What Did You Get To Do Growing Up That Your Kids Will Never Be Able To?

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ocdart

ocdart

Inland Mopars Car Club
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I don't know if this topic has ever been done before but I thought it would be fun for us "experienced" guys to list some things that we were able to do while growing up that our kids, most likely, will never have the opportunity to do. This will show our younger FABO members just how much the world has changed - and probably not for the better.
I'll start off with some things that come to mind. I know there will be more.
Oh, and I grew up in SoCal just east of Los Angeles, not out in the country somewhere.

* Sit on my dad's lap and steer the car while he works the pedals
* Go to sleep on the package tray staring out through the rear window at all the stars while my parents drove on an all-night vacation drive
* Walk to the movies with my friends and spend most all of Saturday at the matinee - cartoons and two full-length movies, probably westerns
* Ride in the bed of a pickup truck with my friends while one of their dads drove us somewhere
* Take off on my bicycle right after breakfast during the summer and go anywhere we wanted with my friends and not have to check in with our parents - as long as we were home before the street lights went on at night
* Dial a rotary telephone
* Sneak into the drive-in movie in the trunk of a friends car

OK, that's just a couple. Let's hear from the rest of you.....
 
See the test pattern on the TV at 2 am in the morning...
 
-Talk to siblings over dial tone on the house phone
-Play with toy guns that looked legit from the toy store
-Greet siblings and friends at the airport gate
-buy adults cigarettes after they called them in at the corner store a mile away
-go into a liquor store and get soda
-play with wacky wall walkers (sticky octopus toys that came in cereal)
 
Walk down to the Platte River to hunt with our shotguns over our shoulder and having the town cop wave and smile as he drove by. Get together with a bunch of guys and have a pickup baseball/basketball/football game.Soaping windows on Holloween without fear of getting arrested for vandalism(homeowner might kick your *** if he catches you).
Going to a friends house to play without a "play date".Later on rounding up 3 bucks amongst a bunch of us for gas and cruising"Dizzy Block" all night.I could go on.... things have changed.
 
-Stay outside until about 11pm playing hide and seek with the rest of the neighborhood kids.
-Close off our entire block once each year and have a block party!
-Play kickball in the middle of the street without having to worry about some dumba** tearing through the neighborhood at 50mph
-Go to school in the morning, parents go to work, and leave the house completely unlocked all day and not have to worry about someone breaking in
-Watch actual Saturday morning cartoons
-Come home from school every day and watch cartoons until my mom came home at 4:30 and made me change the channel
-Have a TV with two knobs, one for UHF and the other for VHF
-Know that if the wind came from the SW, it was going to push the tree limbs into the antenna on the roof, and our TV reception was going to be sh*tty!
 
tote a pack of candy cigarettes.
take turns driving the school bus
 
Ride in the back seat of the family car while making a qtr mile pass.
 
Cops would confiscate our booze (underage drinking) and tell us to go home.
more to come...
 
Some one mentioned the UHF, VHF knobs on the TV...

playing with rabbit ears...

going outside to turn the aerial antenna to get the station to come in...

standing in the middle of the front bench seat between mom and dad... (and having Pop throw his arm across you in an emergency stop to keep you standing up)

front bench seats...

riding on the wheel wells of a Jeep so your sisters could sit in the seat...
 
Enjoying a rainy day....... enough said :D
 
Drive In movies are long gone in this area.

Vinyl records were the thing when I was growing up and that was followed by the cassette.

Gas was at 18.9 cents a gallon.

Buy cars that are all metal.

Buying toys that weren't mostly plastic.

Having a total of 3 channels on television.

Talking on a party line telephone.

Buying a brand new car for less than $3000.

Buying really really nice Road Runners, Chargers, Super Bees etc.. for $300 or less any day you looked.

7 year old playing dominoes with the old guys at one of the local bars.

Riding your bicycle any direction you wanted without having to check in or telling where you were going that day.
 
I grew up in South L.A., only a mile or 2 from the GM plant and Dana Chevrolet...

*As was said, "disappearing" all day long in summer, hanging out with friends until the streetlights came on.
*Playing on the train tracks, which included putting shopping carts, rocks, coins etc. and watching them get destroyed.
And later on, in my teens.....coming home wasted.......and "hanging out" with my girlfriend in my room while my parents were watching TV. :blob:
 
8-Track tapes

Firecrackers, M80's and Silver Salutes

Knowing nearly everyone on your street by name

Building a go-kart out of a lawnmower engine, plywood and other stuff you found going from house to house on trash night.

Working on the car engine under the hood in a rainstorm and not getting wet

Setting points with a matchbook cover

Welding with the oxy-acetylene torch set
 
Trick or treating in a neighborhood, not the Mall or Downtown businesses.
Settle arguments with a real fight and still be friends afterwards, and accepting if you got whipped you were wrong.
Sledding down hills so large they were developed into a down hill skiing spot.
Secure a trampoline to a lake dock, barely big enough to fit it and proceed to jump.
 
Race junker's in the farmers field
Play army
Ride Dirt Bikes in the woods
Drop M80's in the storm sewer
Walk to the corner 5& 10
Shoot a BB gun in the back yard
Hang out at the local gas station
Lock your buddy in a phone both
Drop smoke bombs in the hallway at school
Play kick ball with the school globe in the libary
 
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