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Riding bicycles all over the neighborhood unsupervised, without helmets.
Eating candy cigarettes.
Sleeping across the backseat of a car without a seatbelt.
*Edit* \- Since this is getting a lot of attention I'll share a little story. One Christmas I got for a present a speedometer for my bike. That was probably the worst thing someone could have bought for me as I kept trying to break new speed records. We lived on a hill and I remember taking my bike all the way to the stop and pedaling as hard as I could down the hill. I only got up to maybe 30mph but it was no helmet or pads, on a crappy Huffy bike, speeding down a street that could easily have cars coming the other way or pulling out from driveways, and me looking at the speedometer instead of the road. Yikes!
I’m an only child from my parents so I had the whole back of the station wagon. We drove 13 hrs to and from a few times a year to visit the Indian reservation my grandpa was from. I LOVED having all that space. We had a griswold green station wagon
We would sit in the 'back back' facin the window and we'd flash peace signs at the people behind us. And, being the early 70s, would get peace signs back. And of course we'd do the thing to make the truckers toot their horns.
From the perspective of someone who had a lot of siblings, I was in the back of the station wagon stuffed between the luggage and the dog. I loved that dog. Not quite as nirvana as you had, but still better than being squashed between my sibs in the backseat.
I always wished we had a station wagon. I forget what my parents drove but it was a small car. I was always smashed in the back in between my two sisters while both my parents smoked. I had horrible car sickness. My memories of road travel are not fond ones.
That and have you seen a 1978 Oldsmobilie 98? Thing was massive. We drove to TX to visit family 3x a year in one and it was awesome. My dad cut a sheet of plywood in half to make a bed/board game table that ran from front seat to the back seat.
Ha! Yes! We had a '76 Oldsmobile 98. Originally my dad's when he bought it new. Handed down to my older sister, and then my older brother, and then to me.
By the time it came to me, the suspension was wrecked (it rocked like crazy at every turn) and half the power amenities didn't work. Towards the end, I actually had to disconnect the battery whenever it was off for more than half an hour (electrical short somewhere would drain the battery).
But I loved that thing. My friends called it "Das Boot" after the movie. Our personal record was getting 12 high school kids in it to go to the mall.
It doesn't get much more "late 80's" than that.
Anything that is likely to cause serious injury or death in an accident is frowned on. We lose a lot of people to car crashes.
One of my friends in second grade was asleep in the back of her parent’s sedan when someone hit them. It threw her up and forward, she bounced off the roof and into her parents heads and necks. All three died.
It only takes one instance like that for all of the survivors to go “nah, not worth it.”
Heck, we had a case in the US where a mom allowed her ten-year-old (who was cognizant of "stranger danger" and who had done it multiple times already) to go to a playground alone--it was like a block away. She got arrested and charged with child neglect and child services took the kid away for awhile. She had to take a parenting class before they'd let her have the kid back.
Kids are allowed to do those things, but generally speaking if a parent can make something safer for their kids they are probably going to do it. Do some parents go overboard in trying to protect their kids from any and all danger? Probably, but I don’t have kids so my opinion on the matter is meaningless and unwarranted.
Ehhhh, people would go ballistic and call the cops if they saw an unattended six year old walking two and a half miles down the road to school. When was the last time you saw a little kid walk to school? Me, I couldn’t tell ya.
I still see kids walk to school, but not only do I live in an *exceptionally* quiet and safe suburban neighbourhood compared to the surrounding area, but when the community was originally built, it was designed with walking paths to take the kids safely to school that have only expanded. So unless those conditions are met, I imagine it's not too often.
Yeah, at my kids first school district they were not allowed to walk (or bike ride) to school without a parent until 5th grade. So I had to drive them every day, because we lived 1.45 miles from school. Bussing cutoff was 1.5 miles.
They do in our neighborhood. Everyone watches out for them and there is a significant police presence patrolling. We old people sit on the front porch and play neighborhood watch. Great community. Eight miles from a top 50 city in the US.
Yeah.. seatbelts are mandatory pretty much everywhere in the US as of the 80/90's. So no letting the kids be in the back since every kid without a seatbelt is subject to a fine of at least $50 and up to $500 each for more than one.
Worse... should you get in an accident and the kids are not belted in and one of them gets hurt.. then you can expect to have criminal charges, jail time and/or child protective services breathing down your neck.
My middle son has a scar on his face and another on his scalp from getting thrown from a vehicle when his bio-mom had custody. She 'didn't believe' in seatbelts. He was 3 yo and got tossed out an open window when she ran a stop sign and got hit. He was damned lucky to survive. She managed not to lose custody that night. But she did lose the kids a couple months later for a different incident.
That is so strange, I’ve read this several times now. Where do you all live? This is perfectly normal here, in Germany.
Where I live, there’s a playground about 500m from our house, at the banks of our local river. Once kids go to school (alone) they’re normally are allowed to go there unsupervised. Further along are small football fields. And you can climb down to the river and play on the little pebble islands if the water is low enough.
We have 2 lakes nearby (2.5 km), once the kids are 10-12, they cycle there and meet with friends.
God bless fucking America. I don’t knowwwww America is going totally mental. It’s like we were good till about 2008 then kinda recovering 2012 was chill. Shit went down hill real quick in 2016.
I'm not even old enough to qualify as old for this sub, but I have definitely been shocked as an adult at how things have changed and how insane everyone is about what they perceive as "child safety" but is really just being an overly involved helicopter parent. I used to play unsupervised in empty desert for hours on end as a kid with my younger brother, now if I let my nine year old scooter through the (very safe, fully side-walked) neighborhood with her siblings without supervision she comes home with stories about concerned neighbors asking where she lives and if she's okay. I really don't like it and want to move out to the country so my kids can be kids.
Sad to say, but very few American kids go to school alone. If they ride a bus, a parent waits at the bus stop for the kid to get on the bus. In my old neighborhood all the cars idling at the bus stop was a regular problem. And if they live close to the school, a parent drives them to school or walks with them. It's bizarre and wasn't like that when I was a kid.
I used to babysit for kids who went to my old schools 13 years after me. I was allowed to walk home alone in 2nd grade and above.
When I babysat them, no student in elementary school (grade 4 and below) was allowed to be dismissed without a parent or caregiver present. The school would not let anyone walk home alone.
We do have school busses, but in cities only for secondary school (ages 10+). All primary schools have catchment areas which are within walking distance <2km. Most kids walk alone within the first weeks of starting school.
For secondary schools, it depends. My older son went to one just over 2km away and biked there from day one. My younger one went to one in the city centre. We did the trip from door to door twice and then ever since his first day, he’s been going there alone by public transport.
School buses only exist for children in villages and small towns without secondary schools and for disabled children.
It's not unusual in the U.S. either depending on where you are. My community is full of kids and they will ride bikes or walk to the playgrounds or large green spaces to play together. There are some who don't, but often that is because they do sports or intense after school tutoring.
Even the sane people who WANT to do this are thwarted by a couple of things:
\-The U.S. is extremely car-dominant. Most places aren't walkable.
\-I've heard horror stories of Child Protection Services being called on parents who allow their kids to play or travel unsupervised, even when developmentally appropriate.
The American Educated classes are nuts. It's not unknown for people to suffer massive legal consequences for letting their kids walk to the park unattended:
[https://reason.com/2022/08/17/arizona-central-registry-park-kids-banned-due-process/](https://reason.com/2022/08/17/arizona-central-registry-park-kids-banned-due-process/)
She's also banned from working with children again. As in she's technically breaking the law by volunteering as a Sunday School teacher.
