Brit Reacts to 1980s Things That Kids No Longer Do In America!

[@L3WGReacts]

hopefully you enjoyed this! I also have a patreon if you'd like to support me making these videos: www.patreon.com/L3WG ❤

[@doratiscareno5856]

The kids🇺🇸 NOWADAYS HAVE IT SO EASY😡🤬 I HATE MATH... We were Not Allowed to use a CALCULATOR at any time PERIOD WE HAD TO GO TO THE LIBRARY ALL THE TIME... TO FIND OUT ANYTHING WE NEEDED TO KNOW WHEN WRITING A PAPER TO TURN IN... WE DIDNT HAVE THE LUXURY OF A COMPUTER AND WE HAD WALK TO THE LIBRARY'S WHICH WAS NOT CLOSE TO HOME IF I HAD A COMPUTER... I WOULD HAVE BEEN AN "A" STUDENT😊 IN EVERY SINGLE SUBJECT

[@AB-bc9tf]

5:50 man he mentioned the playgrounds but skipped right over monkey bars and that other bar that I would go swinging around by one leg and sometimes two practicing the perfect dismount so I could go flying off and land on both feet.

[@aaronward5612]

My parents had a waterbed... It was not comfortable to me. They seemed to like it though, until the night it sprung a leak. Lol it was a site watching them run a water hose from the bed to the bathroom trying to drain the water below the leak. Hundreds of gallons part of which on the floor. Got to love the 80s lol

[@Sunny-jz3dy]

My mother refused to buy the sugar cereals! so we had things like cheerios or corn flakes! Lol.

[@aaronward5612]

@@Sunny-jz3dy I always added sugar to my cornflakes. Didn't like the Cheerios but mom loves them still.

[@paulinesoares3594]

High school kids had gun racks in their trucks with loaded guns on them. If you missed school the first day of deer season, the teachers excused you. We had smoking sections at school. Every kid from elementary school up had a pocket knife

[@mitchellragle6415]

And a lighter from 10 years old

[@raine6665]

It was normal for some kids to miss a week during hunting season here,,still is we take our grandson hunting every year & his school always knows he won't be in school for a week in October. I remember hanging out in smokers alley in high-school,our cars had ash trays in them & our a/c in our cars were rolling the windows down with a handle not a button 😂 those were the days 😊

[@MrScottsearles]

I could smoke and drink, but no gun or knife.

[@raine6665]

We all carried knives at school but not guns,,until high school then during hunting season there was always a bunch of pickups with guns in their gun racks,,sometimes there was even a deer or antelope maybe an elk or moose in a truck or more,,depepending on which hunting season it was. Boy times have changed. @MrScottsearles

[@clairewyndham1971]

I grew up in Upper Michigan. All the schools used to be closed opening day that way the young people could hunt as well as the teachers.

[@jack-of-all-trades1234]

People who grew up with 80s music know the difference.😊

[@garycamara9955]

People thst grew up with 50s 60s and 70s music know the difference. The first rock song, Rock around the Clock, Bill Hailey and the Comets.

[@donaldekstrand8713]

Waterbeds are like sleeping on a cold or warm cloud depending on your temperature you dial in. My grandfather that’s 101 still has one.

[@gaylecoleman8567]

Unless you filled it too much , it was hard as a rock and you would roll off the bed .

[@gaylecoleman8567]

I still remember getting 7 kids in a the cab of an Chevy El Camino pick up .

[@PaulRoseyplumb]

Ohh and take the sheets off and baby oil with your girl. Fun fun

[@leannkelley3367]

I wish I stilhad a waterbed😢

[@DanaFoussat-jb3io]

Water beds were great to sleep on if they were warm enough. Having sec on one could be a bit of a chore though. Lol

[@LoriLogic]

Born in 60. Yes to waterbeds. They rocked. Yes to running wild in the streets, corn fields, creeks and anywhere we wanted with our friends. Many neighbors had different sounding bells that they would ring at dinner time and we knew our own bells. Yes to dangerous playgrounds, climbing high as we wanted in trees all unattended by adults! Hockey on Frozen ponds, football, basketball, swimming pools, trampolines and we moved from house to house to accommodate the activity. Phone cords that would stretch through the whole house! They were innocent times. And no one walked us around on Halloween either, nor was it from 5-7 pm. It started at 5:00 and ended whenever we came home. Those were the days my friend. Those were the days.

[@jedidar]

I miss my waterbed

[@kimmalone2302]

You said it all! Born in 60s...at 5 yrs old my mom never knew where i was..I rode my bike 2 miles to downtown to go to library..by myself..stopped at court house to talk to the old men playing checkers out front..those were the days!

[@susanb4213]

I remember one Halloween when I was a cheerleader and had to cheer at a game when I normally would have been out getting candy with my siblings or friends. I didn't get home until around 8 pm, and I remember going trick or treating at 8 at night BY MYSELF and my parents were completely ok with it. I would NEVER have allowed my 10 year old daughter to do that!!!!!! Crazy times.

[@veronica978]

I was born in 78. I still miss my waterbed.

[@IReallyLikeLIghts]

@@jedidar same

[@billy9144]

I was a kid in the 80s, and that is absolutely true. We just went out on our own and played around the neighborhood. My mom had a dinner bell that she had near the back door and rang it when dinner was ready so all the kids knew to come back home. We had no supervision at all back then, just be home by dark!

[@thseed7]

My parents had a water bed that they hated because the whole mattress moves if either person shifted. After a few years, they gave it to me. I loved it because I'm a hot sleeper and the water bed kept you cooler. They're hard to get out of and you have to be careful because of the potential for a leak, but I wish I had one again as I type this. We used to bike and run around in the neighborhood for hours every day before video games got really popular in the mid 90's. Really was fun. I feel bad for kids nowadays.

[@cojones8518]

5:19 THE WHEEL OF PAIN! We use to load up that thing with as many kids that could fit and spin it as fast as it would go. Kids flying everywhere.

[@mycroft16]

Got the wind knocked out of me hard more times than I can count on those things. Cant breath for a minute, get up and jump right back on for another round of pain. lol. Hot metal, jagged gravel on the ground, concrete edges to the playground.

[@cojones8518]

@@mycroft16 Ours had grass, for about a week, then bare earth, then deep ruts with jagged rocks poking out. It was like that at the slides, the swings, and the seesaws too.

[@timduvall8482]

Our playground was all asphalt so when we flew off the death wheel there was always a bleeder.

[@keithhollo1753]

I was at a park in Montana this summer…there were Native American families celebrating a birthday. That’s exactly what they were doing. Loaded merry go round with a kid flying off every minute or two. There was a little girl that flew off and hit incredibly hard “Didn’t cry..tough little girl” Great memories!

[@davidhensley76]

I got too dizzy to ride on it so I was always the pusher.

[@waltermaples3998]

The 80's was the Greatest Decade ever. I wish I could go back 😊❤❤❤👍

[@joelamaro4525]

As someone who is 50 I have to disagree. So much of the music was so awful. Lol

[@GrandPitoVic]

I know right. Just the music!!!

[@mimiv3088]

Unless you grew up in the 1960's and 1970's.😁 Those were the best decade ever.

[@waltermaples3998]

@@GrandPitoVic 😉🎶👍❤️❤️❤️. Right.

[@Americansareretarded]

You only remember it fondly because it was before you had responsibility 😂

[@aleshawilson1041]

Born in 1980 and loved every moment of my childhood!!!! ❤❤❤❤❤ My aunt had a waterbed and it was so much fun rolling around on it!

[@brynejordan2877]

I was born in the late 70’s, raised in the 80’s, hazed in the 90’s and dazed in the 00’s. That’s why I’m unfazed in the 20’s. When I was young we would tell our parents where we were going but that was just the initial place. We literally would ride our bikes out the main road for miles. There weren’t any street lights where I grew up, but if you weren’t home within 30-40 mins after dark… the door was locked. Not gonna lie, I’ve spent many a summer night out on the back porch in a chair. Playing in the creek and catching crayfish (known as crawdads around here) Drinking from the water hose. BB gun battles with older brothers and fireworks shot without a bit of supervision. Saying Sir or Ma’am to all adults. An actual conversation around the dinner table. And I would not go back and change a single thing. Rub some dirt on it and walk it off type upbringing at its finest.

