I am Gen X Canadian, I remember do 99% of this crap. I miss the 80's the freedom that we had. If I could I would go back to the 80s, the best time of my life.
I'm gen X. I had a key to my house and I barely ever saw my parents. When I was 10 years old, I rode my bike 26 miles to my aunt's house. I stopped at a stranger's house to ask them for a glass of water, on the way. I grew up and became a 19D Cav Scout in the US Army. Americans are built different.
LMAO I have a similar story, also our homes where never locked until about 1992 or so, out of milk or sugar? just go inside the neighbors house and leave a note as to what you "borrowed" out of their frig or pantry... oh god the worst was at like 12 we made homemade napalm and soaked a tennis ball in it and used a golf driver to hit it down the street... in the fall... when everyone's grass front yards were full of flammable dead grass... yes a dozen kids running up and down the street grabbing everyone hose in the front yard to NOT but down the entire neighborhood... yes parents get home and ask why all the yards are black... Artesia NM sirca 1983 ish?
@@desertfoxaz97 OMG! I see your napalm and raise you my brother's friends' homemade torch. He soaked a rag in gas, tied it to a big stick and walked home through the woods unknowingly lighting it on fire as he went. He only turned around after he got home and heard some sirens. This was in NH I think like '87 ish? This thread is the best! 😂
does anyone know ANYONE who got sick form the mystery " garden hose poison"? everyone i know was told not to because it was somehow bad for us yet i dont know a single human with a garden hose water related illness or condition.. funny that..
"this was wild"... nope, this was Tuesday. the neighborhood boys would borrow every trash can from every neighbor on the street line them up and jump them with huge ramps we built in our garage. And all the parents would come out and watch. The neighborhood record was 17 trash cans which my friend and I both jumped. We had no idea what a bicycle helmet was. We had BB wars, drank out of garden hoses and even the creek. We even bought enough bottle rockets to last all summer and used plastic baseball bats with the end cut off to launch them at each other (And don't forget the Roman candles). To avoid sunburn, we spent as much time in the sun in the spring to get a nice dark tan and then we didn't have to worry about it all year.
I'm the first year of Gen X (1965). Our neighborhood had the same culture. 80+% of us were "latchkey kids" - no parent at home until 5-6pm weekdays. We used the round metal trash can lids as shields and had dirt clod (sometimes rock) battles against each other. Plenty of kids went home with big welts, bruises and even cuts from getting hit. Only 2 kids had to visit the emergency room over the years. We shot each other with BB guns (only 1 pump) just to see how much it hurt. We played "Smear the queer" where everyone tried to tackle the person who had the ball. Whoever got the ball became the queer. (Sounds homophobic to modern ears, but it had nothing to do with sexuality. In this context queer just meant "odd man out"). Many of us learned to shoot rifles (.22 mostly) around age 8-10, and could hunt if we knew the land owner. My group of friends would meet to have boxing matches in one guy's basement because his parents didn't mind us getting really rough. We tried to stay outside pretty much all year long because if you stayed inside you'd either get in trouble for being loud or be assigned chores. Showing off scars was a thing back then. I'm not sure I knew any boys who didn't have quite a few from falling off bikes and skateboards onto asphalt or concrete (and nobody wore helmets, knee or elbow pads). Drinking water was from the taps or hoses on the outside of the houses. Most of us would just say, "I'm going outside" to our parents and didn't even know where we'd end up, it just depended who was home. There was no calling ahead, we'd just show up, knock on the door and ask, "Can come out to play?" Our parents would just say, "Be home when it gets dark." Any adult was free to give you a talking to or call your parents if you were screwing up, and it was fine. None of this mess like today were parents think their own child is perfect and no adult should ever discipline them. Yes, I have a chipped front tooth from a friend jumping on me as I went down the slide headfirst. I broke my forearm and my parents didn't believe I was really hurt until I started looking like Popeye (swelling). It was a glorious time to grow up. Freedom.
@@OkiePeg411 We've got a foot in both camps. I'd argue Gen X started around 1962. Those too young to care about Woodstock (in 1969) are Gen X, and we had video games and computers as teens. The first children of the computer/information age revolution.
@MrVvulf But technically, the last boomers were born in 1964, like me. All my adult friends are boomers and older than me. And while I have a lot in common with my older friends, I don't have everything in common and I don't think of myself as a boomer. The boomer generation spans twenty years. Once upon a time twenty years was nothing. But now the span is too long. Generations change in the blink of an eye.
Lawsuit happy parents (a tiny minority) lawyers (mostly), and plain stupidity (again, a minority) are responsible for the warning labels. Most rational and sensible people don't sue companies for their own negligence. Unfortunately, lawyers love to sue whenever they think they can extract some money, regardless of their client's lack of common sense.
I grew up in the 70's and had every item shown here. I also did everything that was shown. I LOVED growing up in the 70's and wish my kids and grand kids could have experienced all that I did. I also STILL have my illegal Lawn Darts and we still play today. Never had an injury playing with them because we weren't stupid enough to throw them at each other. I miss those 70's days.
Gen X here. I can’t express enough how much this video hits home with me. Every single thing they mentioned I did or was a part of. Pure nostalgia, Andre’! Thank you!
@@pauladuncanadams1750 I remember the Indian with the tear coming down his face when he sees all the litter and trash on the land. Stop litter campaign.
@@briankirchhoefer yes, that one too. That one still gets me. But I was referring to the colored bars when the TV went off the air, there was a picture of an Indian.
You think this is crazy? I'm a boomer, born in 1952. We ran across the world in bare feat, rode bicycles the same way, without helmets, were given free reign until dusk, and then had to come in for dinner and bed by eight. Freedom and limits. Danger and protection. It's how you learn. I raised my son the same way. He does well in this world, and I trust, so will my grandchildren.
I lived out in the country and from spring until autumn none of my friends or I wore shoes. And we went in the pasture, out to the creek climbing trees, riding bikes...no shoes.
Same here. As I look back I realize how wonderful life was then. If I knew then what I know now I would have been more diligent in trying to cherish the moments. I feel so sorry for the children of today.
We had freedom to be kids. We used to have dirt clod fights and ran around with realistic looking toy guns in our neighbors' yards. Not once were police called. I remember climbing to the top of a 100 foot tall pine tree in the field across the street and I was afraid of heights; lol. Almost every kid broke their arm at least once, but we had a lot of fun doing it.
My sister and I used to have crab apple fights using those tri-fold chairs as "forts" and let me tell you when you got hit by the crab apple that stung worse than a rock.
@@gerriefarman3174 I actually got knocked cold out one time by a dirt clod. I woke up with my dad standing over me with a bag of ice. I was back at it the next day. lol
Born in 73.... All true! I did most of these things, and somehow survived without anything broken. We became tough and self-reliant..... something today's younger generation has no clue about. I am so thankful that I was able to grow up in the time I did....
Station wagons were originally replaced in the 1980s by minivans which could carry a lot more people and stuff, and then more recently the minivans were replaced by SUVs and crossovers because minivans had too much of a "soccer mom" image.
Remember the ad where there was a guy in the gym and the PA announcer said "There's a tan mini-van with it's lights on". Then the narrator says, eventually you'll get caught.
Minivans on a windy day got blown all over the place, and they didn't have good cargo space because the ceiling was very curved. If you had tall furniture to move it had to go dead center - if it fit at all. I hated them.
Im a champion law dart survivor , and survivor of old rusty steel play ground equipment , whammo wrist rockets , BB guns , and sketchy homemade ramps that we built to jump self modified bicycles.
This video is 100% true for gen x. I laughed all the way through this video. I remember buying cigarettes for my mother when I was around 10. Now days that is completely illegal and parents will get in trouble for it. The metal sprinklers they were showing were completely common back then because it made it easy to water our lawns. They were also fun for kids to play in while the water was turned on. I also remember roller skating on the road and the sidewalk without any pads or helmet. Same with bicycles. No helmet or pads even when I was learning. In cars we had seat belts but most people just pushed them down into the seats to keep them out of the way. I don't think my parents ever owned a car seat. Mom just held me in her lap when I was a baby. I also remember riding in the back of a truck on the highway. Now days if someone did that with kids it would probably go viral on the internet with exclamations of how horrible the parents are. The toy they showed with the hard balls on the strings are called click clacks. Imagine all of the things that can go wrong with giving kids two strings tied together with hard balls attached to the ends. What would you have done with them? I also had a wood burning kit as a kid which now would be considered very inappropriate for kids. Books of matches were everywhere. Every restaurant give them out for free and put them out in baskets for people to grab and kids got them all the time. We were also frequently unsupervised.
