldest son playing outside by himself (he is 7), but not the 5 and 2 year old.
the good old days! I can remember going with my Dad to the bank early on Sat morning so he'd have cash for the weekend and dealing with the long lines. No calculators in School...let alone phones. The old station wagon with the extra pop up seats in the way back. Tang, Space Food Sticks (or whatever they were called, peanut butter rocked). Event TV that you couldn't record...Wizard of Oz every Thanksgiving, various Xmas shows. Early morning TV during the week if you were home "sick" from school...Zoom, New Zoo Review, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Fractured Fairytales....good times!
1970s[edit]
January 5, 1970: Washington, DC, Tyrone Perry, 15, was shot to death at Hine Junior High School.[178]
May 4, 1970: Kent, Ohio, During protests of the Vietnam War on the college Campus of Kent State University, Armed National Guard Soldiers opened fire on unarmed students killing four people.[179]
May 15, 1970: Jackson, Mississippi, One student was killed and twelve others injured when police open fired on students gathered to protest the military presence in Cambodia
[180]* February 2, 1971: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Teacher Samson L. Freedman, 56, was shot to death as he left Morris E. Leeds School, by Kevin Simmons, 14. Freedman had suspended Simmons earlier in the day for cursing in the hallway.[181]
November 8, 1971: Grove, Oklahoma, School custodian, Jim "James" Underwood brought a .22 caliber revolver to school hidden in a brown paper bag. School principal, T. J. Melton, 49, was shot in the left shoulder, left ear and in the top of his head, according to published reports. He died around 9 a.m. and Underwood was charged the next day with first-degree murder.[182]
November 11, 1971: Spokane, Washington, Former MIT student Larry J. Harmon, 21, entered St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church on the Gonzaga University campus armed with a .22 caliber rifle. Harmon killed the caretaker, 68-year-old Hilary Kunz, and upon emerging from the church, wounded four more people before police officers shot and killed him. Harmon was described by his father as a religious fanatic who believed that he had seen the devil and that Christ was an imposter.[183]
January 5, 1972: Washington, DC, Fifth-grade teacher Margaret Brooks, 57, was shot to death in front of her students by her estranged husband James A. Brooks.[184]
February 26, 1973: Richmond, Virginia, Wayne Phillips, 17, was shot to death when he was caught between two youths who were fighting in the hallway of Armstrong High School.[185]
October 1, 1973: Elmwood Park, Illinois, Elmwood Park Community High School student Cynthia Schulze was shot and killed in the hallway between classes by student William Rossi, with whom she was probably not acquainted. Rossi then ran out of the school and shot himself to death in an alley nearby.[186]
January 17, 1974: Chicago, Illinois, Elementary school principal Rudolph Jezek, Jr., 52, was shot to death in his office by Steven Guy, 14, a former student said to be angry at being transferred from the school to a social adjustment center.[187]
March 22, 1974: Brownstown, Indiana, Jessie Blevins, 48, athletic director at Brownstown Central High School, was shot to death in the school parking lot by a 17-year-old student.[188]
December 30, 1974: Olean, New York, Regents scholar Anthony Barbaro, 17, armed with a rifle and shotgun, kills three adults and wounds 11 others at his high school, which was closed for the Christmas holiday. Barbaro was reportedly a loner who kept a diary describing several "battle plans" for his attack on the school.[189][190]
February 18, 1975: Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, Marist College student Shelley Lynn Sperling was shot and killed by a scorned suitor, Louis o. Acevedo, in the Marist College cafeteria.[191]
March 18, 1975: Sumner High School, St. Louis, Missouri, 16-year-old Stephen Goods, a bystander, is shot and killed during a fight between other teens.[192]
September 11, 1975: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. Grant High School student Randy Truitt was shot and killed by James Briggs at the school, leaving several others injured.[193]
February 12, 1976: Detroit, Michigan, Intruders shot five Murray-Wright High School students after an apparent dispute over one of the intruders girlfriends.[194]
June 12, 1976: California State University, Custodian Edward Charles Allaway, 37, opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle in the library on the California State University, Fullerton campus killing 7, and wounding 2.[citation needed]
November 10, 1976: Detroit, Michigan, Second grade teacher Bettye McCaster, 45, was shot to death in front of her 29 students at Burt Elementary School, by her estranged husband, Al Lewis.[195]
April 7, 1977: Whitharral, Texas, High School principal M. O. Tripp was shot to death on the front steps of the school by Ricardo Lopez, 17.[196]
February 9, 1978: St. Albans, West Virginia, A 15-year-old student was shot and killed by another student at Hayes Junior High School.[citation needed]
February 22, 1978: Lansing, Michigan, After being taunted for his beliefs, a 15-year-old self-proclaimed Nazi, killed one student and wounded a second with a Luger pistol at Everett High School.[190]
April 26, 1978: Dallas, Texas, Woodrow Porter, 38, who was a janitor at Paul Dunbar Elementary School, was shot to death by the 56-year-old grandmother of an 8-year-old that was allegedly spanked by Porter earlier.[197]
May 18, 1978: Austin, Texas, John Daniel Christian, 13, son of Lyndon B. Johnson's former press secretary George Christian, shot to death his English teacher, Wilbur Grayson, 29, with his father's .22 caliber rifle in front of approximately 30 classmates. John Christian was arrested and charged but was not prosecuted. He spent two years in a mental hospital. He is now a practicing attorney in Austin, Texas.[198]
January 29, 1979: San Diego, California, Brenda Spencer opened fire on Grover Cleveland Elementary School from the window of her home across the street, killing two adults and wounding nine others, eight of whom were children.[199] The shootings inspired the song I Don't Like Mondays.