[@cheryllunn2827]

I think your my son or daughter ! Lol! they have the exact same story! 😂

[@jeremydickinson9650]

I like that unfazed in the 20s deal. It was the same for me. I remember bb gun battles and smear the queer and riding in my dad's car where you could look down and see the road. Hell my brother and I had a 67 jeep we were allowed to drive all over with no tags or anything at like 13 or 14. I lm 46 now and look at the kids of America and just shake my head. They are so entitled and fragile it's sickening.

[@jeremydickinson9650]

Where did you grow up? South Jersey for me

[@brynejordan2877]

West Virginia. We would also occasionally drive around at like 14 or so. If the county cops saw you, all they’d say was go home before your parents find out. They’d then follow us out the road until we would pull into the driveway. One of my ex girlfriend’s daughters is about 29-30 and still doesn’t know how to drive. She attempted to take her learners permit test, failed and never tried again. I pity her husband now.

[@jeremydickinson9650]

@@brynejordan2877 lol

[@linkfromhyrule5504]

I was a 70s kid and an 80s teen. The 70s and 80s were the best decades for me. We had the best music, the best TV shows, and the best movies.

[@zengirl7510]

Same! I loved my waterbed, coming home when the street lights started coming on and family game nights. They were amazing times!

[@RobertBreedon-c3b]

@@zengirl7510Yeah watching Omaha's Wild Kingdom then The Wonderful World Of Disney then bath time and off to bed back in the '70s on Sunday Nights as kids Friday nights we would play board games with our siblings and parents it was also Pizza night every Friday only had fast food on either Friday or Saturday night not every night like today how we survived is amazing. Sunday nights were big family dinner time my Grandparents would come over or we go their house such different times.

[@santosmadrigal3702]

I was a teenager in the 80's . I saw it happen . The cellphone and the internet ruined it for the youth of today . They have no concept of life without a cellphone . Let alone Google . The learning part is a thing of the past .

[@ihnworks]

only thing i disagree with is movies which i believe ended in 2004 and the switch to 100% digital.

[@grampabuckshot402]

same born 1970. We lived in the best of times.

[@LVADnotVLAD81517]

A waterbed was the 1st thing we bought after getting married! We loved it! It wasn't a free floating one like in the picture, it had some baffles (chambers or layers that control the flow and motion of the water) that kept it more steady. Our house was old and had high ceilings & lousy heating so it was the best thing in the winter. Turn it up high, put on your flannel pj's, hop into a warm, cozy bed--heavenly! It was also good in the summer, you could turn it down and have a cool bed. We actually still have a water bed. It's mostly baffles and foam, and it's like sleeping on a cloud. An uncle had one of those free form ones and in my teens Mom & I did some housesitting for him--it was the only bed and we shared it. Every time one of us moved the other one would get lifted by a wave! Needless to say, we did not sleep well!

[@hippielady123]

I was born in 1960, as kids we were told to go outside and play, and yes be home before the street lights came on! Also when in the he home you had to play in your room, not all over the house. You didnt dare interrupt adults wthout a good reason. Everyone ate at the table together and you had to eat what mom cooked or go hungry, non of this everyone gets to eat whst they want, but meals were cooked properly, served hot and had about 4 to 5 items. Manners were a big thing, no talking back to any adult. I rode in the bed of my dads Ford truck, or stuffed into a station wagon on the way to church with friends and no seat belts. Playgrounds were so fun and a lot of broken bones, i was lucky i was a great climber, so no broken bones. Kids back then were strong and agile. You were allowed to wander the neighborhood but knew of you did anything wrong any adult could scold you and call your parents. Yes i wrapped my body in long phone cords but not my face lol. There were school dances in 6th grade, parents dropped you off and picked you back up. Back in my day there was only the clock on the wall. If you had a report to do, you had to go to a library. Yes waterbeds were comphy. There were no peanut allergies back then. Pay phone were a dime in my time.

[@maryannashenfelder5513]

Great comment!! Spot on.

[@susanb4213]

I remember almost everyone was thin. The rare fat kid was bullied-it was a condition I did not understand and I felt so awful for them. Remember Encyclopedia Britannica? Used those for all of my reports. Parents weren't in our business constantly like most of us were with our own kids. My generation missed out on having to go to war. Living out our youth in peace time was a luxury we didn't fully appreciate at the time.

[@yourhandlehere1]

We were playing kickball when I saw my first broken arm. I was about 4. Big Eddy was about to kick the hell out of it, rolled his foot over the top of the ball instead of kicking it, flew up in the air straight out level like Charlie Brown and stuck his arm down to catch himself. He jumped up, held up his arm with two elbows, it flopped down, he made a noise and ran inside. Seconds later his mom is dragging him by his good arm to the car.

[@kathleenmcleod2023]

It was hell on Earth! We loved it! ❤ (Sister Act ❤)

[@LVADnotVLAD81517]

@@susanb4213 Oh how I wanted an Encyclopedia Britannica set!!

[@brucew7062]

Born in 67, lived through the 70s and 80s childhood, and still alive to talk about it.

[@bigshagg3815]

It's like watching a video clip of my childhood! My waterbed was great, but don't let the heater go out because it gets really cold real fast! 😄

[@ManuelRodriguez-xv8gy]

I was a 70's kid growing up and remember Post Cereal had 45 record cut out that really played

[@Tam_Eiki]

I remember the 45's that you cut out from the backs of cereal boxes. I had songs from Bobby Sherman and the Partridge Family. Good times. :)

[@ManuelRodriguez-xv8gy]

@tameiki4444 Last time I went on Amazon I seen the on sale.

[@Tam_Eiki]

@@ManuelRodriguez-xv8gyThanks! I'll go check them out.

[@helenthompson1353]

Saw one from the Monkees

[@LeroyVW087]

lol yep I remember them

[@sunsfever83]

Riding in the back of pickups, waterbeds, staying out all day, peanut butter in schools, remembering phone numbers, yeah it all brings back a lot of memories. I remember my first computer, the Commodore 64. Learned how to type on it. But that was more for the rainy days. Definitely a different time.

[@desertfoxaz97]

I was 1 of 2 boys in my school that took typing because all the girls where in that class. I also took home economics and there was like 4 boys to 175 girls. Yeah... lots of dates for doing that.

[@Slartybartfast465]

There is still a phone number in service that you can call that will tell you what time it is.

[@sunsfever83]

@@Slartybartfast465 Time and weather. Lol

[@johndurrett3573]

Because we didnt have cell phones, I got to where I would answer the phone with the persons name - Hi "XXX" and they would freak out - how did you know it was me calling? Because I knew the behavior of friends and family and the most likely time they would call. What I didnt see mentioned is that long distance cost a lost of money...so most calls after 9pm where family calling when the rates were cheaper!

[@j348011]

Remember the lemonade game on the Commodore 64.

[@EricaGamet]

This is my childhood and early teens right here! We rode in the back of our old station wagon from New Hampshire to Disney in Florida (about 1400 miles!)... just pressed up against the back window... making signs that said, "Help! These aren't our parents!!" Haha! Also, when calling collect and you had to give your name (so the auto-operator would say, "A collect call from ______, do you accept the charges?")... we'd say "I'm done at the mall" so we didn't have to pay.

[@jswhosoever4533]

I was born in 1974 so I turned 6 in 1980. I was probably outside every single day of the entire decade, covered in dirt, sweat, bumps, bruises and scrapes. Yes, we made ashtrays😂 and we bought the cigarettes at the corner store for our parents. Friday nights were awesome because we stayed up all night and slept after the Saturday morning cartoons. We didn't eat sugar cereal...we were poor so we had oatmeal and corn flakes. We rode bikes, played kick ball, climbed trees, make ramps for jumping, roller skating on a freshly paved side street, played tennis in the parking lot across the street, football in the empty lot on the backside of the block,. I didn't have any playgrounds in my neighborhood...we actually climbed on rooftops in Old Town Saginaw Michigan....there was a huge cathedral on Jefferson street with low eves so it was like a giant jungle gym. When I was 8, I rode in the spare tire in the back of the truck with my oldest brothers and cousins all the way to Georgia to see my oldest brother graduate from jump school...Army😊 the younger siblings were in the front with Mom (there were 10 of us kids that were alive at that time) plus we took 5 cousins too.