My kids are Gen Z, born '65, '67, '69. They had so much more freedom to play outside than kids have today. They spent as much time outside as the weather allowed. They learned to make good decisions by making a few minor bad decisions that resulted in skinned knees or elbows. This helped them develop confidence and independence. Their childhood was similar to my own in the '50s.
I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s. Clackers were acrylic balls on a string that you could bounce together like he showed. The faster you got them going the farther they would swing on the tether until you could have them hit under your hand and over your hand. If they were cold or scratched this is when they would shatter. But the thing I remember was that when you got them going real fast if you moved wrong they would smash into your wrist. It was not unheard of for this to break your wrist. When they started making cars smaller and lighter the minivan replaced the station wagon. Lee Iacocca was working for Chrysler and talked to a lot of women to get the perfect car for hauling the kids and groceries. This gave birth to the minivan. Jacks was a game that was used way back in the day to teach coordination and agility to knights. You had ten Jacks and a ball. You would bounce the ball and pick up a Jack. Then you would do it for two and so on. The winner was the person who could scoop up all ten Jacks at once. They showed the kids playing Hop Scotch which is another agility training game from olden days. What I remember most about the summers was that you could have breakfast and then disappear until supper or you got hungry which ever came first. They didn’t mention the worst thing about those pool chairs being if they sat in the sun and you just plopped down on them they would be hot enough to brand you. Good times and proof that kids are more durable than people like to think nowadays.
Yes, we did all of these. Sound crazy now, but there was an entire push to get parents more involved with their kids. They'd say on TV, "It's 10pm, do you know where your kids are?" Of course, most of us had to be home by the time the street lights came on, so we were home by 10pm. Can you imagine a commercial now asking parents if they know where their kids are? Jacks are played by tossing the sharp thing, bouncing the ball, and picking up the jack before catching the ball (usually seated on the ground). Every time you got all the jacks, you would add another. But you had to pick them ALL up AND catch the ball on one bounce. Sounds silly, but it was entertaining.
Gen X here. I can safely say that I wouldn't change my childhood for a million bucks. Lawn Darts became a game of attempted homicide. If you made it through childhood without a broken bone, scar or a "do you remember when," story then i feel bad for you. Lol. We were practically feral. Everyone had to be home by the time the streetlights came on, or if you were a country kid like myself, we had to be home by the time the mercury lights came on. Lol
As a Boomer I have done every one of these and have awesome scars to prove it. Even had a black eye from getting hit with the clackers. We grew up having fun and memories to share with our children and grandchildren.
I was at the tail end of the boomer generation. We did all of that and more! I grew up in the country so there was no riding bikes with friends or any of that stuff. I was driving a pickup truck at 10 and a farm tractor before that. Since there was no one around to play with, country kids wandered in the woods for hours, went fishing, rode horses, and other country things. Of course, we worked like adults, too. Hoeing fields, baling hay, feeding and watering animals, harvesting crops, and, if you were a girl like me, you also helped can, preserve, and/or freeze everything so that there was enough food to get through the winter and until the next year’s crops came in. Also, parents would take their kids to the local public pool at 8 a.m and come back by to pick up at 4 p.m. so that you go home and help cook supper.
Plymouth Voyager and the Dodge Grand Caravan killed the station wagon. Minivans became the new family transport device. Side Note: The Chevrolet Caprice and the Buick Roadmaster were the last station wagons produced in the US until 1996 when they were discontinued by GM.
Firecrackers were and still are readily available in the US. Some cities are more strict than others. We now have mortars that are incredibly powerful!!!
Omg I died at your reaction to firecrackers. When we were 10 my cousin spent his life savings on firecrackers (a couple hundred of them) and loaded them into a 40-gallon oil drum to set them off. It left a hole in the street. As an adult I know the proper name for this. It’s called a bomb.
Firecrackers were common toys to play with. Jacks are metal and you bounce a ball and have to gather one more than last time and catch the ball before the second bounce. Was my favorite as a kid.
As a Boomer, when I was a kid the next door neighbor was a college guy that came over and showed us how to make rockets using match heads lol They worked great!
This is 100% Gen X. On days with no school I was up before the sun, grabbed a handful of dry cereal and was gone until the streetlights came on at like 7pm. My parents had no idea what we were getting in too and didn't seem to care as long as I was home on time. My mother would check me at the end of the day to see if I had any new injuries that required attention. I would try to hide them from her so It wouldn't cut into my outside time. Rinse and repeat all summer. Yep! Yard darts, Slip and Slides, drinking from the hose, lead paint, older kids, rusty everything, BB gun wars, bottle rocket wars and crazy bike stunts. Lucky to be alive but wouldn't change a thing.
Random Gen X thoughts: Who remembers cap guns? Those were a childhood staple. When Mom calls you for dinner, she opens the door and calls your name with the distinctive trope. Melting plastic soldiers under a reading lamp. To this day, I don't wear a seatbelt or bicycle helmet. Most of my childhood was outside, fishing and exploring. In high school, me and my friends used to go to infamous Action Park. First time getting drunk: Age 11 at cousin's bas mitzvah (wasted on 7&7s). It was open bar, no ID. First time shooting a gun: Age 12, Mom's cousin visiting, pulled a couple shotguns out of his car trunk and we shot into the woods behind the house. Bike needs to be fixed? Fix it yourself unless you want to wait for Dad to get home from work. Torn jeans? Mom sews or patches them. I always had fireworks and alcohol. I learned to drive on my Dad's manual, my first two cars were manual. In the US, it's now an anti-theft feature. Cigarette machine across the street from my high school was 40 cents a pack and never asked for ID. It all built resilience and independence.
I was born in 1962, so I'm considered a 'Boomer,' but my life experience is more like a GenX ... my mother joined the workforce when I was 6, and my 10 yo brother and I fended for ourselves from 6am to 6pm ... we rode bikes 2 miles to the pool every day in the summer, cooked our own meals, and spent almost no time indoors ... It was a great life :-) I slept many hours in the back window on trips from Texas to North Carolina as a child, and when grown, I brought my first child home laying in my lap because carseats were not yet 'a thing' ... Kaknockers (acrylic balls on a string) - I loved them!! Blackcats and Daisy guns were very real ... and so were jacks :-)
Born in ‘63 here-I was shocked when I discovered that I was considered a Boomer. Previously, I had read about the Boomer generation like it was officially history. I had an aunt who was definitely Boomer, and she would teach me “hippie” things like they were folklore lol. It was interesting, but it wasn’t MY thing. It was very confusing to learn that I was considered part of her cohort-she and I both would’ve agreed that our cultural references were completely different.
I'm a Gen Xer. We used to ride around in the back of my uncle truck with our legs dangling over the edge. No seatbelts and it you hit a bump, watch out.
Yes, I'm gen X. I remember all of this and it was a great time! We didn't have cable until 83 or 85 time frame. I even have a memory of riding in the back of a pickup and hitting a dip in the road at speed and everyone with me flew up and landed against each other at the tailgate, we all thought it was a great moment of fun.
My stepdad had an old car with running boards. He would let us stand on the running boards, hanging on to the door through the open window, while he drove through town.
We did everything in this video. I still have my BB gun I got as a kid. Fireworks became illegal in NY where I grew up, but fireworks are legal here in Florida. In fact, there is a huge fireworks store not too far from my house. I can buy a lot of fireworks right now if I want.
I loved riding in the back of my Grandma's station wagon with the back window down as it was letting in exhaust fumes. I remember most of these things in this video.
GenX here to represent! The *worst* sunburn I ever had was from riding in the area behind the back seat, below the rear window, from Houston, TX to Winner, South Dakota in the summer. My dad was Silent Generation - we didn't stop for anything until we were camping for the night. If we got to the point that we were crying in pain, he'd begrudgingly pull ofg the side of the road and let us go to the bathroom. (◄ That's not an exaggeration.) Also, "Clackers" were dangerous! I broke two fingers with clackers. Fireworks were in the hands of kids far too young to have them.
My dad did not like to stop either. When he got older and had to go to the bathroom more often, we would often remind him of this. He would get real sheepish.
@@kjmylly Yeap, mom wouldn't let us drink after dinner on the night of a trip. Bathroom breaks at lunch, once in the late afternoon and then at a late dinner. You should have gone before you left, lol. My folks were early adopter of seat belts, so I don't remember riding in a car without being belted in. My dad also made us sit still in the car, mouths shut and feet on the floor. My dad counted a vacation day wasted if we didn't do at least 300 miles. My mom thought vacations were supposed to be educational experiences and was the queen of AAA maps and tight itineraries. Consequentially, our vacations were mostly trips to visit historic battlefields.
