We went to the kiddie matinee movies. Once the theater was jammed with kids we always started shouting “We want a show! We want a show!” as loud as we could.
We also bought strips of caps for cap guns and laid them out on the ground and hit them with rocks.
And a few times I remember a lot of kids cramming into one car and going to “Buck Nite at the Drive-In”. Almost mandatory on the way to or from this sort of event was a Chinese fire-drill.
And sledding. We would always talk about the “big kids” who had toboggans.
On Halloween we went to as many houses as we could and always loved it when there were homemade cookies.
My Dad was a cop from the '40s til the early '70s. In his day a drunk driver not involved in an accident was driven home and their Old Lady or parents given the keys to and location of the car with a warning that next time he’d go to jail, lose his license , lose his job. Typically, the offender was male, back then.
If the offender had no Old Lady or parent , then the keys went to the station house to be picked up no earlier than the 12 hours deemed necessary to “sleep it off”.
For the overwhelming majority, the “favor” was a long-term, if not life-long wakeup call to reform one’s life.
If someone actually went to jail for DUI, he was castigated by the average person as a dumbass alky who didn’t know what a favor the cop did’em the first time and deemed deserving of a good long dryout in jail.
None of this jailing those first offenders too poor to afford $2K for “pretrial diversion” programs and bilking those with just enough left on the VISA to stay out of jail.
Something happened today that reminded me of this thread. I hope it’s not too late to bump.
In my day, we watched with eager anticipation as our car’s odometer would rollover at a factor of 10,000. Going over 100,000 miles was a particular treat because cars didn’t last as long in those days. Watching a digital odometer just isn’t the same at all.
Weren’t the records in MAD Magazine called “Fink Along With MAD”? I remember the one by heart
Although she isn’t very pretty
Although she isn’t very bright
I love her, I love her
Oh boy how I love her
Because she lets me watch her mom and dad fight
There is something about the old MAD stuff that just etched itself into your brain.
I remember, and miss, junior high and high school when we could hunt on the way to and from school. You would turn your firearm and ammo in to the gym teacher who would keep it in the equipment room behind his office along with the schools firearms and shells. (from the shooting teams and the regular parts of gym class) The ladies in the lunch room would stick small game in the cooler until the end of the day and if it was deer season and you got lucky in the morning, that was considered a valid excuse for missing school. This was later in the season, of course; opening day of deer everyone in the school had the day off.
It just never occurred to us to shoot each other. I remember at least once me and another kid having a great fist fight while our buddies held our shotguns. But to shoot or cut someone in anger? That just wasn’t done!
Ate peanut butter sandwiches at school.
Drank soda out of glass bottles.
Got shoes resoled at a shoe repair shop.
Made phone calls on a dial telephone.
Saw movies made in Cinerama.
…drank milk or water at lunch and dinner unless we got a juice for a treat. Breakfast beverage was a mix of milk and instant coffee.
…at age 8 or 9 rode our bikes down to the gas station a few miles away to get candy.
…detassled corn in the fields to pay for said candy by age 10 (we could buy more candy).
…babysat by age 12 so we didn’t have to detassle corn anymore.
…had a bedtime every single night but Friday and Saturday nights.
…had recess every single day and made the most of it, mostly without adult intervention. Teachers were only called over if someone fell off something or a big fight broke out.
…ate sugary cereal every morning that we prepared ourselves and managed to burn it off anyway by having street races and playing basketball in the morning, then getting dropped off at the pool after lunch and left there to swim until 5.
We have a picture of my dad and me on the side of the highway showing a 1 and three zeros because we only had four hands. We were trying to communicate 100K miles. My dad had a bit of a manly pride stance because he’d gotten a '68 Buick Skylark across the line. It then went on for quite a number of years after that, so I think he was working more from his childhood references. I’m going to be pointedly upset if my '06 Toyota doesn’t make it past 200K.
We would go out into the forest to peel cascara bark trees. It was used to make laxative. Climb way up a skinny tree with a pocket knife, slit the bark, and push your hand around the tree under the bark to pop it off. Fall out of the tree sometimes, miles from help. Pack the wet bark home in gunny sacks, (mom didn’t pick us up in the SUV) clean it and dry it in the sun, bust it up with a baseball bat when dry and sell it. A full, dry bag took about 3 weeks and we got about $15 for the thing.
In June kids out of school would all pick strawberries. Had to get up about 4:30 am and a school bus would pick up the kids and drive us a couple hours to the fields where we would pick until early afternoon and then get taken home. Fun, romance, berry fights in the sun. Bought my first ‘10 speed’ bike that way. Modern technology!
My Bronx upbringing was a little less ghetto than Nzinga’s but there were a lot of things in common. Basically, everything was dirty or broken in public places, like playgrounds and parks, phones didn’t work, snow wasn’t plowed, traffic lights broke, etc. so we all became little urban archaeologists and parkour experts. Ah, the 70s.
We:
Climbed the smaller trees in Van Cortlandt Park in our cordouroys.