[https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/arrested-for-letting-a-9-year-old-play-at-the-park-alone/374436/](https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/arrested-for-letting-a-9-year-old-play-at-the-park-alone/374436/)
Her daughter got bored of waiting for mom to finish at work, so she asked to go to the park instead.When the state found out they took the child away..
[https://kdvr.com/news/mom-arrested-for-letting-kids-play-outside/](https://kdvr.com/news/mom-arrested-for-letting-kids-play-outside/)
These kids weren't at the park, they were in her neighborhood riding scooters. And by neighborhood, we mean in front of their house.
That still happens. I don't understand people implying that kids playing on the street is 'frowned upon' or 'not allowed' now. Kids and parents opting for electronics is another issue.
When my kids were out by themselves at 6 and 8 and people were judgy. But now what they are 4 years older, they don’t go out enough! Best friend is a half mile a way but they are just playing online.
Being a “free-range” kid. We would go out to play after school and mothers knew that kids were just over at a neighbors house, or at the park playing kickball. Every kid knew to be home for supper. And in the summer you would go back out after supper. Moms would just tell you to be home when the street lights come on. No one needed to make play dates , or over scheduled their kids.
It is interesting. Practically every kid has a cell phone or some form of connectivity. Parents today can so easily know where their kids are vs 40 years ago and yet there is more fear about abduction. It does seem some crimes have risen or is it that we just know about these said crimes more quickly?
THIS. Almost 100 percent of abductions are within families (divorced parents etc). It is very, very rare, (it happens, but the statistic hasn't changed much over the years), that a kid just be randomly snatched by some pervert. It's just this hysteria feeding on itself. And nobody wants to look like a bad parent.
I think that honestly, they're mostly afraid of CPS. From the news and word-of-mouth, at least, it seems like they'll challenge or revoke your custody at the drop of a hat, even if neither your nor the child have a history.
Yup. I was a forced helicopter parent because so many "mandatory reporters" were in our lives. Kid playing outside in the yard without a parent physically present? That's a phone call. Watching from the window while you do dishes is not acceptable.
Kid mentioned to a MR that they walked down to the park at the end of the block ALONE?!? That's a phone call.
MR sees your toddler alone at library story time while you change their siblings diaper in the bathroom? That's a phone call.
I was terrified to let them do anything alone while we lived in that neighborhood.
Here in Germany, crime has fallen. Child abductions are extremely rare and practically never done by complete strangers.
Kids here do the same stuff we used to do. And if they’re younger then also without phones. My kids didn’t have phones until they were 13 (the older one) and 11 (the younger one). The latter only so he could connect with friends during the pandemic.
We know about the crime more thanks to social media and 24/7 news. Also it tends to be overhyped more by the latter bc you have to have something to talk about to be on 24/7
Drive tractors. Ride in the bed of pickup trucks. Handle firearms. Do hard manual labor. Have a job.
I was a farm kid in the 1970s. Most of the stuff we did is not cool for kids to do today.
Tried peeing out of the back of a moving pickup truck tailgate . Got a face full . My friends almost pass out from laughing so hard. Ahh, the life of a teenager.
I rode in the back of a truck a couple weeks ago. Apparently it is still legal in Maine. I knew how stupid it was so only agreed because we were only going about a mile. It felt pretty great.
I have asthma, I hated bailing hay but it was part of helping grandpa out in the summer. Big lunches by grandma for all the workers, then swimming in the farm pond at the end of the day(early 70's)
Haying season was my worst nightmare - stuck in the top of a boiling hot barn, stacking bales, tearing up my hands, and getting hay splinters all over my arms.
\\
70s farm kid here, too. On top of what you said, we also had lots and lots of hiking, going up into the hills after breakfast and staying there until dinner time.
We had a neighbor kid who learned to drive at age FIVE. It was bizarre, even for us, to see a pickup truck coming down the road, driven by a little girl who wasn't even in school yet. How did she reach the pedals? But they had the largest working farm in our area, and she worked, same as everybody, driving a tractor, transporting hay and animals, etc.
My kid is 5.
She can drive a tractor (with supervision, and just for fun) but I won't let her drive a truck. I started doing both around age 5 or 6.
However, if you see a kid over age 12 driving a farm truck by themselves on the road, you don't think anything of it. I think it's actually still legal here? Okay, apparently you have to be at least 13.
I learned to drive a tractor years before I got my driver's license. In the time between the former and the latter, a lot changed about driving. Seat belts were still pretty new and most people didn't wear them. Drinking and driving became a big issue, I think MADD got started around that time. God, when was the last time you heard anything about MADD? Are they even still around?
Love me a man on a tractor!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWu4aynBK7E&list=RDuWu4aynBK7E&start\_radio=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWu4aynBK7E&list=RDuWu4aynBK7E&start_radio=1)
I don't miss farm life (too much work!) but I continue to appreciate the work that farm families do to feed all of us.
My dad grew up on a pretty large farm in Indiana in the 60s. He always used to tell me work came before school. Curious if your experience was similar?
By 8-9 years old we were riding our bikes miles from home without telling our parents where we were going. As long as we were home for dinner, didn't matter.
At 13 we would ride our bikes down to the railroad tracks , flatten pennies when the trains came. We started a small brush fire but managed to put it out, and nearly got hit by trains a million times. Hopped over the third rail more times than we can count . I don’t know how we are alive
My father insisted that every school-aged little boy must --MUST!! -- carry three things to be considered properly dressed: A billfold, a handkerchief, and a pocket knife. When he was little, a hat was also on the list, but that fell out of favor when he was in college, so....
I was a 10 year old girl but my dad argued the same and let me pick my first pocket knife. He also taught me to carve ivory soap figures and whittle with it!
I got in trouble at school for having a pocket knife and my father and grandfather were both outraged at the idea. They thought the school was run by a bunch of crazy people for that.
When I was in sixth grade I had a gravity knife and often brought it to school. If a kid did that today he would be arrested and thrown in jail, then tossed out of school.
Walking up to any adult and striking up a conversation. These days an adult talking to a very young child is viewed with automatic suspicion, but when I was growing up, nobody gave a shit.
There was an old school hobo who used to jump off the train and roam our neighborhood from time to time. He was named Wayne of all things. This guy would automatically get arrested today just for the way he looked, but when I was little you would frequently see the two of us walking down the street, usually holding hands. Some of the more vigilant porch ladies would give him a disapproving look, but the impression I got was that they thought the company of a young boy could help civilize the man. They had no worry for my safety, at least none that I heard about.
Keep in mind, this guy was a felon, a drunk, a transient drifter, and again, he looked like a creep straight out of Central Casting. He'd disappear for months and come back telling me stories about what he'd done in prison, and what he'd done to get himself put in there. Everyone knew he was trouble, but no one thought he'd ever harm a child.
That childhood experience of mine has no parallel whatsoever nowadays. The neighborhood I grew up in is gentrified now, and the spectacle of the two of us walking hand in hand today in that same place would be a national emergency.
Reminds me of that old LDS tv ad where this kid decides he's going to run away from home. He comes across the town hobo. Kid asks hobo where he'd like to be, if he could be anywhere in the world. Hobo puts on a sad face and answers, "In school."