I grew up in the 1970’s and yes we did all these things and no one thought anything bad about any of it. Back then we would buy firecrackers and stuff them down big ant holes and blow them up. You could still buy dynamite back then without any permit. No one wore seatbelts or helmets. Pretty much everyone smoked. My parents did not smoke but all their friends and family did so we had ashtrays all over our house and it was my job to keep them clean as part of my chores each day. My dad built us bike ramps after my brother tried to ride his bike off of our sheds roof. The roof wasn’t that far off the ground because it sloped a lot but it was still about 10 feet. But after he built us the ramps we used to lay in front of them to see how many people we could jump. We never had cable growing up. Only rich people had cable. Not us. Matter of fact my parents just got cable about 10 years ago for the first time. I didn’t have cable until I had been married for about 15 years so about 2007. The 70’s-80’s were such fun times to grow up in.❤
I did a ramp and was crazy enough to try it on my 10-speed. No suspension so I landed down hard and hit my pelvic bone on the bike bar. It hurt bad but couldn't imagine if I were a boy and did that 😂. I also comically sled into a tree and also crashed hard into my pelvic bone that time as well. I also took a bmx and stood on the seat and handle bars like a surfboard and went down a hill. Really lucky to not get hurt that time 😂
Generation X = People born between 1965 to 1980. I think that Gen X was the last generation of children in the USA that had a lot of freedom. No social media, one socialized with one's friends. That is true about being outside all day. If we wanted to take a bike ride or a hike we just packed a lunch and went! Different ages (and also in different areas of the country) had rules of when you had to be home. When the church bells rang for the Angelus, when a factory whistle or town clock blew/chimed, when the streetlights came on, etc. No cell phones, few kids had watches (or wore them when they were outside playing) I've still got a box of "Jarts" (lawn darts) out in the garage attic. The points were replaced by weights. And declared to be illegal for a second time (stabbed or knocked out -- Take your pick) The original slip/slides were pretty crude. Some people just got a tarp and kept spraying a garden hose over it. I don't know about the BB guns on bikes; that seems kind of crazy! I grew up with guns and my brother and I were taught to respect guns (Both of us had BB guns, later hunting rifles). Firecrackers ... My parents declared them to be off-limits. But we were allowed those "sprinkler" things -- You can get burned with them; but they won't blow off your hand. Jacks/Jax: Bounce the ball pick up one jack. Bounce the ball, pick up 2 jacks, etc. See how many jacks you can pick up with one bounce of the ball. You can play with friends and keep score. The Gong Show (hosted by Chuck Barris) was a hugely popular afternoon TV show with amateur singing/dancing acts graded by a panel of 3 judges (celebrities). If the act was really bad; one of the judges or the host would bang a gong. The acts got graded by the judges and cash prizes were awarded. Some people actually began their showbiz career on that show.
That picture of the people in the back of the pickup gives me flashbacks. Growing up in the country, we used to always ride in the back of the truck. 20 states still don't have any regulation on it. The rest of them have some regulation on it, but mostly it is age, speed, and location restrictions. Louisiana for example, people in the bed must be 12+ and it can not go on highways. But even though it is legal to some extend in the entire country you almost never see it anymore except on farms, parades, and a few other rare events.
I, one of my cousins and our friends set off firecrackers in the middle of the street one 4th of July night and we were cussed out severely by a driver whose car ran over one and it exploded. Wow, was he angry!
Hmm not sure about the city, but can confirm almost all of this stuck around through the 90s and early 2000s in rural areas. We didn’t play lawn darts or put razor blades on kites, but everything else absolutely applied.
The sprinklers had very light weight aluminum blades on top and carried very little energy. The only cuts i know of from them were from stepping on them. People have so little tolerance for personal acountability.
We used to go outside at night and throw yard dart straight up into the air. You had to listen for the spinning fins and move out of the way. It was pretty stupid.
When I was older, Jr High, I walked or rode my bike home from school everyday, often in groups, but often alone, too. When I was young I had to ride the school bus across town for grade school, I had my thick red yarn around my neck, with my house key, so I wouldn't lose it. When I got home, there was a stool in the kitchen that I could stand on to reach the counter and the stove and the sink, so I could cook food when my parents weren't around. I played in the roof all the time. If I went out, I left a note and locked the door behind me. I had rules about where and how far in the world I could go without asking first, and always back on my own street by dark. When I got older my curfew was 10 and it didn't matter where I went, I just had to leave a note or say something. I got out the tools and built roof forts and treehouses and hideaways, unsupervised, many, many times. I had lots of friends that brought guns to school, because they were going out hunting in the afternoon -- the rule was you had to keep guns in your locker until after school. There was Boy Scouts and church groups, but I learned about skateboards, bike ramps, fireworks, creeps on the street, shooting, sunburns, personal first aid, cigarettes and drugs, books, comics, video games, frisbees, sports, RPGs, and all the social pitfalls, pretty much all on my own. And then I moved out and it was kinda the same, just a little bit more everything, but it still felt like I could only then finally breathe. Everything feels a lot less free today. And it still feels like nobody cares. And fyi, I had friends from Scouts who did the razorblade wing fights with gas powered balsa wood RC planes. One guy had ball bearings rigged on the wings that he could tip out to bomb the guy with the other controller, better than marble-sized. And there were tennis ball cannons, and later potato guns, and diy fireworks and explosives. I picked up making boomerangs, all on my own, without any guidance or books, just from knowing basic wing shapes, thinking about it, and having a plane to work with, and lots of branches and scrap lumber I picked up. Nobody has to teach you, you just go try and learn. It helps to get a bit crazy, but to only make small mistakes. People are too afraid to make mistakes now, and the consequences are so much more. Stifles growth, though it is probably healthier, overall, if that's the only concern. Parties used to be random walk-up affairs, as many strangers as people you knew.
I have fair skin and grew up in Utah, which is a desert state. I got such bad sunburns that would blister and I have scars on my back and shoulders. Of course, one of my biggest worries now is skin cancer. And about station wagons, there were 10 kids in my family and only a station wagon was big enough for all of us. When we would stop at traffic lights, we would frequently see people counting to see how many kids there were.
This video is pretty spot on. This video mainly highlights what city kids did. Country kids did pretty much the same stuff but also knew how to drive a tractor, feed and milk cows, etc. I grew up outside Chicago, but spent plenty of time with my cousins and grandparents who lived on farms.
😂 yes. This Gen X-er remembers all of this. I especially laugh at memories of the lawn darts and riding in the back of my dad's pickup truck while standing (and sometimes falling in the bed of the truck). Good times! 😆
Cable became a thing in the late '70s-early '80s in the US. In the '60s and '70s most people had roof antennae, not rabbit ears so much. Most of us didn't have to go up on the roof, we just went outside and turned the pole. I never heard of kite fighting. Fireworks were illegal (except professional shows) in my city, but it was never really enforced.
My family had only a black and white portable TV and 3 channels until I (the youngest kid) finally left home in the mid 80s. Then my parents celebrated by getting a huge color console TV with a remote!!!! Lol!!!
4 channels wow. I guess I take too many things for granted. I can remember back in the late 80s when I was little that my family had cable and had over like a 100 channels and I thought that was the norm.
We used tarps as a slip in slide in the 90s. We had a bit of a hill in the backyard and would add a bit of dish soap to add to the slip. We needed a much longer version in order to stop, lol. We also had sprinklers. There's a decent amount of overlap between millennials and gen x'ers. Especially if you were rather poor. Most of the activities are the same but we didn't have the same ability to roam as freely. There were a few high profile child abductions in the US in the 80s that made parents more aware and cautious about where their kids were. We had BB guns, they shot little metal pellets (BBs). I think that market has been entirely taken over by airsoft. It's safer to shoot each other with.
The slip and slide works if you have a bunch of old couch cushions/pillows that you don't care about. Put those underneath it. Otherwise, it's just diving onto the wet ground.
Oh man…being the kid on the end of a jump super sucked! All true! Also, the two balls would bounce against eachother and then you keep going. The goal was to have them meet again at the top above your hand…so cool but also so many friends got hurt by just playing with them normally but then also us boys would throw them at eachother hehe
11:50 I mean they kind of still are a thing, they just aren't called that. Crossovers and small SUVs kind of fill the niche that used to be held by the station wagon.