I didn't want it to turn in to one of those... "Back in my day things were this way" and somebody comes in and argues "nothing's changed, happened the same then as it does now, you're just older"...
Which was kind of starting to happen a little bit here. Pissing match was just a overly strong term I used for it.
My personal opinion is that while there may be a few remaining similarities, the reality of the world we live in now is nothing like the world back then. They are in fact, very, very different. Regardless of one's own nostalgic feelings over their childhood and/or the upcoming generation. And that's okay.
Inevitably, when somebody starts one of these threads, this is the course it tends to head off on, despite not being in the spirit of the op. So anyways, back to the 70's.
Anyway this 70's topic brings back memories of playing war in the woods ,Being dropped of at Adventure land for the day with out any parent going to Sunrise mall with friends to the movies an game rooms ,White castle ,Playing wiffle ball, Stick ball,Street/RollerHockey I could go on,BUT todays World is a different place,I must admit I don't let my 16 an 9 year olds have the freedom that I had growing up in the 70's to late 80's .Just to many F up people in this world today.One thing i wish we had back then was cell phones ,so at 5' O' clock my parents new where i was.
Wikipedia lists 24 school shooting incidents in this country during the 1970s.
Link - ( New Window )
Another great '70s (and '80s)thing was National Lampoon Magazine. Do you remember the "Mass Murderer Trading Cards" that were designed just like TOPPS baseball cards? Probably had most of these shootings
When I was growing up I hated sitting in the sun because I'd burn so easily. One of my friends used to bake in the sun and call me Casper because I was so pale.
I bet that friend is wishing they had followed my lead, especially after having several skin cancer scares.
the one thing I do wish I had back as a kid was a safety helmet when I rode my bike. I actually took a nasty spill off my bike once--thankfully I didn't suffer a head injury, but when I think back to how close I came, I was damn lucky to walk away with just some bad scrapes and cuts and nothing more.
Also kids of the 70s actually got outside and played more, getting more exercise. today it's too tempting for kids to sit indoors playing video games all day. So I would think kids of the 70s were in better physical condition back then, but I'm just guessing.
Hell, even in the late 70s and 80s when video games were becoming huge Â
We still played outside a Hell of a lot more than sitting inside playing video games. That's what you did when it was raining or it was too dark to play outside.
(BMX not a motorized one). My friends and I were racing around the block and really getting physical. I ended up flipping over my bike. When I walked it back with my shoulder and knee bleeding, my father didn't even notice me. He was just pissed the front reflector was broken on my first day out. I still have a scar on my shoulder from that scrape.
and "half-field" baseball games. You could play for hours with three guys per side.
Yes. Played all day
I hate those as a kid, but loved them when I got older. I was usually the only lefty and either because of the number of kids or the way the schoolyard was configured, the right side was usually foul or an out. So I was forced to hit the other way. It served me well as I got older and played baseball in HS.
That's why I always loved and related to Mattingly's story of learning to go the other way because of his backyard wiffleball games with his brothers. Paul O'Neill had a similar story.
the bases, hits would be determined by distance. A cleanly fielded ball was an out. So, past the tree was a single, the mailbox a double, etc. We used to do it on really hot days sometimes.
I think the biggest difference today from when I was a kid in the 80s is smoking. I remember I actually got "smoking permission" from my parents when I went away to prep school *as a freshman*. I mean, think about that... I would never give my kids permission to smoke. But it wasn't that long ago that smoking was totally okay.