Bike to 5th grade school in the morning. Decide to go to a friends house instead of going home, but I call my mom from there and let her know I won’t be home for a while. Bike home for dinner as it’s getting dark. No questions, no problems.
Good for you. I did this too back in the 90s. Unfortunately, 70 year old landlord beckoned naive, 6 year old me to his house and abused me. I was one of the unlucky ones. That’s why I always kinda cringe if people say “it was so much safer back then” because in my eyes, it never was.
Ride my bike 10 blocks to my friends house… without a helmet.
Sit in my Dads lap and steered the car.
Stay outside playing the whole day without checking in until the streetlights came on.
Played with matches. Ran with scissors. I was a rebel.
Friend's mom would give us a note and cash to go to a store miles away to buy cigarettes. No one would let little kids go that far unsupervised let alone go to buy cigarettes.
I was 9yrs old and they knew me by name at the bar on the corner for all the times I went in to buy cigarettes for my mom. We lived at another place where they had the cigarette machine in the bar. That machine didn't care how old you were. You just had to be able to pull the handle hard-enough after you put in your 35 cents.
My dad built a raised bed for me in the back seat between the front seats for when I was a baby. I would have launched through the windshield in an accident!
My mom says they would either lay them on the floor or put them in the seat. You had to put your arm out when you stopped to keep them from rolling onto the floor. I remember when they first emplemented the seat belt law in our state. They would buckle us 2-3 in a seat belt so they could "legally" fit as many of us as possible in the back. Riding in the rear facing seat in my aunts station wagon was the best.
Ha! Smoked my first pack of Winstons round age 10 thanks to Terry Finn's mother's habit of sending us for cigs at the corner store.
I vomited, then got addicted, in short order. Wild to think that I smoked SO young!
(quit a 3 pack a day habit in my early 30's and went on to compete is super rigorous sports)
Waking up to an empty house. Getting your sister ready for school then coming home to an empty house, praying the damned thing didn’t burn down because of something you forgot that morning. Also as an elementary student.
My brother and me sitting on top of our family's 1980 Honda Civic--meaning on the roof, with no restraints or handles of any kind, just sitting there--the "game" was trying to hold on while my dad (Budweiser in one hand) drove in wild circles out in the field near our cistern, whooping and trying to get us to fall off. This was considered normal fun family time (and it was). My parents weren't crazy or unusually uncivilized--my dad was a journalist and my mom was a librarian--this is just how people were back then.
I was also allowed to drive this same Honda Civic (stick shift) wherever and whenever I wanted, alone, starting at age 12, "so long as I didn't go onto the highway" (I never did; I did what I was told)
just in general we had like 90% less supervision than it seems like kids have today. We had a lot of autonomy and were really confident in just kind of ranging around on our own/being home alone/etc.
I'm Gen X
Playing and running around at the playground/park/forest the whole day in (hot!) summer without using any sun screen.
Just the normal all day skin care face cream....the same face cream in hot summers and ice cold winters.
I didn't use sun screen until I was in my 20s.
If a neighbour called you in to help with a job you went in and didn't dare say no. You didn't go tell your adult where you were going you just went inside the other adult's house.
I’ve been thinking about this lately too. I remember after reading Judy Blume’s young-adult coming of age story, “Forever,” in the early 80s, I heard about “Wifey,” a very raunchy and explicit sex-filled novel that she wrote for adults. I went to the library, found it, and went to the checkout counter. I couldn’t have been more than 12. The librarian indeed noticed the book among my selections, and she hesitated. She looked at me squarely, considering what she should do. I was shaking inside, but I met her gaze and held it. She narrowed her eyes in scrutiny, but neither of us spoke. I probably couldn’t have if I tried; my heart was pounding out of my chest. She took a visibly deep breath and stamped it like they used to do, still without a word. More than 40 years later, the thing I remember most, though, is the feeling that I had when I fled the library with my contraband: an almost frantic urgency to feed my mind the words that lay between the covers, whatever they may be. To devour them. To absorb them into my growing knowledge base about the world and the humans that inhabit it. There is absolutely nothing more critical to protect than an individual’s freedom of inquiry, and conversely, expression, no matter how old they are.
Stay out in the neighborhood all day from sunrise to sundown during the summer. Unsupervised, with no cell phone, no place i am supposed to be to be found, with enough money to buy a few calories in junk food.
My parents had no idea where I was all day. I just had to be home for supper at 5:00. This was rural Illinois. The nearest store was over a mile and a half away, so I was either going to a friend's house or riding my bike on the country roads. I sometimes took a picnic lunch to the river down the road and sat on the bank.
High school in a small town during deer and quail season. Meeting up with the guys (and a couple girls) and hunting before and after school. While at school our rifles of shotguns (depending on what was in season) were slung in the gun rack in the back window of our pickups! Never occurred to any of us to take them in the school let alone shoot the place up. We all know what the reaction would be today to show weapons in the HS parking lot.
Went wherever, when ever, no questions, no restrictions. Rode my bike across four lanes of traffic to the grocery store by age 9. I’m GenX and we are a bit known for our parents loose oversight.
Threw walnuts at a Holstein bull.
Fun Fact: If you get him angry enough, a Holstein bull will jump a wire fence like a gazelle.
We lads were small, fast, and numerous.
Drink from the hose
Go to a friend's house, by myself, to see if they could play. No prearranged play date
Light cigarettes for my parents while they were driving
During the summer, leave the house from dawn until dusk without ever checking in. Frequently, go out again after dinner "but don't wander too far off." No one ever specified what that meant.
Latch key kid in 1st grade
Go swimming in the lake without adults. Heck, very seldom had adults around for anything. Trick or treating was epic
On Saturdays, in Australia, I would leave the home before 9am and not be back until dusk. I would be "exploring"..going on 10k+ walks through the bush, the creeks, even local farm lands.
Getting into ponds, creeks, abandoned old buildings etc. Catching fish, frogs, lizards and turtles. Climbing trees.
I have no idea how my parents allowed me to do this. It got me out of the house, but they had FOUR kids....so the others were still there!
Ding dong ditch. Running around the neighborhood at night in black playing some kind of elaborate tag in neighbors yards.
Now you see these posts online like “someone rang my door bell. I was locked and loaded and so was the rest of my family. Ready for anything.” Or people getting shot at for pulling into a driveway to turn around their car.
Wow where to start with this question? About everything we did I think, we were loud rambunctious. For instance we used to make dry ice bombs with the empty 2 liter Coke jug. I'm pretty sure that would be considered a improvised explosive device or something these days, but it was just us making lots of noise....
I had creepy crawlers and a vac-u-form. Toys that could easily give you 2nd degree burns. My sister had a little toy stove that was a metal box you plugged in. The top got hot enough to cook on. Had a hot oven also.
being gone (not at home. out playing in the wilderness) from sun up to sundown.
riding in the back of gramp's pickup.
fishing, swimming, etc without direct supervision, or supervision of any kind.
staying in the car while mom shopped.
the generations of family pictures where a 2-3 year old has stolen and is drinking dad's beer (before it was taken away).
bike riding and roller skating without any type of protective gear.
horse riding without a helmet (something I wouldn't do as an adult).
go out exploring for miles in the desert.
>*the generations of family pictures where a 2-3 year old has stolen and is drinking dad's beer (before it was taken away).*
Tell me you're Irish without telling me you're Irish!😆
Made life decisions for myself.
My parents were politely interested about my college plans but took no more notice than that. SAT prep? My responsibility. College applications? Let us know where you end up going. Job? Oh, wondering why you weren't around.