[@MrScottsearles]

You were buying cigs at 6 years old? Did you have a note too?

[@yourhandlehere1]

@@MrScottsearles $1.25 for 3 packs in the 60's, "They're for my daddy" was all you needed.

[@juliearmfield2634]

Oh we spent a lot of time out on my grandparents Farm but we still had to stay outside and if we wanted a snack we just go down to the garden and get a fresh vegetable out of it. We would take it to the garden hose clean it all off and we had our snack

[@jswhosoever4533]

@@juliearmfield2634 beautiful! My gramps on my mom's side had a farm too but he was a scary old grumpy man who never cared about us. We weren't allowed in his house when my mom would visit. We weren't allowed in his garden, nor his apple trees, nor his berry bushes. We couldn't "mess with" the animals either, so we ended up walking down the dirt road to the creek where we found crayfish in the mud to "battle" or splashed around in the "swimming spot" where the creek got deep...probably about 5-6 feet😂

[@joesisco8145]

Yeah we bought cigs for our parents too, I believe I was 8 or 9, I was born in 72, a few years later we had to bring a written note from our parents to buy them. There was 3 of us I was the middle child, I use to sneak out about 3am to go fishing down at the river about a quarter mile walk before school. I didn't show up to school one morning and the principal found me down at the river and took me home and my mom was pissed lol

[@DomDownTV]

I'm an 80s baby/90s kid and we use to ride in the back of pickup trucks...even sit on the hump over the tire. It was so fun 😆

[@naomib2334]

Exactly

[@gasNmudtv]

Same. Such fun times.

[@IfYouCanKeepIt1776]

I loved being a kid. The roller-skating rink was the place to be from age 10 to 15 then after that we had keg parties, if we got busted, the cops didn't ruin your life by putting you in the criminal justice system, they would just take the booze. But most of the time we had a 4 wheel drive with the keg in the back so it could make a getaway and we would move the party to a preselected place. SNL was still funny. As a teenager, no matter where we were on a Saturday night, we would go to the nearest place we could to watch SNL." Oh no, it's Mr. Bill! " My first concert Loverboy opened for Journey. Saw all the good bands.

[@danielmayer6956]

I was born in 77... i remeber ALL of this... from calculator watches to printer paper with the holes on each side, and yes WATERBEDS WERE SO COMFY

[@jlkkauffman7942]

I was born in 88 and I remember, and have used and done all of this.

[@christopherbates8769]

Born at the end of 77, eighties was awesome and I remember all of this and more

[@Send4Rich]

I was born in 1980. I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California. My friends and I were lucky enough to live within a few miles of a creek that was full of crawfish for us to catch. We rode our BMX bikes to school everyday, rain or shine. We knew of every fruit tree that offered a quick meal in our town. When I was 12 years old I got my Ham Radio license and had access to a local repeater with a phone patch so I could call out pre cell phone if there was an emergency. I feel sorry for the sheltered kids of today.

[@AshleySpeaks4U]

Yup! The rubber for Swatches were called Swatchguards. To protect the plastic face. He forgot to mention that the rails along the metal slides were wood, so your butt fried AND you got slivers! 😂 I used my mom's typewriter-for HOURS! WATER BEDS ARE AWESOME!!!!❤❤❤❤

[@karenthompson8038]

The word you were looking for that you put the paper in with 2-3 holes on the left side is a BINDER! Just didn’t want you to go crazy thinking about that

[@sullivanmaxwell6764]

Do they use the same word for it in the UK? In US they're 3-ring binders, cuz 3 holes 3 loops in binder book. Are UK same style?

[@TruthHurts2u]

When I was a kid we weren't allowed in the house during the day. After we woke up and had breakfast it was straight outside until lunch time. If we missed the call for lunch you were SOL until it was time to come inside and get washed up for dinner. My favorite was thing was going to the drive in movie theater. We would fill the back of the truck full of blankets and pillows and all the kids would pile in. We'd drive right down the freeway with a load of kids in the back. Then half of us kids would have to hide when we got there to get a cheaper price.

[@jonathanshoop8554]

Born in 81' here and growing up in those days was THE BEST 👌

[@chrisostling805]

Born 61', yes, I had a waterbed in the 80's. You should have seen the stuff we did growing up in the 60's and 70's. I started waterskiing at age 5, riding motorcycles at age 10, and had my own small boat, had my own keys to my parent's boat at age 12, and was running it to my grandparent's house 50 miles away alone, had my first truck at age 16 and, first Muscle car at 17.

[@j348011]

I use to just take the car. I think I started doing it when I was like 13. I didn't have a drivers license, but I knew how to drive. I was an adult at seven and even used to travel to New York City by myself because I was a professional dancer and go there to take classes. I would stay with my aunt who is a big hippie, and she let me just do whatever I needed to do when I was 11 years old. I do have to say that anyone that's doing anything, professional, you start very young, so you are in the adult World very young. Nowadays, I would say, the parents are more involved then they were in the 70's and 80's and they someone have to be because of the crazies out there. Another thing that I haven't seen anybody talk about is that a lot of us were trained in martial arts when we were kids. I got my brown belt when I was like seven or eight years old. That's only one step away from a black belt. So I have to say that my parents didn't send me out there being able to defend myself. And the funny thing is you never forget the training. I've had to use it in the last few years. Add some men that don't want to keep their hands to themselves! And GUESS WHAT??? THEY FOUND OUT!!! That's how I know you don't forget your training. Punched this guy Off his feet backwards clear across the bar!!! He thought it would be a good idea to pull my hair as I walked by.🤣🤣🤣 Still to this day, the bartender said it's his favorite story to tell. He witnessed it all.🤣🤣 Don't mess with the Gen X!

[@kurtlovvorn]

I was born in 65 we did so many things that would rock your world. My parents would make a bed for us 3 kids in the back of the station wagon for trips to grandma. It was rare to see kids with allergies. My sister and I road our bikes 2 miles to school and back. Nike shoes Levi jeans and polo or izod shirts were the thing. Yes drinking water from the hose was the fastest way to get a drink. You threw a fit when it got dark no one wanted to go home. Yes water beds were awesome. There were many types of them. I had several. Its sad that kids dont go outside and play. Great vid.

[@travisdavis815]

91 here. Alot of these still applied to me growing up. The playgrounds. Riding in the back of trucks. The growth of technology. Car safety. All of it. Ur reactions made me smile and remember my childhood

[@CarrotDugTooDeep]

I have a payphone in our game room that I have wired to our house VOIP line. You can dial out without having to put money in, but if you do put in dimes, nickels or quarters, it will keep them in the vault. Pennies get rejected to the coin return. A friend of mine brought his son over one day and he asked him if he knew what was hanging on the wall. His son replied that he had no idea what it was. When we told him that it was a phone, he asked, "how do you take pictures with it?" Too funny. We told him that it was only for making calls. He had never heard a dial tone, so we told him to pick it up and call his dad. He then asked, "Where is the address book?" We told him that if you didn't know the number that you'd have to look through the large phone book that would hang beneath the phone. Back in the 80's and into the 90's, we would do what people call phreaking and would make free phone calls and other stuff, like making the phone ring back to itself. Fun times.

[@helmedon]

My dad has an entire phone booth with the working phone, vintage phone book and working lights from the 50s, I think, that he restored and is in his game room with an old cigarette machine and an old 50s pinball machine that still works.

[@CarrotDugTooDeep]

Everything in our game room is coin operated. I have a coin op pool table, a slot machine, and a few video games, one of which is an original Pac-Man stand up machine that still works.

