Generational Differences

In My Humble Opinion
21

Demographics:

Male or Female
Male

Birth Year: (Let’s hear from another generation, spread your data a bit…)
1942

Year graduated from High School
Dropped out and joined the military, 1959.

  1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home?
    Got a B&W television when I was about 14. Telephone, record player and radio.

  2. Did you eat meals together as a family?
    Seldom. Mom was a workin’ girl. When my sister and I were staying at our grandparent’s house, which was often, we ate together.

  3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
    Much larger.

  4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in?
    Three, with Mom’s occasional man du jour making it four.

Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling?
One bathroom in the house, so shared it with everybody.

Did you ever share a room with another family member?
Had my own room.

  1. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
    We all went fishing once. Sis and I got dropped off at the movies on Sunday afternoon a lot.

  2. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?
    Walked railroad tracks, threw rocks at stuff, rambled along the river bank with other kids.

  3. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make?
    I caught wild animals and reptiles in the Everglades, gathered rare native plants and sold that stuff. Made better money than the boys bagging groceries or delivering papers were making.

What did you spend it on?
Spent it on records and girls.

  1. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
    Bought one, wrecked it about a month later, then left home for the military service. Having a car was fun while it lasted.

  2. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?
    Bought Levis at the Army Surplus store, and records (mostly 45 rpm) at record shops.

  3. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?
    Jeans and just normal, everyday shirts. Button-down collars started to be popular. Girls really did wear poodle skirts to dances and parties.

  4. What kind of music was popular?
    Rock & Roll, Country, Blues, were the three radio stations we listened to.

What was the first popular song you could sing?
Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene”.

What devices did you use to listen to music?
Record player, radio.

  1. Did you date?
    A lot. From 7th grade on I was seldom without a girlfriend. Some didn’t last very long, but as soon as one left another one always showed up in short order.

Where did you or others go for dates?
Dances. The PBA (Police Benevolent Association) and PAL (Police Athletic League) sponsored a dance or two every weekend. The Elk’s Club also sponsored dances for teenagers. Drive-in movies were popular. Beach parties and parties at people’s houses were frequent as well.

  1. How old were you when you were first left home alone?
    Nine or ten.
    How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it?
    There wasn’t any such rule. If I was staying overnight somewhere, I’d leave a note.

Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
No.

  1. What’s your highest level of post secondary education?
    Four years college.

Same for mother and/or father?
Mother-Business school. Father-College degree, but he got blowed up in the South Pacific in WW2, when I was just a few months old.

Geographical location
Miami, Florida

22

Born in 1970:

1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?

Color television, but my family never had a stereo TV. Since 1980 there were at least two “main” TVs in the house with smaller, older sets in other rooms (some color, some B/W). We got our first VCR in 1984, which cost nearly $300 (and not even stereo). While there were answering machines, my family never used one. All I had for a computer was a Timex/Sinclair 2068, followed by a Tandy Color Computer 3.

2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?

Not very often. The three of us kids would usually eat dinner together and then my parents would eat later on.

3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?

Smaller. I am single, so I am not raising a family.

4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?

Five (mother, father, two sisters and myself). Being the only boy, I had my own bedroom. We all used the same bathroom.

5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?

We had a cabin up in the mountains and went there just about every weekend during the summer. As my mom and dad owned a business, we didn’t really have much time to get away for long vacations and the like. After my mom and dad sold their cabin we went out on campouts about three or four times each summer. We’d also sometimes go to the state fair and other festivals together.

6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?

Swimming, bike riding, playing Atari games.

7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?

I didn’t get my first job until the day after I graduated from high school.

8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?

When the minimum driving age allowed it here, I was able to drive at the age of 14, with nighttime priveleges at the age of 16. I didn’t have my own car until I moved out on my own at the age of 24.

9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?

K-Mart, Sears and a store called Grand Central were the three places we went the most, no Wal-Mart, Target, Fred Meyer or ShopKo stores then. Albertsons was and still is the dominant supermarket chain. Boise didn’t even have a decent shopping mall until 1988, so we had to go about 20 miles out of town to Nampa, whose mall isn’t that impressive by today’s standards, either, but it was all we had then.

10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?

My mom bought Toughskins jeans (Sears brand). If I recall, they weren’t all that fashionable. I never wore anything that was considered to be in style until I got to junior high. Ocean Pacific and Hobie shirts were popular, and I also finally starte wearing Levi’s 501 jeans by then.

11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?

Disco was big in my early youth (ages 5 to 9). Fortunately, my sister was into what is now “classic rock” (Led Zeppelin, Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, Kiss, etc.) My parents tell me that I could sing Neil Diamond’s “Songs Sung Blue” at the age of two, but I don’t remember doing this. Since I didn’t sing along with music much I can’t really recall the first song I tried it with. Back then it was mostly records and tapes, oh, and this short-lived experiment called 8-tracks.

12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?

Not until I was 16. I don’t remember where we went other than various restaurants and movie theaters.

13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?

I was 24. I never tried to go far and not tell anyone where I was going. Since my mom and dad owned a business and lived in the house behind it, they were usually there. If anything, my mom was the one who stayed home until all of us children were in school, and during the summer, old enough to be left alone for short periods of time while my parents tended to their business.

  1. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?

Oh, and my geographical location: near Boise, Idaho, where I still live today.