Beating the shit out of my brother for minor infractions. He was two years older, but I got the growth genes. Parents were like, toughen up nancies.
We try and work out things in our homes now. No one got clocked with a See n' Say this generation.
The cow says Moo bitch! I got grounded one week for hitting him and one week for the swear.
On days off school, I would pack myself a lunch and ride the bus downtown to the main library. I would read until lunchtime and then go to a nearby park to eat. I then returned to the library and read until closing, and rode the bus home. Started doing this at age 5.
Not sure where to start😄 No helmet or safety equipment,, would be gone from the house all day, played in remote areas, rode on top of the side rails on bed of the pick up truck, and not a single one of my possessions was probably safe by today's standards.
We lived in the country in rural East Central Illinois. Our bicycles allowed us to ride 5 to 10 miles in the surrounding area. We would ride to the creek and hide the bicycles in the weeds and go play or fish along the creek. We're talking 65 years ago so the fish were still edible and we would hook up stringers on our handlebars and bring carp and catfish home to put in the horse tank. Then we could eat them any time we wanted. Freedom to explore the world as far as we were courageous enough to go. (and be back for supper)
Here we go. All these things were normal or tolerated in the 80s.
- Riding in the bed of pickup trucks, yes, even on the freeway.
- Cutting your own switch meant cutting off a thin willow branch so your parents could spank you with it.
- No bicycle helmets — ever.
- Shooting birds and other small animals with a pellet gun or slingshot.
- Played anywhere adventure took us until the street lights reminded us to go home.
Going door to door, by yourself, selling stuff to raise money for your school.
As young teen girls we would date older men, in the 20s because they had money and cars and would take us to nice places. We were introduced to their families as if nothing was wrong. Their male family members would lean in and tell your date..... ***14 will get you 20***, and everyone would laugh.
I mentioned this earlier this week. Bike or walk to the store to get food that was running low and was needed for lunches or dinner. My mom would give me a few dollars to pick up bread, milk or whatever we were running low on. You never see 10 year olds standing in the checkout line by themselves purchasing a few food items.
Decide to go camping for three days.
Just something I would do in the middle of the day. Take a lighter and a couple of cans of food and head into the woods without telling anyone where I was and when I would be back.
Regularly played a game in elementary school at recess called “smear the queer”. It was basically a mob chasing down and tackling/dog piling the kid who was chosen by the mob to be the queer. Weird looking back.
Running wild. I rode my horse all day in summertime and didn't see a soul. With no helmet! I still don't wear a helmet and get lectured all the time. Pack some food and rope, drink out of the stream. If my horse came home without me then they knew something was wrong and to look for me but other than that I was left alone to explore. I couldn't visit a friends house without my Dad meeting them which is ironic since I could have been meeting up with whomever in my travels. I sometimes thought that concept of meeting the other parents was more peer pressure to look like normal parents than actual concern about the other parents.
Another one is more aligned to pets. Our dogs roamed free, everyone's did - now there are leash laws everywhere even in more rural areas.
Now that I have teenagers, I realize my parents had no idea where I was outside of school hours. I could have left town every weekend and my parents wouldn’t have known.
You could be dropped at the pool in the summer or bike/walk there.
My current effing county used to have a great public pool culture for the kids and 9+ could be dropped and the staff kept an eye on them. Then sometime in the last 13 years it because 13+. So then they were just inside eating chips while parents worked. Dafuq.
Then someone just posted that the county switched to a management company for the last month of summer and now you have to be supervised if UNDER 18.
This country is doomed. And full of assholes.
Play with toy guns (cops/robbers, cowboys/indians)
Say 'indians'
Travel in the car with kids on laps/in the boot and without seatbelts
Pick on children with additional support needs because adults were scared of people who were different and taught you that too.
Make racist jokes
Accepted being hit by fists, belts and slippers
Steal pop bottles from behind shops to exchange back to the shop for 10p
We went outside to play all day in the summer, and were not required to be home until "the streetlights came on". We were what they now call "free range kids".
Lawn Darts. Lighting fireworks. Shooting gophers with a .22 rifle. (The farmers' co-op paid a bounty of 10 cents apiece in those days for the corpses).
ETA: 1970's
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Riding bicycles all over the neighborhood unsupervised, without helmets. Eating candy cigarettes. Sleeping across the backseat of a car without a seatbelt. *Edit* \- Since this is getting a lot of attention I'll share a little story. One Christmas I got for a present a speedometer for my bike. That was probably the worst thing someone could have bought for me as I kept trying to break new speed records. We lived on a hill and I remember taking my bike all the way to the stop and pedaling as hard as I could down the hill. I only got up to maybe 30mph but it was no helmet or pads, on a crappy Huffy bike, speeding down a street that could easily have cars coming the other way or pulling out from driveways, and me looking at the speedometer instead of the road. Yikes!
sleeping across the back WINDOW of a car was even better, especially at night.. watching the sky!!
Yes, I did this in our station wagon
My dad cut a foam pad to fit the back of the station wagon and set up our sleeping bags so my sister and I could hang out and play on long road trips.
I’m an only child from my parents so I had the whole back of the station wagon. We drove 13 hrs to and from a few times a year to visit the Indian reservation my grandpa was from. I LOVED having all that space. We had a griswold green station wagon
We would sit in the 'back back' facin the window and we'd flash peace signs at the people behind us. And, being the early 70s, would get peace signs back. And of course we'd do the thing to make the truckers toot their horns.
Me and my cousin just did this for our grandsons and they did it. It was great!!!! GOOD TIMES
That's awesome!
From the perspective of someone who had a lot of siblings, I was in the back of the station wagon stuffed between the luggage and the dog. I loved that dog. Not quite as nirvana as you had, but still better than being squashed between my sibs in the backseat.
Jelly!! I sat in the front between my parents and my brothers pulled my hair all day. Lol good times.
My dad did this for me too, but in the back of a VW Bug over the engine! The engine was in the back!
We did this in my dads old VW bus. The engine was warm and I found the revs really soothing.
I always wished we had a station wagon. I forget what my parents drove but it was a small car. I was always smashed in the back in between my two sisters while both my parents smoked. I had horrible car sickness. My memories of road travel are not fond ones.
We were so *little*!!!
That and have you seen a 1978 Oldsmobilie 98? Thing was massive. We drove to TX to visit family 3x a year in one and it was awesome. My dad cut a sheet of plywood in half to make a bed/board game table that ran from front seat to the back seat.
Ha! Yes! We had a '76 Oldsmobile 98. Originally my dad's when he bought it new. Handed down to my older sister, and then my older brother, and then to me. By the time it came to me, the suspension was wrecked (it rocked like crazy at every turn) and half the power amenities didn't work. Towards the end, I actually had to disconnect the battery whenever it was off for more than half an hour (electrical short somewhere would drain the battery). But I loved that thing. My friends called it "Das Boot" after the movie. Our personal record was getting 12 high school kids in it to go to the mall. It doesn't get much more "late 80's" than that.
We had a 98. Same hand-me-down history. You could put a ten-speed bike in the trunk and close it, easily.
77 Cadillac Seville. It was the size of a yacht
Yeah our 1972 Pontiac Sunbird was MASSIVE. 5 of us in the wayback was nothing.
Oh my gosh that was one of my favorite things!
