The movies were better though, especially in the 80s.

growing up in the 70s/80s....from watching so much TV.....kids were convinced the two biggest things to be afraid of:

1. Quicksand

2. A bomb that ticks down to zero before you cut the correct wire

LMAO

Mission: Impossible

With Peter graves and Greg Morris.

I was am an 80's/90's kid. Honestly, I feel like the 80's/90's were about the same as folks have described the 70's/80's. (social media wasn't really a thing until after 2003?) When I left the house I was pretty much left to my own devices. My buddies and I got into a ton of shenanigans that our parents probably wouldn't have approved of, but as long as we didn't get brought home in a cop car we felt like we were in the clear. I think my generation was the last generation where all the neighborhood kids could be found on bikes, or in the streets playing football.

The source of the change is different in my head though. Cell phones changed everything. When you left your house, you were free. No one expected to get a hold of you. If you and your buddies got yourselves into trouble, guess what? Figure it out, because no one was coming to save you. Everyone had a higher level of independence then they do now.

Quicksand for sure, but number 2 would have been killer bees. lol

You must not have lived near a couple of the families that I lived near.

Hitchhiking was an acceptable form of transportation until the mid eighties. After that, it was pretty much rendered illegal or taboo. I used to hitchhike all over the country into my early twenties.

Cell phones seemed like an amazing advancement to be able to reach anyone at any time. The downfall was learning that other people could also reach me at any time.

Not a problem. My neighborhood gang would just steal it back and egg their house.

HS school pop when I was in HS was about 450 I think? Tulsa was around 200k, iirc, so big enough.

HS student parking lot was probably around 40% pickups? More than half had the obligatory shotgun/rifle rack in the back window. At the time, I probably thought that those racks were a factory option I saw so many of them. Probably the same at every HS in town. Not one school shooting, not one incident of a kid threatening to go get his gun out of his truck, etc.


On any given summer weekend in Tulsa back in the '80s HS kids from the surrounding towns, as far away as Parsons KS, would show up in town in their pickups complete with shotgun/rifle racks. Hundreds, if not thousands, of trucks with guns would flood into town, filled with HS/college-age kids, and then leave without a shooting incident, not even an accidental one, like "gun fall off rack and somehow fires by itself."

Yea you had a cool dad too. I'm sure Jim gave you a pretty long leash.

Don't you mean Clarence Thomas changed everything since he was the scumbag in that situation?

Cell phones are awesome. The real downfall happened when some egghead figured out how to connect phones to the internet.

Legalize drugs, ban smartphones.

To pretend kids are nearly as stable today is a joke. Even when you got in a fight win or lose everyone paid their own legal bills. I can't even remember cops being called unless you were outside a bar. I don't remember anyone suing anyone. Even when the cops showed up they would tell everyone to go home or they would arrest people. Nobody ever grabbed their gun, not once, ever. REALLY different these days.

Some other things I just thought of. Drive ins, always good for a first date. You could rent hotels as a teenager as long as you had a drivers license. When did that all change? Shlitz stout and Mickey Big Mouths.

Yep, was outside all the time, played football in the street or basketball, etc; until you couldn't see the ball 5 feet in front of your face... parents were really lax, plenty of nights coming home at 2am or just before they got up the following morning.

And it still happens plenty now... I see kids on bikes quite a bit through the neighborhood and there's a skate park in town that's a popular evening/night hangout. Listen to parents who have kids that sneak out, conveniently leave their phone off or "battery was dead" when they try to reach out.

Kids are still kids (even if they're now fatter).

Not at all, I just gave Big Daddy rep.

Especially a helmet. It makes you look like a bundle of sticks. :D

Lol @Mickey's. Forgot all about that one.


I don't know. I know I and some buddies rented a couple suites at the Residence Inn (i think that was the one) for prom and it was no big deal. So sometime after '86?

And yeah, most of the time the cops would just tell everyone to go home. They would basically give you the choice: "You can go home right now, or you can go to jail, right now." Even drunk/angry kids back then picked going home over going to jail 99% of the time.