23

Demographics:

Male or Female
Female

Birth Year
1946

Year graduated from High School
1964

1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?
One Console, B/W TV but not until I was 6 years old . AM radio, record player. We had a party line phone until I was 10. My grandfather hated it, and my grandmother abused it. It was removed when I was 10. I still don’t like using the phone.

2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?
Yes, every day except Saturday. My aunt (close to my age) and I went to the movies on Saturday afternoon. We’d get home around 7:00PM. My grandfather picked us up after he and my grandmother ate dinner, because we were never hungry after all the movie junk.

3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
Much larger. The house I grew up in was about 1100 Sq Ft. Today’s house is close to 3000 Sq ft

4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?
Five people lived in the house. My grandparents, my aunt and my great grandmother, and me. (I was raised by my grandparents). Sometimes more, when their other children came home (two uncles came home from Korea after being wounded, and having Malaria.) Their youngest child, my aunt, was 7 years older than I. We shared a bedroom (and a 3/4 bed) until she moved out at 18.
Until I was five, we had only a cold water sink inside the house. My great grandmother, who was blind, used a night jar, but everyone else braved the outside if necessity called in the night. I would occasionally sleep with my great grandmother.
The house was remodeled when I was five. We got hot and cold water, and a bathroom. :smiley:
5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
In the evening, before we had a TV we’d listen to the radio. It had “prime time” shows just like TV does now. My bedtime was 7:30PM so I had to sneek out to the doorway to listen to The Shadow and Masterpiece Theater Sometimes my grandfather would read aloud.
We’d go on car rides, especially in the summer, just to cool off.

6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings
My aunt and her friends tortured me whenever they could get away with it. We lived pretty rural, so there weren’t many kids my age. The closest family was about 1/2 mile away. I played alone mostly. I had an imaginary friend until I started school.

7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?
In the summer I picked strawberries. The whole season I’d make about $50 which I’d use for school clothes. My grandfather would buy my shoes and a few things, but anything special, I had to get myself. During the school year, I baby sat for my aunts and uncles, and a couple neighbors. That was just on weekends. Most of the time the aunts and uncles “forgot” to pay me. I’m still bitter about that.

8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
No.

9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?
Downtown Kent Washington. Usually at J C Penney’s or Woolworth’s. I shopped for school clothes, Christmas and birthday presents.

10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?
Dresses, skirts & sweaters. In high school, skirts had to touch the floor when kneeling. I only had to kneel for a teacher once, my grandparents were pretty strict about “modesty”

11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?
Elvis, then, the Beatles, and the British Invasion. I listened to a lot of jazz and loder music too. because I liked it.

12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?
No. Dates were movies, skating, or some other mild sports activity. (except for the “BAD” girls. I don’t know where they went, but I suspect they had more fun.)

13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
We had five acres of woods, I was probably 3or 4 the first time I went to play in the woods alone. As long as I was on home property or riding my bike within a mile from home I didn’t have to check in. If I was going to someone’s house, I had to say when I’d be home. If I went to the lake, (about 7 miles) I had to be with someone and I’d better not be late getting home.
My grandmother and great grandmother were always home. Sometimes my grandmother would leave me with great-grandma for several hours,even though she was blind and basicly helpless.

14. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
I have a BS in nursing. I was the first person in my extended family to go to college. My grandfather finished 8th grade, and my grandmother 3rd grade. My mother finished high school.

15. Geographical Area(s) where you grew up.
Kent, Washington southeast of Seattle.

24

I missed one:
What was the first popular song you could sing? My aunt and I would sing while we did the dishes. I think the first song I know all the words to was Tonight, you Belong to Me by Patience and Prudence. We could really harmonize to that. I think I was about 9 or 10. After that, I knew all the words to any song I liked.

25

Demographics:
Female
mid 1960’s
early 1980’s
Missouri, Michigan, West Virginia

  1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?
    **Computers? Are you kidding? When I was a kid a computer with the capacity of the average scientific calculator used by high school kids today filled an entire room! Geez, I remember vacuum tubes!. Anyhow…

We had 1 black and white TV in my early childhood, and later we had 2 black and white TV’s. I didn’t own a color set until after I was out of college. I predate the home VCR, DVD, CD’s, video game, etc. We did not have an answering machine either.**

  1. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?
    Most nights, yes, we ate dinner as a family. Since my dad worked in a hospital his schedule sometimes kept him away, but anyone in the house at dinner time sat down together. On weekends we had family lunch and often breakfast as well.

  2. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
    Smaller. I don’t have kids, so I don’t need as much room and would rather spend the money on other things

  3. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?
    I come from a family of six. In early childhood, all four of us kids shared the same bedroom and all six of us shared the single bathroom. Later, we had two kids’ rooms with a bath, and another bedroom/bath for our parents. Until my sisters moved out and went to college I did not have a room or bath of my own.

  4. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
    Board games, TV, trips, dinner, backyard games like croquet and Jarts (which, if I recall, are now banned!), and stuff like that

  5. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?
    Sports, board games, I was heavily into D&D in junior high and high school, card games, sitting around talking

  6. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?
    Did not have a job - the economy at the time in Detroit was crap and virtually no one my age could get paying work. I did some volunteer work with the Red Cross for awhile.

  7. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
    I drove in high school - I drove this ancient maroon Pontiac thing originally owned by my Aunt Ronnie. The car was older than I was, and was mostly my mom’s. Occassionally got to drive dad’s car. I didn’t own my own car until my late 20’s

  8. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?
    The mall, the grocery store, and local bookstores. 'Fraid I don’t have time right now for a complete dissertation.