Tried to climb up to the top of the two-story chainlink fences around the basketball court. This only lasted until your sneakers got too big to fit into the holes.
Swept the garbage out of park clearings to build a “clubhouse” and gave names to all the trees.
Had to drag little siblings along with us way too often.
Had to wait until Dad came home from work with THE car if we wanted to go anywhere; not that we could go many places since stores closed earlier.
Never wore bike helmets and rolled around in the back seat sans belts.
Babysat from ages 11-16 for extra money.
Took rattly city busses home from high school that were so crowded kids not only clogged the aisles but the door wells and windshield area, practically sitting on the driver’s lap. Made even more fun by Mayor-Beame-era giant potholes.
Paid five cents for milk in 4-ounce cartons at school; Fridays mom gave me seven cents for CHOCOLATE MILK!!
Waltzed into lobbies of buildings and upstairs with no doormen or guards or, if there were any, bored glances to make sure you didn’t have burglary equipment in your hands at the moment. Glad I got too see the Woolworth Building Lobby so often before it became terra incognita.
Ate any sweets we got without guilt, although portions were much smaller.
Well, in my day we went to 25¢ movies. Every Sunday. Not only did they cost only 25¢, but it was a double feature, plus newsreels and cartoons! This was back in the 50s, and they usually showed all those great sci-fi movies from back then.
For Halloween, we had Trick or Treat two nights, the 30th and the 31st. We lived in a neighborhood that was a grid of several streets, and both nights we went up and down all the streets. Each of us wound up with four huge shopping bags full of candy, and it lasted all year. I remember having a huge mountain of candy on the living room floor, sorting it all out. If there was anything we didn’t want we took it to school to trade with the other kids. There was this one girl, Eleanor, who was so desperate for friends that she traded all her good stuff for the crap nobody wanted. She still didn’t have any friends; she was pathetic.
In my day, we had one 20-year-old TV set in the entire house.
In my day, we had a “rewind” dial on the remote that you had to keep holding, otherwise it would stop. We also recorded programs on VHS tapes, and had many “mystery tapes” with no label sitting on the shelf.
In my day, we played on playgrounds with wooden beams, loose nails, and nets made of chains. We’d get cuts, bruises, scrapes, and blisters, and it was awesome.
In my day, we watched 2D Disney films.
In my day, computers required big bulky monitors, and that newfangled “internet” took about a minute to load a single page. This was considered pretty speedy.
Really looked forward to Saturday morning, because that was the only time cartoons were on.
Ran home for lunch every day at noon and watched “Bozo’s Circus.”
Tuned our car radios with a knob that moved a little pointer back and forth – and stuck in an 8-track if we couldn’t find anything good.
Had “play dates” (not called that then) with whatever other kids happened to be wandering around the neighborhood that day. But we had to go home when the street lights came on.
Had a dishwasher that had to be hooked up the the kitchen faucet, and made about as much noise as a jet engine.
Bought candy bars for a dime and gumballs for a penny at the local Rexall. And if you got a gumball with a red stripe on it, you got a free candy bar! What a thrill that was!
…walked to and from school, either alone or with a couple of friends. It was unheard of for a parent to walk you to school at any time past Kindergarten.
…played outside all day and didn’t worry about the Air Quality Index. Was expected home “when the streetlights come on.”
…sat in the car minding my own business while my parents did the grocery shopping.
…delivered my paper route alone in all types of weather and was dang proud of the $40 I earned every month.
…rode my bike and rollerskated without a helmet.
…walked home from school for lunch, or to a friend’s house.
…went home after school, let myself in with my key, grabbed a snack and watched “Toronto Rocks”, “Video Hits” and “Flipside” until my parents came home.
…had a swinging rope and sandpit in our playground. You stood on one raised platform and swung to the other over a sandpit. Absolutely nothing stopping you from cracking your head open if you let go too early.
…played “stoopball” in the street, if someone yelled “car” we had to get to the sidewalk, otherwise it was the infield.
…had to pay for a new “blue ball” at the corner store if we lost ours in the gutter while playing stoopball (stupid hilly street!). They had a milkcrate full in the front of the store.
…took the bus to the movies without any adult supervision if nothing good was playing at our neighborhood theater. And had to get “change for the bus” because the fare was $1.15 and it was a real pain.
…watched “North & South” on my parent’s little black & white TV.
…often saw crack vials in the cracks of the sidewalk. (initially, I thought this was why they called it “crack”).
… were crazy psyched when Dark Castle came out for the Mac 512. It was on 2 floppies! And always, always loaded it on Christmas Day just to see the Christmas tree where the suit of armor should be.
…played Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? on once-a-month “game day” in computer class, and learned that “titian haired” meant red headed.
…dreamed of winning the trip to Space Camp on Double Dare.
…watched Friday Night Videos because we didn’t get MTV. And thought the video for “Wrapped Around Your Finger” was weird and boring.
Walked a couple of miles with my 14-year-old friends to get out into the country where we could shoot the rifles, pistols and shotguns we were carrying.