Windows 7: You kids today have it made...

It looks like you guys had very much the same as what we did when I was a wee lad

We only got TV in our country when I was around 18 and then my parents never had one so it would be off to my mates house to watch TV there. It was like a movie house with all his mates sitting on the floor watching TV

As someone who grew up with three channels of black and white television, vacuum tubes, 78rpm records, and a wood-fired potbelly stove in the kitchen, that post was a blast from the past. Well done.

Great post, a fun read.

In our house, we were always the ones who were later than my friends when it came to certain things, like VCRs, microwaves, cable TV, etc. Although we bought our first computer in 1983, thanks to my brother, who adopted technology faster than my dad. Now we have all those things, and I'm grateful for them.

Of course, I've always wondered if there's some definitive, authoritative study that has been done on whether we live in more or less dangerous times compared to several decades ago. "Leave it to Beaver" makes you think that life was perfect back then, with the man going to work, the woman staying at home, and with the exception of some occasional minor mistakes that they make (that can be resolved simply through reason alone or mild punishment), children who behave really well, don't do drugs and don't bring guns to school.

Does anyone know if we are better or worse off in that respect?

I think this would be a matter of opinion but personalty I think the kids were safer than they are in today's times

We certainly had more freedom - that perhaps was why I fractured my knee at a local park when aged 8 (no supervision) - children's play areas and devices were a little more unsafe then! We had a valve radio in which a mouse had made a nice nest. Also I can remember trams and trolley buses (overhead electrics), which are still used elsewhere it seems but mostly gone from the UK until the recent revivals.

You say that the past was harder and we have it all better off, but my dad is 49, and when he tells me about what he used to do when he was a kid and started to go drinking etc. The 70's and the 80's sounded so much better than they are now!

You got so much more freedom, he could finish school with a few half-decent O levels and walk into a comfortable job, yes I know there was still unemployment etc. Now, you need 20 odd qualifications just to get a half-decent job :O

You could walk into a pub at 16, and have a drink without no-one noticing or really caring, that was my dad's and his mates free time when you finished school :P

Harry - 17

Thanks for bringing back some memories, Bill (A Guy.) Hope you don't mind if I add a site that you (and others) might find interesting.

1950's 1960's 1970's Classic TV, Sci-fi Drive-in movie theater, 60's vintage Cartoons,classic Commercials. Time Warp Memories

Not that it was necessarily "safer" --- but I think most of us were much less supervised in the old, old days. I grew up in Manhattan, and even as a small girl of 7 or 8, was out on the streets playing with the neighborhood kids every day all day, when I wasn't in school or doing chores at home. By age 10 I was traveling by myself, on the bus or the subway (or walking) all around NYC, and my parents didn't think anything of it. Even the stores didn't pay much attention. My mom used to send me to the store to buy her cigarettes --- no such thing as asking for ID in those days.

And on summer evenings all around the US, you could go down to the beach, gather up some wood and light a bonfire -- roast marshmallows, hot dogs, etc. Is it even legal to do that nowadays?

Well I would love to be able to do the 70's and 80's all over again as I had a ball

My growing up was in the late 40's and 50's, the 60's was no good as I was married with kids then. But like others we had freedom to play without fear of being taken and of course over here there was never any fear of guns, those were something that only the soldiers had.

At school you had respect for teachers and did as you were told the same when playing out you knew that if you did wrong the local bobby, (policeman) could chastise you and if you went home to complain to your parents you'd get the same, you couldn't be innocent if the bobby told you off.