  9. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?
    Jeans and t-shirts, jeans and turtlenecks, depending on season. Fasionable? Didn’t have the money to keep up wiht that crowd

  10. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?
    First pop song I could sing? Had to be something from either the Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, or the Beatles. I remember when the Beatles were still together and coming out with new stuff, like Let It Be. We listened to music on the radio and on record players, which I think they now call turntables. I remember the arrival and departure of 8-track tapes.

  11. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?
    Yep. I dated. In the Pontiac Oldster I borrowed from mom. We’d go to movies, cheap restaurants, concerts.

  12. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
    **Left home alone… you mean like, walk to school? Around 7 or 8. My boundaries were usually main roads near our house. Mom stayed home until I went to school full time, after which she worked, too.

When I was 17 I went to France without my parents, as part of a tour group - does that count?**

  1. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
    **Mine: bachelor’s degree
    Mom: high school
    Dad: I think he had some sort of bachelor’s - he’s a pharmacist, but back in the Late Stone Age when he started you didn’t need the same sort of degree load you do now.

Keep in mind, I’m the family underachiever - of my other three sisters two had master’s degrees and the other has two masters is now working on her doctorate**

26

Male or Female
Female

Birth Year
1966

Year graduated from High School
1987

1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?

14" inch black and white tv upgraded to 14" colour when I was about 12 (2 channels not on before about 12pm and off by about 10pm). Record player, AM radio. I got a bright orange transistor radio for xmas when I was about 10 and I thought I was the best thing since sliced bread.

2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?
Yes, dinner every day. Breakfast with my mother and brother (father had already left for work)

3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
No

4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?
Four, my parents, my brother and I. One bathroom. I never shared a bedroom.

5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
We watched tv, played board games and talked. We went camping every Xmas/summer holidays. We went to the beach. We went to the movies about once every 2 months. We often went fruit picking in the weekend.

6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings
Tiggy, cricket, bug hunting, boy vs girl warfare. We lived 2 streets away from a creek/swamp so we played many muddy games. We put on neighbourhood “plays” that we made our parents pay to watch :slight_smile:

7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?
I delivered junk mail for a while but it payed SHIT so I quit. I probably spent the little I made on lollies (candy).

8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
Nope. I was a grumpy argumentative teenager and both parents quit trying to teach me after one lesson.

9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?
We hung around the local mall. I don’t remember buying much just hanging around. For clothes my mother dragged me to ‘Farmers’ a dept store that sold geeky things. I whinged and moaned but she kept taking me there.

10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?
I wore a uniform. It was bottle green. I still loathe that colour. Fashionable didn’t count except on mufti day, then we were all very individual and wore jeans :D.

11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?
I was deeply in love with U2, the Clash, the Police, Billy Idol and UB40. I had a trust cassette player. First popular song I could sing? Probably something from ABBA or Grease.

12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?
Na. I was at a girls school. The boys up the hill seemed alien.

13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
Probably about 12. I had a stay at home mum but she started working part time when I was about 12. We could go as far away as we wanted but would be in big trouble if we didn’t hear my mum yell “DINNER NOW!”

14. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
I have a Uni degree, both parents left school at high school level (dad was 14!)

15. Geographical Area(s) where you grew up.
Auckland, New Zealand.

27

Male or Female Female
Birth Year (approximately, if you don’t want to be too specific ) 1966
Year graduated from High School 1984

  1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?
    Color TV: one in the family room and one in my parent bedroom. My parent’s TV had the only remote. We had a VCR when I was in high school. We also got a computer sometime when I was in high school but never did much with it–it had a tape recorder to record programs! No answering machines.

  2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?
    Almost every night unless someone had a really late practice or a parent was traveling for work.

  3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
    No, but I’m single and live alone. A bigger house would mean more cleaning!

  4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?
    Five: two parents, three kids. I was the only girl, so I never had to share a room. My brothers did when we were little, but they got their own rooms by the time they started junior high.

  5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
    Board games, vacations, attended sporting events, played outdoor games, went to movies.

  6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?
    Went to movies, played outdoor games (flashlight tag and ultimate frisbee were popular as was smear the queer though I now wish we’d had a better name), went to high school team sporting events, and high school dances.

  7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?
    No job. I did get an allowance. I saved some of it and bought clothes, records, jewelry, etc with some.

  8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
    **I didn’t have a car of my own until I graduated college. Before then, I had to borrow one of my parent’s cars. They had three, so there was usually one available. **

  9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?
    **For clothes, records, etc? The mall. **

  10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?
    We had uniforms: white shirt, blue blazer or cardigan, nasty plaid skirt for the girls (guys had blue pants). Outside of classes, we wore typical early 80’s tacky stuff.

  11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?
    When I was in high school it was typical early 80’s stuff. Duran Duran was huge at my school. I can’t remember the first popular song I could sing. In high school I bought my first stereo. When I was in grade school, I had a Close-N-Play.

  12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?
    Most dates were to movies or high school dances.

  13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
    In junior high. I don’t recall having restrictions as to how far away we could go, but I had to tell my parents where I was going. In grade school, we ran all around the neighborhood, but we couldn’t really get very far. My mom stayed home until I was about 13. My brothers were younger.

  14. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
    I have an MBA. Both my parents have PhD’s.

28

Demographics:

Male
Birth Year: 1971
Year graduated from High School: 1990
Moved overseas and started living completely on my own: 1995

Grew up in suburban Boston.