I also remember coming back to NYC on breaks from school and going to the deli and buying beer. I mean, WTF? No one ever thought twice about selling beer and cigarettes to kids.
On the other hand, I certainly wasn't ever exposed to the really troubling things I read about today. You know, like, the football team hazing (we did it but wasn't like some of the crap you read about) and the treatment of girls didn't seem nearly as indecent as the things I read about today. Or the bullying kids into suicide. We didn't have any of that.
Like most of my friends, I turned out pretty well and eventually joined the establishment.
that was the great thing, we would just make up games depending on how Â
many players we had. I remember we made up this offense/defense practice game for street hockey that we called starts. 3 guys were enough. The goalie played all. the other 2 played against each other. Each got 5 possessions, or "starts". A "start" ended if there was a goal or the goalie made a save. We'd play for hours in the cold. Sometimes we'd do it 2 on 1, or 3 on 2. Kids just don't do that kind of thing today.
Victor = We played baseball with distances instead of bases sometimes, but I think that was bigger in the 40s and 50s.
I played a lot of stickball though, where hits were based on which floor your batted ball hit. If the pitcher caught it off the wall before it hit the ground it was an out.
My mom smoked, but I sure as shit would have been grounded and probably beaten by my dad if I got caught smoking. Thankfully, I never even tried smoking and still haven't to this day. It's OK, my lungs are probably ravaged by years of second hand smoke fro my mother.
RE: Love it!! Great post Greg. In the '70s, not only did we not use Â
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Hey Victor, I remember getting picked up hitchhiking on Hudson Avenue (on the way to the Smithhaven Mall) when I was in 4th grade by my former 3rd grade teacher. She was in the passenger seat of a Camaro (her boyfriend was driving) and wearing hot pants and a halter top. It was a memory that stuck with me.
were more likely to sell us malt liquor than regular beer. So, we had a lot of 40s. Then wine coolers came out when I was in JHS or HS. Those, it seemed, anybody could by without question.
RE: RE: Love it!! Great post Greg. In the '70s, not only did we not use Â
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Hey Victor, I remember getting picked up hitchhiking on Hudson Avenue (on the way to the Smithhaven Mall) when I was in 4th grade by my former 3rd grade teacher. She was in the passenger seat of a Camaro (her boyfriend was driving) and wearing hot pants and a halter top. It was a memory that stuck with me.
No shit!! She would get fired and/or arrested today.
We used to walk through the woods on Old Nichols Road and come out on Moriches Road just past the Lake Grove School on the way to the Mall.
Who was the teacher? I had Mrs. Novick at Wenonah Elem in 3rd grade. She was a hag. I don't remember any hot 3rd grade teachers. Do you remember Mrs. Potter? Right out of central casting. Big old broad. Carried a whistle on the playground.
Do you remember the gym teacher Mr. Maloney? He lives near my brother, they ride bikes together sometimes, had some beers with him last summer.
smoking areas at the high school. Places where all the smokers went between classes and smoked a quick cigarette. We had a courtyard that was wall to wall between classes. Very surreal in retrospect when you think about all the 14 year old kids smoking as their teachers walked by.
I think her name was Miss Reichert or Schneider (or something like that). My second grade teacher was Miss Scharelli (sp?). I remember the name, Mr. Maloney, as the gym teacher, but I don't have a visual image in my head of him. I was only in Wenonah from 2nd to 4th grade and then we moved. We moved a lot, but we always stayed in Sachem District. After Wenonah, I went to Gatelot Avenue school, then Hiawatha, and then Grundy Avenue School.
The structured activities for kids of today, I get Â
We're orders of magnitude more knowledgeable about brain development today than we were even 10 years ago - never mind 30 or 40 years ago. This is especially true of early brain development.
Moreover, today's U.S. is far more competitive than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Back then, it would never occur to anyone that their kids would have to compete with peers from the rest of the world.
The combination of those two factors makes it understandable that parents currently go to these lengths to make sure their kids don't get left behind in a society and work force that decreasingly resembles the old middle class where you could slack your way through life and still be comfortable.
Stuff like the maniacal supervision of kids and ridiculous obsession with helmets, I agree, are going overboard.
I think her name was Miss Reichert or Schneider (or something like that). My second grade teacher was Miss Scharelli (sp?). I remember the name, Mr. Maloney, as the gym teacher, but I don't have a visual image in my head of him. I was only in Wenonah from 2nd to 4th grade and then we moved. We moved a lot, but we always stayed in Sachem District. After Wenonah, I went to Gatelot Avenue school, then Hiawatha, and then Grundy Avenue School.