Im Genx and I remember all the things in the video. I remember candy cigarettes and pretending to smoke like my mom. When we worked with clay in art class at school, we were still allowed to make ashtrays for our parents. My mom packed our lunches for school and usually included peanut butter and jelly or tuna fish sandwiches, but now kids cant bcuz of peanut and fish allergies. My mom was parked on the side of the road and when her door was opened, a car drove by and took it off. The same thing happened with the other door a couple weeks later. We rode in a car with no doors for months without issues.
My family lived in an area where there were 4 local TV stations. With a roof antenna, you could pick up 6 more TV stations from Boston. Cable TV arrived around 1980, so the antennas were no longer needed. A rotary antenna system solved many problems. A box on top of your TV would control a motor on the antenna which would turn it toward TV broadcast towers.
If your kid gets hurt and it’s not life threatening you need to stay cool and not flip out. I don’t suggest laughing exactly but the child learns to stay calm themselves and to be tougher.
Or you could do what we older siblings would do to the young'uns. We'd look all serious and start talking about operations and amputations. Ask where it hurt and then draw a line above it saying "maybe amputate here?" Then we'd get a stick, pretend it was a saw and "operate". Usually the kid would be laughing by the time we were done.
I am a Gen Xer and I would not have had it any other way. I grew up in one of the best times and I remember them fondly. Being a kid before the Internet, Mobile Phones, and Netflix was wonderful. Times were simpler, happier, and kinder. A bb gun is an air gun that fires small metal balls (bb's). My older brother had one. One time when I was about 10, I was riding my bike down the street and he was fooling around with his friend and he shot me in the back. They definitely hurt! There were no mass shootings back then, and parents didn't worry about letting their kids go outside to play. It was a great time to grow up. I miss those days.
11:15 SUVs essentially eliminated the appeal or need for station wagons. i remember growing up sitting in the way back of the family station wagon in the reverse seat waving to traffic
As a Gen Xer I can confirm all of this was true. In fact, my cousin and I used to use the BB gun to hunt mice/rats in the barn. Also, our parents would tell us to go out and play in the morning and they didn't want to see us again until dinner after which we would go back out and play until the street lights came on at which point they would finally come out and tell us to come back in.
I was born in the 80's and I relate with a lot of this stuff. I remember the seatbelt laws weren't really enforced in my community until the late 90's, so I had a lot of fun riding in the back of trucks with and without camper shells... like an old model pickup-style Bronco and a Ford Ranchero, those were fun times.
Jack's is a game that's played by two people; each has a ball. It's a game of speed and agility. The game is played by bouncing a ball and trying to see how many Jack's (the metal pieces) you can pick up before the ball hits the ground. The game is played until all the jacks are picked up. The person with the most Jack's wins.
16:33 Yes, you could light off ridiculously loud fireworks... We even made a potato gun... It would launch a full-size potato so high into the air, it would disappear going up We got the police called on us, because somebody said that we were shooting a shotgun. When the police showed up. They said that's not a shotgun. We said it's a potato cannon. The police proceeded to spend the next half an hour with us, shooting an entire bag of potatoes
Hey Friend, I am an American Man born 196,Gen X. This video was a trip down memory lane. Very accurate. I have bike pedal scars on both legs, I've been nailed by BB ‘s multiple times, fallen out back of station wagon, bike helmets, seat belts, knee pads were Not used, we would ride bikes several towns away to find a baseball or football game. And, when we woke up on non school days, it was breakfast and get outside til dark unless you were extremely sick? And, any adult could and would put you in your place if you misbehaved. GREAT TIMES! Love your channel, thanks for sharing!
Jacks was a game where you would drop the bouncy ball and try to snatch up as many of the Jacks off the ground before the ball touched the ground, then catch the ball after it bounced.
By the end of the video they touched on many of the things I thought were missing like Firecrackers, BB and pellet guns,jumping bikes etc. My Parents never worried about us and never over reacted when we were bloody and bruised. We were running WILD and it seemed normal to us. We even had motorcycles by age 8 and rode them all over the neighborhood. I had my first 12 gauge shotgun at 10 and we would shoot everything moving or not! lol We used gas (Petrol) in the sand box when playing with are green army men and tanks. With gas and firecrackers we could simulate entire wars in the sand box. Anyway, parents let us run wild and I believe that was important to becoming self reliant. As we became older around 12 years old we would steal my older sisters car to do lawn jobs and donuts on our would be enemies yards. So much fun and now we have hundreds of stories to tell. I do remember being shot at 3 different times, stabbed twice and getting in a dozen knock down dragged out fights by age 16. It never occurred to us to even tell our parents unless they asked what happened to us. It was just normal for us at that time.
That was my life growing up, we didn't think anything about it. Gen X grew up tough and independent. We actually had to cross 5 feet of shag carpet to change the channel...lol
When my parents were children people moved around a lot less than they do today. Entire extended family's lived on one street, went to church together, and crime was low, so it was a lot safer for children to roam and play unsupervised.
HI! Yes, cliche here! Born in '71 my summer was rolling down the road in the wooden paneled station wagon with both parents chain smoking, I got the back window to myself because if my brother looked out he would 🤢🤮. We would drink out of the hose. Thankfully I never saw that sprinkler of death. I still to this day cook myself in the sun. I think sunscreen and shoes are the work of the devil and I will die on that hill. But the best worst stunt we did was when I was riding the bike while he, on roller skates held on to a rope to try to go fast. He fell. Didn't let go of the rope. Yeah... 😱😭
One time, dad, mom, and I went to a yard sale. The people were moving and getting rid of everything. Mom bought a Norfolk pine tree in a pot, and all we had at the time was a Chevy Chevelle to take it home. Dad strapped it into the trunk as best as possible. Mom wanted me to ride in the trunk, too, but I said no. So, she rode in back instead. We were about the same size. She rode with her feet dangling out of the trunk all the way home. Dad was careful and used back roads.
The car issues you had.... were all true! We do hang out and hold on to things on the roof! Sit on the back of the tail gates while they were down going 50mph down the road..... or on the sides of the truck beds. And babies in the back window....i remember seeing that. We had a station wagon so we couldn't do it. Bb guns yes! Lawn jarts.... dude.... looking back were probably the most insane! I have a scar on my chest where i was hit. Never said anything to any adult..... us kids, we all just quietly put the jarts away in the garage and spent the day doing quieter things.....i bled very little luckily😅
I hope you enjoyed this one! Also my patreon if you want extra content: www.patreon.com/europeanreacts
I am Gen X Canadian, I remember do 99% of this crap. I miss the 80's the freedom that we had. If I could I would go back to the 80s, the best time of my life.
I'm gen X. I had a key to my house and I barely ever saw my parents. When I was 10 years old, I rode my bike 26 miles to my aunt's house. I stopped at a stranger's house to ask them for a glass of water, on the way. I grew up and became a 19D Cav Scout in the US Army. Americans are built different.
We were crazy, it's no wonder we became helicopter parents
LMAO I have a similar story, also our homes where never locked until about 1992 or so, out of milk or sugar? just go inside the neighbors house and leave a note as to what you "borrowed" out of their frig or pantry... oh god the worst was at like 12 we made homemade napalm and soaked a tennis ball in it and used a golf driver to hit it down the street... in the fall... when everyone's grass front yards were full of flammable dead grass... yes a dozen kids running up and down the street grabbing everyone hose in the front yard to NOT but down the entire neighborhood... yes parents get home and ask why all the yards are black... Artesia NM sirca 1983 ish?
@@desertfoxaz97 OMG! I see your napalm and raise you my brother's friends' homemade torch. He soaked a rag in gas, tied it to a big stick and walked home through the woods unknowingly lighting it on fire as he went. He only turned around after he got home and heard some sirens. This was in NH I think like '87 ish? This thread is the best! 😂
Gen X just built different, for real. We have the tech skills of Millennials, with the Boomer work-ethic.
You and everyone else here
Gen-X here. Garden hose water is the BEST! Nothing was more refreshing.
does anyone know ANYONE who got sick form the mystery " garden hose poison"?
everyone i know was told not to because it was somehow bad for us yet i dont know a single human with a garden hose water related illness or condition..
funny that..
I thought the same thing when I saw that, garden hose water just tasted different. It was great.
"this was wild"... nope, this was Tuesday.
the neighborhood boys would borrow every trash can from every neighbor on the street line them up and jump them with huge ramps we built in our garage. And all the parents would come out and watch. The neighborhood record was 17 trash cans which my friend and I both jumped. We had no idea what a bicycle helmet was.
We had BB wars, drank out of garden hoses and even the creek. We even bought enough bottle rockets to last all summer and used plastic baseball bats with the end cut off to launch them at each other (And don't forget the Roman candles).