  1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?
    Color TV (no remote). We got Cable TV and an Atari game system when I was in third grade. Computer (Apple IIe) in sixth grade. Microwave oven and VCR in seventh grade. CD player during my second year of college. I got on the internet for the first time during my junior year of college. My parents got their first answering machine after I left home and still don’t have a DVD player.
    There was one TV in the living room and another in my parents’ bedroom. I got my own TV in the fifth grade when I bought an ancient B&W at a yard sale. It lasted a year or two and I never replaced it.

  2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?
    Yes, pretty much all the time. My parents were both schoolteachers, so our schedules were pretty similar.

  3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
    No. If it were, I’d either be living two hours from work or paying off a multi-million dollar mortgage

  4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?
    3. I was an only kid, and had my own room since I was an infant.

  5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
    We took all our vacations together (same vacation schedule), we always ate together. We talked a lot. Other than that, not much. I was pretty good at keeping myself entertained

  6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?
    Played sports and board games with other kids

  7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?
    Yes, clerk at a drugstore. $3.65/hour. Saved most of it, spent a fair bit on books and music.

  8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
    Yes. I was starting a full-time job that summer that required me to drive, while my folks needed their cars for travelling. My father decided it was time I had my own car and bought me a 1990 Ford Festiva near the end of my senior year. Go ahead and laugh, it was a good car and is still running.

  9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?
    Bookstores, followed closely by music and software stores. Harvard Square was my fantasy land.

  10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?
    T-shirts (many of which were tie-dyed) and blue jeans (ditto), pretty much every day in high school. I was the token hippie. For what was fashionable, see any John Hughs movie. I can’t tell you much more than that, because whatever fashionable was, it wasn’t me.

  11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?
    In late elementary school and Jr. High, I was very much into the current pop music (Men Without Hats, The Police, Men At Work, Flock of Seagulls, etc.). By high school, rap was becoming mainstream. I wasn’t into it, though, and turned exclusively to 60’s and 70’s rock until about 1998. I have no idea what the first pop song I could sing was, but it was probably some god-awful 70’s pseudo-disco crap. I listened to music on cassettes (I had a walkman and a boom box), until I bought a CD player in college.

  12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?
    Yes. We went to movies, mostly, or just hung out and talked.

  13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
    I think first grade, when I’d go home by myself or go over to friends’ houses. My parents were always very relaxed about me going places, as long as I let them know where I was going or gave them a call when I was there. Both parents worked.

  14. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
    BA, same as my mother. My father went to night school to get his M.A. when he was in his 30’s (about my age now).

29

Demographics:

Female
Birth Year 1975
Year graduated from High School 1993

1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?

Television, color. One huge Sony, with the cabinet and everything, and one small 13" which I still have. VCR - 2. No answering machine or computer until I was in my teens, and I only got a DVD player a few years back.

2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?

Almost every night - it was a rule in my house.

3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?

Nope, I lived in a house, I live in an apartment now. And don’t have too much desire to change that.

4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?

Just the three of us - my mom, dad, and me. No siblings.
**
5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?**

Everything - from parties to hanging out to relaxing. I wasn’t given much freedom, not even to stay in my room and do my own thing.

6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?

Sigh. I was only allowed to hang out with Indian kids, mostly because those were the ones my mom trusted. So I could stay over their houses, but wasn’t allowed to go to parties with them. Did play a lot of board games and talked hours on the phone!

7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?

No job - again, not allowed.

8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?

No, and no. I was not allowed to drive a car until I started commuting to college, I was 17 then, but only 2 months shy of being 18.

9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?

Myers Thrifty Acres, Sears, and JCPenny were our staples. And we rarely bought much, since my parents bought stuff to last and then made it last!

10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?

It was not fashionable, but it was neat and clean and nice.

11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?

80’s pop. The first popular song I could sing had to be a Madonna, or maybe Cindy Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. I got my very first tape player at 12, before that I used my parents’. They had a record player too, and I also used to listen to Indian music on records, and DIsney music on little tiny records.

12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?

No.

13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?

I was not allowed to stay home alone overnight. I was a latch-key kid for a while, and my mom and dad used to alternate shifts so someone would be home with me, plus my dad didn’t work for a long, long time.

14. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?

Mom - 10th standard in India (which basically means finishing high school, back then), Nursing school
Dad - 10th standard in India
Me - 4-year degree at a University.

30

Male or Female
male.

Birth Year - 1958
Year graduated from High School -** 1976- left in January**

  1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w?
    Black and white, then color.

More than one in the house?
No, always one.

VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?
Only the hi-fi. The others hadn’t been invented yet!

  1. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often?
    Every day.

  2. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
    A bit, though it’s one storey.

  3. How many people lived in the home you grew up in?
    Five - parents, two brothers, and a sister. I always had my own room, but the whole family shared the one bathroom on the second floor.

  4. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
    Watched TV mostly, camping.

  5. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?
    Played outdoor games, rode bikes all over town, went exploring the forest, hung out at the main corner or at one of the two restaurants in town.

  6. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)?
    **Yes. **

What kind of job?
Picking vegetables, washing cars, mowing lawns, etc.

How much did you make?
Oh geez, not very much!

What did you spend it on?
Records.

  1. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
    No.

  2. Where did you go shopping?
    **At one of two grocery stores in town. On paydays, we’d drive 27 miles to the nearest city to shop at the big supermarkets. **

What did you buy there?
Groceries to feed a family of five. ($100 worth would fill the back seat and the trunk!)

