…had after-school activities that didn’t require keyboards, controllers, or video screens.
Uh, we still have that…a lot.
Where do you live where activities are not offered after school?
I interact with an admittedly-small sample-size of pre-adolescent children (my friend’s nieces/nephews and grandchildren)–they spend most of their free time playing video games.
We used to get $2.00 to walk into town and get a haircut.
But there was an old guy that had a shop that charged $.50.
“Shakey Bob”
If you got the 50 cent job you had a buck and a half left for chips or candy or what ever. And since we never had our own money (or junk food in the house) it was a big deal.
But you were gonna look like a dork…for a month.
I think I went for it about every other time. My friends sister would try to fix it a little. Only kids within walking distance of town looked like that.
A Shakey Bob cut was unmistakable so I think my parents knew but we had some independence and if an important event was coming Mom would take us to Peter’s which was a real salon the next town over.
. . . Barbi Benton.
Hmmm…parental choice then.
…we all loved “Star Wars”. Not “Episode IV”, not “A New Hope”, just “Star Wars”.
…we rewound our cassette tapes with a Bic pen to save batteries.
…we rode in the tail-gunner position in the station wagon.
We used every part of the Mammoth
I hate you both.
Did you ever notice how often they came up with synonyms for “ass”?
Gene Rayburn: “Dumb Dora was really dumb. She wanted to save her money for a rainy day, but instead of putting it in the bank, she put it in her [blank].”
Betty White: “Well, Gene, I figured it was probably her ‘keister’.”
Charles Nelson Riley: “The answer is absolutely…‘tushkis’”
Richard Dawson: “I think it was her ‘back porch’”
In my day we…
(ages 6-12)
- never locked our doors.
- roamed around on weekends wherever we wanted.
- turned up at anyone’s house unannounced and used their backyards to play.
- took rides from strangers.
- journeyed 2 hours by ourselves each way to get to and from school.
- climbed trees that were about 40 or 50 feet high just to get to the very top part of the trunk that was so thin it would flex over to the side with your weight.
- had countless hours of experimentation with gasoline and other combustibles.
- played “ghosties” - which was riding our scooters down a hill as fast as we could and when we got to top speed, jumping off and rolling into onto the grass and seeing how far the scooter would travel by itself. (Now that I think about it, jumping off high/fast things into/onto other things was a frequent theme).
- would go down to the local store to buy cigarettes for my dad.
In my day, we blanked…I blame the drugs
…sat in the car while mom did a “little” shopping. She said she would only be in there for a ‘hot’ minute. She lied. Every time.
…walked to grandma’s house. Call me when you get there. -Mom
…climbed trees, jumped off roofs, played in construction sites, etc.
…told our parents we were going to the park, went to the park and then went everywhere else without checking back in.
. . . made a “computer” out of a kit using springs, different lengths of wire and prefabricated plastic slidey things. You would follow the instructions to connect the wires to the slidey things (via the springs) in a certain way, and then it would light up little bulbs at the top of the console to answer certain pre-set questions (like the one about the farmer crossing a river with a goose, a fox and a bag of grain). It was Educational.
… actually went to the dollar movies. Sure it was second run movies, but it actually cost a dollar! Sure was cheaper than paying $4.50 for the movies currently out. I mean really, who wants to pay that much!
In July 1969 we went out into the back yard, looked up at the sky, and my father pointed to the moon and said, “There are people up there.”
Regards,
Shodan
Our school district had an IBM 360, and I contacted IBM to get all the programming manuals so I could learn BASIC, FORTRAN, and PL/1 when I was in 9th grade. They took up about six shelf-feet. There was an entire manual just to explain the error messages the FORTRAN compiler produced.
…had McDonalds as a special treat when we drove into town from the farm for weekend grocery shopping
…mapped every part of the field on a bike
…Mama’s lap was your carseat until you were old enough to not fall over
…did not have protective mesh enclosures around the trampoline
…watched soap operas on summer vacation because we had farmervision, no fancy all-cartoon cable channels for us!
…had a dancing hot dog and popcorn intermission at the movie theater (which cost $1 for a kid). When I saw the latest Harry Potter flick I wished for an intermission because I had to get up twice to pee. Their large drinks are way too large. 
…amused ourselves with sticks and dirtballs
…spent summer evenings running around the neighborhood playing hide and seek, kick the can, Red Rover, and other games that involved jumping fences and running through hedges
…were allowed to ride in the back of the pickup truck
went out to play, ride bikes, etc. all day - often accompanied by the neighborhood dogs. No leash laws! The neighborhood was aswarm with curs and mutts. If we got bit on occasion, if it didn;t break the skin, our mothers washed it off good with Lifebuoy soap and we were lectured on ‘teasing the dog’.
went out to a quiet stretch of street with metal skates that had to be tightened with a key - wobbled up and down the pavement with no helmet - I still have the scars on my debraded knees.
every Fall, devouring the back to school issue of Seventeen magazine from cover to cover. There were no articles on hooking up or how to get birth control, but there were always clothes to die for, and always something plaid. (in the fashion layout, there were always a few blouses or jumpers that were not ready-made, but were made from Simplicity patterns, and the home sewer could whip up a few au courant outfits on her Singer!) Every year in high school I bought the latest PLAID kilt held shut with a big brass pin at Lerners and felt very autumnal - and stylin’!
What a great thread.
…played outside all day and didn’t have to go home until the street lights came on.
…went trick or treating without fear of razor blades or poison.
…spent most of the day roaming around the woods (after we moved to the country).
…rode bikes without any sort of protection.
…drove down rural roads on a gocart.
…rode our bikes on hot summer days to the local drug store to have a cherry Dr. Pepper or vanilla Coke at the soda counter.
…had a Commodore 64. There was one game I used to love to play on it but I can’t remember the name of it. The player flew an airplane over a city and dropped bombs to destroy all of the buildings. I have a vague memory of having to put in the cassette tape in order to play the game.