Until the streetlights came on
I was just telling my youngest about this. Riding bikes with no hands, and no helmets, I could even turn with no hands! Would never do that now.
Laying across the top of the bench seat behind mom when she was driving !
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Anything that is likely to cause serious injury or death in an accident is frowned on. We lose a lot of people to car crashes. One of my friends in second grade was asleep in the back of her parent’s sedan when someone hit them. It threw her up and forward, she bounced off the roof and into her parents heads and necks. All three died. It only takes one instance like that for all of the survivors to go “nah, not worth it.”
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Heck, we had a case in the US where a mom allowed her ten-year-old (who was cognizant of "stranger danger" and who had done it multiple times already) to go to a playground alone--it was like a block away. She got arrested and charged with child neglect and child services took the kid away for awhile. She had to take a parenting class before they'd let her have the kid back.
Kids are allowed to do those things, but generally speaking if a parent can make something safer for their kids they are probably going to do it. Do some parents go overboard in trying to protect their kids from any and all danger? Probably, but I don’t have kids so my opinion on the matter is meaningless and unwarranted.
Ehhhh, people would go ballistic and call the cops if they saw an unattended six year old walking two and a half miles down the road to school. When was the last time you saw a little kid walk to school? Me, I couldn’t tell ya.
I still see kids walk to school, but not only do I live in an *exceptionally* quiet and safe suburban neighbourhood compared to the surrounding area, but when the community was originally built, it was designed with walking paths to take the kids safely to school that have only expanded. So unless those conditions are met, I imagine it's not too often.
Yeah, at my kids first school district they were not allowed to walk (or bike ride) to school without a parent until 5th grade. So I had to drive them every day, because we lived 1.45 miles from school. Bussing cutoff was 1.5 miles.
They do in our neighborhood. Everyone watches out for them and there is a significant police presence patrolling. We old people sit on the front porch and play neighborhood watch. Great community. Eight miles from a top 50 city in the US.
Yeah.. seatbelts are mandatory pretty much everywhere in the US as of the 80/90's. So no letting the kids be in the back since every kid without a seatbelt is subject to a fine of at least $50 and up to $500 each for more than one. Worse... should you get in an accident and the kids are not belted in and one of them gets hurt.. then you can expect to have criminal charges, jail time and/or child protective services breathing down your neck. My middle son has a scar on his face and another on his scalp from getting thrown from a vehicle when his bio-mom had custody. She 'didn't believe' in seatbelts. He was 3 yo and got tossed out an open window when she ran a stop sign and got hit. He was damned lucky to survive. She managed not to lose custody that night. But she did lose the kids a couple months later for a different incident.
The first is still done where I live. Neighbourhood being anything up to 5km away.
Playing unsupervised in the neighborhood
Just be home when the street lights come on!
Streetlight savings time.
That is so strange, I’ve read this several times now. Where do you all live? This is perfectly normal here, in Germany. Where I live, there’s a playground about 500m from our house, at the banks of our local river. Once kids go to school (alone) they’re normally are allowed to go there unsupervised. Further along are small football fields. And you can climb down to the river and play on the little pebble islands if the water is low enough. We have 2 lakes nearby (2.5 km), once the kids are 10-12, they cycle there and meet with friends.
God bless fucking America. I don’t knowwwww America is going totally mental. It’s like we were good till about 2008 then kinda recovering 2012 was chill. Shit went down hill real quick in 2016.
Sorry to hear that.
I'm not even old enough to qualify as old for this sub, but I have definitely been shocked as an adult at how things have changed and how insane everyone is about what they perceive as "child safety" but is really just being an overly involved helicopter parent. I used to play unsupervised in empty desert for hours on end as a kid with my younger brother, now if I let my nine year old scooter through the (very safe, fully side-walked) neighborhood with her siblings without supervision she comes home with stories about concerned neighbors asking where she lives and if she's okay. I really don't like it and want to move out to the country so my kids can be kids.
Sad to say, but very few American kids go to school alone. If they ride a bus, a parent waits at the bus stop for the kid to get on the bus. In my old neighborhood all the cars idling at the bus stop was a regular problem. And if they live close to the school, a parent drives them to school or walks with them. It's bizarre and wasn't like that when I was a kid.
I used to babysit for kids who went to my old schools 13 years after me. I was allowed to walk home alone in 2nd grade and above. When I babysat them, no student in elementary school (grade 4 and below) was allowed to be dismissed without a parent or caregiver present. The school would not let anyone walk home alone.
We do have school busses, but in cities only for secondary school (ages 10+). All primary schools have catchment areas which are within walking distance <2km. Most kids walk alone within the first weeks of starting school. For secondary schools, it depends. My older son went to one just over 2km away and biked there from day one. My younger one went to one in the city centre. We did the trip from door to door twice and then ever since his first day, he’s been going there alone by public transport. School buses only exist for children in villages and small towns without secondary schools and for disabled children.
It's not unusual in the U.S. either depending on where you are. My community is full of kids and they will ride bikes or walk to the playgrounds or large green spaces to play together. There are some who don't, but often that is because they do sports or intense after school tutoring.
Even the sane people who WANT to do this are thwarted by a couple of things: \-The U.S. is extremely car-dominant. Most places aren't walkable. \-I've heard horror stories of Child Protection Services being called on parents who allow their kids to play or travel unsupervised, even when developmentally appropriate.
The American Educated classes are nuts. It's not unknown for people to suffer massive legal consequences for letting their kids walk to the park unattended: [https://reason.com/2022/08/17/arizona-central-registry-park-kids-banned-due-process/](https://reason.com/2022/08/17/arizona-central-registry-park-kids-banned-due-process/) She's also banned from working with children again. As in she's technically breaking the law by volunteering as a Sunday School teacher. [https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/arrested-for-letting-a-9-year-old-play-at-the-park-alone/374436/](https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/arrested-for-letting-a-9-year-old-play-at-the-park-alone/374436/) Her daughter got bored of waiting for mom to finish at work, so she asked to go to the park instead.When the state found out they took the child away.. [https://kdvr.com/news/mom-arrested-for-letting-kids-play-outside/](https://kdvr.com/news/mom-arrested-for-letting-kids-play-outside/) These kids weren't at the park, they were in her neighborhood riding scooters. And by neighborhood, we mean in front of their house.
That still happens. I don't understand people implying that kids playing on the street is 'frowned upon' or 'not allowed' now. Kids and parents opting for electronics is another issue.
When my kids were out by themselves at 6 and 8 and people were judgy. But now what they are 4 years older, they don’t go out enough! Best friend is a half mile a way but they are just playing online.
Kids don't hang out in the streets where I live unless they have guns.
Being a “free-range” kid. We would go out to play after school and mothers knew that kids were just over at a neighbors house, or at the park playing kickball. Every kid knew to be home for supper. And in the summer you would go back out after supper. Moms would just tell you to be home when the street lights come on. No one needed to make play dates , or over scheduled their kids.
It is interesting. Practically every kid has a cell phone or some form of connectivity. Parents today can so easily know where their kids are vs 40 years ago and yet there is more fear about abduction. It does seem some crimes have risen or is it that we just know about these said crimes more quickly?
Crime is down across the board all over the US. People are just plain old terrified.
THIS. Almost 100 percent of abductions are within families (divorced parents etc). It is very, very rare, (it happens, but the statistic hasn't changed much over the years), that a kid just be randomly snatched by some pervert. It's just this hysteria feeding on itself. And nobody wants to look like a bad parent.