  1. What did you wear to school?
    "Nice" clothes that my mother bought at the department store.

What was fashionable?
Anything except the “nice” clothes that my mother bought at the department store.

  1. What kind of music was popular?
    The top 40. Before disco.

What was the first popular song you could sing?
The jingle for Mr. Clean? (age two)

What devices did you use to listen to music?
Radio, record player, open reel tape recorder, then cassettes.

  1. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?
    Nope.

  2. How old were you when you were first left home alone?
    Sixteen.

How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it?
It was a town of 2000 people. One stoplight. Surrounded by forest. No crime, until the '70s. I could go anywhere in town without fear or parental concern. At 13, I began to hitchhike all over the area to other towns and the big city.

Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
**My mom, although she eventually got a job. **

  1. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
    I had to leave Grade 12 early. See #13. No one in my family is degreed.

  2. Geographical Area where you grew up.
    **Southern Ontario, Canada. **

31

I misread the “home alone” question, and answered incorrectly. I was quite young when I used to babysit my brothers while my parents went to the legion, or down the street to hang out with the neighbors. 11 or 12, maybe.

32

Male or Female
Male
Birth Year (approximately, if you don’t want to be too specific :wink: )
Year graduated from High School
1966; 1984

  1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?
    B/W tv at first, later color. Hi-fi, replaced by stereo around 1972. No answering machine, but we had a party line until about 1974 or so.

  2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?
    always, unless someone had practice or a game at dinnertime, which was at 5:30. Then they’d get Roast Beef in a Bag, and everyone else would eat together.

  3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
    Smaller. I live in an apartment now. My kids live with their mother in a townhouse

  4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?
    6 kids, two parents. I shared a room with 1-2 brothers until 8th garde, when I got my own room.

  5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
    Ate dinner and watched TV; took a few day trips and a couple vacations.

  6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?
    Played football, board games, hung around looking for trouble.

  7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?
    I did farm work briefly, caddied at a golf course, worked in the parish rectory and had a job as a janitor.

  8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
    I bought my first car when I was 20.

  9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?
    "Downtown," meaning the main drag of the village I lived near. There was a sort of urban-renewal shopping mall in the middle of town.

  10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?
    **I went to Catholic school. I wore white shirt, red tie, blue pants through 6th grade, White shirt red tie gray pants in 7th and 8th grade, a suit and tie in high school. **

  11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? **I vaguely remember the Beatles. Glam and heavy metal were popular when I was little. I remember Gary Glitter, The Sweet, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin was ubiquitous. When In I was about 4, I could sing, “It’s Too Late to Turn Back Now.” I forget who sang it. When I was in high school, I listened to west coast punk, haircut new wave bands, and some “Urban Contemporary,” like Shalimar and The Gap Band. **

What devices did you use to listen to music?
The aforementioned Hi-Fi, and stereo, as well as a little record player/receiver unit with built-in speakers. I also had a yellow Panasonic Tape recorder, and a clock-radio, with which I would make mix tapes.

  1. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?
    Parties mostly, but also movies, basketball and football games, and live music, whenever possible. In my senior year, everyone hung out in a divey little bar, which was like a twisted version of Arnold’s on Happy Days.

  2. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
    **I’m pretty sure I was 12. I moght have been younger. When I was young, I had to be where I could hear my mother call, which would be six or seven miles from home. When I was older, I went wherever I could get to on my bike and still be home for dinner. My mother was at home until I was 14. **

  3. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
    Grad-school dropout. My father had a Master’s. My mother has a bachelor’s.

33

Demographics:
Female
Birth Year 1986 ('nother young whippersnapper)
Year graduated from High School: 2004

  1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home?
    For a long time we had an ancient, small color TV that was from the late 70’s or something. Eventually we got a newer color TV. Cordless phone in the kitchen and living room, extensions in almost every other room. We always had a VCR and got a DVD player in…2001, I think. We had an N64 system, which my dad won, and we never really used. We almost always had at least one computer - I think we got it in 1990.

  2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?
    Once a week at most. My mom was really involved in PTA and was always at meetings. My dad worked late a lot and was really active in some engineering societies. My sister and I had something going on pretty much every night - soccer practice, martial arts class, violin lessons/rehersal, tech crew for school plays, and so on.

  3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
    I live in a microscopic dorm room right now, so yes. Our house isn’t very large, though.

  4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?
    Me, sister, two parents. Up until I was about 7 I shared a room with my sister.

  5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
    Not a whole lot. We’d go to museums on occasion, or movies. We went on a “big family vacation” a couple times, but most of it tapered off once my sister and I hit teenagerhood.

  6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?
    Played outside a lot - riding bikes, climbing trees, running around. Video games. There was this creek behind the apartment building where one of my friends’ fathers lived, and we went hiking through it all the time. More recently: We’d go to movies or the mall or a coffee shop and just hang out. Sometimes we’d go into Philly and make mischief.

  7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?
    In high school I did a ton of volunteer work at various places, including the township clerk’s office. I didn’t get a real paying job until the summer I graduated. The community service was all a requirement for a program I was in in high school. Today, my paychecks get divided up. Most of them go into a savings account, in order to repay student loans when I graduate. The rest goes towards food, going out with friends, and clothing.

  8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
    I still don’t own a car, but I learned to drive when I was 16, and often borrowed cars.