[@traviskirkland3204]

I broke my leg on the merry-go-round in kindergarten at school. It got caught underneath and I didn't even really feel it. I only started crying when i tried to walk and it kept folding over and it freaked me out. This was a fun remembering the old days. Mom drove a "72 Oldsmobile Cutlass. I used to ride in the back window and when she hit the brakes I would go flying into the back of front seat. The next car was an "81 Malibu wagon. That's where I would ride with my full length leg cast. Why sit in the seats when you could play in the back anyways. My brother had a waterbed. It was cool.

[@majinboo75]

Yeah, he ain't lying. This guy's not lying. He's doing the narrating. When I was a kid, we used to go to a place called Roller Magic. Used to go roller skating on Saturday and Sunday nights or Friday nights. Everybody in the school would be there. Or we would go bowling. Or in high school, we started going to the 90s. We started going in The Drive in theaters to make up with your old lady. Just a good old times we used to be able to get cigarettes by a machine. You walk in, you put $1.50 into the machine, you get a pack of Marlboros or.

[@Pani-y2g]

Fulton ny rollerblading rink just closed in 2022. It was called the bilou , and it was a devastating blow for all of us .

[@Mr_Dopey]

The playground at my elementary school was made by the dads. It was all wood with pipes for the monkey bars. One of the main elements was a stack of used tractor tires chained to the ground.

[@knighth2452]

Born in 74. I once rode in a car's trunk with my friend while we held the trunk lid open a crack. We loved it.

[@heraldomedrano1417]

I rode a car with my dad's brother-in-law and smoking weed and drinking alcohol.

[@LVADnotVLAD81517]

@@heraldomedrano1417 when I was 10 I kept complaining about being thirsty. We were in the middle of nowhere and Dad got so irritated he said "Here! Take a drink of this!" and passed me his beer. It was nasty and was my first & last drink of beer! My uncle was the one with the weed, in Grandma's living room, with the door closed, while I was lying on the floor coloring. Mom threw open the door, marched in & yanked me up by one arm & pulled me out, shouting some choice words at the uncle!

[@AshleySpeaks4U]

😂😂😂😂 CLASSIC! 👏👏👏

[@katec7862]

That's how you snuck extra people in to the drive in movies.

[@DanaFoussat-jb3io]

@@katec7862the drive-in movies were the best. We could fit an amazing number of kids in the truck of a car because the cars were so big back then.

[@jameslemons7304]

waterbeds are amazingly comfortable. Mine had a heater to keep the water at whatever temp I wanted, so in winter I would turn it up so that when you climbed in it was warm and toasty, but in summer you'd set it lower so the water was cool and pulled heat away from you. The could also have vibrating motors connected to the frame to create a messaging effect. If you look at the frames, you'll notice they are a open topped box. There is a liner inside which the mattress sits in, so a properly filled mattress sprung a leak, water should remain within the liner, if you weren't in the bed when it happened. You did have to empty them and refill them and use some chemicals to keep the water clean. Overall, I loved my waterbed.

[@VisceralMonkey]

Lots of people had waterbeds in the 80s. They were comfortable for people who didn't have back issues but other extra curricular activities weren't quite as easy from what I've heard 🙈 This video is spot on. Long live #GenX

[@ebmw231975]

I can attest having teenager "fun" in a waterbed wasn't easy but WAS hysterical. You definitely learned to laugh during sex or not have it 😂

[@MrScottsearles]

This person didn't, my parents were poor.

[@hairlessharescrambler56]

Just had to toss your gal in the bed then time the waves right hop in and ride the wave in

[@crystalwilcox77]

The 100 kids in the clown car was us! 😂😂😂 I remember my mom pulling up to a McD’s drive thru and order 10 ice cream cones, and it wasn’t a big car. I was one of the kids in the far back. Lol

[@k.kuklok1814]

My Mom picked up and drove home 22 girls in our station wagon. Early 70's-- good times.

[@elusiveeskimo3013]

Water Beds were great, especially for couples who could match their motion to the indoor ocean. The mattress was a big water bladder/balloon, which had a flat electric pad heater under it to keep the water comfortably warm. Forget sliding into a icy cold bed in the wintertime, it was always warm and welcoming. In the summertime I'd turn the heater down a few degrees so it felt cooler, great on hot summer nights. And people who didn't like all the wavy motion could get a wave-less mattress, which would have some kind of internal baffles or fiber to limit the sloshing effect. But these were harder to drain, which most only did when moving, or needing to lift the mattress to replace a faulty heater. All that water weight was a major load test of many a bedroom's floor. And a leak could cause major water damage as all that water, 10-12 full bathtubs worth, was suddenly free to go wherever it wanted in the home. So insurance companies quickly learned to hate Water Beds. But if I had a home with a ground level concrete slab or extra bracing, under it's bedroom's flooring, I'd still be sleeping on one today.

[@Tam_Eiki]

I loved my waterbed, but I remember having a thick liner that went into the frame and then the waterbed went into that. There was only one time my bed got a leak and I was sure glad the liner was there to catch all the water. Warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It was great for a single sleeper but if someone heavier than me was also in the bed I'd find myself stuck between the frame and the mattress.

[@johnsoper6931]

I still use a king size water bed frame with a mattress now

[@cooloutdoor7008]

Born in 1962, I did all of those things in your video. I have stories for pretty much all of those things that it said we did. Just as an example, In high school, during hunting season all the pick-ups in the high school parking lot (car park for you) had a gun hanging in the back window. We were hanging out and the Principle walked up and asked "What is that in the window" The guy that owned it told him about it and where he was going to hunt after school. Principal said " come with me" we walked over to his car and opened the trunk ( the back of his care where you can put stuff) he took us to his car and took out the rifle that he used for hunting and showed it to us all. I remember it being a nice rifle. Back in those days we didn't have school shootings. Kids were allowed to "resolve Conflicts " You just got in to a fist fight and teachers walked slowly to the disturbance and by the time they got there it was over and the two people were friends and you never had to carry the anguish of being bullied, So school shootings didn't happen. I got in to a fight in High school and the teacher watched until we both had blood on our faces and then said "Ok that's enough" I have many more stories I wish I could share but I'm done now!

[@Possum_13]

Grew up 60s/70s. Did all that stuff! Made ashtrays at bible school and at cub scout! Used the riding mower to pull wheelies! We had BB g un conflicts, never owned a helmet until I went to the Army! Only had one separated shoulder, one fractured wrist and about 5 visits for sutures. Had an old S&R moped, my cousin and I had a wild time! A lot of today’s aches and pains were well earned! It was a different time.. also had a 22 rifle at age 10 and a 20 gauge shotgun at 12. Prolly grew up around 25. Spouse 3 adult children and the only injuries they ever had was from school 🏈 ⚽️sports. Had to walk it off more than once, it would hurt a lot more if went crying into the house. Wouldn’t trade it for anything. 😃

[@jforden78]

My family is Canadian, but we moved to Texas when I was young. We would make the 30 hour drive back to Canada every summer. One year, my Dad build a platform bed in the back of his pickup truck that has a cover, and my sister and I spent the trip in the covered bed on this wooden platform reading and playing games the whole way there.

[@MommaOsoIrish67]

We traveled from Northern California to Southern California once a year to see family, a ten hour drive, usually under the camper shell on a bed of sleeping bags. Since there was no pass through to the cab, it was like being in separate vehicles! Our parents out an ice chest of snacks and drinks back there, and gave me batteries for my little cassette player. If we needed to stop, we had to hang in the rear window if the truck to get their attention!

[@LVADnotVLAD81517]

When I was 7 my mom & I went on a trip with my grandparents. It was an El Camino, with the 3 of them in the seat and me stuck behind it. I got stung by a bee and started screaming, right behind Grandpa--it startled him and he nearly wrecked! On the way home I wanted to stop at a tourist shop and he couldn't hear me when I asked politely, and mom told me I had to get his attention. My scream of GRANDPA! STOP! was effective, tho' it nearly caused another wreck! LOL

[@jeffmariotti7514]

Not only were seatbelts not required back in the day, the dashboards and steering wheels were not padded. When I was in 1st grade or so the kids had a different name for dodgeball. It was called smear the queen. I had no idea what they were talking about until I figured out it was dodgeball. They had another game called four square that was played with the same red ball. I remember when I was 4 or 5 I came home after dark with a hatchet injury to my face with hours old dry blood on my face. My mom was pissed because she wanted me to have stitches but the injury was probably 6 or 7 hours old when I came home and the doctor said it was too late. She was upset that I would have a scar. I probably still have a scar but it's under my mustache so I haven't seen it in over 40 years. We were built different, but our grandparents were made of steel and concrete compared to us.

