British Millennial Reacts to "Dangers GEN X Faced in AMERICA"

[@MoreAdamCouser]

I stream on twitch too! www.twitch.tv/adamcouser

[@roosterslounge1697]

Gen X in the house thank you for watching that video

[@roosterslounge1697]

We started losing control when we stopped whooping your asses when you were a kid and millennials produced Gen Z then it went downhill from there

[@roosterslounge1697]

And the worst part when you jump those ramps and your front tire comes off because your asshole friend decides to loosen the bolts 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@HeatherTinker]

Something else we played that should be put back into every PE Class of today....DODGE BALL. I guarantee 90% of GEN X remembers what that red ball tastes & feels like after being drilled in the face with it LMAOOOOOO 😂😂😂😂😂 Wall Ball was a fun one too, either way both handed out life lessons on the daily LOL Adam, I challenge you to a BB/Pellet gun war😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@wandameadows5736]

That video "Dangers GEN X Faced in AMERICA" is full of crap & I could tell you felt the same way.

[@csw3287]

OMG growing up in the 70's and 80's were just So Great. I'd give Anything for a Time Machine go back and Enjoy those Amazing times again.

[@MoreAdamCouser]

Take me too 😂

[@TheRedStateBlue]

there was an arcade right next door to a comic book store across the street from my junior high school. i don't think i ever actually used my lunch money for lunch.

[@mil2k11]

Being somebody who graduated HS in 1984, I highly agree.

[@117Bahamamama]

They miss so so so much..like, everyone had chain link fencing and trying to jump a fence meant taking one’s life in one’s hands…

[@coleenkane6683]

Me too I'm 50 and the 70s and 80s were the shit!!!! Awesome

[@suicyco4life666]

I was born in 1969. Looking back now, i have realized that we had no idea that we would be the last generation to have things so good. Being a kid in the 70's and a teenager in the 80"s was so much fun. Nowdays things are totally different. And mostly not for the better.

[@dreamweaver1603]

I was born in '68 so we probably have some things in common. I do think millennials had it as good as we did, except for one thing. Kids didn't have the freedom to roam like we did because 24/7 news came about and a lot of attention was paid to kids being kidnapped and/or killed. We had the actual serial killers during our childhood in the '70s and '80s, but not the awareness. So our parents just pushed us out the door and told us to come home when the streetlights came on.

[@nicolem376]

Gen x kid here. We weren’t so fancy to have coconut or suntan oil. We used baby oil and if we needed color fast we’d add a few drops of iodine and shake it in.

[@colleenmonell1601]

You actually answered your own question... life like this stopped when computers, video games and the internet started and parents used these for babysitting their kids. When I was a kid in the 70's you were outside with your friends all of the time. I rarely see kids out playing in the streets these days unless they are playing with traffic on their dang electric bikes.

[@suicyco4life666]

In 2024, kids playing outside are an endangered species.

[@AC-ni4gt]

Or the electric scooters. Whatever happened to the days where you'd see who'd get to the street corner the fastest?

[@desertflower9858]

This kind of freedom stopped when kids became unsafe by themselves

[@wildmouse5888]

Mom used to actually lock us out on summer days. It gave her time to get things done without us pestering her.

[@edgarfigueiredo579]

You nailed it. It happened in the early 2000s I would say 9 eleven. Did not help.

[@harolddorsey9179]

I was born in 1966, raised inthe70s, party'd in the 80's what a time to be alive.

[@jeffmartin1026]

I'm a baby boomer and life in the 50s & 60s was even more fun. They used to sell a gram of Mercury in a plastic box at the drug store for 25 cents. We would roll it around on the table with our fingers or put it on coins to make them shiny. BB guns and pellet guns/rifles, cap guns with rolls of gunpowder "dots" to go bang when we "shot" them. Boys all had a folding knife. We all made it out just fine.

[@carleehooley6338]

Sir that is not a flex

[@kendallneason3645]

I’m a Gen X. So true. lol. Best music and movies that we watched in a theater with each other. Also had to turn on our TVs with tweezers as the knobs fell off. We also, as kids were the last generation to spend all our time outside and had no computers. It was a different time. Latchkey kids that came home from school and went outside until both parents came home from work. We started dinner and our laundry and homework. Found our friends by looking for where all the bikes were laying outside a yard. Usually at the person with the dad built skate ramp. lol. We bought candy cigarettes gum too.

[@mcm0324]

Love this! Proud Gen X'r We did do all of this! So much fun! We're all grandparents now, and you trust us with your kids! 😂 Growing up in the 70s and 80s was the best! 😊🇺🇲

[@MoreAdamCouser]

Love this!

[@marriselv4784]

Not all of us are Grandparents lol. Some of us had Gen Alpha kids, I’m only 45.

[@salty793]

Speak for yourself. This Gen Xer knew in the ‘80s I never wanted any damn kids. Blissfully childfree.

[@manangb]

Growing up in the 1970's and 1980's was a lot of fun. I do miss those days.

[@MichaelCrawford-me1rg]

Thanks for those memories Adam! I was born in 1968; grew up in the 70s. I checked almost all of the boxes in this video. The only thing they left out was that if you grew up in the country, where every summer day was spent running around out in the fields and the woods, you drank from the creek instead of the hose. (And the reason we called the "clackers" in America instead of "knockers" is because "knockers" means something else here...)

[@stevedavis5704]

I never had my klackers break and spray shrapnel but I remember getting some hecka bruises when they would come up and hit my arm or wrist while going full speed with them.

[@kengoodman9381]

I was a child of the 70's and 80's. Those were great decades! Adam, it's refreshing to know that you also experienced some of the joys that us Gen Xer's had. Even your reactions to some of the activities are not only funny, but also quite similar to those of us in the older generation.