Wow you made the run of the district. 2nd Grade was Mrs. Pasarelli? I had had her too.
smoking areas at the high school. Places where all the smokers went between classes and smoked a quick cigarette. We had a courtyard that was wall to wall between classes. Very surreal in retrospect when you think about all the 14 year old kids smoking as their teachers walked by.
Totally surreal in retrospect. We had place behind the school chapel called "the smoking shack". There was much mischief that went on in that structure.
"This poor kid is about to get rammed in the nuts by a goat.... Â
...and the nearby adult isn’t the least bit concerned."
OMG...ROFLMAOWTIME!!!!
That scene in MadMen, when Sally is running around with a dry cleaning plastic bag over her head, and her mother Betty is smoking a cigarette in the background, while on the phone, with absolutely not one single fuck to give....
But by the time I hit high school in 1990, that had long since been outlawed. Still, I remember flipping through old '70s yearbooks in the school library once and being amazed at all the pictures of guys openly smoking and drinking beers.
smoking areas at the high school. Places where all the smokers went between classes and smoked a quick cigarette. We had a courtyard that was wall to wall between classes. Very surreal in retrospect when you think about all the 14 year old kids smoking as their teachers walked by.
We had the same thing in our school. Times are certainly much different now.
Anyone else remember those toys that used to shoot toy missiles (I'd like to say it was a GI Joe toy but could be wrong). Apparently, those fuckers took out a couple of toddlers and they ended up gluing all the shootable missiles into place before resuming sales.
A very, very different time period. When we look back on Human History, there will be pre-internet, and post-internet.
Children of the 70's and 80's are the very last that will ever remember a world like that.
terrifying
And Jarts rule!
Bahaha!
Up in Lake George? I think the diving horse is still there.
Ahhh, five and dimes, drive inns, drugstores with soda counters...
All relics of a bygone age. Simpler times.
You knew there was going to be something about seatbelts.
They don't have dart guns and BB guns anymore? I find that hard to believe.
There were child kidnappings back then too, I just don't think they got anywhere near as much attention (or when they did, maybe they didn't go much past the local region where the kidnapping occurred). If the metrics are to be believed, we're living in safer times (less crime, less violent crime).
Yeah we did the same building forts with whatever scrap building materials we could find. We used to dig these big wholes and tunnels put wood on top and cover them up with dirt on top.
It was great fun for playing war. I wouldn't trade my 70s child hood for any of today's technology driven youth
Exact same story, almost word for word. When we moved to a new house, same thing.
During the summer my parents would push me outside and tell I wasn't allowed to stay inside.
Steve, that's the misconception that has fueled the helicopter parent thing. If you grew up in the time from the mid-'60s through the end of the '80s, the world you lived in was much more dangerous with much higher crime rates. This is a much safer time than it was when I was a kid, but because of 24 hour media sensationalism, people perceive it as being more dangerous.
I'm sure people got loaded on acid, freaked out, and clawed their own eyes out back in the 70s, but you never heard about it.
Now when some nut in Miami huffs bath salts and eats another man's face, the country is aware of it in moments.
We had food, tools(many dangerous)and weapons. We wouldn't see a single adult and yet we still managed not to hurt ourselves!
Agreed. I am 49. I was 10 in 1975. Best summer of my life. We went out for the whole day in the neighborhood, coming back for lunch and the dinner. There was a park with a creek we used to go to. Or play ball. Build forts. Climb trees. Ride bikes. If it was raining, we'd play board games. And all without the Internet or video games.
1) Skitching
2) Snow Skitching (Ah, so fun)
3) Sledding Hills of the 70's and 80's were ummm, a tad more treacherous than the gently sloping roped off hills people go to now. Oh, and a wooden sled with metal blades to separate you from your digits.
4) Hitchhiking. My parents were divorced. My dad worked. How did I get to baseball practice in 4, 5 and 6 grade? Why I hitchhiked of course.
5) Remember the home chemistry sets? You know, the ones filled with all kinds of acids and Lye? Ka Blam!!
BTW, the deadliest incident of school violence in American history was the Bath School disaster in 1927.
the more things change, the more they stay the same.
the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I dunno..I'm 31. I think my generation is the last one that got to play outside.