[@LVADnotVLAD81517]

A huge YES to the grandparents!

[@hurberttimmons4018]

Dodge ball was wailing a balls at each other. Smear the queer was one ball and a bunch of kids trying to hurt each other tackling the one kid with the ball throw ball up and kill the next kid with ball and so on

[@gbdchannel2252]

We rode in the back of trucks while the parents rode in front. LOVED my waterbed. If I was stressed I sloshed around and listened to it go 'glug glug' until I calmed down. We lived in the desert and would run through the desert, thorns and all, with bare feet, for miles.

[@OkiePeg411]

I graduated high school in the early 80s. We were at the beginning of the MTV generation. My family didnt have all that. We had a black and white portable TV on a tv cart...like straight out of the 60s!!! No cable either. I was ok with that. I enjoyed the outdoors more. Our phone was a party line... our phone was actually connected to the wall... like you couldn't unplug it. Itvwas there permanently. We had a short cord. The phone was basic black with a rotary dial. We were told to keep our phonecalls quick because we couldnt "tie up the line" in case the neighbors needed the phone.

[@raine6665]

Omg! I forgot about the start of MTV,,I remember coming home from school,,walking from the bus stop & it didn't matter how cold it was or how deep the snow was or how bad the wind was we still had to walk to the bus every morning & home every afternoon,,sorry got sidetracked,,I got home & mom was talking about a new channel that played only music with videos,,something we'd never heard of,,then waiting for the day it started was so exciting!

[@rascalme9754]

​@@raine6665Downtown Julie Brown.

[@raine6665]

@rascalme9754 Omg! I've forgot my of the vj"s names,,I did have a crush on the blonde guy,,I knew when he was going to be on & would watch him everyday! I want my MTV *back* 😄

[@twylanaythias]

~ Dot Matrix Printers Where typewriters and "daisy-wheel" printers struck individual letters, one at a time, dot matrix printers used a vertical line of individual 'pins' to strike as the print head moved across the paper. Given the wide range of paper types (including multipart forms, which newer printers can't do), the little spiked wheels on the sides were far more effective at keeping the paper aligned for printing. The earlier dot matrix printers used nine pins - functional, though a bit "low-resolution" (72 dpi), for printing stuff fast when you didn't need anything fancy. For fancier stuff, it would nudge the paper the tiniest bit and make a second pass; effectively eighteen pins per line (144 dpi). Newer dot matrix printers blew the old ones away by using twenty-four smaller pins for faster, sharper printing in a single pass (120 dpi) and could use two (240 dpi) or three (360 dpi) passes for even sharper printing. No matter what dot matrix printer you used, all those tiny pins firing like crazy was freaking LOUD! For comparison, most inkjets print at 150 dpi in normal mode and 300 dpi in high-quality mode. Some high-end inkjets print at up to 1200 dpi. Laser printers up this to 600 dpi in normal mode and up to 2400 dpi in precision mode. ~ Corded Telephones (aka Land Lines) Land lines are still a thing, and still work pretty much the same way. Of course, with a land line phone literally being tied to wherever a phone jack was available, they weren't 'mobile' - at best, you could get a cordless phone; the base unit plugged in to both a phone line and a power outlet, with a cradle to keep the cordless handset charged. Early ones had some pretty wonky antennas that you had to extend if you wanted to use the phone any appreciable distance from the base unit. (If you were lucky, it would work outside.) By requiring a phone line, however, people tended to install extra jacks so they could have a phone handy wherever. Growing up, we had one in each of the two bedrooms, the kitchen (obviously), and two in the living room (so both my grandparents could answer the phone without getting up from their recliners). My grandfather even went so far as putting on in the bathroom (just in case) and installing an outside jack and running a phone line to the camp trailer. As a bonus, the phone company used to have a 'test number' you could dial - you'd dial the number and hang up and, a second or two later, it would simply make all your phones ring as if you were getting a call. (Not an actual call - the whole thing ended as soon as any phone on the same line was picked up.) Since all the phones on the same line could always talk to each other, it was a convenient way to 'call' anyone/everyone in the house; as soon as it stopped ringing (meaning someone had answered), you'd pick up as well and it acted like a normal phone call. "Billy, put your toys away and come down for supper." ~ Seat Belts To this day, I absolutely DETEST seat belts. Prior to the 1960s, most cars didn't even HAVE seat belts! They were an available option (sometimes at an extra charge), but it wasn't until the late 1960s when automakers were required to install them (whether you wanted them or not). Of course, it really wasn't so much an issue back then - the cars were built like tanks! (Seriously, watch an older demolition derby. Collisions which would absolutely total a newer car, those things would shrug off with little more than a dinged fender and some scratched paint.) We were also much better drivers back then - 'safety features' are pretty freaking pointless if you never get into an accident in the first place, y'know? ~ Lack of Supervision Kids back then were independent to a degree people today can't even imagine. I mean, I've pretty much always had my own set of house keys since I was five years old. Get out of school, walk/bike home, and just let myself in with nobody home. Fix a little snack and sit down in front of the TV to watch after-school cartoons. Or maybe bike to the local mall and wander around; pick up a new model car to work on (for like $3), then stop by K&N on the way home to drink down a massive frosty mug of fresh-made root beer. ~ Waterbeds You have NO IDEA what you missed out on! Not only were they insanely comfortable to sleep on (ZERO pressure points, no matter what position you slept in), but they included a heater pad on the bottom to keep the water at the exact temperature which was most comfortable for you. And due to water's thermal properties, it never changed! You could sleep under a thin blanket or a couple of sheets and never get cold - you could sleep under a heavy comforter and never get hot. They did have two issues, however. The main one was that they were incredibly heavy - particularly if you had a queen- or king-sized one - and it generally wasn't recommended to use a waterbed unless it was on the ground floor. The other was the slosh - a big bag of water tends to surge with sudden movement. (Some bladders had spongy foam inside to prevent this, but those were pretty pricey.) Still, you gotta admit that they just looked so darned good and were an absolute dream to sleep on. ~ Bonus: Safety in General Metal playground equipment and riding in the back of a pickup truck was just the tip of the iceberg! We roller skated in short-shorts, rode our bikes barefooted, and were practically naked when we skateboarded! Cuts, scrapes, and bruises were badges of honor, and actually breaking a bone made you the coolest kid in school - EVERYONE wanted the honor of being the first one to sign your cast. We climbed trees and built houses in them, caught every animal imaginable with our bare hands and brought them home (much to the chagrin of our parents), and our only regrets came when the sun went down and we had to wait until the next day to just keep living life to the fullest. Back then, if you took a tumble off the monkey bars or wrecked you bike, everyone told you to just walk it off. Nowadays, you'll get crucified if you let a toddler ride a Big Wheel with less protective gear than an NFL linebacker. Small wonder that most anyone under the age of 35 is such a wuss!

[@arcanewyrm6295]

I remember something similar to the test number feature you mention - but for me, all we did was dial our own number and hang up. A second later it would ring back and worked just like you described. But I don't recall there being a specific test number - you just dialed the same phone you were on and quickly hung it up before the busy signal could start.

[@twylanaythias]

@@arcanewyrm6295 It's possible that I'm misremembering, but I'm pretty sure it was a three-digit number with fairly low digits - 511 or something of that nature. Of course this was back in the rotary days, long before 411 and other such numbers; even before 911, iirc. Back when you had to dial police, fire, and medical emergencies on separate direct numbers.