[@nanner3200]

I'm a boomer (just 5 yrs from Gen X) and a lot of this applies to us also. I grew up in a small town in the Midwest. Small enough where everyone knew everyone. MANY times I'd have a note from one of my parents to walk and get them cigs. I flew to the UK and France a few times in the smoking section. Our bikes were life. Especially being a small town we'd leave and be home in time for dinner, hanging out with friends all day. My sister swears we had a stool to stand on in the back seat of the car so we could look out the front (I don't remember this so I think she is mental) I remember laying out in the sun with baby oil rubbed on. OMG Jarts and clackers! You asked about technology and kids. I think you're right. Don't get me wrong. I had one of the early home computers and mobile phones (which was bolted to the floor of my car) I also had an OG Nintendo system. BUT I was married by then and I've never been one to live on my phone. Necessary evil. I was the mean mom and my kid didn't have a cell phone until they started driving. Usually it was my old phone when I upgraded. They have since made up for lost time on cell phones! Even though we were sort of a poor family back then I wouldn't change growing up in that time for any time since.

[@michaellarusch4317]

Proud Gen Xer here. I'm part of the invisible generation and I was lucky to have grown up in the best generation. We have the best movies, sports, music, and so much more. Antennas were a pain. You would touch them and the picture would get perfect....and then you would let it go and it would be gone....GRRRR. I has a set of metal lawn darts when I was little. We used to throw them up in the air and dodge them....lol I stuck my grandfather in the arm with one....I definitely miss those days and I try to share the spirit of them with my kids and grandkids....

[@ramonacosta2647]

I nearly lost an eye to one of those lawn darts. Good times.

[@a7734999]

3 years old 20 meters up on the roof helping grandpa fix the shingles. 5 years old driving 50 mph in a go-kart. 9 years old standing up in the bed of the truck while it was doing 80mph. 12 playing with legos in the back of the van when my mom got pulled over for doing 120mph on a 50mph road. I miss the old days.😢

[@Charlee1776]

I remember the first day I learned to ride a bike at age 6, I immediately went to a dirt track to do jumps and landed upside down in a tree. Later that week I got my backside paddled for calling to get a ride home at dusk (I was supposed to be home by dusk- when the street lights came on).. I had ridden my bike over 13 miles along a highway and over a large bridge to go Long Beach Island, NJ to swim. I got angrily tossed in to the back of my grandfather's pickup (by my father) soaking wet (from my short swim- it took me all day to get there) along with my bicycle and driven home holding my bike down so it didn't fly out of the back. Good times! 🤣

[@iambecomepaul]

We were feral. We ran like packs of wild dogs. But as much as that’s a funny observation, we DID have rules. And there was a kind of loose democracy. You had to persuade people back then. We were self-governed and self-policing but that was natural for us because we grew up where “community” was just a given. I don’t want to say the times were BETTER, per se, but they were structurally different for sure. In some of our friends’ homes we just walked in. Shouted hi. Looked in the fridge. There was definitely a more “family approach” in the small town I grew up in. That time is gone and we will never get it back but having lived both in the analog generation AND the digital generation, I think the younger generations are frankly braver than we were. We were tougher, sure, but if you think about the dangers of this time, it’s amazing young kids get through it. We would NEVER have thought about a “school shooting” and in high school, half the pickup trucks in the parking lot had rifles in the back window gun rack. Not a lie. It’s just sad. America is so mean now.

[@mbourque]

I grew up in the late 70s, early 80s and we'd get kicked out of the house after breakfast and were locked out until supper. I biked 3 miles to my bus stop during school. I live in the countryside and the nearest neighbor was over a mile away through the forest. Started hunting small game around the house at 5 years old, and large game at 12. My nearest friend was 8 miles away and I would bike there almost daily. I would have loved for my children to have grown up the same way.

[@wendykeesey8494]

Boomers had a “more adventureous” time, less supervision. We had to be home by the time streetlights came on. We had 3 local stone quarries with ponds. The local park had sliding boards that went as high 12 feet, slide surface was metal with about an 18” drop onto asphalt. Sides on it were about 5” high. Slide got hotter than hades on a summer day. I lived in a smalltown. We use to “walk” (stooped over) through the pipes that were encsing creeks. We use to boost younger children up on to lower roofs. We also got to sit on Dad’s lap to practice driving. He controlled the pedals and changed gears. We started this at abt 8 years of age. We also stuck our arms and heads out the car door windows as kids. There were lots more dangerous activities. You learned to think and prevent inuries. If you were one of the older siblings you probably had a younger sibling in tow that you were responsible for. Farm kif=ds had many chores that were very dangerous. I had friends you started driving farm tractors between 8 and 10 years. We didn’t live on a farm, but I remember mr brother using first a push mower and teh a gssoline powered mower that had no shield over the engine or the vertcal rotary blades (same configuration as the push mower with a small gasoline engine added. I helped cook 9Mom in kitchen) and started watching 2 siblings at age 5 while my mom hung out wash and we were in the house alone (ages 5, 2.5 and newborn). We are all alive and healthy at ages 76, 74, 72 and 69. All of us have our arms, legs, 10 fingers, 10 toes and are healthy.

[@michelleponzio]

'79 Gen-X. I did all this, plus jumped off the roof into the snow bank at the side of the house. For us, the rules were: if it's not gushing, spurting, protruding, or severed, you were fine. Slap a Band-aid on and go back outside Lawn darts were fun. We would throw them at each other just because

[@MoreAdamCouser]

Love it!

[@csw3287]

@michelleponzio We were Tough

[@scottbiggs4169]

@@michelleponzio just rub some dirt on it and walk it off!

[@TheTazame]

one time me and some neighborhood kids started throwing small rocks at each other like a snowball fight. we also played "jump over the cactus" it didnt go very well and i got needles in my ass. it sucked in the moment but i look back at those times and just cant help but laugh

[@BostonShovinstuff]

I'm 41 ... I'm a hybrid . Born in 83 , I was born and raised in Boston . My parents wouldn't see me ALL day unless I came home to get some food . It was a constant life learning experience

[@jenniferbesing-gw4ze]

I'm a GenX survivor and this video took me back! Thank you!

