You kids today have it made...

When I was a kid, we went out to play in the morning, and were gone all day. We'd go home when the street lights came on, or we heard our Moms yelling for us. If we had a football, we were all set. Baseball was harder, needed equipment and enough people. But we played with sticks and clothespins and rubber bands.

I'm sure it happened, but I can not remember anyone I know who only had one parent, or who were divorced.

There was the Vietnam war and the campus protests/riots on the news at night, but the worse I can remember is we couldn't go trick or treating one Halloween because the Zodiac killer was out and about somewhere.

We'd collect bottles and cash them in and get some candy. We'd stand on 2 sides of a street with a short piece of rope, and pull on them like we had a rope strung across the road when a car would come.

Big fights were on TV. Ali/Frazier, etc.

We'd go to the movies, and they'd show at least 3 movies, and always some Road Runner or Bugs Bunny cartoons. We'd go to the Ben Franklins before and buy Twizzle sticks, and candy necklaces and Milk Duds.

It does seem like simpler times. Were we safer, or were the bad things just less reported? We cartainly didn't have the media like it is now.

I grew up on the San Francisco Bay Area peninsula (still live there now), and there were hippies in the Haight Ashbury, protests in Beserkly (Berkley).

Drive in theaters, Roller rinks, miniature golf, Cruising, Playland at the Beach.

Looking back, we had it good, and we had fun. Again, better? I don't know, but sure seems so to me. A Guy

You mention playing with sticks Bill, we did that but we put them in the drains that ran in the gutters to use them as cricket stumps. Our street was cobbled and we'd dig out a hole inbetween a couple so we could play marbles. At the top of the street there was a church with trees in the grounds and come Autumn the leaves would fall on the pavement in the street and we put them in lines as if making sections of a house with the different rooms.

We'd go to the cinema on a Saturday morning for the matinée, have one film and trailers of others plus cartoons and quite often get an orange and apple when we went in.

On bonfire night there was always a big fire in the street and we'd bring our own potatoes to stick in the bottom of the fire to cook, someone would be in charge of the fireworks but we'd usually have sparklers of our own.

We weren't ruled by possessions back then so if someone had something we didn't it was no big deal they'd probably share with us anyway. We had respect for our parents and teachers so when you were told to do something you did it.

Would I want that time back, in some ways yes as things were simpler but in others no but one things for sure I don't look forward to whats ahead and feel sorry for the youth of today and wonder what they have to look forward to.

I think we all look back at our childhood years and perceive that we were safer, or that times were better, but I believe it's because, as a child, we were unaware of the dangers out there and we were totally care free. We didn't need to worry about the mortgage payment, the electric bill , car payment, etc... nor did we need to worry about the welfare of our family. As an adult, we have a relatively much larger burden to bare than we ever did as a child. I think that, whether we realize it or not, that's the aspect of our childhood we miss the most.

I don't know for me this side I know it was much safer back then. These days there are public places that you just don't go to alone even as an adult let alone as a child. Then this is a product of a changing Africa I suppose

strollin said:

I think we all look back at our childhood years and perceive that we were safer, or that times were better, but I believe it's because, as a child, we were unaware of the dangers out there and we were totally care free. We didn't need to worry about the mortgage payment, the electric bill , car payment, etc... nor did we need to worry about the welfare of our family. As an adult, we have a relatively much larger burden to bare than we ever did as a child. I think that, whether we realize it or not, that's the aspect of our childhood we miss the most.

Well at least my parents didn't have to worry about the mortgage or car payments, they didn't have either, they did have to make sure they had enough hay and corn for the horse though.

Yes, the eighties were a simpler time. A six-sided multi-colored cube that you could rotate provided hours of entertainment, and text-oriented games on a green monitor on my Apple //e made me happy. :)

Hmm. I grew up during Segragation and right after WW2. Lots of prejudices and hatefulness.

But I also remember penny candy. 10 cent comic books. a half-pound burger costing 25 cents. Two movie features, and a cartoon, for 65 cents at the local movie theater.

I did like the comics back then. Some scans from my collection....

I remember penny candy and 10 cent comic books and I also remember making $1.35/hour at my first job.

When my daughter got her first job making $8.50/hr, I mentioned to her that I made $1.35 at my first job. She laughed and teased me saying, "Ha-ha, I make more than you did at your first job." I then asked her if she was sure about that, since gas was 27 cents a gallon back then meaning I could buy 5 gallons of gas with 1 hour's wage. With gas costing over $4 a gal now, she could buy only 2 gals. I also pointed out that going to the movies cost 50 cents back then and we got to see 2 movies and a cartoon while a movie today costs $9.50 and you only see a single movie. Her hourly wage wasn't even enough for her to enter the theater let alone buy any refreshments while my hourly wage got me into the theater with enough money left over to buy a soda or popcorn. She wasn't laughing anymore.

The good thing about the good old days was that you could actually live on the minimum wage, not so nowadays (at least here in the US).