[@jlkkauffman7942]

I was born in 88, so I’m 35 and I remember and done and used all of this. Most of this continued into the 90s and early 2000s

[@NotaVampyre111]

In the mid 70's we took a road trip from Dayton, Ohio to Tampa, Fl. to pick up my stepfather's mom. We were in a full sized station wagon. We had stepfather, mom, stepbrother, a cousin, me, 2 brothers and two sisters loaded up plus all our luggage. No trailer. On the way back it was all of us plus a very large cranky old lady that took an instant dislike to me as soon as she met me. That was a tough car. They don't build them like that any more. After we moved to Alabama, stepdad needed some plywood for a project. Of to the store he went in the station wagon with mom, sis and stepbrother. For the plywood sheets to fit in the car, the back seat had to be folded down and the tail gate left down. Sis and SB had to ride in back sitting on the unsecured plywood. SD satisfied, drove the car off the lot an accelerated hard to merge into the speeding traffic. This caused the slippery plywood, my sis and SB to go shooting out the back and onto the highway much to everyone's surprise. Fortunately only the plywood and SD's ego suffered any damage. I think sis may have peed her pants a little. When I was in eighth grade my science teacher was teaching us how to use a slide rule to do math problems. The first calculators came out that year. Some of the richer kids had one but he refused to let them use them. He said the slide rule would last forever, calculators were just a fad. I never saw a slide rule ever again in school after that year.

[@ExploringwithJaye]

I was there, Gandalf. Can confirm, 100%. This stuff wasn't even the occasional exception at the time, it was the expected standard.

[@Deedric_Kee]

Hanging out after school when I was 14 and up. Girls I liked scooping me in up the jeep or and friends going out to certain lakes out of town to hangout and to mall and skating or outside at friends houses outside in the yard chatting it up and being loud and having a ton of fun. I also remember being in the back in the bed of trucks. Damn that was so much fun talking and catching all that wind going towns away to go to the beach while the fathers barbecued. We had a diverse crowd because most of my friends were white. Awesome video "L3WG reacts.

[@brandoncoyle7110]

I had 2 different water beds. One with baffles and one without. I loved them both. Had them right up till about 2004.

[@Miguel_2112]

Born in 1963, Colorado Class of 1981. 5 classic rock bands live for $22 Midnight Movies $5 No cell phones, kids actually interacted with others.

[@Pani-y2g]

Born in 88 and we did all these things in the 90s too. And yes I did make my parents an ash tray. Also there were no movies like in the 80s. Legend of billie jean!

[@brandonhainstock2928]

i remember valentines in elementary in the early 90s, we bought huge packs of valentines with candy inside and passed them around to everyone in class. it was part of our class project in feb to make a paper mailbox for our valentines. we also trick or treated at school before trick or treating in the neighborhood. and we built candy treats and paper stocks for xmas and wrote letters to santa. also, my mom was the shit..and would bring me whole cakes or a bunch of cupcakes for my bday so the whole class could celebrate. you cant do any of that stuff nowadays, i feel so sorry for the new gen of kids, theyre not allowed anything fun.

[@clamsoup]

Brother I was born in 1963. Life was fun when I was a kid. Breaking an arm on the playground wasn't enjoyable and was normally an occasion for tears. But then you'd get a cast and all of your friends wanted to autograph it. Good times.

[@joesisco8145]

All true. We live in northern part of Indiana and drove to KY to my grandma's once a month or so in an old green station-wagon with us kids rolling around in the back window getting semi's to honk their horns.

[@righty-o3585]

If you held down the mute button on the phone before you picked up the receiver, they would never hear you pick it up

[@wilsoncrunch1330]

The last generation of feral children

[@jaysonarends145]

Feral shildren? At least we can spell.

[@twohipp2tripp]

The first waterbed they showed with the red mattress. That is the actually my first and only waterbed I ever bought. And I still have the frame. Headboard heater. After a while, the mattress will start leaking. But I have everything to buy it. You still can’t find the waterbed mattresses. You just have to search the web, but boy oh boy did I have me some fun. And yes, they do sleep comfortably.

[@Wh3nth3wick3drul3]

Wow! I remember do matrix paper. Lol. And making an ash tray, but I don't remember calling it an ash tray. I loved watching cartoons on Saturdays. I'd wake up at 6:00 am. The sugar cereals were only on our birthdays. Raisin Bran, shredded wheat bars, there weren't these miniature shredded wheat back then.

[@brock3426]

Had a water bed you could change the temp of the water. It was nice in the winter. But if you had pets, they could poke holes, and it would leak water, or if you jump on it, it could break. It was kinda relaxing laying on it,every movement caused like a ripple, and it felt like you were in water floating

[@Pani-y2g]

I wonder how one would feel with a jelly like the kind in orbies would it had been more durable ?

[@dinobusdriver7299]

Water beds were totally awesome. In the winter crank up the heater it heated the water like 80 degrees and during the summer turn off the heater the water would cool off to as low as 65 degrees. Total sleep bliss.

[@happystunes8812]

Ha, my sister and I used to listen in on our landline phones while we were growing up... but this was in the late 2000/early 2010s😂

[@gp4624]

I had a round water bed. They came with heaters to keep the water, inside the bladder warm enough to sleep on, otherwise it was cold. The bladder is what the plastic holding the water was called. It was a like an oversized hot water bottle. Very comfortable to sleep on. You can actually still buy a waterbed today.

[@twistedoldloony]

Born in 79 so I just made the cutoff to be a GenXer. I remember going out on my bike and just roaming the neighborhood starting from age 9. In my neighborhood the kids would have toad hunting competitions. Where everyone had a bucket and a flashlight and would compete to see how many toads we could gather. We would go explore the wooded section of land back behind our houses that was really close to the bayou where you had to keep a lookout for copperhead and water moccasin snakes which are both venomous. The first bed I can remember having was a waterbed! They were fun! When I was a toddler I had a plastic booster seat with NO SEATBELT in the front passenger seat of a VW bus!! My dad tells of when he worked at Exxon and they made a point to start asking everyone as they came into the parking lot if they were wearing their seatbelts! This was before they were actually required by law!! It’s interesting because my dad was a very early adopter of computers. He used the huge room sized ones at work and we had an Apple2E at home. The kind with the giant 5 inch floppy disks! That was in the mid 80s so I’ve had computers in my life pretty much as long as I can remember. I remember having that weird kind of printer that had the tabs on either side of the paper!! You’d have to bend them back and forth before you tore them off and even then you’d have a sort of fluffy edge to the paper!! I’m so glad my formative years were in the 80s and 90s!! But it’s funny when people talk about how feral we were because we don’t even hold a candle to OUR parents!!! My dad did some of the craziest shit when he was a kid! I’m honestly surprised that he lived!! When he was an 8 year old the neighborhood kids would build large fortresses out of scrap wood and then have all out wars where they would end up burning them down!! Crazy stuff!

[@breckohlson7410]

Yes to the calc watch. First one was a simple digital. What I loved about that first watch was its timer feature. It made church go by so much faster. I would time myself for how long I would hold my breadth. Got up to 2:01 once. Helped improve my score in the pool games with friends such as how far you could swim underwater, how many coins you could pickup in one dive, etc. Yes to the playgrounds. It used to be a badge of honor to sit at the top and make fun at those too scared to make it up there...all that then encouraged them to try and do it and get over their fear. It was so much worse to be called a "scaredy cat" then to over come your fear and climb to the top. Who could hold on the longest before being flung off from the spinning one... Riding in the back of the pickup truck, we would ask to go faster so we could get more air on bumps... Few kids get hurt and it ruined it for the rest. My mother (in her late 70s) still complains about having to put her seat belt on. Her right arm was always my seat belt as I stood in in on the front seat...or the steering wheel of my dad's truck when he had me stand on his lap between him and the wheel while he drove. What I wouldn't give to go back to the 70s. Simple, fun, exciting, and most important, being outside all the time. Heck, here is how it was for us. I was riding my bike barefooted and stepped off and got a 2in thorn stuck between my big toe and middle toe. After I got home from ER for like the 8th time by then, i wanted to go into the pool. Doc say no water exposer. I threw such a fit, my mother got a plastic bag, put my foot in it and taped up my leg so water would not get in...told me to keep my foot from going under water...yeah like that was going to happen. As soon as she was back in the house, yes, no supervision while in the pool at age 8...I had the bag off and foot in the water...as soon as I got out I put the bag back on and said, it leaked...oh with the most innocent face I could muster. Hundreds of stories like this getting hurt like most GenXers... Update: yes to waterbed. Patched it only once and had it from 79-95 (4 years unused while in military...). Got rid of it because the heater went out and by then it was hard to find a replacement. I would put a foot between the wood and the bladder and slowly rock myself to sleep on those hard to sleep nights...