[@greeneyedlady5580]

I'm the mother of a GenXer. I remember really well when at 8 years old he went over one of those ramps kids had set up over a speed bump, and coming off the jump he lost his footing on one of the pedals. The metal edge of the pedal did hit his leg repeatedly, but i wasn't really like a "vegetable peeler", because it went all the way down to his leg bone. My son didn't cry when the nearest mother heard the kids screaming, and tried to wash all the sand and gravel out of his wrounds with a hose. He didn't cry when his grandmother came hustling over and cleaned it out more with (stinging) first aid spray. He didn't cry when i arrived on the scene and made my assessment. He didn't cry when they cleaned it up even more with alcohol at his pediatricians office. Being a really tough little shit, he didn't even cry when the plastic surgeon sewed him back up, but he did ask if he could bite on my hand. 😂 Apparently he'd about reached the end of his macho by that point. The horrified nurse quickly gothim a washcloth to bite down on, and then he was fine.

[@UncleBuckRodgers]

1973 is my birthday, fond memories of those days. You could be in a different state, and your parents didn't have a clue back then. I WAS the remote control until around 1986 BTW. It all started going downhill when cell phones started replacing land lines, and everyone had one, and became even worse when the iPhone came out.

[@coleenkane6683]

Yes yes exactly I was the channel changer oh lord I had the most fun. I miss the 80s and I bought cigarettes for my step dad at the corner store & I would buy Penny Candy also good times.

[@bsmith8943]

Right there with you.

[@stevedavis5704]

Actually I think it all started going downhill when we got cordless phones.

[@markchristensen23]

I didn't have a bike, but we'd go wander around in the woods for hours on end, finding the cool sticks, playing in the river, even making little shelters out of branches. It's kind of why I thought the movie "Swiss Family Robinson" was so fun.

[@inspiredliveband]

It started going downhill in the Mid 90’s once the internet began developing. Now computers and screens raise children, not friends and neighborhood adventures. Back in the day, every neighborhood had its own gang of friends…bicycles equaled freedom…I am guilty of jumping my friends on my bicycle, jumping of a house roof with a skateboard, plowed through a barbed wire fence in a go cart, that shredded me legs…BB G U N WARS TOO. Yes, all of this is how it was! We survived and are stronger for it!

[@Brenda-f9y]

I remember one time in the early 80's my older brother and a neighbor rode my brothers motorcycle while our step cousin and I followed behind them in my go cart out into the woods behind our neighborhood. My brother and neighbor jumped a creek but the neighbor kid lost a shoe in the water so they were down there looking for it. I didn't see them until the last minute when I told my cousin to hold on tight as I TRIED to jump the creek but ended up landing with the nose of the go cart stuck in the mud. Fun times! Although my step cousin swore to never get on the go cart with me ever again. LOL

[@heidipye3488]

​@@Brenda-f9y😂 sounds familiar!❤

[@TheTazame]

i unfortunately didnt really have anyone i would call a friend growing up, even though there were tons of kids in my neighborhood. i would still try to get involved with those kids but i was always treated as an outcast.

[@valorica3210]

We drove like the Duke’s from The Duke’s of Hazard. I remember drifting around curves on gravel country roads. Catching air (going airborne) and driving far faster than the speed limits. While fun, it’s a miracle we lived to tell the tales.

[@janedyck8852]

This brought back so many memories! I remember my best friend and I laying on my roof using lemon juice in our hair to lighten it while laying there covered in suntan oil. Mom and dad didn't care unless we were causing damage somehow! Lawn darts? We had those and not once did anyone get hit with one - we were smart enough to stand back and run if it looked like the throwers aim was a bit off. Clackers? I had a set in bright royal blue and I LOVED them (mom and dad felt different for some reason....might have been all the aspirin they kept needing to buy). We learned to have fun and take risks sometimes, we weren't coddled like babies making sure we didn't get a "boo boo". The fact we got spanked if we messed up was a valuable lesson to NEVER do what ever we did to get one ever again - these days, most kids aren't even told NO!

[@nicktone88246]

I was born in 82, so a lot of this applied to me as well. We had internet and cable by mid 90s. But the internet wasn't the same back then. I would only get online to check sporting event scores from the night before and write up a paper for school. Otherwise my friends and I were always out and about. I think my generation may be the last generation to where kids had lots of freedom. Before I could go out with my friends, my dad asked us 3 things. 1) is your homework done? 2) are your chores done? 3) Did you ask your mom if she needs anything before you leave? If all those were satisfied i could go out with my friends whenever i wanted. The internet and technology changed everything. Not only for entertainment for children but also I think it made more helicopter parents. As I said, I had tons of freedom growing up. By the early 2000's parents would see all these bad stories on the internet, even if something happened 600 miles away, parents would see more of these kind of stories nation wide and let children have less freedom. Where as where i grew up in small town ohio, you got news from local news station or local newspapers. Not a lot of terrible local news so kids had tons of freedom. Internet changed a lot of how things were approached.

[@addieelive]

I’m gen z and both of my parents were born in 70. They told me the shit they went through. When I grew up in the early and mid 2010’s and I drank out of the hose and my parents forced me and my brother outside and if we came back in we couldn’t go back out cause once you’re in, you are in. I did have iPads, iPods, and my parent’s phones since I was born 2007. But just going out side rollerblading, the back of the scooter or bike pedal hitting your leg was the shit. I baby sat gen alpha and they just keep asking for TV and shows that my parents restricted (but maybe that’s just my mom and dad). If I ever had the chance where everyone in the neighborhood went out and played baseball, the lava monster at the play ground, and more tag games, I would take it. I also never see kids climbing trees anymore, I would hang upside down from that until I fell off.