To avoid sunburn, we spent as much time in the sun in the spring to get a nice dark tan and then we didn't have to worry about it all year.
I'm the first year of Gen X (1965). Our neighborhood had the same culture. 80+% of us were "latchkey kids" - no parent at home until 5-6pm weekdays.
We used the round metal trash can lids as shields and had dirt clod (sometimes rock) battles against each other. Plenty of kids went home with big welts, bruises and even cuts from getting hit. Only 2 kids had to visit the emergency room over the years. We shot each other with BB guns (only 1 pump) just to see how much it hurt.
We played "Smear the queer" where everyone tried to tackle the person who had the ball. Whoever got the ball became the queer. (Sounds homophobic to modern ears, but it had nothing to do with sexuality. In this context queer just meant "odd man out").
Many of us learned to shoot rifles (.22 mostly) around age 8-10, and could hunt if we knew the land owner.
My group of friends would meet to have boxing matches in one guy's basement because his parents didn't mind us getting really rough.
We tried to stay outside pretty much all year long because if you stayed inside you'd either get in trouble for being loud or be assigned chores.
Showing off scars was a thing back then. I'm not sure I knew any boys who didn't have quite a few from falling off bikes and skateboards onto asphalt or concrete (and nobody wore helmets, knee or elbow pads).
Drinking water was from the taps or hoses on the outside of the houses.
Most of us would just say, "I'm going outside" to our parents and didn't even know where we'd end up, it just depended who was home. There was no calling ahead, we'd just show up, knock on the door and ask, "Can come out to play?"
Our parents would just say, "Be home when it gets dark."
Any adult was free to give you a talking to or call your parents if you were screwing up, and it was fine.
None of this mess like today were parents think their own child is perfect and no adult should ever discipline them.
Yes, I have a chipped front tooth from a friend jumping on me as I went down the slide headfirst.
I broke my forearm and my parents didn't believe I was really hurt until I started looking like Popeye (swelling).
It was a glorious time to grow up. Freedom.
@@MrVvulfme too. I identify more with baby boomers than Gen x.
@@OkiePeg411 We've got a foot in both camps. I'd argue Gen X started around 1962. Those too young to care about Woodstock (in 1969) are Gen X, and we had video games and computers as teens.
The first children of the computer/information age revolution.
Yes, this...lol.
@MrVvulf But technically, the last boomers were born in 1964, like me. All my adult friends are boomers and older than me. And while I have a lot in common with my older friends, I don't have everything in common and I don't think of myself as a boomer. The boomer generation spans twenty years. Once upon a time twenty years was nothing. But now the span is too long. Generations change in the blink of an eye.
1969 here. We are the generation that is responsible for all the warning labels. ⚠️ 😂
Lawsuit happy parents (a tiny minority) lawyers (mostly), and plain stupidity (again, a minority) are responsible for the warning labels.
Most rational and sensible people don't sue companies for their own negligence.
Unfortunately, lawyers love to sue whenever they think they can extract some money, regardless of their client's lack of common sense.
That was real life, in the physical world, with all its bumps and bruises.
LOL
I grew up in the 70's and had every item shown here. I also did everything that was shown. I LOVED growing up in the 70's and wish my kids and grand kids could have experienced all that I did. I also STILL have my illegal Lawn Darts and we still play today. Never had an injury playing with them because we weren't stupid enough to throw them at each other. I miss those 70's days.
Gen X here. I can’t express enough how much this video hits home with me. Every single thing they mentioned I did or was a part of. Pure nostalgia, Andre’! Thank you!
I remember growing up in the 70s and having 3 channels to watch and late at night they went off the air with the playing of the star spangled banner.
Exactly just like in the movie Poltergeist
And we were the remote to change the channel. 😂😂
But do you remember the Indian?
@@pauladuncanadams1750 I remember the Indian with the tear coming down his face when he sees all the litter and trash on the land. Stop litter campaign.
@@briankirchhoefer yes, that one too. That one still gets me. But I was referring to the colored bars when the TV went off the air, there was a picture of an Indian.
You think this is crazy? I'm a boomer, born in 1952. We ran across the world in bare feat, rode bicycles the same way, without helmets, were given free reign until dusk, and then had to come in for dinner and bed by eight. Freedom and limits. Danger and protection. It's how you learn. I raised my son the same way. He does well in this world, and I trust, so will my grandchildren.
I lived out in the country and from spring until autumn none of my friends or I wore shoes. And we went in the pasture, out to the creek climbing trees, riding bikes...no shoes.
Same here. As I look back I realize how wonderful life was then. If I knew then what I know now I would have been more diligent in trying to cherish the moments. I feel so sorry for the children of today.
It was not time to go home, until the street lights came on. Good times
Yall are from a softer generation than gen x...😂
Gen X here! True! A lot of things are regional and some things were across the United States, you had to rely on common Sense for your safety!
We had freedom to be kids. We used to have dirt clod fights and ran around with realistic looking toy guns in our neighbors' yards. Not once were police called. I remember climbing to the top of a 100 foot tall pine tree in the field across the street and I was afraid of heights; lol. Almost every kid broke their arm at least once, but we had a lot of fun doing it.
My sister and I used to have crab apple fights using those tri-fold chairs as "forts" and let me tell you when you got hit by the crab apple that stung worse than a rock.
@@gerriefarman3174
I actually got knocked cold out one time by a dirt clod. I woke up with my dad standing over me with a bag of ice. I was back at it the next day. lol
Born in 73.... All true! I did most of these things, and somehow survived without anything broken. We became tough and self-reliant..... something today's younger generation has no clue about. I am so thankful that I was able to grow up in the time I did....
Proud American Gen-X here.
Station wagons were originally replaced in the 1980s by minivans which could carry a lot more people and stuff, and then more recently the minivans were replaced by SUVs and crossovers because minivans had too much of a "soccer mom" image.
Remember the ad where there was a guy in the gym and the PA announcer said "There's a tan mini-van with it's lights on". Then the narrator says, eventually you'll get caught.
I think it's funny now how SUVs now are just rebranded mini station wagons
Minivans on a windy day got blown all over the place, and they didn't have good cargo space because the ceiling was very curved. If you had tall furniture to move it had to go dead center - if it fit at all. I hated them.
How I miss not having a trunk to hide my stuff in so it won't get stolen. Suv's are lame.
Im a champion law dart survivor , and survivor of old rusty steel play ground equipment , whammo wrist rockets , BB guns , and sketchy homemade ramps that we built to jump self modified bicycles.
Playing card in the spokes? Now it's a motor cycle
This video is 100% true for gen x. I laughed all the way through this video. I remember buying cigarettes for my mother when I was around 10. Now days that is completely illegal and parents will get in trouble for it. The metal sprinklers they were showing were completely common back then because it made it easy to water our lawns. They were also fun for kids to play in while the water was turned on. I also remember roller skating on the road and the sidewalk without any pads or helmet. Same with bicycles. No helmet or pads even when I was learning. In cars we had seat belts but most people just pushed them down into the seats to keep them out of the way. I don't think my parents ever owned a car seat. Mom just held me in her lap when I was a baby. I also remember riding in the back of a truck on the highway. Now days if someone did that with kids it would probably go viral on the internet with exclamations of how horrible the parents are. The toy they showed with the hard balls on the strings are called click clacks. Imagine all of the things that can go wrong with giving kids two strings tied together with hard balls attached to the ends. What would you have done with them? I also had a wood burning kit as a kid which now would be considered very inappropriate for kids. Books of matches were everywhere. Every restaurant give them out for free and put them out in baskets for people to grab and kids got them all the time. We were also frequently unsupervised.
I remember cigarette vending machines, you didn’t even need a note lol. So I started smoking regularly-not just trial-at 15.
Grew up, Gen. X. It was a time before technology took over. I definitely miss those days.
My kids are Gen Z, born '65, '67, '69. They had so much more freedom to play outside than kids have today. They spent as much time outside as the weather allowed. They learned to make good decisions by making a few minor bad decisions that resulted in skinned knees or elbows. This helped them develop confidence and independence. Their childhood was similar to my own in the '50s.
Typo - they are Gen X!
Yes, it's true. We played with fireworks like that all summer.
SUV's & Vans have replaced station wagons.