[@bobmarleyja]

Lol we were just looking at old family pictures at Easter and were talking about our long phone Cords. And yes, I wrapped it around my head sometimes. 😂

[@shawnwade302]

Waterbeds were amazingly comfortable and they all had adjustable mattresses heaters so winter time was awesome... getting into a warm bed was awesome.

[@shawnwade302]

The only reason I still don't have a waterbed is my old ass has trouble getting out of them now.

[@thomasgarrison3949]

It was much more fun & dangerous back in the 60's & 70's when I was in school. I remember the dot matrix printers. We only got to watch cartoons until 10am on Saturday, our mom would kick us out to play, all 4 seasons, baseball, football, ice hockey, fishing, hunting, etc. I remember the rotary-dial phones even before coiled cord. I remember being on a Party Line, where your neighbors could listen to your phone conversations. Playground equipment wasn't safe in my era either. In 1983 I got my first computer, 16K memory, my cheap watch has several times that memory. No seat belts in the 60's & 70's, I remember 20 kids riding to a Boy Scout event in a Station Wagon. At sunset we would run home trying to beat the street lights coming on. A lot of this stuff was still going on long after I left grade school. We had a King Size, Heated Water Bed clear back in the 70's, fantastic for sleeping & making love, but don't jump into bed & bounce your wife out into the wall, like I did ONLY ONCE, no loving for a week & lots of I'm sorry, jewelry, candy & flowers!

[@jameslemons7304]

70's kid, 80's teen. Rode cross country in the back of station wagons and vans, never ever wore a seatbelt. Family had 2 Olds Cutlass Station Wagons, I would lay out a blanket in the rear and play with hotwheels while pulling a trailer to go camping. First bicycle at 4, first 20" bike at 7. By then, on a Saturday, once I left the house, it would be a shock to see me again before dark, lest I was stopping in for a snack or water. Whether at friends houses, the school across the street, or the park down the road about 1/2 mile with trails to ride the bike, softball fields and a basketball/tennis court area, I was never home. As the video said, just be home by dark or the parents started calling out or calling the friends parents to see if you were there. There were few limits. Some kids had smaller motorcycles, some of the teens had 125/250cc dirt bikes they'd ride at the park trails. we'd go around collecting kids for pickup football (american) games either in the street (2 hand touch) or in a small grass field in front of the elementary school or next to it if we had fewer kids. we might play baseball/stick ball on the black top at the school or down at the park on the softball fields. Winter was the best if it snowed, snow removal wasn't the best yet in our area, so we'd usually have a day or two before the sand truck showed up to ruin the roads, and we could go sledding down the roads with the biggest hills until they came by. Most kids walked to school if you lived within about 1 mile. No parents, just all the kids walking in groups of friends and neighbors. No lines of parents picking up a kid who lived 15 houses away, like my idiot wife who would pick the kids up and drop them off. we live a 3 to 4 minute walk from the school. what a waste of gas, and exercise for them. No 24 hour TV, no cable, only about 7 or 8 stations. I remember when HBO started, ESPN, Cable TV, all of it. Video stores, VCR's, Atari, Commodore 64, etc. I even remember heavy weight boxing matches show on ABC Wide World of Sports a week or two after the event took place, on Saturday afternoons usually. You'd get 1 Game for the Week for baseball, maybe 2 college games, and you were not guaranteed to see the NFL team if they didn't sell out tickets by Thursday. Often, a local business like a grocery store chain would buy up the last few thousand seats and give them to charity or kids just to make sure the game would air on local TV. World Series baseball games were actually played during the day, kids would listen listen to the radio broadcast on transistor radios. By the 80's you might get a teacher to bring a TV in and let you watch part of the game if it was your local team. Oh and the phones. Oh yeah, the old rotary dial phones before touch tone phones showed up. Funny thing there, my dad worked at a place called Western Electric, a division of the old AT&T, where they actually repaired those old rotary and touchtone phones, and the old pay phones. Since back then all the phones were leased from the phone company, you didn't own the phone. Until around 1977 or 78. That's when I recall going to K-Mart with my dad and finding a $10 slimline phone, and he commented, "well, this will be the end of my job". about 5 years later he had to transfer to a new job. The one thing i truly do not miss, bell bottom jeans and polyester shirts. The shirts were soooo hot. bell bottoms are still the ugliest fashion trend ever. how they heck those made a comeback, I'll never understand. There is NOTHING attractive about bell bottoms. :)

[@roxannaweaver2155]

The streetlights coming on was the signal to get your butt home right now or get it warmed good. That was in the 50-60's when I was a kid. Went wherever we wanted then too, lived through jumping off cliffs into the river, climbing to the top of 80ft cottonwoods (my fav thing to do), go wading in the creek and catch fish by hand...good times.

[@jeanettemclaughlin4296]

I was a child care worker in the 80's. The used paper from dot matrix printers was great for kids to draw on the back. I used to leave it connected and tape it to cover the entire table top. Great for little hands so they don't stray off the paper.

[@deancook8347]

I can remember when we had a snow storm that started after we were already at school. They decided to let us out early. My mom showed up and picked us and several of the neighbor kids up. No one was concerned with her taking other people's kids or seat belts. Everyone just piled in. I had a water bed as a young adult. They were great. they had heaters so you could control the temp. You had special sheets to fit them. As a young teen we would ride bikes 7 miles to the lake and use my dad's canoe all day, and then ride back. The canoe was kept at the lake locked on a rack, but we had to carry the paddles and life preservers on our bikes.

[@MechelleLea]

Yes, and I loved it as long as the heater was working and when we would get trapped between the bed and the wood frame.

[@local631]

i still use my water bed frame for my California King mattress...... king 76x80 inches cal king 72x84 inches .. water beds were awesome they had heating pads under them so you could adjust the temperature in them.. in summer you just turned the heater off and you always had a nice cool bed.. but have never lived until you slid into a very warm every square inch warm bed on a wicked cold winters night.. you dont get under all the covers.. hell no you would be swetting to death.. just a thin sheet and thin blanket to keep any rogue drafts from interrupting your slumber...

[@elaineb7065]

Turned 6 in 1980, 16 in 1990, so the 1980s was most of my childhood!!! Our playgrounds back then were the BEST, & we had mad-swings (basically a strong stick on a sturdy rope tied to a tree), & we swung on them like it was the best thing ever, especially if it was on a slope!!! It was like flying!!! They've been banned for a few decades now, which is so sad. I also miss the huge climbing frames we had too. For going out I could either go the front way to the park, crossing at the traffic lights over the only really busy street (there was a big hill with woods, plus loads of flat land, but the woods were my vibe, & I could spend hours in them, then come back down to the playground), or the back way, which had its own options, like a car park next to a grassy field area with a few trees. That field & its trees gave so many play options, as did our many local walls, several were higher than an adult, but we got on top of them anyway without a care. School break you sat in school grounds, but at lunchtime you could go off the grounds, & out back was another big forest with a pond & a waterfall. We'd crawl under the bridge a load of times, in summer we'd explore the woods & play on so many mad swings, & in winter we'd slide round on the frozen pond. To get to school we'd either walk, or ride a bike, & it was solely on us. Buses were for those who lived miles away from school, & again, getting on them was on us. Parents had nothing to do with getting us to school. In primary the only way to not get the mandatory school lunch was to go with a packed lunch in a plastic box marked with your fave toy brand, with a small Thermos fitted inside the box. Still no chance to keep it cool before lunchtime. In secondary there was more choice, but still, things like not eating a certain food was unheard of, & I was glared at so many times for turning down jelly with the party jelly & ice cream, & custard with my sponge cakes. There were no allergies, no vegetarians, & the nearest I got to food intolerance was one person who had a letter saying she needed to use the bathroom more often (likely either coeliac or lactose intolerant). Certain things stank, like parents were allowed to dish out corporal punishment (it was even shown in 1980s Beano comics), & answering back was a huge deal, & bullying was rampant, but I was still able to have fun in my own way

[@wmor2449]

My mom had a waterbed for 30 years. We all loved it any time we got a chance to sleep on it! It was awesome!