[@Austin_Wingfield]

1987 baby here. Love the taste of waterhose water. I remember being 5 just riding my bike all over my town

[@tammyfinnemore]

I'm Gen x in Autralia, and yep...did pretty much all of this and so much more lol. Didnt have the razor blades on the kites, but used to hang onto back of buses while riding our bikes if we got tired, or climbed up trees to see how high we could go, see how fast we could spin, jump off, hang from etc in the playground

[@AC-ni4gt]

I was born on the tail end of the 80's to the start of the early 90's. I still wonder how I managed to survive.... Like climbing fences; climbing trees; running barefoot through the grass; drawing with chalk on the sidewalk or street; being able to walk to the neighbor's house in the front and the back yard; and my most favorite one was being able to enjoy the freedom of doing almost anything. I'll admit I remember often riding short distances without a seatbelt. Best runs was to the nearby grocers at night without a seatbelt and coming home with some ice cream bars as part of the groceries.

[@dizzyshar]

I am Gen X. I had my first experience with hard liquor, smoking (i got addicted), almost got abducted while walking to school (guy tried to pull me in his car, wearing a clown mask and his willy out), first game of strip poker, could have easily had sex for first time, and eye witnessed the death of 5 people. 2 kids hit by car on addicent, one man shooting his wife in the street, one kid get killed by bullying, and a man who accidently set himself on fire that lived next door. (was unnerving seeing him run from his house into the street englufed in flames) I saw my first block/rave party from sneaking out of the house late at night, had my first experiences of weed (it was easy, it was sold by the man who owned the arcade). Also almost got struck by lightening...twice. I experienced all of this, by the time I was 10 years old. I am Gen X

[@MrFishPirate]

A lot of these things are geared toward gen-xers who grew up in the cities. Put this on steroids for kids like me who grew up in the country. We would have fireworks fights (lit a field on fire once), jump off 20 foot dirt cliffs into the soil below (or into a creek), shoot arrows straight up in the air and try to dodge it at the last second when it came down. We would in the winter hop on the plastic sleds and go backwards down a three terraced path (terraces are like small hills), hopefully miss a couple trees, and get as close as possible to the edge of a 20 foot ditch drop off before flipping the sled.

[@katttmandoo]

Now see here! West Virginia Born in 84, siblings in 69 & 72. Parents: mom brn in 1949, dad in 1947(boomers) Step dad born in 1944(traditionlist/silent gen) grandparents born in the 20’s. I’m a firm believer that Gen X is 1965-1985.. I get extremely offended when I’m called a millennial. I grew up in the country runnin the woods by myself at 6. We had both city and well water taps on our sink. I had to peddle an old metal miniature kids massy Ferguson tractor toy with a hitch. I road Honda 50’s by myself at age 7. I caught the belt when I got outa line. I still own a crimper. I also still own a banana clip, couldn’t tell you where my DARE shirt is. Our rotary was rectangular on the wall and our kitchen had carpet. I had a record player/radio. I learned how to finish drywall at age 7, Vietnam vet step dad taught me things like laying brick, minor plumbing, carpentry, etc. my Vietnam vet dad raised chickens cows and a horse. Learned to ride a horse by age 2. I never really felt like a millennial and always felt more like Gen x. And so that’s what I am…. PERIOD! I never got a participation trophy, only trophies I earned……. All that said I WILL NEVER IDENTIFY AS A MILLENNIAL! That’s just how I feel 😂

[@Michelle-j4k]

Yep, in school there were always about 4 or 5 kids with broken arms all the time!😂

[@MGower4465]

I remember walking to the store 3 miles...just go turn around and walk 3 miles home. Just being outside. My mom occasionally had me actually buy small, non-perishable stuff like bread or coffee. My older sister's girl friends never quite got used to encountering me walking randomly 2 miles from home, and kept insisting on giving me a ride back. I didn't mind, she had gorgeous friends. I'm sure they thought I was a little weird actually *walking* places. But adventure was where you found it. But I was wary of the sometimes-sketchy types at the KOA campground. Spent hours "fishing" with no bait, not even a hook. Just a bobber. I didn't actually want to catch a fish. That would be a hassle. But if you're outside, and better yet, a ways from the house, Mom couldn't assign extra chores, because she couldn't find you.

[@FJCheli]

I think I was part of the last generation of kids who still did a lot of this in the late 90s to early 2000s. Back when what is a basic internet package today was called "broadband internet", which was very expensive, and your average household either had dial-up internet or none at all. Therefore most kids actually went outside and played and socialized face to face.

[@JIMBEARRI]

Anyone who could afford it, would have installed a rotary antenna on the roof. There would be an antenna control box on top of the TV. It had a large knob surrounded by a dial. You'd mark on the dial the location of the various TV towers in your area. When you changed TV channel, you just moved the knob on the antenna controller and the antenna would rotate to the correct location.

[@Sassysouthernlady]

Yes, we had one of those and I didn't realize that everyone didn't until today. Dad still was in control though. If he told one of us to move the antenna, it had better be done slowly. Four channels are all we had and my siblings and I were the remote control. I miss those days.

[@jadawa85]

I remember those times fondly. The funny thing is, one time I was griping to my father about how ridiculously safe playgrounds were these days and he told me about when he would play on a pile of used lumber in the schoolyard, nails and all.

[@artemis009]

Proud Generation X kid here. Growing up in the 80’s was the best. Best movies, best music ever created, it was just all around the greatest decade. We weren’t afraid of nothing either. We climbed trees, went biking down the road, just had fun. We weren’t connected to our phones and iPads. And I had a slip n slide. Loved that sucker

[@AllyStrikesBack]

When it came to TV, Millennials saw some of the most craziest moments in cartoons, adult jokes in Rugrats that went over our heads & dark moments like Courage the Cowardly Dog.