I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s. Clackers were acrylic balls on a string that you could bounce together like he showed. The faster you got them going the farther they would swing on the tether until you could have them hit under your hand and over your hand. If they were cold or scratched this is when they would shatter. But the thing I remember was that when you got them going real fast if you moved wrong they would smash into your wrist. It was not unheard of for this to break your wrist. When they started making cars smaller and lighter the minivan replaced the station wagon. Lee Iacocca was working for Chrysler and talked to a lot of women to get the perfect car for hauling the kids and groceries. This gave birth to the minivan. Jacks was a game that was used way back in the day to teach coordination and agility to knights. You had ten Jacks and a ball. You would bounce the ball and pick up a Jack. Then you would do it for two and so on. The winner was the person who could scoop up all ten Jacks at once. They showed the kids playing Hop Scotch which is another agility training game from olden days. What I remember most about the summers was that you could have breakfast and then disappear until supper or you got hungry which ever came first. They didn’t mention the worst thing about those pool chairs being if they sat in the sun and you just plopped down on them they would be hot enough to brand you. Good times and proof that kids are more durable than people like to think nowadays.
Yes, we did all of these. Sound crazy now, but there was an entire push to get parents more involved with their kids. They'd say on TV, "It's 10pm, do you know where your kids are?" Of course, most of us had to be home by the time the street lights came on, so we were home by 10pm. Can you imagine a commercial now asking parents if they know where their kids are? Jacks are played by tossing the sharp thing, bouncing the ball, and picking up the jack before catching the ball (usually seated on the ground). Every time you got all the jacks, you would add another. But you had to pick them ALL up AND catch the ball on one bounce. Sounds silly, but it was entertaining.
Channel 5 here in New York City still does a "It's 10pm do you know where your children are?" message before the 10 o'clock news every night
I played my share of Jacks.
Sliding in right at dinner time.
@@gotham61 😮 Are you serious??
@@gotham61 😮 Are you serious??
100% accurate representation of my childhood in the 70's!
Gen X here. I can safely say that I wouldn't change my childhood for a million bucks. Lawn Darts became a game of attempted homicide. If you made it through childhood without a broken bone, scar or a "do you remember when," story then i feel bad for you. Lol. We were practically feral. Everyone had to be home by the time the streetlights came on, or if you were a country kid like myself, we had to be home by the time the mercury lights came on. Lol
As a Boomer I have done every one of these and have awesome scars to prove it. Even had a black eye from getting hit with the clackers. We grew up having fun and memories to share with our children and grandchildren.
Gen X was the best time to be alive. from movies to tv shows, commercials, to music & music video's. as well as toys.
I was at the tail end of the boomer generation. We did all of that and more! I grew up in the country so there was no riding bikes with friends or any of that stuff. I was driving a pickup truck at 10 and a farm tractor before that. Since there was no one around to play with, country kids wandered in the woods for hours, went fishing, rode horses, and other country things. Of course, we worked like adults, too. Hoeing fields, baling hay, feeding and watering animals, harvesting crops, and, if you were a girl like me, you also helped can, preserve, and/or freeze everything so that there was enough food to get through the winter and until the next year’s crops came in. Also, parents would take their kids to the local public pool at 8 a.m and come back by to pick up at 4 p.m. so that you go home and help cook supper.
My friend's next door neighbors bred Arabians. Those were beautiful horses.
The station wagon was a victim of of fuel efficiency standards in the US. The SUV with a streamlined shape is the standard now.
And many SUVs are just stylized station wagons
Plymouth Voyager and the Dodge Grand Caravan killed the station wagon. Minivans became the new family transport device. Side Note: The Chevrolet Caprice and the Buick Roadmaster were the last station wagons produced in the US until 1996 when they were discontinued by GM.
@@DonMachado You know more than me.
The SUVs count as trucks in terms of fuel efficiency standards.
Firecrackers were and still are readily available in the US.
Some cities are more strict than others.
We now have mortars that are incredibly powerful!!!
Omg I died at your reaction to firecrackers. When we were 10 my cousin spent his life savings on firecrackers (a couple hundred of them) and loaded them into a 40-gallon oil drum to set them off. It left a hole in the street. As an adult I know the proper name for this. It’s called a bomb.
Firecrackers were common toys to play with.
Jacks are metal and you bounce a ball and have to gather one more than last time and catch the ball before the second bounce. Was my favorite as a kid.
As a Boomer, when I was a kid the next door neighbor was a college guy that came over and showed us how to make rockets using match heads lol They worked great!
This is 100% Gen X. On days with no school I was up before the sun, grabbed a handful of dry cereal and was gone until the streetlights came on at like 7pm.
My parents had no idea what we were getting in too and didn't seem to care as long as I was home on time.
My mother would check me at the end of the day to see if I had any new injuries that required attention. I would try to hide them from her so It wouldn't cut into my outside time.
Rinse and repeat all summer.
Yep! Yard darts, Slip and Slides, drinking from the hose, lead paint, older kids, rusty everything, BB gun wars, bottle rocket wars and crazy bike stunts.
Lucky to be alive but wouldn't change a thing.
Random Gen X thoughts:
Who remembers cap guns? Those were a childhood staple.
When Mom calls you for dinner, she opens the door and calls your name with the distinctive trope.
Melting plastic soldiers under a reading lamp.
To this day, I don't wear a seatbelt or bicycle helmet.
Most of my childhood was outside, fishing and exploring.
In high school, me and my friends used to go to infamous Action Park.
First time getting drunk: Age 11 at cousin's bas mitzvah (wasted on 7&7s). It was open bar, no ID.
First time shooting a gun: Age 12, Mom's cousin visiting, pulled a couple shotguns out of his car trunk and we shot into the woods behind the house.
Bike needs to be fixed? Fix it yourself unless you want to wait for Dad to get home from work.
Torn jeans? Mom sews or patches them.
I always had fireworks and alcohol.
I learned to drive on my Dad's manual, my first two cars were manual. In the US, it's now an anti-theft feature.
Cigarette machine across the street from my high school was 40 cents a pack and never asked for ID.
It all built resilience and independence.
A common thing with subnbathing was putting lemon in your hair to lighten it while you tanned.
I was born in 1962, so I'm considered a 'Boomer,' but my life experience is more like a GenX ... my mother joined the workforce when I was 6, and my 10 yo brother and I fended for ourselves from 6am to 6pm ... we rode bikes 2 miles to the pool every day in the summer, cooked our own meals, and spent almost no time indoors ... It was a great life :-) I slept many hours in the back window on trips from Texas to North Carolina as a child, and when grown, I brought my first child home laying in my lap because carseats were not yet 'a thing' ... Kaknockers (acrylic balls on a string) - I loved them!! Blackcats and Daisy guns were very real ... and so were jacks :-)
Born in ‘63 here-I was shocked when I discovered that I was considered a Boomer. Previously, I had read about the Boomer generation like it was officially history. I had an aunt who was definitely Boomer, and she would teach me “hippie” things like they were folklore lol. It was interesting, but it wasn’t MY thing. It was very confusing to learn that I was considered part of her cohort-she and I both would’ve agreed that our cultural references were completely different.
I'm a Gen Xer. We used to ride around in the back of my uncle truck with our legs dangling over the edge. No seatbelts and it you hit a bump, watch out.
I've done that too. When going up hills you'd have to watch out and hold tight lest you fall out.
Yes, I'm gen X. I remember all of this and it was a great time! We didn't have cable until 83 or 85 time frame. I even have a memory of riding in the back of a pickup and hitting a dip in the road at speed and everyone with me flew up and landed against each other at the tailgate, we all thought it was a great moment of fun.
My stepdad had an old car with running boards. He would let us stand on the running boards, hanging on to the door through the open window, while he drove through town.
We did everything in this video. I still have my BB gun I got as a kid. Fireworks became illegal in NY where I grew up, but fireworks are legal here in Florida. In fact, there is a huge fireworks store not too far from my house. I can buy a lot of fireworks right now if I want.
My dad (he turns 87 this year) still has my BB gun. I left it at home when I entered the Army and he still uses it to chase squirrels out of the yard.
That station wagon with the kids in at the back window was the four of us children, or climbing over the seats constantly.
I loved growing up back then
I loved riding in the back of my Grandma's station wagon with the back window down as it was letting in exhaust fumes. I remember most of these things in this video.
GenX here to represent! The *worst* sunburn I ever had was from riding in the area behind the back seat, below the rear window, from Houston, TX to Winner, South Dakota in the summer. My dad was Silent Generation - we didn't stop for anything until we were camping for the night. If we got to the point that we were crying in pain, he'd begrudgingly pull ofg the side of the road and let us go to the bathroom. (◄ That's not an exaggeration.)
Also, "Clackers" were dangerous! I broke two fingers with clackers. Fireworks were in the hands of kids far too young to have them.
My dad did not like to stop either. When he got older and had to go to the bathroom more often, we would often remind him of this. He would get real sheepish.
