When I was a little kid I had to go to bed at 7 or so, so I share the annoyance at having to be in bed when it was light out. The only other clear memory I have about bedtimes was that I must have had a 10:00 one during my late junior high/early high school years (this would have been around '78-'80) because I remember being very angry that I couldn’t stay up and watch Vega$.
Oh, and as a special treat when I was little, I got to stay up and watch *Baretta *with my mom. It wasn’t that I particularly loved *Baretta *(I liked it fine but it wasn’t a specific favorite), but my mom had a crush on Robert Blake and any excuse to get to stay up past bedtime was fine with me!
Like Gamehat & Infovore, I recall being in preschool and very angry to be sent to bed during the summer while it was still light out, but it doesn’t get dark until after nine during the summers here (sunset isn’t until 8:30 in July). In elementary school it was 9, and when I was in 7th grade I got extra special permission to stay up until 10 once a week to watch The Young Riders, so my bedtime was clearly earlier than that. Probably 9:30. And when Twin Peaks was on a year later, I still wasn’t allowed to stay up past 10, so I missed it. Starting in 9th grade I was allowed to go to bed whenever I wanted, which was generally before 11.
However, starting when I was 12 I didn’t need to be up for daycare or anything during the summer - in fact I became the babysitter then - so we were both allowed to stay up as long as we felt like then…often until 4am because he was such a handful and sleeping until noon or one meant that much less time before our parents got home. Bedtimes were also not enforced on Friday or Saturday nights.
When I was 4 or 5 I remember it was 9 pm sharp. When I was younger than that, I think it was earlier, but I don’t remember it. When I was 6 or 7 it got upgraded to 9:15. Whoopee. Live it up.
I don’t remember exactly when I discarded the entire concept of a bedtime set by my parents, but I couldn’t have been older than 8.