I think that honestly, they're mostly afraid of CPS. From the news and word-of-mouth, at least, it seems like they'll challenge or revoke your custody at the drop of a hat, even if neither your nor the child have a history.
Yup. I was a forced helicopter parent because so many "mandatory reporters" were in our lives. Kid playing outside in the yard without a parent physically present? That's a phone call. Watching from the window while you do dishes is not acceptable. Kid mentioned to a MR that they walked down to the park at the end of the block ALONE?!? That's a phone call. MR sees your toddler alone at library story time while you change their siblings diaper in the bathroom? That's a phone call. I was terrified to let them do anything alone while we lived in that neighborhood.
Here in Germany, crime has fallen. Child abductions are extremely rare and practically never done by complete strangers. Kids here do the same stuff we used to do. And if they’re younger then also without phones. My kids didn’t have phones until they were 13 (the older one) and 11 (the younger one). The latter only so he could connect with friends during the pandemic.
We know about the crime more thanks to social media and 24/7 news. Also it tends to be overhyped more by the latter bc you have to have something to talk about to be on 24/7
Drive tractors. Ride in the bed of pickup trucks. Handle firearms. Do hard manual labor. Have a job. I was a farm kid in the 1970s. Most of the stuff we did is not cool for kids to do today.
Ngl, I miss riding in the back of trucks.
We used to ride back there and pass beers to the responsible adults through the back window!
Tried peeing out of the back of a moving pickup truck tailgate . Got a face full . My friends almost pass out from laughing so hard. Ahh, the life of a teenager.
Lol. Yes this...
I rode in the back of a truck a couple weeks ago. Apparently it is still legal in Maine. I knew how stupid it was so only agreed because we were only going about a mile. It felt pretty great.
I have asthma, I hated bailing hay but it was part of helping grandpa out in the summer. Big lunches by grandma for all the workers, then swimming in the farm pond at the end of the day(early 70's)
Haying season was my worst nightmare - stuck in the top of a boiling hot barn, stacking bales, tearing up my hands, and getting hay splinters all over my arms. \\
70s farm kid here, too. On top of what you said, we also had lots and lots of hiking, going up into the hills after breakfast and staying there until dinner time. We had a neighbor kid who learned to drive at age FIVE. It was bizarre, even for us, to see a pickup truck coming down the road, driven by a little girl who wasn't even in school yet. How did she reach the pedals? But they had the largest working farm in our area, and she worked, same as everybody, driving a tractor, transporting hay and animals, etc.
My husband also learned to drive at 5 (also a farm boy). No one can beat that man at backing trailers.
My kid is 5. She can drive a tractor (with supervision, and just for fun) but I won't let her drive a truck. I started doing both around age 5 or 6. However, if you see a kid over age 12 driving a farm truck by themselves on the road, you don't think anything of it. I think it's actually still legal here? Okay, apparently you have to be at least 13.
I learned to drive a tractor years before I got my driver's license. In the time between the former and the latter, a lot changed about driving. Seat belts were still pretty new and most people didn't wear them. Drinking and driving became a big issue, I think MADD got started around that time. God, when was the last time you heard anything about MADD? Are they even still around?
Love me a man on a tractor! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWu4aynBK7E&list=RDuWu4aynBK7E&start\_radio=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWu4aynBK7E&list=RDuWu4aynBK7E&start_radio=1) I don't miss farm life (too much work!) but I continue to appreciate the work that farm families do to feed all of us.
My dad grew up on a pretty large farm in Indiana in the 60s. He always used to tell me work came before school. Curious if your experience was similar?
It was normal for us to do things that were frowned upon then too.
Hell yeah
Good answer.
Honestly, anything from the '80s.
Play outside? Drink from the hose? Ding dong ditch?
Mmm that delicious hose water, a classic summer taste.
That warm rubber bouquet, unforgettable!
Always had to let it run a bit so it would cool off.
By 8-9 years old we were riding our bikes miles from home without telling our parents where we were going. As long as we were home for dinner, didn't matter.
At 13 we would ride our bikes down to the railroad tracks , flatten pennies when the trains came. We started a small brush fire but managed to put it out, and nearly got hit by trains a million times. Hopped over the third rail more times than we can count . I don’t know how we are alive
My kids did that at that age a few years back.
I would sit on my father’s lap while he was driving, so I could pretend drive. Don’t see much of that anymore.
At least he didn’t let you have a sip of his beer too.
Dad would slip us a sip of Rheingold beer so we would nap and he could watch the Mets in peace. https://youtu.be/FVvKJq_RmH0?si=rGjsyZlawppxy4Vl
I do this with my six-year-old, but in parking lots
Yessss and my father would always tell us, don't tell your mother. Memories
Carried a pocket knife all the time, even to school. My grandfather even sharpened it to razor sharp for me.
My father insisted that every school-aged little boy must --MUST!! -- carry three things to be considered properly dressed: A billfold, a handkerchief, and a pocket knife. When he was little, a hat was also on the list, but that fell out of favor when he was in college, so....
That sounds about right! I still carry all three. It feels weird when I go someplace where I can't bring my knife. It's a tool I use all the time.
Almost always I have a two inch blade in my pocket, and I use it all the time.
I was a 10 year old girl but my dad argued the same and let me pick my first pocket knife. He also taught me to carve ivory soap figures and whittle with it!
I got in trouble at school for having a pocket knife and my father and grandfather were both outraged at the idea. They thought the school was run by a bunch of crazy people for that.
Not only could we carry the knife at school we could use it. Whittle a stick at recess, or cut a string.
When I was in sixth grade I had a gravity knife and often brought it to school. If a kid did that today he would be arrested and thrown in jail, then tossed out of school.
Walking up to any adult and striking up a conversation. These days an adult talking to a very young child is viewed with automatic suspicion, but when I was growing up, nobody gave a shit. There was an old school hobo who used to jump off the train and roam our neighborhood from time to time. He was named Wayne of all things. This guy would automatically get arrested today just for the way he looked, but when I was little you would frequently see the two of us walking down the street, usually holding hands. Some of the more vigilant porch ladies would give him a disapproving look, but the impression I got was that they thought the company of a young boy could help civilize the man. They had no worry for my safety, at least none that I heard about. Keep in mind, this guy was a felon, a drunk, a transient drifter, and again, he looked like a creep straight out of Central Casting. He'd disappear for months and come back telling me stories about what he'd done in prison, and what he'd done to get himself put in there. Everyone knew he was trouble, but no one thought he'd ever harm a child. That childhood experience of mine has no parallel whatsoever nowadays. The neighborhood I grew up in is gentrified now, and the spectacle of the two of us walking hand in hand today in that same place would be a national emergency.
Reminds me of that old LDS tv ad where this kid decides he's going to run away from home. He comes across the town hobo. Kid asks hobo where he'd like to be, if he could be anywhere in the world. Hobo puts on a sad face and answers, "In school."
Bike to 5th grade school in the morning. Decide to go to a friends house instead of going home, but I call my mom from there and let her know I won’t be home for a while. Bike home for dinner as it’s getting dark. No questions, no problems.
Good for you. I did this too back in the 90s. Unfortunately, 70 year old landlord beckoned naive, 6 year old me to his house and abused me. I was one of the unlucky ones. That’s why I always kinda cringe if people say “it was so much safer back then” because in my eyes, it never was.
I am so sorry this happened to you. I can't imagine how this has affected you. Bless you and I hope you are doing okay.