I still never remember to put sunscreen on. At least I don't slather myself in Panama jacks suntan oil. Lol
@@kjmylly Yeap, mom wouldn't let us drink after dinner on the night of a trip. Bathroom breaks at lunch, once in the late afternoon and then at a late dinner. You should have gone before you left, lol.
My folks were early adopter of seat belts, so I don't remember riding in a car without being belted in. My dad also made us sit still in the car, mouths shut and feet on the floor. My dad counted a vacation day wasted if we didn't do at least 300 miles. My mom thought vacations were supposed to be educational experiences and was the queen of AAA maps and tight itineraries. Consequentially, our vacations were mostly trips to visit historic battlefields.
@@Rose-z4h6k, Maps! I remember being tasked with folding the map. Suffice to say, it didn't happen.
Love all your Videos
I recognize everything in the video.
I miss those days!!! I feel it was safer back then!
I grew up in the 1970’s and yes we did all these things and no one thought anything bad about any of it. Back then we would buy firecrackers and stuff them down big ant holes and blow them up. You could still buy dynamite back then without any permit. No one wore seatbelts or helmets. Pretty much everyone smoked. My parents did not smoke but all their friends and family did so we had ashtrays all over our house and it was my job to keep them clean as part of my chores each day. My dad built us bike ramps after my brother tried to ride his bike off of our sheds roof. The roof wasn’t that far off the ground because it sloped a lot but it was still about 10 feet. But after he built us the ramps we used to lay in front of them to see how many people we could jump. We never had cable growing up. Only rich people had cable. Not us. Matter of fact my parents just got cable about 10 years ago for the first time. I didn’t have cable until I had been married for about 15 years so about 2007. The 70’s-80’s were such fun times to grow up in.❤
I did a ramp and was crazy enough to try it on my 10-speed. No suspension so I landed down hard and hit my pelvic bone on the bike bar. It hurt bad but couldn't imagine if I were a boy and did that 😂. I also comically sled into a tree and also crashed hard into my pelvic bone that time as well. I also took a bmx and stood on the seat and handle bars like a surfboard and went down a hill. Really lucky to not get hurt that time 😂
Generation X = People born between 1965 to 1980.
I think that Gen X was the last generation of children in the USA that had a lot of freedom. No social media, one socialized with
one's friends. That is true about being outside all day. If we wanted to take a bike ride or a hike we just packed a lunch and
went! Different ages (and also in different areas of the country) had rules of when you had to be home. When the church bells
rang for the Angelus, when a factory whistle or town clock blew/chimed, when the streetlights came on, etc. No cell phones,
few kids had watches (or wore them when they were outside playing)
I've still got a box of "Jarts" (lawn darts) out in the garage attic. The points were replaced by weights.
And declared to be illegal for a second time (stabbed or knocked out -- Take your pick)
The original slip/slides were pretty crude. Some people just got a tarp and kept spraying a garden hose over it.
I don't know about the BB guns on bikes; that seems kind of crazy! I grew up with guns and my brother and I were taught to
respect guns (Both of us had BB guns, later hunting rifles).
Firecrackers ... My parents declared them to be off-limits. But we were allowed those "sprinkler" things -- You can get
burned with them; but they won't blow off your hand.
Jacks/Jax: Bounce the ball pick up one jack. Bounce the ball, pick up 2 jacks, etc. See how many jacks you can pick up with
one bounce of the ball. You can play with friends and keep score.
The Gong Show (hosted by Chuck Barris) was a hugely popular afternoon TV show with amateur singing/dancing acts
graded by a panel of 3 judges (celebrities). If the act was really bad; one of the judges or the host would bang a gong.
The acts got graded by the judges and cash prizes were awarded. Some people actually began their showbiz career on that show.
That picture of the people in the back of the pickup gives me flashbacks. Growing up in the country, we used to always ride in the back of the truck. 20 states still don't have any regulation on it. The rest of them have some regulation on it, but mostly it is age, speed, and location restrictions. Louisiana for example, people in the bed must be 12+ and it can not go on highways. But even though it is legal to some extend in the entire country you almost never see it anymore except on farms, parades, and a few other rare events.
The good ole days!
100% accurate. This was my childhood.
HAHA it's very true! We used to have bottle rocket wars.
I put crisco oil on to get a tan! I’m amazed I don’t have cancer.
LOL! I used baby oil. For that perfect crisp on the beach in Santa Cruz.
@@MargieM10 Baby oil and iodine for extra darkness.
I, one of my cousins and our friends set off firecrackers in the middle of the street one 4th of July night and we were cussed out severely by a driver whose car ran over one and it exploded. Wow, was he angry!
Hmm not sure about the city, but can confirm almost all of this stuck around through the 90s and early 2000s in rural areas. We didn’t play lawn darts or put razor blades on kites, but everything else absolutely applied.
The sprinklers had very light weight aluminum blades on top and carried very little energy. The only cuts i know of from them were from stepping on them. People have so little tolerance for personal acountability.
We used to go outside at night and throw yard dart straight up into the air. You had to listen for the spinning fins and move out of the way. It was pretty stupid.
When I was older, Jr High, I walked or rode my bike home from school everyday, often in groups, but often alone, too. When I was young I had to ride the school bus across town for grade school, I had my thick red yarn around my neck, with my house key, so I wouldn't lose it. When I got home, there was a stool in the kitchen that I could stand on to reach the counter and the stove and the sink, so I could cook food when my parents weren't around. I played in the roof all the time. If I went out, I left a note and locked the door behind me. I had rules about where and how far in the world I could go without asking first, and always back on my own street by dark. When I got older my curfew was 10 and it didn't matter where I went, I just had to leave a note or say something. I got out the tools and built roof forts and treehouses and hideaways, unsupervised, many, many times. I had lots of friends that brought guns to school, because they were going out hunting in the afternoon -- the rule was you had to keep guns in your locker until after school. There was Boy Scouts and church groups, but I learned about skateboards, bike ramps, fireworks, creeps on the street, shooting, sunburns, personal first aid, cigarettes and drugs, books, comics, video games, frisbees, sports, RPGs, and all the social pitfalls, pretty much all on my own. And then I moved out and it was kinda the same, just a little bit more everything, but it still felt like I could only then finally breathe.
Everything feels a lot less free today. And it still feels like nobody cares.
And fyi, I had friends from Scouts who did the razorblade wing fights with gas powered balsa wood RC planes. One guy had ball bearings rigged on the wings that he could tip out to bomb the guy with the other controller, better than marble-sized. And there were tennis ball cannons, and later potato guns, and diy fireworks and explosives. I picked up making boomerangs, all on my own, without any guidance or books, just from knowing basic wing shapes, thinking about it, and having a plane to work with, and lots of branches and scrap lumber I picked up. Nobody has to teach you, you just go try and learn. It helps to get a bit crazy, but to only make small mistakes. People are too afraid to make mistakes now, and the consequences are so much more. Stifles growth, though it is probably healthier, overall, if that's the only concern. Parties used to be random walk-up affairs, as many strangers as people you knew.
Slip & Slide was mandatory. Ended up in the hospital 3 times from sunburn. Still waiting on the skin cancer.
I remember lying in the back window as a kid. It was super comfortable and relaxing.😊
We were built different back in those days.😀
I have fair skin and grew up in Utah, which is a desert state. I got such bad sunburns that would blister and I have scars on my back and shoulders. Of course, one of my biggest worries now is skin cancer. And about station wagons, there were 10 kids in my family and only a station wagon was big enough for all of us. When we would stop at traffic lights, we would frequently see people counting to see how many kids there were.
I remember photos of me as a toddler, being bathed in the kitchen sink along side food being cooked. Mommy-MultiTasking
Oh yes! I remember that too.
This video is pretty spot on. This video mainly highlights what city kids did. Country kids did pretty much the same stuff but also knew how to drive a tractor, feed and milk cows, etc. I grew up outside Chicago, but spent plenty of time with my cousins and grandparents who lived on farms.
😂 yes. This Gen X-er remembers all of this. I especially laugh at memories of the lawn darts and riding in the back of my dad's pickup truck while standing (and sometimes falling in the bed of the truck). Good times! 😆
Cable became a thing in the late '70s-early '80s in the US. In the '60s and '70s most people had roof antennae, not rabbit ears so much. Most of us didn't have to go up on the roof, we just went outside and turned the pole. I never heard of kite fighting. Fireworks were illegal (except professional shows) in my city, but it was never really enforced.
My family had only a black and white portable TV and 3 channels until I (the youngest kid) finally left home in the mid 80s. Then my parents celebrated by getting a huge color console TV with a remote!!!! Lol!!!