Look, if you didn't live in it, you can't possibly understand, and that's not a slight against anybody that came after, it's just a truth.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Quote:
probably has this exact same conversation.
the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I dunno..I'm 31. I think my generation is the last one that got to play outside.
every day in the summer and every weekend until them I hear the sounds of the neighborhood kids (mine included) playing street hockey, football, baseball, basketball, skateboarding, fighting, whatever.
maybe it's neighborhood dependent. Where I live 90% of the houses are younger families all with kids within a few years of each other.
It's similar to when I was growing up in a lot of regards.
Of course we parent differently now though.
Now, my biggest fear is something happens to my kids. many parents feel similarly, but that doesn't mean your kids stay inside all day. Sure, we know where our kids are now and they wear bike helmets and seatbelts, but it's because of what we know now that we didn't then or didn't really understand the options then.
terrifying
That kid looks like a zombie. Very appropriate.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
me too!
I went looking for a chemistry set for my son and I didn't realize how tame they had all become. My set from when I was a boy had all kinds of stuff with it that you could do about anything with. Likely dangerous sure, but it was a blast to experiment with!
As for being safer, I agree that we are just more aware of things going on than we were in the 1970s. I remember the Adam Walsh story because he was roughly my age (I was a few months older), and the special they showed on TV scared the absolute shit out of me, particularly living so close to Paramus with all the malls that my parents would take us to.
Ahhh, five and dimes, drive inns, drugstores with soda counters...
All relics of a bygone age. Simpler times.
Now they arrest parents that allow their children to do that.
And of course no cell phones. Although my mom did always want me to have a dime on me for the pay phones!
Every single day in my neighborhood.
My neighbors are always texting my wife to ask if her kids are at my house or if we know where they are. It's a lot like the older days. one of my neighbors whistles for his kids, LOL.
maybe my neighborhood is somewhat of a throwback, because all of us were kids in that era.
I remember walking across the playground and there were maybe a dozen kids just tearing those things up! It was like trying to get through a gladiator fight.
That one about leaving your kids in the car is one that hits home right now.
There are so many times these days when I have my three year old and nine month old in the car, and I just need one simple thing in the gas station that would take thirty seconds, but now I either skip it or go through the whole ordeal of dragging the whole brood in there. I've even seen someone on the news as recently as a month ago getting arrested (!) for doing that same thing.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
We did exactly that as well! And even crazier shit on skateboards.
And of course no cell phones. Although my mom did always want me to have a dime on me for the pay phones!
Like I said, pre-interenet/cell phone and post-internet/cell phone all bleed together.
50's, 60's, 70's 80's? All similar.
1995-since? All similar.
Quote:
Do you ever see children younger than 13 or so playing on the streets of your neighborhood without an adult in sight? Highly unlikely. It was ubiquitous prior to the early '90s. Or as the linked article mentions - how many of us were left alone in a vehicle while mom ran into the store for a few minutes? That will literally get you arrested now.
Quote:
Do you ever see children younger than 13 or so playing on the streets of your neighborhood without an adult in sight?
Every single day in my neighborhood.
My neighbors are always texting my wife to ask if her kids are at my house or if we know where they are. It's a lot like the older days. one of my neighbors whistles for his kids, LOL.
maybe my neighborhood is somewhat of a throwback, because all of us were kids in that era.
It's nice that your neighborhood is like that, I'm glad to hear it. Living here in NYC, you'd think someone came and snatched all the school aged children. Most of their day is structured activities, so you don't see kids playing outside on their own anymore. I'm not sure if it's entirely the safety issue, or just the way things are now with kids going from one activity to another (baseball practice, basketball practice, etc.).
Usually not an adult anywhere nearby. We rode our bikes all over town. Somehow, we not only survived, but had a blast
And who didn't crack their head or break or bruise themselves up on those metal jungle gyms now and then?
Yes. We used to traipse all over the place, going into sewers, and to "Booger Island."
Firecrackers were also for the whole summer, not just the fourth of July.
-Drive Ins
-Five and Dimes
-Soda Counters in Drugstores
-Creature Features
-Saturday Morning and Afterschool cartoons (I know cartoons exist today, but Saturday morning and two hours after school were the ONLY time periods then. No 24 hour, round the clock, multiple networks like today).
I can also remember me and my best friend playing one on one football. We'd line up head to head and just ram into each other. And, of course, there was the now-taboo named Smear the Queer, which was just an excuse to pummel each other.
Honestly all it takes sometime is for one or two parents to let their kids play outside by themselves and others begin to follow suit.
There definitely is a huge difference between then and now, though.
Sounds like it. We moved two years ago June, and our old neighborhood wasn't like this. There was a house across the street with 4 kids and my kids and their kids (we both had a set of twins in the same grade) would play, but that was it. Kind of like a ghost town.