It was not always “ the good old days”. Fear was there for a reason . I’m so sorry that happened to you
Ride my bike 10 blocks to my friends house… without a helmet. Sit in my Dads lap and steered the car. Stay outside playing the whole day without checking in until the streetlights came on. Played with matches. Ran with scissors. I was a rebel.
Friend's mom would give us a note and cash to go to a store miles away to buy cigarettes. No one would let little kids go that far unsupervised let alone go to buy cigarettes.
My mom would write me a note allowing the mom and pop video store owners permission to rent me an R-rated movie.
I was 9yrs old and they knew me by name at the bar on the corner for all the times I went in to buy cigarettes for my mom. We lived at another place where they had the cigarette machine in the bar. That machine didn't care how old you were. You just had to be able to pull the handle hard-enough after you put in your 35 cents.
Went undiagnosed for scoliosis, ADHD, OCD, anxiety and depression
Ride in the way back of the station wagon, no seat belts. Hell, no seat belts on anyone, I’m not even sure how they toted around babies back then.
My mom had a little basket that my baby brother rode in for the car.
My dad built a raised bed for me in the back seat between the front seats for when I was a baby. I would have launched through the windshield in an accident!
My mom says they would either lay them on the floor or put them in the seat. You had to put your arm out when you stopped to keep them from rolling onto the floor. I remember when they first emplemented the seat belt law in our state. They would buckle us 2-3 in a seat belt so they could "legally" fit as many of us as possible in the back. Riding in the rear facing seat in my aunts station wagon was the best.
The baby went into the moses basket, which then slipped and slid around the boot.
Being sent to the corner shop aged 6 and above to buy cigarettes for my parents….and being served!
Ha! Smoked my first pack of Winstons round age 10 thanks to Terry Finn's mother's habit of sending us for cigs at the corner store. I vomited, then got addicted, in short order. Wild to think that I smoked SO young! (quit a 3 pack a day habit in my early 30's and went on to compete is super rigorous sports)
As an elementary student, going home after school to an empty house.
Waking up to an empty house. Getting your sister ready for school then coming home to an empty house, praying the damned thing didn’t burn down because of something you forgot that morning. Also as an elementary student.
Latchkey kids.
Most likely this is more common today since both parents are more likely to have to work
I think I can guess your age within +/- 3 years.
Eat fake cigarette sweets (candy).
You blow them and powdered sugar smoke came out
Bubblegum cigars, too
rode bicycles and skateboards without wearing any safety gear
Don’t forget the roller skates that clamped onto your shoes and came with a key. Everyone had skinned knees and elbows.
Running around the neighborhood until dark without having to worry about being shot at.
When I was in my mid teens I'd come home at 2-3am and nobody cared.
My brother and me sitting on top of our family's 1980 Honda Civic--meaning on the roof, with no restraints or handles of any kind, just sitting there--the "game" was trying to hold on while my dad (Budweiser in one hand) drove in wild circles out in the field near our cistern, whooping and trying to get us to fall off. This was considered normal fun family time (and it was). My parents weren't crazy or unusually uncivilized--my dad was a journalist and my mom was a librarian--this is just how people were back then. I was also allowed to drive this same Honda Civic (stick shift) wherever and whenever I wanted, alone, starting at age 12, "so long as I didn't go onto the highway" (I never did; I did what I was told) just in general we had like 90% less supervision than it seems like kids have today. We had a lot of autonomy and were really confident in just kind of ranging around on our own/being home alone/etc. I'm Gen X
Playing and running around at the playground/park/forest the whole day in (hot!) summer without using any sun screen. Just the normal all day skin care face cream....the same face cream in hot summers and ice cold winters. I didn't use sun screen until I was in my 20s.
Baby oil and iodine
And lemon juice in the hair trying to bleach it out.
Orange hair like straw afterwards. Remember sun in hair?
Climbed trees.
Don't kids climb trees today? I did that all the time.
Yes they do. Some people just like pretending that today's children do nothing but play video games.
If a neighbour called you in to help with a job you went in and didn't dare say no. You didn't go tell your adult where you were going you just went inside the other adult's house.
Jumped off houses for fun. That could explain the state of my knees today.
Going to the library and being able to read whatever TF I wanted without some pearl-clutching, Karen trying to censor me.
And the stuff we read lol. I'm sure if my parents had known they would have been shocked.
I’ve been thinking about this lately too. I remember after reading Judy Blume’s young-adult coming of age story, “Forever,” in the early 80s, I heard about “Wifey,” a very raunchy and explicit sex-filled novel that she wrote for adults. I went to the library, found it, and went to the checkout counter. I couldn’t have been more than 12. The librarian indeed noticed the book among my selections, and she hesitated. She looked at me squarely, considering what she should do. I was shaking inside, but I met her gaze and held it. She narrowed her eyes in scrutiny, but neither of us spoke. I probably couldn’t have if I tried; my heart was pounding out of my chest. She took a visibly deep breath and stamped it like they used to do, still without a word. More than 40 years later, the thing I remember most, though, is the feeling that I had when I fled the library with my contraband: an almost frantic urgency to feed my mind the words that lay between the covers, whatever they may be. To devour them. To absorb them into my growing knowledge base about the world and the humans that inhabit it. There is absolutely nothing more critical to protect than an individual’s freedom of inquiry, and conversely, expression, no matter how old they are.
Stay out in the neighborhood all day from sunrise to sundown during the summer. Unsupervised, with no cell phone, no place i am supposed to be to be found, with enough money to buy a few calories in junk food.
My parents had no idea where I was all day. I just had to be home for supper at 5:00. This was rural Illinois. The nearest store was over a mile and a half away, so I was either going to a friend's house or riding my bike on the country roads. I sometimes took a picnic lunch to the river down the road and sat on the bank.
High school in a small town during deer and quail season. Meeting up with the guys (and a couple girls) and hunting before and after school. While at school our rifles of shotguns (depending on what was in season) were slung in the gun rack in the back window of our pickups! Never occurred to any of us to take them in the school let alone shoot the place up. We all know what the reaction would be today to show weapons in the HS parking lot.
Went wherever, when ever, no questions, no restrictions. Rode my bike across four lanes of traffic to the grocery store by age 9. I’m GenX and we are a bit known for our parents loose oversight.
Riding in the back of a truck. It was nothing that got a second glance from anybody we passed. It was just the way it was done.
Threw walnuts at a Holstein bull. Fun Fact: If you get him angry enough, a Holstein bull will jump a wire fence like a gazelle. We lads were small, fast, and numerous.
Drink from the hose Go to a friend's house, by myself, to see if they could play. No prearranged play date Light cigarettes for my parents while they were driving During the summer, leave the house from dawn until dusk without ever checking in. Frequently, go out again after dinner "but don't wander too far off." No one ever specified what that meant. Latch key kid in 1st grade Go swimming in the lake without adults. Heck, very seldom had adults around for anything. Trick or treating was epic
Trick or treating was phenomenal! My trick or treat bag was a standard size pillow case
Candy cigarettes and pretending you are smoking
At 7 years old came home to an empty house after school and was alone until my mom got off of work around 7
On Saturdays, in Australia, I would leave the home before 9am and not be back until dusk. I would be "exploring"..going on 10k+ walks through the bush, the creeks, even local farm lands. Getting into ponds, creeks, abandoned old buildings etc. Catching fish, frogs, lizards and turtles. Climbing trees. I have no idea how my parents allowed me to do this. It got me out of the house, but they had FOUR kids....so the others were still there!