Absolutely true
4 channels wow. I guess I take too many things for granted. I can remember back in the late 80s when I was little that my family had cable and had over like a 100 channels and I thought that was the norm.
Nope, not in my family.
Even now... I have never had cable or satellite TV. Only internet is my phone. Never saw a need to pay for tv!!!
Best era ever! Im gen x and it was amazing.
We used tarps as a slip in slide in the 90s. We had a bit of a hill in the backyard and would add a bit of dish soap to add to the slip. We needed a much longer version in order to stop, lol. We also had sprinklers.
There's a decent amount of overlap between millennials and gen x'ers. Especially if you were rather poor. Most of the activities are the same but we didn't have the same ability to roam as freely. There were a few high profile child abductions in the US in the 80s that made parents more aware and cautious about where their kids were.
We had BB guns, they shot little metal pellets (BBs). I think that market has been entirely taken over by airsoft. It's safer to shoot each other with.
The slip and slide works if you have a bunch of old couch cushions/pillows that you don't care about. Put those underneath it. Otherwise, it's just diving onto the wet ground.
Oh man…being the kid on the end of a jump super sucked!
All true!
Also, the two balls would bounce against eachother and then you keep going. The goal was to have them meet again at the top above your hand…so cool but also so many friends got hurt by just playing with them normally but then also us boys would throw them at eachother hehe
Once you got klackers going they would connect at the top of the arc and the bottom. Many kids lost teeth, got black eyes, even broke facial bones.
11:50 I mean they kind of still are a thing, they just aren't called that. Crossovers and small SUVs kind of fill the niche that used to be held by the station wagon.
No idea about the kites with razors.
Im Genx and I remember all the things in the video. I remember candy cigarettes and pretending to smoke like my mom. When we worked with clay in art class at school, we were still allowed to make ashtrays for our parents. My mom packed our lunches for school and usually included peanut butter and jelly or tuna fish sandwiches, but now kids cant bcuz of peanut and fish allergies. My mom was parked on the side of the road and when her door was opened, a car drove by and took it off. The same thing happened with the other door a couple weeks later. We rode in a car with no doors for months without issues.
My family lived in an area where there were 4 local TV stations. With a roof antenna, you could pick up 6 more TV stations from Boston. Cable TV arrived around 1980, so the antennas were no longer needed. A rotary antenna system solved many problems. A box on top of your TV would control a motor on the antenna which would turn it toward TV broadcast towers.
We have memories and experiences that no other generation has. It was the best and the scars to prove it
If your kid gets hurt and it’s not life threatening you need to stay cool and not flip out. I don’t suggest laughing exactly but the child learns to stay calm themselves and to be tougher.
Or you could do what we older siblings would do to the young'uns. We'd look all serious and start talking about operations and amputations. Ask where it hurt and then draw a line above it saying "maybe amputate here?" Then we'd get a stick, pretend it was a saw and "operate". Usually the kid would be laughing by the time we were done.
There is such a thing as survival bias. By definition, everyone who remembers these things survived the experience.
I am a Gen Xer and I would not have had it any other way. I grew up in one of the best times and I remember them fondly. Being a kid before the Internet, Mobile Phones, and Netflix was wonderful. Times were simpler, happier, and kinder. A bb gun is an air gun that fires small metal balls (bb's). My older brother had one. One time when I was about 10, I was riding my bike down the street and he was fooling around with his friend and he shot me in the back. They definitely hurt! There were no mass shootings back then, and parents didn't worry about letting their kids go outside to play. It was a great time to grow up. I miss those days.
11:15 SUVs essentially eliminated the appeal or need for station wagons. i remember growing up sitting in the way back of the family station wagon in the reverse seat waving to traffic
As a Gen Xer I can confirm all of this was true. In fact, my cousin and I used to use the BB gun to hunt mice/rats in the barn. Also, our parents would tell us to go out and play in the morning and they didn't want to see us again until dinner after which we would go back out and play until the street lights came on at which point they would finally come out and tell us to come back in.
I think SUVs largely replaced vans and wagons, both.
Mini Vans replaced the Station Wagon as a big family vehicle in the US.
I was born in the 80's and I relate with a lot of this stuff. I remember the seatbelt laws weren't really enforced in my community until the late 90's, so I had a lot of fun riding in the back of trucks with and without camper shells... like an old model pickup-style Bronco and a Ford Ranchero, those were fun times.
Jack's is a game that's played by two people; each has a ball. It's a game of speed and agility. The game is played by bouncing a ball and trying to see how many Jack's (the metal pieces) you can pick up before the ball hits the ground. The game is played until all the jacks are picked up. The person with the most Jack's wins.
16:33 Yes, you could light off ridiculously loud fireworks... We even made a potato gun... It would launch a full-size potato so high into the air, it would disappear going up
We got the police called on us, because somebody said that we were shooting a shotgun. When the police showed up. They said that's not a shotgun. We said it's a potato cannon.
The police proceeded to spend the next half an hour with us, shooting an entire bag of potatoes
very very true
I'm an Early 90's kid, and still had most of these experiences!! 😅
All true ! It was so fun ! Big garbage bags a hose and some dish soap and you can make your own slip and slide.
Hey Friend, I am an American Man born 196,Gen X. This video was a trip down memory lane. Very accurate. I have bike pedal scars on both legs, I've been nailed by BB ‘s multiple times, fallen out back of station wagon, bike helmets, seat belts, knee pads were Not used, we would ride bikes several towns away to find a baseball or football game. And, when we woke up on non school days, it was breakfast and get outside til dark unless you were extremely sick? And, any adult could and would put you in your place if you misbehaved. GREAT TIMES! Love your channel, thanks for sharing!
Jacks was a game where you would drop the bouncy ball and try to snatch up as many of the Jacks off the ground before the ball touched the ground, then catch the ball after it bounced.
By the end of the video they touched on many of the things I thought were missing like Firecrackers, BB and pellet guns,jumping bikes etc. My Parents never worried about us and never over reacted when we were bloody and bruised. We were running WILD and it seemed normal to us. We even had motorcycles by age 8 and rode them all over the neighborhood. I had my first 12 gauge shotgun at 10 and we would shoot everything moving or not! lol We used gas (Petrol) in the sand box when playing with are green army men and tanks. With gas and firecrackers we could simulate entire wars in the sand box. Anyway, parents let us run wild and I believe that was important to becoming self reliant. As we became older around 12 years old we would steal my older sisters car to do lawn jobs and donuts on our would be enemies yards. So much fun and now we have hundreds of stories to tell. I do remember being shot at 3 different times, stabbed twice and getting in a dozen knock down dragged out fights by age 16. It never occurred to us to even tell our parents unless they asked what happened to us. It was just normal for us at that time.
That was my life growing up, we didn't think anything about it. Gen X grew up tough and independent. We actually had to cross 5 feet of shag carpet to change the channel...lol
When my parents were children people moved around a lot less than they do today. Entire extended family's lived on one street, went to church together, and crime was low, so it was a lot safer for children to roam and play unsupervised.
HI! Yes, cliche here! Born in '71 my summer was rolling down the road in the wooden paneled station wagon with both parents chain smoking, I got the back window to myself because if my brother looked out he would 🤢🤮. We would drink out of the hose. Thankfully I never saw that sprinkler of death. I still to this day cook myself in the sun. I think sunscreen and shoes are the work of the devil and I will die on that hill. But the best worst stunt we did was when I was riding the bike while he, on roller skates held on to a rope to try to go fast. He fell. Didn't let go of the rope. Yeah... 😱😭
One time, dad, mom, and I went to a yard sale. The people were moving and getting rid of everything. Mom bought a Norfolk pine tree in a pot, and all we had at the time was a Chevy Chevelle to take it home. Dad strapped it into the trunk as best as possible. Mom wanted me to ride in the trunk, too, but I said no. So, she rode in back instead. We were about the same size. She rode with her feet dangling out of the trunk all the way home. Dad was careful and used back roads.
I was born in 1975 and grew up in the 1980’s and 90’s……..it’s all true!
The car issues you had.... were all true! We do hang out and hold on to things on the roof! Sit on the back of the tail gates while they were down going 50mph down the road..... or on the sides of the truck beds. And babies in the back window....i remember seeing that. We had a station wagon so we couldn't do it. Bb guns yes! Lawn jarts.... dude.... looking back were probably the most insane! I have a scar on my chest where i was hit. Never said anything to any adult..... us kids, we all just quietly put the jarts away in the garage and spent the day doing quieter things.....i bled very little luckily😅