  9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?
    Mostly at the mall. Books, clothes, occasional treats for my dog.

  10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?
    Jeans, t-shirts. I still don’t know what exactly is fashionable. I never wore skirts from about kindergarten through last year.

  11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?
    At first I had a cassete player. When I was 13 I used the money I got from my bat mitzvah to buy a CD player. Now I use my computer and an MP3 player.

  12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?
    A little bit. Mostly we’d hang out at each other’s houses. Occasionally, go to a movie or to a diner or something. It was always pretty casual.

  13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
    I think I was about 10. I constantly throughout elementary school would go over to a friend’s house three blocks away; my parents would sometimes call to see if I was there. My mom stayed home on and off, working as a substitute teacher some years and not others.

  14. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
    My mom almost got her doctorate. My dad has (I think) two different master’s and almost got his doctorate. I’m a sophomore in college, and will definitely go to grad school eventually. I’d like to eventually get both a law degree and/or a PhD in political science.

34

Demographics: Male, born 1967, graduated from high school 1985. Grew up mostly in and around Chillicothe, Ohio.
**

  1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?**
    My parents bought a color television in 1968, and replaced it in 1976 and again in 1984. While I was growing up there was never more than one TV in the house. The TV got three channels until about 1979, when we finally got cable. The only other “electronics” devices were my dad’s component stereo and my Atari (now known as “Atari 2600”), both acquired in 1981. Prior to the component stereo my dad had a large record player in a furniture-like cabinet about waist high: the turntable was hidden under a wood cover and took up half the space, with the other half for storing records.

2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?
We had dinner together every night, and breakfast together on weekends.

3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
No. I mostly grew up in 4-bedroom houses, and now my wife and I live in a 1-bedroom apartment.

4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?
The maximum number was 5. From age 4 to 6 I shared a bedroom with my younger sister; I shared a bathroom with my siblings until I was 10.

5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
Meals, church, and family vacations (mostly to the beach).

6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?
Principal activities as a child were bike riding, wiffle ball, basketball (or C-O-W), and running around the yard or playground pretending to be superheroes. As a teenager I spent summers hanging around a public swimming pool with my friends, and winters sledding, listening to records, and watching TV.

7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?
I didn’t have a job until after high school.

8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
When I turned 16 I was given the use of a 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, which I drove until I graduated from college.

9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?
Starting at about age 10, I bought baseball and football cards at Woolworth’s (20 cents per pack); as a teenager I bought records and tapes during occasional trips to Eastgate Mall in Columbus.
**
10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?**
I went to high school in the early 80s, so the fashions were pretty nightmarish by today’s standards. I didn’t wear much interesting, just jeans and sweaters or sweatshirts, but I do remember buying brightly colored shoelaces to wear with my white sneakers.

11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?
I was aware of popular music from 1976 on; Google could tell you what was popular. In my small town in Ohio, “hard rock” was much more popular than disco, rap, etc. The first popular song I could sing was probably “Dancing Queen,” around fourth grade.

12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?
My only dates were for high school dances. I don’t know where the others went. (In retrospect, I was a bit innocent.)

13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
I was allowed to walk/bike around our semirural neighborhood from about age 7; the furthest I could go was the other end of our “loop,” about half a mile away. My mother stayed at home throughout my childhood and adolescence.

I was first left home alone (in the afternoon, looking after younger siblings) when I was 11 or 12.

14. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
I have an MA, as does my mother; my father has a Ph.D.

35

Male
Birth year: 1952
Graduated HS: 1970
Area: Eastern Long Island, NY

  1. Electronics: TV; black and white at first, then color in the early 60s. We had one of each for awhile. UHF converter. Wired phone with several illegal additional extensions. Record player/turntable (we didn’t listen to records much until my late teens). Transistor radios.

  2. Meals: Nearly always ate together.

  3. Current house is much smaller.

  4. Five in the family. I had my own room, though my two brothers shared a bedroom until I went away to college. We all shared the upstairs bathroom.

  5. Going to the beach in summer, sailing. Some moviegoing and a lot of TV.

  6. Not much. I didn’t hang out with other people outside of school. No one lived near enough to me until someone moved nearby in high school. Then, we’d play basketball and go on his paper route with him. I also used to hang out at school with a group of friends, usually staying until 5:00 in the art room.

  7. Not during the school year. I did work in my father’s store a couple of summers.

  8. Didn’t own a car. Didn’t drive all that much – everything was within walking or biking distance.

  9. I didn’t shop much. Occasionally went downtown to buy comic books, baseball cards, or books. Once ever few months we’d go to the mall (an hour away) and I’d buy books there.

  10. Regular button shirt (like a business shirt, but no tie). Regular pants (never jeans – hate them). I definitely didn’t care if things were fashionable or not.

  11. 60’s rock was popular. I liked that, as well as Broadway showtunes. First popular song I sang: “Heart” from Damn Yankees. On stage, of course. Listened to music on a record player – a unit with built-in speakers and a turntable.

  12. Didn’t date much until college. Instead, I’d go to the high school dances.

  13. At about 14, would babysit for my brothers, so I guess that counts. My mother stayed at home until my mid-teens, when she got her masters and a teaching job.

  14. I have a masters. My mother also has one, and my father has a BS.

36

Male
Birth Year: 1947
Year graduated from High School: 1965
Geographical area: Santa Clara Valley, California (Pre-Silicon)

  1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? **Just the one BW console until the mid-50s, then one color console. ** VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices? Just radio and Hi-Fi, along with a wind-up portable 78 player. We were also on a party line until the late 50s.