Now, dumbasses try to argue with the cops, try to piss then off intentionally (some grown-ass adults as well these days), fight with them, etc. it's like no one ever told them "don't fight with the cops in the streets because they have guns. Take them to court instead."

There will never, ever be a greater decade than the 80's

The hair
The music
The fashion
MTV was just getting started

America was rolling, the USSR had been defeated, and I was coming of age... what a time to be alive it was

The 60's and 70's were a dream to my generation but not all was perfect. In 1969 I'm 10 years old, I went inside the JC Penny's in my neighborhood to give my sister a message. Some jackass rode off on my 5 speed twin shift orange crate stingray. I'm still hurtin over it. :mad: :mad:

In the 70's and 80's people that watched soccer were referred to as foreigners.

Amazing in my lifetime I went from renting VHS movies at the movie store to watching movies on my phone. I remember in the 80s they predicted a huge technology explosion after the year 2000 and they weren't kidding.

That part caught my attention too. We can only hope the underage sexied up teenage girls in limos being used at the annual company function by presumably adult men turned out alright.

Personally I'll take today's more open and tolerant and less sex enthralled (according to OP) society over the opportunities to have sex with everyone that apparently existed in OPs part of the world, but that's just me.

Pretty much.

There was AIDS and DUIs stacked up like 8 track tapes. Then again eating shit wasn't cool/fire

Yep, we used to constantly get neighborhood football games going in some grassy lot... haven't seen anything like it occur around here in 30+ years, they're all apparently too busy playing WoW or whatever

Smells like ointment and pee in here.

In the 70s, people seemed sure that we'd all have flying cars by now. We couldn't have been more wrong.

To be fair, we might have changed our minds if there had been self-checkout lanes at grocery stores back then. I see people struggle with them now and wonder how the hell we advanced past the hunter-gatherer stage.

Turn that damn tv off and go play outside!

Going to the junkyard and snagging parts for your minibike or go-cart. Spending a dime for an AC spark plug kite and getting it caught in the power lines. Gym class where the coach put all the jocks on one side and the nerds on the other for bombardment. Riding bikes with no helmet, high school parking lot full of 60s Camaros, Mustangs, etc. Arcades, foosball, bowling alleys and four channels on TV. Chiefs were bad however tickets and beer were cheap and we just went for the fun of it.

School had no AC, you didn't get out because there was a little snow or it was too hot.

Going to McDonalds or other fast food was a treat, not an everyday thing like today. And you could get a cheeseburger, fries and chocolate shake for $1.

The '70s and '80s were pretty cool for me. I was an introvert and groups of people usually act like idiots so I didn't do that kind of party scene. I was way to cool for that. I had a couple of friends who I hung with and we'd usually just drive the county roads and get high. Maybe find someone to get us a 6 pack of Mickey's Big Mouths. A couple of doobies and a couple of Mickey's and we were good. I grew up in the Bible Belt so yeah there were no limos with teenage girls in lingerie. I am curious as to where Big Daddy worked for that to be happening.

Kansas, Boston, REO Speedwagon and Nugent, stinkfinger, cruising, sneaking beer, hot boxing,and SNL was hilarious.

My buddies and I lit upon a brand called Pearl beer. Super cheap, and had these puzzles to figure out in each cap. When you couldn't figure out the puzzles, it was time to stop drinking, lol.

those things were great, because you could get a running start and run right back up the slide and either zoom back down, or jump off the top. The feeling of being indestructible, those were the days.

Okay, finding porn is easier. But there were plenty of dads that left magazines lying around or older brothers who would provide them.

VHS video porn had just become a thing.

If you found some teenager working a convenience store, they would sell girlie mags to you if you had the nerve and cash.

It also made boys more determined to find a real life partner for the sort of stuff that would now 'go on your permanent record'. ;)

Porn makes kids lazy.

I remember when going to the movies was the only way to see a flick that wasn't broadcast over the air on local television. VHS tapes and the ability to rent a VHS player were awesome.

Did your college campus allow kegs when you were a freshman?