[@gzin33]

As a gen xer born in 1968 I can relate to all of the things in this video. I recently tried to sell my lawn darts but the listing was taken down because apparently they are illegal to sell now haha. We used to throw them as high as we could and everyone would be under them and trying to avoid getting hit. Thanks for the flashbacks of my childhood.

[@bethbennett-blesi6908]

hi Adam! A proud baby boomer here, I grew up in the 60s & 70s. I remember being told to go to the store on my bike to replace the half gallon of milk that I just finished, and my mom making sure I had the 50 cents. For the non-Americans, a half gallon is roughly 2 liters. Ahhh, sweet times!

[@lunashipman8072]

I was born in 1980 and I had most of this stuff growing up. I spent most of my time outside running around barefoot and don’t ever remember getting a sunburn. I was the bunny ears for the tv. Sometimes I would have to stand there to get a good signal. The bike pedals were a menace to my shins. I would climb trees and fall out of them. I drank from the water hose, had a slip and slide, and almost broke my neck once. Those days were different and I don’t ever remember being bored.

[@3dartstudio007]

On a "boring summer day" bike ride trying new roads... one day me and my best bud were on a LOOONG bike ride and discovered a MAGIC place. A wonderland! We had passed hundreds of regular crappy brick houses that all looked alike, and found a NEW realm unlike ANYTHING we had ever seen! All the houses were glossy white metal! There were tiny MOVING wind mills! One driveway was made like a chess board with HUGE chess pieces as tall as our knee! Every house had a super nice glossy chrome car from the 40's or 50's or older! One entire yard was nothing but rectangle stones painted like dominos! Amazing!!! So, we oogled and oggled and was AMAZED, then went to tell my buddy's mom what we found and she did NOT believe us at all! So, we had to get in the family station wagon and PROVE we had in fact found a magic kingdom with all the wonders we had described. When we got there, she slapped BOTH of us in the head and called us idiots. It was a trailer park made for "old people" with "maintenance free" yards. Someone vandalized a lot of it with paint to make all the "wonders". And the articulated stuff and artificial green grass was called "goofy golf" and they old folks used it to putt around because they couldn't play real golf anymore. Anyway... I STILL think it was better than Disney Land

[@ChuckHuffmaster]

I was born in 1960 and I can confirm that the 70s was the best decade to be a teenager in from the amount of freedom to awesome music of all genres

[@tonileigh8660]

I remember blowing a fingernail completely off with a firecracker that had a short fuse. OUCH. And those "clacker" things? My mom worked for a small company that hired people to assemble them at home. She was supposed to test each one to make sure the balls hung evenly. Unfortunately, it was us kids who tested them. Our arms were constantly covered in bruises. After a couple months of hearing all 3 of us playing with them all the time, she quit that job because the noise drove her nuts. And we'd ride out bikes miles away from home or to go hang out at a mall all day on weekends that was 7 miles away. No one cared as long as we were home when the street lights came on. Which was around 9 pm in the summer!

[@AJZona-AJR79]

We didn’t face danger so much as create it.

[@MoreAdamCouser]

🤣🤣

[@4freebird69]

I absolutely feel grateful for growing up in the 70's and 80's. Knowing what it's like to live In a time when you just learn to take a fall, shake it off, or in some cases, keep playing through the healing process. Society has gotten soft.

[@littlerock8926]

Adam, I was born in 1968. All of this brought back some great memories. The sprinkler thing really brought back some. My younger cousin saw us older boys jumping and playing so he decided to try. Two minutes later he was in the house and the family was debating whether the cut was deep enough for emergency room or just some "steri-stips." I don't know how many cuts I had mended this way. LOL. I remember my mom sending me to the store, at 10 or 11 years old, to pick up cigarettes. The owner would always call my mom and make sure she knew how many packs I was getting. One more comment (I am adding as watching the video). Jacks are a game. You bounce the ball, pick up 1 jack and catch the ball. Then repeat but pick up 2 jacks. Continue this until you miss the ball, increasing the number of jacks by one each time.

[@lisakaye3935]

70/80’s girl and everything is true 😂 My neighbors frowned when I built my boys a bike ramp 😆

[@KTKacer]

Gen X here, man. You wanna know why the bike jump-overs check out some Evel Knievel videos - THAT's WHY. Skateboards were/are the BEST! Jacks were like caltrops, totally, the thing was you'd bounce the ball included and try to swipe up some jacks then on to the next player they'd do the same - etc... until the jacks were all gone. the one w/ the most jacks 'won."

[@theresabeck1029]

I'm Gen X. I remember everything in this video and would go back to living that life in a second. Great video ❤

[@scoobysnacks]

Yeah, you don't have the skin for coconut oil. The sun fried you like chicken. We called them knockers as well. I still have my pair from when I was a kid, and I'm 57 now. I was never able to make those things work more than once before they smashed my wrist every time. With the Jacks you would drop a bunch of them in one area, and then you had to bounce the ball, pick one jack up, and catch the ball before it bounced again. then you'd bounce the ball, pick two up jacks, and catch the ball before it bounced again. You'd continue increasing the number of jacks that you had to grab each time until you messed up. Whoever picked up the most jacks won. Or you could play by yourself and try to beat your own score. I was amazingly lucky to have grown up in the 70's and 80's. It was an amazing time for kids and it's rather depressing knowing that kids today can't experience all of the things that we experienced as kids. It's arguable whether technology has been a net positive or a net negative. We are certainly a lot more productive now, but I'm not sure that everything we lost because of technology was really worth the trade.

[@alishagrossman4080]

Born in the 70s and had the best childhood!

[@mil2k11]

We had a public schoolyard a block away where we'd all meet up and play anything from basketball to soccer. The maintenance guy there was really cool and he'd turn the wall-mounted water fountains on for us on Saturdays even though the school was closed. He also would go to the roof of the three-story school and toss down balls to us that got stuck up there. Mr Mannix - RIP & true legend for us kids.