  2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not? We ate dinner together all the time, although Dad was often still at work or bending an elbow at The Hacienda.

  3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in? No.

  4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member? There were six of us. I shared a room with my older brother (18 months difference) from 1947 until he went away to college in 1964. Everyone used the one bathroom.

  5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family? We went to the beach or the mountains. We camped or took road trips. We would play board games. We watched Mitch Miller. We belonged to the Swim Club up the road, so we spent a lot of time up there Summer weekends. We would go to the movies and the circus, when it was in town. Also would go to the Ice Capades and similar shows.

  6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings? We would play baseball out in the orchard (there was a knoll where a few trees had died, so we had some space to set up bases. The outfield, however, was iffy). Play in the creek, build dams and get poison oak. Have massive dirt clod fights with three to twenty kids on a side. Ride bikes. Build forts and tree houses with the used lumber lying around. Make skateboards out of 1x6 planks with old metal roller skate pieces nailed to them.

  7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on? As a pre-teen I picked apricots and strawberries for my grandfathers. As a teenager I worked as a “parts boy” and general gofer at my dad’s car dealership. Can’t remember how much I made, but I do know that neither my grandfathers or my father would have been accused of favoritism. The money went to dates and gas, as I recall, and the occasional clothing item.

  8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)? Being the offspring of a car dealer did have the advantage of a supplied car. My brother and I were the “slave labor” for Dad’s many car restoration projects, so at times we had access to many interesting vehicles.

  9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there? Shopping was not the recreation act it has become. We either walked into town and got jeans at Whitlow’s, or were driven into the city to go from shop to shop. The first shopping center in the area didn’t open until I was around 11.

  10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable? In elementary school: flannel shirts, khakis, brown leather lace-up shoes (loafers were for teen-agers and up). “Dobie Gillis” shirts were popular at one time. Shorts and t-shirts were not allowed at any grade. In high school bleeding madras shirts had a run.

  11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music? My elementary and high school years covered the span from “How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?” by Patti Page (BTW, the first pop song I could sing), to “That’ll Be The Day” by Buddy Holley, to “Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton, to folk music and surfer bands and the British Invasion and the San Francisco Sound. Most of this was listened to on lo-fi “record players” and transistor radios. I did get a portable stereo record player just as I left for college.

  12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates? I started dating around the seventh grade, in which we were usually driven to a movie by a parent and picked up later. Most dates later were of the movie/pizza variety. There’d be the occasional beach party, school dance, football game. Lots of double dates (to save on gas, for one). Every once in a while a date might entail going to dinner at a restaurant that had cloth tablecloths.

  13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one? Home alone? I really don’t remember, but it was probably around 8 or 9. At 10 I was driving farm equipment for my grandfathers, so it must have been before then. The no-tell radius was probably around three miles. One set of grandparents lived ten miles away, and that bicycle trip was one that definitely needed permission. Mom stayed at home after WWII.

  14. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father? I have a BA. Mom received a BA in Psych from Stanford. Dad went to Cal Aggie (now UC Davis) for two years before going back to the farm, and then ending up flying attack bombers in the SW Pacific Area.

37

Male

Birth Year
1975

Year graduated from High School
1993

  1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?
    B&W television until I was about 12 years old, when we got our first color set. it was a hand-me-down from my Aunt, who worked for GE and got electronics at an employee discount. We had a lot of GE appliances! I was 16 when we got our 1st VCR. No DVD player, no Answering Machine. No computer but we did have a Brother electronic word processor while I was in HS. We always had a rather nice stero system and listened to a lot of music.

  2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?
    More often than not

  3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
    If you count our actual living space, yes. If you count the dwelling itself, no. (I own a bungalow, but grew up in a 2 family duplex w/ a 3rd floor apartment, VERY common Cleveland dwelling).

  4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?
    Counting the entire house, my immediate family (6) lived on the first floor, my aunt and uncle (2) lived on the 2nd floor, and various uncles (1 or 2) lived on the 3rd floor. We had 1 bathroom on each floor. I shared a room with all three of my siblings from age 4 until I graduated from HS.

  5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
    Travel, boardgames, watched tv, played outside, ate, etc.

  6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?
    Games, sports, watched tv, rode bikes, general neighborhood play.

  7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?
    I was a “research assistant” for the Invertebrate Paleontology Dept. of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History during the summer before my senior year in HS. I was paid a stipend of $120. I spent it all of the supplies needed for the job, (specimen gathering expeditions mostly).

  8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
    No.

  9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?
    For clothes, whichever department store was having a sale. For thinngs like school supplies, a local discount store here called Marc’s. For food, local grocery stores.

  10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?
    Uniforms when required, whatever clothes I had otherwise. In my schools, whatever was popular in the hip-hop scene was fashionable.

  11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?
    Rap, R&B. The first popular song I remember learning (that was currently popular at the time!) was “Billie Jean”. We usually listened on the home stero system, but I eventually had my own Walkman cassette player.

  12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?
    No, not really. I did go on a couple of dates in HS. Usually to the movies or amusement parks.

  13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
    I was about 12 years old when we were first allowed to stay home unsupervised. From about age 8, I could pretty much ride my bike anywhere, although I had to ask permission to ride off of my street. I rarely strayed more than a mile or so from home until I was in HS, where I would ride 30 miles from home at a time. We had a stay-at-home parent most of the time, although both parents worked. It just so happened that when my mom worked, my dad had his own business at home. When my dad worked for somebody else, my mom stayed home.