[@jeffnolan7392]

@5:20 we used to use our mini bikes' rear wheel to get that steel wheel really going, and when you flew off, you went thirty feet before you started sliding, and it was gags fun.

[@christinabond8900]

My fiance and I grew up in these times. Oh, all of these things shown is bringing back such memories! My grandma had a big station wagon (we lived with her). I rode in the back of her car so many times. My fiance and I grew up in the same neighborhood. (He was my older brother's best friend and we became childhood sweethearts.) We can vouch for all of this.

[@gregkral4467]

yeah, ashtrays was a thing in shop class in ceramic section. Most of the time we were making throwing stars and battle axes in the welding section.

[@Mamma_Kinzie]

I remember going through the swamps in fl on a 3 wheeler. If you fell In a gator hole you got off pulled the 3 wheeler out and pray there is no gator in the hole. We rode in the boat being pulled by my dad's truck. My math teacher would take all the calculator watches before test. I still have a bunch of watches from the 80's & 90's. I had a waterbed it was hard getting out of it when I was pregnant. I loved my waterbed. I miss it. People were not so weak back then. Our bike ramps were cement blocks and plywood lol. I broke my arm in 5 places riding my bike. Our skateboards were so small compared to the ones now. Yeah we were tough for sure. Half the kids now couldn't survive in the 80's

[@israelmorales9921]

I remember riding in the back of my dad’s pickup truck with my siblings (there were 8 of us). Driving down a rough country road one day and we hit a big pot hole, it launched my brother about 10 feet in the air and out of the truck! We all started pounding on the truck to get my dad to stop. My brother can running up crying, all dirty holding his arm, my dad said “I told you to hang on, get in you’re all right” stop crying! My brother was just bruised up, no broken bones, we laughed about that for years.

[@alexisbaumann1631]

We bought our California king in 1981 and we still have it. the mattress and heater were replaced in 1996, and we still use it. It's the same as you have pictured with the bookshelf headboard.

[@debbiemaze1938]

So much fun to ride in the back of a truck! When we travelled from CA from Oklahoma for vacations, 7 people in one car. 2 kids slept in the seat, 2 in the floorboard and one in the back window!

[@TheScamper44]

ours was so rural, we didn’t have street lights. we’d leave early in the morning, stayed up in the mtn.’s for days. very fun.

[@anthonyspicer3433]

I had a water bed and really liked it, except when someone would jump on it while you were sleeping and you were bounced out of bed. Later on the started making waterbeds with baffles and separate chambers to cut down on how much someone else was effected by the weight distribution. The heavier person sank deeper into the bed than the lighter person. These videos all mention how much we liked our bicycles, and we did. I saw a picture on the internet the other day that showed a kid riding a bike and his friend riding on the handlebars. The caption below it said "Uber from when I was a kid". I remember doing that but if you were the one riding the bike and came to a hill it was hard to pedal with the both of you on the bike. Steering could also be a problem if the person on the handlebars shifted their weight.

[@Prozak63]

My first waterbed in the late 70's was way unless it was nearly overfilled. It also didn't have a flat waterbed heater beneath it like a few years later, so we placed quilts or blankets under the bottom sheet. My next bed had a heater, but also had baffles within it to eliminate any waves.

[@bridgetwilson4043]

I was born in the 70s and did a lot of growing up in the 80s. I made many an ashtray in art class. That one piece of playground equipment you saw was a set of monkey bars. Those and all of our playground equipment had one of three bases: dirt, gravel, or pavement. I spent most of my summers riding in the back of a pickup truck. If I was lucky, I sat in the hatch back car facing the opposite direction.

[@whodat3700]

I had a semi waveless waterbed and it was awesome. Once you get all the air bubbles out of it, it was so comfortable. Plus living in Canada, you could turn the heat up in the winter and down in the summer making the bed the perfect temperature.

[@Meriale46]

They should do a video for the people in their 20s in the 1980s... it was the best time to be old enough to go out with friends and dance at the niteclubs, to hit the gym, or date... we had an absolute blast and the music was incredable. That was truly the best time of my life.

[@roderick617]

I'm GenX. Your reactions and appreciation of the times we grew up in are priceless. You're seeing life through our eyes and your reactions remind me of the pride I now have in the world I grew up in. Thank you❤

[@JamiWaters]

We really did hit the lottery, anytime before that or after was not a good place to be.

[@BondFreek]

1:50 the paper you're referring to is called binder paper. The holes on the sides were so that you could keep it in a binder. Printer paper was different. Some of these old fashioned printers are still being used today.

[@warrenwatkins9650]

I remember the water beds. Never owned one, but slept on a few. The first ones were just a big plastic bag with water. If you turned over in your sleep, you'd have a wave action that would settle down after a few seconds. The next version had separate chambers that limited wave action. Problem was if they got punctured, they'd leak. Also water weighs a lot and water beds were not allowed on 2nd floor apartment buildings.

[@MeTomSolo]

My grandmother cut the seat belts out of her cars because she believed if she was in an accident the seatbelt would trap her inside and then, like in the movies, the car would explode. She would also let us ride in the hatchback/trunk/boot in her 85' Volkswagon Rabbit, which she drove faster than most teenagers in town. Also literally everything in this is legit. No exaggerations. Y'all missed some awesome stuff. If you go back in time, throw on your jam shorts and your tube socks and go to Action Park or a rollerrink.

[@ReneeCrabtree-z2f]

My husband owned three things when we moved in together. A dresser, a plant, and a waterbed. 31 years later we still smile when a waterbed is brought up. It was heaven to have silk sheets on the bed with it heated to the perfect bath temperature. Until we popped it and it poured as much water as a swimming pool in our bedroom. 😂😂😂😂❤❤❤❤

[@lizogden2458]

I had a king size water bed from 1981-2009. I loved it! I miss it so much.

[@MySonicFoundry]

Born in 1971 - Waterbed ✅ BMX Bike ✅ Friday night driving around with a beer between our legs ✅ Pocket knife in grade school ✅Shotgun in the locker in high school for hunting after school ✅Riding in the back of a truck down the highway at night drinking beer ✅ School smoking shed where the kids and teachers bummed smokes off each other ✅ And then there was the Howitzer (the Canon) that was fired after every touchdown out team scored at home games. Metal shop where I singed all my arm hair and eyebrows off while lighting the gas forge / got slags burns on my neck and face from arc welding. Wood shop where I watched my teacher cut his thumb of in the band saw. Mind you, this was the tip of the iceberg kids! I had a fucking blast in school and I didn't even realize it at the time. Feel very sorry for the kids that came after.

[@debbiethompson1878]

I grew up in the 70's and it was so awesome! We had do much freedom and we were safe. My folks had a waterbed, when I grew up and moved out it was one of my first purchases. We left the house in the morning and didn't go home till after dark and no one had to worry about us. We literally lived outdoors. 😅😅 My folks had poker parties with the aunts and uncles. They would go till almost sun up. All us kids were running the streets and having a blast. We weren't being destructive or getting into trouble period we were just having fun. we would be out till 2 in the morning ourselves and no one had to worry about us. It makes me so sad for the youth of the last 20 years

[@theonlyduchess1583]

I had a waterbed till 2000!! As long as the heater worked, it was comfy AF. If someone plopped down hard enough while you were laying on it, you'd launch off. ALSO...in the back of station wagons or pickup trucks, the driver could take a dip or speed bump with a quickness and see how high we'd bounce 🤣🤣🤣 Good times!!