[@MarquitaR]

thats was the best seat the back of the station wagon @8:56

[@GymbalLock]

Gen X here. My dad taught us how to make rockets out of matches and aluminum foil. We used to do that for fun until Dad caught us launching rockets in the garage next to the gasoline storage cans. Later, I took up airbrushing and would use enamel, paint thinner, lacquer, and sometimes gasoline in that airbrush. Then I realized I was next to the water heater that had a gas pilot light. I could've made my own fuel-air-explosive right there in the garage.

[@selketskiss56]

“I’ve just had a pain unlocked” is the funniest thing I have heard all year…thanks for the laugh.

[@lanejohnson7656]

I was a very feral gen X kid. I set things up to where I could have my chores done and all my mowing/snow removal done before 1 in the afternoon so I had the rest of the day.. I lived outdoors with a Bowie knife and remember riding bikes 3 miles south of town to the river with either a 22lr rifle or 12 gauge shotgun wired to the handle bars the summer between 4th and 5th grade.. My best friend and I were building shelters out of what Mother Nature provided with only our Bowie knives way before the internet and we knew bushcrafting was a thing. A shelter we built in the 6th grade in 1 day was still standing 3 years after we graduated high school. I remember one time I heard my mom screaming in the front yard and ran out to see she found a rattle snake. I went and grabbed a shovel and chopped its head off thin skinned it for the rattle, I was like 9 if I remember right.. I could go on for days about all the cool adventures as a kid. Still have the same best friend and we often look back and laugh and kinda wonder how we never got seriously hurt. I can’t count how many trees I fell out of or how many bad bike wrecks I probably should have got hurt fairly bad, but only cuts and scrapes and the only broken bone I had in my life was a finger playing football my 8th grade year. The next play after breaking it was the only play I missed the entire year and I played both sides of the ball and special teams. Only time I got in serious trouble was when my mom caught me trying to super glue a cut shut that I got hours before and washed it off with a garden hose and wrapped it in a strip of t-shirt I tore off, but it didn’t stop bleeding. 9 stitches and one hell of a sore ass later I learned when your mom is a nurse you better show her your wounds. Unfortunate for me she was the one that sewed me up and it was pretty obvious she wasn’t impressed or happy. Her sewing me up was punishment enough, but I still got my behind tanned.. lol

[@pddaawwgg]

It all changed with technology 100%. Kids would rather ride a bike on a videogame versus going outside.

[@nopalciny8476]

II remember those awful sprinklers! Yes they were very dangerous and it was nice when ppl started to use plastic instead. The plastic ones weren't as fun to run through though. Yes and I remember when ppl still smoked in the movie theaters, and I waited tables at Big Boys and Leons and was always stuck waiting on the customers in the smoking section which was a drag lol 😆. I could buy cigarettes at the corner store too. I was like 13! Lol. Times have changed I think it got that way here in the US after 911. Then Windows XP came out and that was it.

[@karenedwards6713]

The 80's were the absolute best. We left in the morning and didn't come home till night. My folks did'nt know or care what I did. My neighbor let me ride his horses and i might be up to 5 miles from home on a horse! If you got bucked off you just get right back on. Heck my folks loved it cause i basically had free horses. Things I did should of killed me. I remember I couldn't stop the bleeding and had to interrupt my mom's watching General Hospital Soap to get stitches. I hated having to go break the switch. If you had to break the switch then you know what i mean! I have scars! I still loved everything i did!! I loved riding in the back of the truck. Rode from Georgia to South Carolina many times in the back of the truck. They did put a seat in the back for us to sit and watch the people behind us. I bought enough cigarettes and beer for my dad! He worked for a beer distributor so we usually had plenty of cold beer. I actually quit drinking beer by 20. Drunkest i ever got i was about 12. If i drink its going to be hard liquor. My diabetes make drinking kind hard cause i just sweat.

[@Ultimaterob]

‘78 Gen-X. I remember taking my sled and sliding down the mound of dirt from a new community they were building. The end of it had about a seven foot drop on the side. We’d jump off that to see who’d get the most air. We also constructed a shelter from the bails of hay. So we wouldn’t need to go home just to warm up. Another time we’d take turns riding on the hood of a friend’s car and try to see who was willing to go the fastest. We would also take cherry-bombs, pack them in mud, light them up and see who was willing to hold out the longest and then toss them in the air letting the dirt shower us.

[@amberminchew2007]

Those were the days 🙌. We would be out playing in creeks trying to catch turtles until it started getting dark. Also liked playing on the roof 😅

[@johncentamore1052]

I winced and laughed way too hard: "Just unlocked a pain" 😂 Didn't have to wait for the explaination. Those bike pedals were not for the faint hearted. Now, they're plastic and the spikes are wider. Not quite as sporting as they once were.

[@bernicearthur8655]

I'm I grew up in Phila., PA. We had fire hydrants on the street corners. On really hot summer days, someone would Crack one open. The water would arc out in a cold sparkling spray. Kids would stand in the flow, lay down in the flow, and run thru the flow. You had to keep a look out for cars. Eventually, the fire department would come around and shut off the flow. Besides the danger from being hit by cars, the flow might be too low to put out a fire in the neighborhood. This occurred rarely.

[@johndeeregreen4592]

Gen X'er and proud of it. We don't look for safe spaces.

[@GymbalLock]

3:42 I think my family still has that exact model of sprinkler from the early 1970s

[@dlmullins9054]

I grew up in a coal camp in Southwestern Virginia in the fifties. My friends and i would play in the mountains every day from morning until dark and would only come home right before dark. We dug caves and once i almost died when a hole caved in on me. If not for my friends grabbing my ankles and pulling me out i would have died for sure. We swung from grapevines two thousand feet above the ground below. Our parents let us because they knew we needed to experience it and learn how to do things so we would be ready later in life. Living in such a tough area back then made me who i am today. A woos!