  14. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
    I have about 5 years university education, although I haven’t gotten my engineering degree yet. My mother has a degree in Education and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree. My father did not go to college for more than a year.

38

Whoops, left out the Geographical area! I grew up in the Glenville neighborhood of Cleveland, OH.

39

Demographics:

Male
Birth Year 1980
Year graduated from High School 1998

1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home?
No television while we were younger, more out of parental choice than necessity. First VCR perhaps 1994, CD player a similar time. Computer came late because we had access to those of my dad’s school

2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?
Yep, most days, and weekend meals.

3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?
Hah, no!

4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?
Two siblings & two parents. Shared a room until I was about 8, when my dad built a big extension.

5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?
Educational stuff. Holiday trips to museums, zoos, theatres, that kind of thing.

6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?
Very few, I was a loner, until later on I got involved in a lot of musical activities.

7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?
Paper round, then working saturdays in a music store. It got spent on music, a few clothes, and a few pints.

8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?
Nope, nor did most of my friends. (Don’t forget you can’t drive until 17 or 18 in many countries)

9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?
Errrr - the shops, and stuff?

10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?
School uniform, and in sixth form, I can’t even remember. No, it probably wasn’t fashionable.

11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?
Can’t remember the early stuff. Nirvana were on the scene as I started to be aware of this thing called ‘pop music’ :stuck_out_tongue: …Pulp, The Prodigy, Orbital, Aphex Twin…not stuff I’m embarassed about.

12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?
Like I said, loner-ness ruled.

13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?
Depends what you mean. Was able to go to the nearby shop from a young age. Was able to get on the bus & get around by about 14. Was able to go out in t’evenings from about 16.

14. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
Masters degree, one below my father (so far :wink: ), above my mother.

Geographical Area(s) where you grew up.
Southern England.

40

Male or Female
Birth Year (approximately, if you don’t want to be too specific )
Year graduated from High School

  1. What kind of electronics did you grow up with at home? Television, color or b&w? More than one in the house? VCR? DVD player? Answering machine? Computer? Other electronics devices?

  2. Did you eat meals together as a family? How often? If not, why not?

  3. Is the house that you live in now larger than the house you grew up in?

  4. How many people lived in the home you grew up in? Did you share a room or bathroom with a sibling? If so, until what age? Did you ever share a room with another family member?

  5. What sorts of activities did you do together as a family?

  6. What sorts of activities did you do with other children, including your siblings?

  7. Did you have a job while a teenager (in school)? What kind of job? How much did you make? What did you spend it on?

  8. Did you own and/or drive a car while you were in high school (age 18 or under, for non USA Dopers)?

  9. Where did you go shopping? What did you buy there?

  10. What did you wear to school? What was fashionable?

  11. What kind of music was popular? What was the first popular song you could sing? What devices did you use to listen to music?

  12. Did you date? Where did you or others go for dates?

  13. How old were you when you were first left home alone? How far away from home could you go and not tell your parents about it? Did you have a “stay at home” parent? If so, which one?

  14. What’s your highest level of post secondary education? Same for mother and/or father?
    Male
    1949
    1967

  15. One TV, b&w until the late 60’s. Hi-Fi record player (we didn’t go stereo 'til 1968) I had a small AM radio on my night stand. One phone in the house, dial, until 1958. Then we had two phones, one a Princess.

  16. Breakfast and supper together every day. I’m told I used to read the comics on the folded-over part of Dad’s newspaper, so I could read as well upside-down as right-side up.

  17. The houses of my childhood were bigger by one bedroom.

  18. Until age 9, I shared a bedroom with my brother. It was a converted attic, so my bed was 40 feet from his. After that, we had our own rooms, but shared a bathroom.

  19. We watched TV together, went to church together, feared Dad together.

  20. When I was small, we played hide &seek, tag, kickball. Later, softball, football, tree climbing, pretend army and cowboys & indians.

  21. I got my first job in the summer after high school. I made min. wage, and I saved for college.

  22. I didn’t own a car during high school, but I could drive Mom’s.

  23. I bought records in a record store, bought clothes in a department store, wood at a lumberyard, nails at a hardware store. There were no bigbox discount stores yet. Now, my town has none of the 4 lumberyards, and one of the 5 hardware stores.

  24. School wear was chino pants and knit or poplin short sleeve shirts. A few kids wore jeans, but I didn’t wear jeans until high school.

  25. Even though rock ‘n’ roll was sweeping the nation in the 50’s, the local radio station was strictly adult pop. I suppose the first pop song I could sing was "How Much Is That Doggy In The Window. I was mostly unaware of rock until about 1958. I knew about Elvis, but I didn’t like him. I had no idea Chuck Berry or Little Richard existed. Pat Boone sang white versions of songs from them, and I didn’t know where the music came from.

  26. I didn’t date until 16. We’d go to a movie, then go park somewhere for some heavy breathing.

  27. Because my younger brother was born when I was 9, we had babysitters right up into high school. Until about age 13, my boundaries were about a mile in each direction. In high school, I’d go about 40 miles away on a date. Some years, Mom worked at Dad’s office, some years she stayed home.

  28. I dropped out of college after a year and one quarter. Both my parents got Bachelor’s Degrees from Franklin College, Mom with honors.