:harumph:

Right! That was it, with a cheap trucker hat had your team name ironed on the front...

The ability to find information instantly is the bomb now...that's what I'm most appreciative of with all the changes.

You weren't scared of concussions. James Rockford got knocked out in every episode of the Rockford Files and seemed to be just fine.

Really? She was the only one who ever said anything bad about Clarence Thomas and he had a stellar reputation. Weird? Do you really think he said something about a pubic hair on a pop can?

I grew up in the in the 90' and can say I thank God everyday cell phones were just fancy walkies talkies with no video capabilities.

But technology is cooler now that once oats have been sewed.

We had about 12-16 kids in the neighborhood all within a couple of years of each other. We all had JC Penny uniforms for our favorite team. I was the only Chief in Eastern Iowa. We would play full on tackle football for hours.

LMAO also, US Marshall Matt Dillon got shot in the arm so many times that he should only have two little nubs sticking out from both shoulders

Talk about some cool ass toys from those days, a decent little pair of walkie-talkies opened up ALL KINDS of new "neighborhood war" and sneaking around capabilities

I suppose we should have been worried about AIDS, but when I was in college it was still mostly in the gay community.

When I came out to CA for grad school and started going to raves, many of the college girls were on the pill and condom use was spotty.

I'm thankful I survived my period of being young and dumb.

Didn't get any STDs and although several buddies got DUIs, I didn't.

Although they were, in my defense, much dumber than I was.

Did not own any Super 8.

and we understood it was not real

Yeah, its hard to remember what it used to be like. Back when I was a kid...

And I walked uphill into the wind barefoot in the snow both ways to a one room schoolhouse.

...we had to go the library and look things up in books.

And at work when your computer program didn't compile, it was freaking hard to get/find help.

The Exotic Erotic Ball was in San Francisco. I lived in the Bay Area.

How’s that reputation now?

someone mentioned social media and pics at parties.

we had one rule at parties.....no cameras.

Pretty stellar I would say...Weird that he has never had a complaint before or after Anita Hill?

It was just easier. We were not ON 24/7. We could take the phone off the hook. Besides, if someone did try to harass me it was 15 cents a minute, their parents would see it on a bill and my dad would have given them an earful.

Most kids worked in some way. Farm, parents business, etc. Not a lot of lazy people around. If you were, you were poor. And it showed.

We had a keg at the end of the "loop" in a town of 350 people.

Best toy ever was the Evil Knievel Stunt Cycle, it worked just as the commercials portrayed and was tough as hell and nearly impossible to break.

This thread: Cell phones have ruined kids!

Also this thread: Walkie-talkies were the coolest thing ever!


:p

Does this old geezer live near you?

What? So let me try to understand this. You prefer men to have less testosterone and higher estrogen levels and have less sex. You prefer them being confused about what they are and be more open and tolerant of this confused state? Weird

Heh, but you couldn't watch hardcore porn on walkie-talkies

See, talking to your buddies on a cell phone isn't the problem. We couldn't post or view tik tok, facebook, youtube and porn on a walkie talkie.

I had it and you're 100% correct, he would absolutely land that jump and keep going

We had Swedish Erotica and Barbara Dare. We were fine

Heh quick true story

Mom and I used to live across from a 6th grade buddies house, and his mom and my mom were close friends who left us alone to go out on the town one day

But my moms friend and her longtime guy had a HUGE stache of Swedish Erotica on film, and big old projection player that reeled it off... so we went in their bedroom and somehow managed to get the playing reel right

But we had no spool to catch it on, so we stupidly figured we'd let it pile up on the floor, then handwrap it onto the original spool ROFL

Sure enough we're just about to the end of Seka vs Johnny Wadd or whatever, and theres a huge pile of film that will need to be carefully handwrapped back onto the spool... suddenly theres loud voices and keys jangling at the front door

Oh yeah it was the MOMS, and there was nothing we could do, and there was going to be HELL TO PAY... hahahaaa wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING

One of the neighborhood kids had it. He eventually staged an event all the kids got together for. He doused Evil with lighter fluid, wound him up, lit a match to him and let it go. Evil went screaming down the street blazing. It didn't hurt it a bit but Evil's white suit after that had burn marks, which were actually quite fitting.