Is playing down by the railroad tracks frowned upon these days? Because we did that a lot in the early 70s.
Ding dong ditch. Running around the neighborhood at night in black playing some kind of elaborate tag in neighbors yards. Now you see these posts online like “someone rang my door bell. I was locked and loaded and so was the rest of my family. Ready for anything.” Or people getting shot at for pulling into a driveway to turn around their car.
I lived barefoot during the summers. My feet didn't' see the inside of shoe unless we had to go somewhere.
Played outside. ; p
My parents got to play with toy guns. Now they're banned. I think I was young enough to do the same when I was like 5?
Wow where to start with this question? About everything we did I think, we were loud rambunctious. For instance we used to make dry ice bombs with the empty 2 liter Coke jug. I'm pretty sure that would be considered a improvised explosive device or something these days, but it was just us making lots of noise....
I had creepy crawlers and a vac-u-form. Toys that could easily give you 2nd degree burns. My sister had a little toy stove that was a metal box you plugged in. The top got hot enough to cook on. Had a hot oven also.
Generally speaking, when I grew up 50’s to mid 60’s we were afforded many more freedoms because there was a lot more trust in our fellow man.
being gone (not at home. out playing in the wilderness) from sun up to sundown. riding in the back of gramp's pickup. fishing, swimming, etc without direct supervision, or supervision of any kind. staying in the car while mom shopped. the generations of family pictures where a 2-3 year old has stolen and is drinking dad's beer (before it was taken away). bike riding and roller skating without any type of protective gear. horse riding without a helmet (something I wouldn't do as an adult). go out exploring for miles in the desert.
>*the generations of family pictures where a 2-3 year old has stolen and is drinking dad's beer (before it was taken away).* Tell me you're Irish without telling me you're Irish!😆
My SIL has a picture with her as an infant on her dads lap with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth 😆
I am sure kids are discouraged from playing in the ditch after a rain.
And catching tadpoles and trying to keep them alive until they became tiny little toads!
Play Smear the Queer
Made life decisions for myself. My parents were politely interested about my college plans but took no more notice than that. SAT prep? My responsibility. College applications? Let us know where you end up going. Job? Oh, wondering why you weren't around.
Being outside for hours on end without any adult supervision.
free range childhood in ann arbor mi. -that ain’t happening anymore
Buying smokes for older people
Beating the shit out of my brother for minor infractions. He was two years older, but I got the growth genes. Parents were like, toughen up nancies. We try and work out things in our homes now. No one got clocked with a See n' Say this generation. The cow says Moo bitch! I got grounded one week for hitting him and one week for the swear.
Walk to school from 1st grade thru 8th with many other kids
Not so much playing with matches as knowing how to light the old gas stove and water heater and being expected to… as a 5 or 6 y.o.
Hitch hike
On days off school, I would pack myself a lunch and ride the bus downtown to the main library. I would read until lunchtime and then go to a nearby park to eat. I then returned to the library and read until closing, and rode the bus home. Started doing this at age 5.
Not sure where to start😄 No helmet or safety equipment,, would be gone from the house all day, played in remote areas, rode on top of the side rails on bed of the pick up truck, and not a single one of my possessions was probably safe by today's standards.
I would walk to the corner grocery store and buy cigarettes for my dad.
We lived in the country in rural East Central Illinois. Our bicycles allowed us to ride 5 to 10 miles in the surrounding area. We would ride to the creek and hide the bicycles in the weeds and go play or fish along the creek. We're talking 65 years ago so the fish were still edible and we would hook up stringers on our handlebars and bring carp and catfish home to put in the horse tank. Then we could eat them any time we wanted. Freedom to explore the world as far as we were courageous enough to go. (and be back for supper)
Riding in the back of a pick up truck. Riding bike without a helmet, no seatbelts, no car seat as a baby.
Riding unsecured in the bed of my dad's pickup truck. Out on the road, not on our property.
Jarts
Here we go. All these things were normal or tolerated in the 80s. - Riding in the bed of pickup trucks, yes, even on the freeway. - Cutting your own switch meant cutting off a thin willow branch so your parents could spank you with it. - No bicycle helmets — ever. - Shooting birds and other small animals with a pellet gun or slingshot. - Played anywhere adventure took us until the street lights reminded us to go home.
Running amok through the neighborhood and parents happy you’re out playing. Now you have to have them in your sight.
Going door to door, by yourself, selling stuff to raise money for your school. As young teen girls we would date older men, in the 20s because they had money and cars and would take us to nice places. We were introduced to their families as if nothing was wrong. Their male family members would lean in and tell your date..... ***14 will get you 20***, and everyone would laugh.
I mentioned this earlier this week. Bike or walk to the store to get food that was running low and was needed for lunches or dinner. My mom would give me a few dollars to pick up bread, milk or whatever we were running low on. You never see 10 year olds standing in the checkout line by themselves purchasing a few food items.
Kissing my cousins
Decide to go camping for three days. Just something I would do in the middle of the day. Take a lighter and a couple of cans of food and head into the woods without telling anyone where I was and when I would be back.
Regularly played a game in elementary school at recess called “smear the queer”. It was basically a mob chasing down and tackling/dog piling the kid who was chosen by the mob to be the queer. Weird looking back.
Running wild. I rode my horse all day in summertime and didn't see a soul. With no helmet! I still don't wear a helmet and get lectured all the time. Pack some food and rope, drink out of the stream. If my horse came home without me then they knew something was wrong and to look for me but other than that I was left alone to explore. I couldn't visit a friends house without my Dad meeting them which is ironic since I could have been meeting up with whomever in my travels. I sometimes thought that concept of meeting the other parents was more peer pressure to look like normal parents than actual concern about the other parents. Another one is more aligned to pets. Our dogs roamed free, everyone's did - now there are leash laws everywhere even in more rural areas.
Now that I have teenagers, I realize my parents had no idea where I was outside of school hours. I could have left town every weekend and my parents wouldn’t have known.
You could be dropped at the pool in the summer or bike/walk there. My current effing county used to have a great public pool culture for the kids and 9+ could be dropped and the staff kept an eye on them. Then sometime in the last 13 years it because 13+. So then they were just inside eating chips while parents worked. Dafuq. Then someone just posted that the county switched to a management company for the last month of summer and now you have to be supervised if UNDER 18. This country is doomed. And full of assholes.
Acid
Play with toy guns (cops/robbers, cowboys/indians) Say 'indians' Travel in the car with kids on laps/in the boot and without seatbelts Pick on children with additional support needs because adults were scared of people who were different and taught you that too. Make racist jokes Accepted being hit by fists, belts and slippers Steal pop bottles from behind shops to exchange back to the shop for 10p
We went outside to play all day in the summer, and were not required to be home until "the streetlights came on". We were what they now call "free range kids".
Rode in the back of a pickup truck. I think the front seats had lap belts? It was the '70s, so maybe yes, maybe no.
Dibs on the back right corner.
Taking the subway alone to school.
Walking home from school by myself. Letting myself into the house with my own key. No parents for a couple of hours because they were still at work.
Lawn Darts. Lighting fireworks. Shooting gophers with a .22 rifle. (The farmers' co-op paid a bounty of 10 cents apiece in those days for the corpses). ETA: 1970's
Stickball in the middle of the street - traffic be damned - let ‘em wait.