But it was because the neighborhood turned over, their used to be a lot of kids, but they grew up, got married, moved out and left empty-nesters for the most part.
Now, no exaggeration, there are maybe 30 - 40 houses in this neighborhood, and 90+% have kids all within a few years of each other.
there could be a summer camp out there in the neighborhood.
And the few houses that don't have kids are planning to move within the next couple years (according to the rumor mill).
Starting off the decade, there was Kent State. Perhpas, you heard of it?
Already on the list. I'm thinking of trying it out this summer when Alex turns four. That's probably roundabouts my first memories of a drive in, at that age.
That said, I have an adult outdoor Halloween party that I do every year, with a giant screen and surround sound system, that I plan on using for the new "family outdoor movie night" when my kids get a little older, as a family tradition during the summers, like every Friday or Saturday night.
Something about sitting outside at night in the summer air, on a big screen...
Quote:
in the 70s?
Starting off the decade, there was Kent State. Perhpas, you heard of it?
C'mon man, Kent State is nothing like Sandy Hook or Columbine.
Times have changed.
I will never allow, in this day and age, my children to do what I was allowed to do because I legitimately fear for their safety.
I think it's actually you misinterpreting what Steve meant, since we were referring to our everyday childhood school experiences, not war protests on a college campus with the national guard, but I could be wrong about that.
Times have changed.
I will never allow, in this day and age, my children to do what I was allowed to do because I legitimately fear for their safety.
Not disagreeing, but I can distinctly remember my grandfather and father waxing nostalgically about how great things were when they were kids and how different they were when I was a kid.
So that was my initial point. Sure things are different now, but I was saying that the older generations said the same about our generation.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Yeah, I remember clearly one summer I was a human scab from wiping out on my bike too many times thinking I was Evil Kenevil
I never would've thought that that world would disappear. I'm just glad I was a part of it while it still existed.
Quote:
My parents probably treated me the same way their parents treated them, and so on and so forth.
Times have changed.
I will never allow, in this day and age, my children to do what I was allowed to do because I legitimately fear for their safety.
Not disagreeing, but I can distinctly remember my grandfather and father waxing nostalgically about how great things were when they were kids and how different they were when I was a kid.
So that was my initial point. Sure things are different now, but I was saying that the older generations said the same about our generation.
Of course... But when you look at the big picture... There weren't as many differences between the 50's and the 80's as there are between the 80's and the 2000's, you know? Yeah, behavior and little things here and there...
But the technology explosion of the 90's I'd compare to the Industrial Revolution. The internet was a major turning point in mankind. It is all encompassing. It changed the way we live completely.
Quote:
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Yeah, I remember clearly one summer I was a human scab from wiping out on my bike too many times thinking I was Evil Kenevil
I have a slightly chipped front tooth as a souvenir. And my bottom lip healed a little funny on the inside. Ruined my career as a trumpet player before it started. Like Ralph Kramden, I could never hit that high note again.
I have a younger brother who grew up in a completely different world than I did and we're only 8 years apart.
Some of the residents of my town still recall the Megan Kanka murder with tears, so I guess there is some hesitation about free-roaming kids from people that were around during that time.
I'd probably be OK with my oldest son playing outside by himself (he is 7), but not the 5 and 2 year old.