What company?

70s- awesome toys that would hurt you. Evel Knievel motorcycle that would grind your knuckles.

80s- ride your moped on the street and mini bike off road mostly adult approved as an early teenager.

Aslo 80s- pickup football where the loser had to be Bill Kinney or Todd Blackledge. Much better Chiefs mojo now. Loved the Royals then- hated Billy Martin and Yanks!

I could go on for hours

Not the right city for that - right idea though.

This whole thread is a trip down memory lane.

You could ride anywhere on a shitty 10-speed. 10 miles away? No biggie. My mom would call my friend’s mom and tell when I was expected and I’d ride away.
“Be home before dark.” Well, at 9:00 in the morning, dark was a million years away.
Royals were actually pretty good. I remember Brett chasing .400 in 1980. Every day you’d go to school and talk about what Brett did the night before and whether he’d end the season above .400. The bitterness of the loss to the Phillies in 1980.
MTV playing music videos. Legs and Hot for Teacher greatly impacted how I viewed women.
Sneaking into R rated movies at Oak Park Mall.

Never knew how good I had it until it was, in the words of The Rainmakers,* Long Long Gone.

* a woefully under-rated KC band. They came on the scene in the mid 80s about the the time I went to college. KY102 used to play them. I think I have a gun case with a KY102 bumper sticker on it somewhere.

it was a better time because it was a more dangerous time

https://i.postimg.cc/9z368FyD/concentrated-sadness.jpg

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So true. When I was a kid we would go to the newsstand and put Penthouse in between a Mad magazine, and try not to look suspicious.
That was work man. Try talking Spy vs. Spy to your pals when your looking at boobies. It’s near impossible.

On a (somewhat) related note: Was the food at McDonald's ever good?

The overal taste/ quality seems the same as I remember from the 80s but surely the recipes and production were not the same when they first opened in the 50s. I mean, did they even have the crap ingredients and the preservatives then? Surely McDonald's must have produced better food at some time so when did it all go to hell?

When they quit frying fries in beef tallow and got rid of the fried apple pie.

This clears up some things. :D

Someone on here a few months ago posted a pic of a beach somewhere in the US back in the 1950s; no fat people, period. hundreds of people, all basically in decent shape. The next pic was the same beach in 2015 or whatever; 80% or more just waddling fat pigs.


Kind of in the same vein, a buddy of mine used to be a Marine drill instructor and told me that when he started back in the late '90s more than half the recruits could pass the minimum physical fitness standard tests.

By the time he retired in the 2010s or so most could not. once, there was a group of recruits jumping out of the back of a truck, and some kid jumped and broke his ankle, just jumping out of the truck. I think he told me that they had to let them climb out of the trucks after that; no jumping allowed because they kept injuring themselves from the 4-foot drop or whatever.


How does a 20-something hurt themselves dropping 4 feet?

I hear ya. I went to high school in a city of about 120-130k. I don't recall anyone having guns. But I know my cousin did in st Mary's.

It was actually very good for the price. I think it started going to crap in the 70s, but fell off a cliff in the 80s

I know they changed the oil they used to fry with sometime in the 80-90s. They were better with the old oil, whatever it was.

Arcades at the mall... Loved me some Track and Field, Xcite-a-bike, and many others...

Also, Malls were king and packed. Karmel Korn, the Movie Theatre and the iconic Record Store.

being able to ride your bike to the next town a few miles away and not worrying about all the psychos, as a kid

I think all fast food has changed over the years. BK and Hardee's changed the most from what I remember.

Another thing that has changed since I was in HS in the 70s is that there weren't nearly the number of FF places as now. We had to make a fairly long drive to the closest one, and that was McDonald's. AND back then there were no drive-throughs. You had to go in and wait in line and eat inside. That was a bit of a deterrent compared to just eating something at home.