[@TallGuy_TJ]

As a proud GenXer I remember all of these except I never did the razor blades on a kite.

[@tomgardner2638]

Memories... I paused the video at the cigs, as I too would get them for both my parents. Never needed a note though. They at least mentioned the sitting in the back of pickups, which we did all the time. They did not mention a lot of the playground equipment. The 40 foot slides of shiny metal that you could fry eggs on burning the crap out of you as you rode them, the crazy spinning things that one kid would spin as fast as he could while everyone else tried to stay on. Cheaters stood in the middle,but on the outside edge was the fun part! The maniac type metal monkey bars where if you fell from any height, you would bounce off all the other bars on the way to the very hard, not padded ground underneath. Learning to swim in a new wave pool. Being told when discipline was to be dished out, to go out and pick a switch. It was never big enough, so the adult would then get the "right" one. Having wooden spoons broken off various parts of your anatomy. Heck, just getting a good old fashioned smack when needed is not done today....

[@mrgreengenes04]

We had the "luxury" of a rotor antenna, that rotated with a small motor with a control next to the TV. The roof was strictly for hanging out, being alone, and sunbathing. They were still common into the 2000s in the rural parts of America.

[@irishangel5689]

Gen X here, this was full of great memories. The part with the metal spinner water sprinkler "Did we jump over that?" Yes, and if you were lucky you cleared it. I wasn't so lucky in the Summer of '75 when I was 7 years old and I hit that sucker with my big toe and it took the tip off. Didn't go to the hospital either, which most people today would. My dad cleaned the toe with soap and water then dipped it into a cup of Iodine (talk about being hit with Satan's tongue), then he wrapped it in gauze.

[@GymbalLock]

8:64 my grandmother had a station wagon just like that. The rear floor folded back to make a rear-facing seat. The two kids sitting back there could then make eye contact with the driver behind.

[@mystikarain]

Dude, I survived the 70s and 80s. I do NOT want to go back!

[@revgurley]

I grew up in Orlando Florida in an old orange grove in the 1970s. Orange trees every 20 feet except where there was a house or a large, old oak. I lived outside, biking, playing with friends, tumbling in the yard, then grab an orange of a tree for food/drink/snack. I could bike several miles without my parents worrying. I'm not sure they knew where I was a lot of the time. But that forced me to behave - if I were to be brought home by a police officer, I'm not sure I'd ever NOT be grounded for life. My dad would disown me. So, I didn't get into trouble, and never saw his wrath. Except once (age 15 or 16) when a schoolmate picked me up to go to a party, and that schoolmate was male, AND he had an earring. My father wouldn't let me get my ears pierced (I am female, btw), so he was NOT pleased to see this "juvenile delinquent" on the door step. Luckily, the man I ended up marrying doesn't have any piercings or tattoos. So he passed my father's muster.

[@TrazNY67]

yup.. we're a special breed. outside from morning until night. making go karts out of spare parts we found and went flying down the hills. we threw lawn jarts up in the air and hoped not to get hit by it. made forts in the woods. no phones, no computers, just outside all the time.

[@Zerbyte]

I blame Ted Turner starting the 24 hour news cycle in 1980. More and more 'news' needed reporting so parents started hearing all the horrible things that happen. Child molesters, kidnappings, and so on. Went from "Go outside!" to "Stay in the yard!" to "Stay where I can see you.".

[@tj_2701]

Another great video from Adam. 💚💚💚💚

[@garycamara9955]

I just kept working on my bike I had a sturdy archer 3spd with 3 outside sprockets and 3 front crank sprockets , 18 speeds.

[@zeroyum1473]

Man, I miss my Gold Schwinn Stingray with the white banana seat and ape hanger handlebars!!!

[@noneyabusiness8278]

The slip and slide was preparation for the cliff jumping we did in high school, good times.

[@cptchaotic]

As kids we went on the roof all the time. As my parents used to say "We can always have more kids if something happens to you up there." We used to jump our friends on our bikes all the time. But if you wanted to do the jump you also had to lay down and get jumped. Not only did we drink from our garden hose but we would drink from any strangers garden hose we happen to be playing by. Can you imagine you are outside playing in the summer heat feeling thirsty and risk going inside for a drink and being told you had to stay in. Nope just find the nearest garden hose form a line and drink. Just make sure to turn the water all the way off when you are done. Strangers would come out of their house and there would be 6 kids the didn't know drinking from their hose. As kids we would fight to see who got the back widow if we were going anywhere in the car. I showed up a few times to the store with a bloody nose but I had the window on the way there.

[@jillonair]

I'm an elder millennial. I still have a scar on my left ring finger from getting it caught in one of those chairs. Stitches? Who needs stitches. I also broke my wrist when I was 5 roller skating outside in the street with no parents watching. My friend ran and got my mom. I told her I was fine and refused to go to the doctor for 3 days. When my parents finally made me go, yep. It was broken. We had a whole neighborhood of kids and during the summer we were gone all day with our bikes. Our parents didn't care. Had no idea where we were and never asked. What a time to be a kid. Also adding that we used to build snow pits under the big apple tree in my neighbors yard, attach a rope, then swing across. And there was an abandoned house one block over that we would sneak into. The floors were NOT safe. We stopped going when we saw a light on in the basement one night and convinced ourselves it was a ghost and/or a murderer.

[@DeAnne1233]

Jax: can you grab more jacks (like miniature tire irons and a rubber tire ball) off of the floor than your opponent before the ball comes back down to be caught? Whoever picked up more Jax by the end- won (like marbles); if you don’t catch the ball the jacks go back on the floor for the opponents turn. We became quick like a nascar pit crew changing a tire. Eventually they put a plastic paint coating on the jacks making it less likely to go through the tender part of the heal but by that time the game died out because Moms always threw away any that she found on the floor so eventually you’re left with a rubber ball to bounce off the walls or ceiling to floor down the hallway.