1970s[edit]
January 5, 1970: Washington, DC, Tyrone Perry, 15, was shot to death at Hine Junior High School.[178]
May 4, 1970: Kent, Ohio, During protests of the Vietnam War on the college Campus of Kent State University, Armed National Guard Soldiers opened fire on unarmed students killing four people.[179]
May 15, 1970: Jackson, Mississippi, One student was killed and twelve others injured when police open fired on students gathered to protest the military presence in Cambodia
[180]* February 2, 1971: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Teacher Samson L. Freedman, 56, was shot to death as he left Morris E. Leeds School, by Kevin Simmons, 14. Freedman had suspended Simmons earlier in the day for cursing in the hallway.[181]
November 8, 1971: Grove, Oklahoma, School custodian, Jim "James" Underwood brought a .22 caliber revolver to school hidden in a brown paper bag. School principal, T. J. Melton, 49, was shot in the left shoulder, left ear and in the top of his head, according to published reports. He died around 9 a.m. and Underwood was charged the next day with first-degree murder.[182]
November 11, 1971: Spokane, Washington, Former MIT student Larry J. Harmon, 21, entered St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church on the Gonzaga University campus armed with a .22 caliber rifle. Harmon killed the caretaker, 68-year-old Hilary Kunz, and upon emerging from the church, wounded four more people before police officers shot and killed him. Harmon was described by his father as a religious fanatic who believed that he had seen the devil and that Christ was an imposter.[183]
January 5, 1972: Washington, DC, Fifth-grade teacher Margaret Brooks, 57, was shot to death in front of her students by her estranged husband James A. Brooks.[184]
February 26, 1973: Richmond, Virginia, Wayne Phillips, 17, was shot to death when he was caught between two youths who were fighting in the hallway of Armstrong High School.[185]
October 1, 1973: Elmwood Park, Illinois, Elmwood Park Community High School student Cynthia Schulze was shot and killed in the hallway between classes by student William Rossi, with whom she was probably not acquainted. Rossi then ran out of the school and shot himself to death in an alley nearby.[186]
January 17, 1974: Chicago, Illinois, Elementary school principal Rudolph Jezek, Jr., 52, was shot to death in his office by Steven Guy, 14, a former student said to be angry at being transferred from the school to a social adjustment center.[187]
March 22, 1974: Brownstown, Indiana, Jessie Blevins, 48, athletic director at Brownstown Central High School, was shot to death in the school parking lot by a 17-year-old student.[188]
December 30, 1974: Olean, New York, Regents scholar Anthony Barbaro, 17, armed with a rifle and shotgun, kills three adults and wounds 11 others at his high school, which was closed for the Christmas holiday. Barbaro was reportedly a loner who kept a diary describing several "battle plans" for his attack on the school.[189][190]
February 18, 1975: Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, Marist College student Shelley Lynn Sperling was shot and killed by a scorned suitor, Louis o. Acevedo, in the Marist College cafeteria.[191]
March 18, 1975: Sumner High School, St. Louis, Missouri, 16-year-old Stephen Goods, a bystander, is shot and killed during a fight between other teens.[192]
September 11, 1975: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. Grant High School student Randy Truitt was shot and killed by James Briggs at the school, leaving several others injured.[193]
February 12, 1976: Detroit, Michigan, Intruders shot five Murray-Wright High School students after an apparent dispute over one of the intruders girlfriends.[194]
June 12, 1976: California State University, Custodian Edward Charles Allaway, 37, opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle in the library on the California State University, Fullerton campus killing 7, and wounding 2.[citation needed]
November 10, 1976: Detroit, Michigan, Second grade teacher Bettye McCaster, 45, was shot to death in front of her 29 students at Burt Elementary School, by her estranged husband, Al Lewis.[195]
April 7, 1977: Whitharral, Texas, High School principal M. O. Tripp was shot to death on the front steps of the school by Ricardo Lopez, 17.[196]
February 9, 1978: St. Albans, West Virginia, A 15-year-old student was shot and killed by another student at Hayes Junior High School.[citation needed]
February 22, 1978: Lansing, Michigan, After being taunted for his beliefs, a 15-year-old self-proclaimed Nazi, killed one student and wounded a second with a Luger pistol at Everett High School.[190]
April 26, 1978: Dallas, Texas, Woodrow Porter, 38, who was a janitor at Paul Dunbar Elementary School, was shot to death by the 56-year-old grandmother of an 8-year-old that was allegedly spanked by Porter earlier.[197]
May 18, 1978: Austin, Texas, John Daniel Christian, 13, son of Lyndon B. Johnson's former press secretary George Christian, shot to death his English teacher, Wilbur Grayson, 29, with his father's .22 caliber rifle in front of approximately 30 classmates. John Christian was arrested and charged but was not prosecuted. He spent two years in a mental hospital. He is now a practicing attorney in Austin, Texas.[198]
January 29, 1979: San Diego, California, Brenda Spencer opened fire on Grover Cleveland Elementary School from the window of her home across the street, killing two adults and wounding nine others, eight of whom were children.[199] The shootings inspired the song I Don't Like Mondays.
Link - ( New Window )
But whatever, like I said, not a pissing match.
But whatever, like I said, not a pissing match.
I was just answering a question. I don't see why the term "pissing match" would even come up, unless I missed something in another post
Which was kind of starting to happen a little bit here. Pissing match was just a overly strong term I used for it.
My personal opinion is that while there may be a few remaining similarities, the reality of the world we live in now is nothing like the world back then. They are in fact, very, very different. Regardless of one's own nostalgic feelings over their childhood and/or the upcoming generation. And that's okay.
Inevitably, when somebody starts one of these threads, this is the course it tends to head off on, despite not being in the spirit of the op. So anyways, back to the 70's.