[@irishmedic]

I was born in nov 65' first year of Gen X. The best was during winter sleigh riding down hills on "Flexible Flyers Sleds" one guy would take off and jump on sled to ride down hill, then some other kid would jump on his back and maybe another, I saw a sled take 4 kids down it one day, they couldn't steer so crashed through a wooden fence! Snow ball fights were great sometimes we put small rocks in them they kept them together better as the snow would stick to rock. During summers we had pine cone and acorn fights when we were small, after we turned like 12 or 13 and are parents would get us BB guns we had firght with them, you were only supposed to pump the gun 3 times to get small amount of gas inside to shoot. Favorite games were between dodge ball and "KILL THE GUY WITH THE BALL", I always thought that was much better. I was a US Army Combat Medic and Ranger, all this fun during my childhood, I believe prepared me for the Army. I wouldn't have traded my childhood for nothing!

[@daleb1279]

The cigarette vending machines were all over the place inside restaurants and other places where kids could just walk up and put the money in and out came the cigarettes. I remember getting the money and being sent over to buy them for adults.

[@GymbalLock]

Someplace I saw one of those cigarette vending machines that was repurposed to sell packs of crayons and chalk.

[@cletus1n3]

Back in the 70s, when I was 5 or 6 I routinely went into the liquor store and bought beer for my Dad, who didn't want to get out of the car (I can actually feel him on this one; every time you have to get out of the car it adds about 20 minutes to a trip)...

[@ryanmccann7176]

Hey Adam, I’ve always wondered what it would be like for a European to make a gun vlog. A lot of Europeans are understandably scared of guns, but whether it be a gun show, a gun store, or maybe even shooting a gun. I live in Dallas, Texas and guns stores are easy to find; you can even pick one up at Walmart. I remember my first time holding a gun and the weight of the gun alone was something else. For the record, I am not a gun fanatic. I just think you’d be the first European youtuber I’ve seen with the personality to really make a video like that interesting; especially in Florida or Nevada!

[@GoddessFourWinds]

Or even here in New Mexico. The NRA Whittington Center is located where I live.

[@EricWoodyVariety59]

Jack's are solid metal spikes.

[@mczgc]

I'm the youngest of 5 children. The house we lived in had an in ground bill. Dad had taken off & mom was busy working to support us kids. During the summer here in Phoenix, Arizona. Us kids and our friends would climb on top of the roof of the house. We would get a good running start & jump off the roof & into the deep end of the pool. That is until the neighbor lady across the street from us started calling the cops on us. We would promise to stop & a few days later, the cops would be back at our house telling us yet again how dangerous it was to be jumping into the pool. We all survived.

[@BarbaraShirley452]

I’m a baby boomer and growing up in the 50s and 60s was this plus more. We lived in the city and as toddlers my mother would regularly tie a rope around our waists and the other end to a tree in our yard. She’d go back inside and we’d play in the dirt until she came back to get us. One time my brother, who was probably 3 at the time, wiggled out of his rope and wandered off down the street. A neighbor found him and walked him back to our house, rang the doorbell and asked Mom if he was hers. I also have a photo of my mother, at least 8 months pregnant, with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and little kids all around. All this was considered very normal.

[@Space_Nerd67]

As an individual who grew up in the '70s into the mid '80's, I have witnessed the social changes in American society. I have to say that the advent of home gaming systems and then the internet are two of the most notable correlations when studying the the differences in child activity, weight, and social normative behavior. As a child, being 'grounded' or forced to stay in the house or your bedroom was extremely distressing and boring. Today a 'groundment' is desired by the youth. Most have a TV, gaming system, a laptop, and a mobile device, so there is no positive results using this tatic to correct a child's behavior. I belive that this is one of the reasons parents today have given up on trying to correct bad behavior, but instead attempt to please thier children at almost any cost. As long as the child isn't 'bothering' the parent/s, everything is wonderful. That way of parenting directly correlates with the attitude of a majority of our youth today: "I want it now, I expect it now, and I will disrespect anyone and everyone to do what I want or get my own way ". Lastly, childhood obesity was almost non existen when I was growing up. Today, at least in the United States, seeing a child over the age of 10 that is not overweight is comparable to seeing a rare butterfly in the Congo.

[@shashie2158]

The Adam Walsh kidnapping and murder in 1981 was highly publicized. I think, after that, the Hilton walkway collapse, also 1981, and the Tylenol murders in 1982, people started being more aware/ scared.

[@Mr70stagetwo]

Remember collecting returnable bottles to cash in for candy or a Coke? One time a friend and I found cases, and I mean cases of Pepsi bottles (1 liter?) in six pack cartons at a dump; a kid's dream. It took quite a few trips carrying them on our bikes to turn them in to get 10 cents a bottle. We turned them in at the Red Baron convenience store in Charlotte, NC, near Charlotte Country Day School.

[@reginafarley1325]

I was born in the mid sixty's & lived on a dairy farm. I got my bb gun when I was 5-6yrs old. We got mini motorcycles when I was about 7-8? yrs old. By the time we were to big for them my handle bars were held together with binder twine. My dad had stock racks for his pickup. They're like a mini pen that fits on the pickup bed made of wood & parents hauled cows with it. Ever seen a full grown bull riding in the back of a pickup? Lol. If it was empty, my brother & I would climb up the front part as high as we could get & rode there. The only thing we worried about was getting hit by a bumblebee or a wasp.

[@stevedavis5704]

Most bicycle pedals now have a hard rubber cover on the sharp spikey part unless it’s a pedal for a racer or an off road bike. Much more painful in my youth was when the pedal broke and for whatever reason you would just use the tube from the center of the pedal.