Wikipedia lists 24 school shooting incidents in this country during the 1970s.
Link - ( New Window )
Quote:
in the 70s?
Wikipedia lists 24 school shooting incidents in this country during the 1970s.
Link - ( New Window )
Another great '70s (and '80s)thing was National Lampoon Magazine. Do you remember the "Mass Murderer Trading Cards" that were designed just like TOPPS baseball cards? Probably had most of these shootings
Yes. Played all day
I bet that friend is wishing they had followed my lead, especially after having several skin cancer scares.
the one thing I do wish I had back as a kid was a safety helmet when I rode my bike. I actually took a nasty spill off my bike once--thankfully I didn't suffer a head injury, but when I think back to how close I came, I was damn lucky to walk away with just some bad scrapes and cuts and nothing more.
Also kids of the 70s actually got outside and played more, getting more exercise. today it's too tempting for kids to sit indoors playing video games all day. So I would think kids of the 70s were in better physical condition back then, but I'm just guessing.
Quote:
and "half-field" baseball games. You could play for hours with three guys per side.
Yes. Played all day
That's why I always loved and related to Mattingly's story of learning to go the other way because of his backyard wiffleball games with his brothers. Paul O'Neill had a similar story.
Quote:
and "half-field" baseball games. You could play for hours with three guys per side.
Yes. Played all day
And ghost runners!
or Cowboys and Indians
us too
I also remember coming back to NYC on breaks from school and going to the deli and buying beer. I mean, WTF? No one ever thought twice about selling beer and cigarettes to kids.
On the other hand, I certainly wasn't ever exposed to the really troubling things I read about today. You know, like, the football team hazing (we did it but wasn't like some of the crap you read about) and the treatment of girls didn't seem nearly as indecent as the things I read about today. Or the bullying kids into suicide. We didn't have any of that.
Like most of my friends, I turned out pretty well and eventually joined the establishment.
Plus using wooden clothes pins to attach cards to our bicycle wheels.
Plus using wooden clothes pins to attach cards to our bicycle wheels.
Yep. Did lots of that too.
I played a lot of stickball though, where hits were based on which floor your batted ball hit. If the pitcher caught it off the wall before it hit the ground it was an out.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Hey Victor, I remember getting picked up hitchhiking on Hudson Avenue (on the way to the Smithhaven Mall) when I was in 4th grade by my former 3rd grade teacher. She was in the passenger seat of a Camaro (her boyfriend was driving) and wearing hot pants and a halter top. It was a memory that stuck with me.
Quote:
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Hey Victor, I remember getting picked up hitchhiking on Hudson Avenue (on the way to the Smithhaven Mall) when I was in 4th grade by my former 3rd grade teacher. She was in the passenger seat of a Camaro (her boyfriend was driving) and wearing hot pants and a halter top. It was a memory that stuck with me.
No shit!! She would get fired and/or arrested today.
We used to walk through the woods on Old Nichols Road and come out on Moriches Road just past the Lake Grove School on the way to the Mall.
Who was the teacher? I had Mrs. Novick at Wenonah Elem in 3rd grade. She was a hag. I don't remember any hot 3rd grade teachers. Do you remember Mrs. Potter? Right out of central casting. Big old broad. Carried a whistle on the playground.
Do you remember the gym teacher Mr. Maloney? He lives near my brother, they ride bikes together sometimes, had some beers with him last summer.
Moreover, today's U.S. is far more competitive than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Back then, it would never occur to anyone that their kids would have to compete with peers from the rest of the world.
The combination of those two factors makes it understandable that parents currently go to these lengths to make sure their kids don't get left behind in a society and work force that decreasingly resembles the old middle class where you could slack your way through life and still be comfortable.
Stuff like the maniacal supervision of kids and ridiculous obsession with helmets, I agree, are going overboard.
Wow you made the run of the district. 2nd Grade was Mrs. Pasarelli? I had had her too.
Quote:
2nd Grade was Mrs. Pasarelli? I had had her too.
That must be her. Dark haired, attractive, very curvacious?
Yes that's her.
Totally surreal in retrospect. We had place behind the school chapel called "the smoking shack". There was much mischief that went on in that structure.
OMG...ROFLMAOWTIME!!!!
That scene in MadMen, when Sally is running around with a dry cleaning plastic bag over her head, and her mother Betty is smoking a cigarette in the background, while on the phone, with absolutely not one single fuck to give....
NOSTALGIA!!!
We had the same thing in our school. Times are certainly much different now.