The old Geezers 70's and 80's Megathread

[BIG_DADDY]

The Suzzane Somers thread got me thinking about a conversation I was having with one of my friends about how awesome it was to be alive in the 70s and 80s. You try telling younger generations about it but it’s impossible. For starters testosterone levels were WAY, WAY higher back then. There were very few girly men like we have so many of today. Much higher levels of T and no cell phones had a huge impact on your social/sex life. Everybody was fing everybody and it was awesome. Nobody was up in your business. Everyone knew what they were and what bathroom to use. Fat people were few and far between. Teenage years were amazing. Cruising every Friday night with people bringing out all their bad rides and the girls all sexied up. Kegers every friggen weekend. The music was so much better too. Still remember going to Van Halen’s first tour. It didn’t cost anything to see those bands back then. As a young adult the party for me just continued as I went into health clubs. Once again everybody was doing everybody. The parties after we closed the club, just wow. When I moved to the bay area from Florida it just continued. I remember when the Exotic Erotic ball was a company function and we took 10 limos to the city filled with teenage girls in their sexiest lingerie. Can you imagine that happening today? Sadly that way of life ended with Anita Hill and the invention of the smart phone amongst other things. I will be forever grateful to god for being able to grow up during that time. I feel so bad for the kids coming up today, there’s just no comparison.

So what do you say old geezers, give me a walk down memory lane.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

I fell off one in 5th grade onto asphalt and cracked my skull. Shockingly, my parents didn't sue the school or try to have it closed down.

Lol, yes!!! I was in 3rd or 4th grade when I fell through that thing. And my dad was pretty annoyed that I was dumb enough to fall through it. He never once blamed the school

[DJJasonp]

Originally Posted by ChiTown

School shootings in the 70's & 80's absolutely occurred. Most of them were more targeted vs the mass shootings we are now used to (unfortunately) seeing/hearing about.

From my recollection - it was more about the post office.........that's how/when "going postal" was born.

[Bearcat]

"I did this (common thing) and (by far the most common thing that still happens today) happened back then."


Social media really ****s up perceptions of how dramatically things have changed.

[DJJasonp]

Originally Posted by Chief Pagan

I guess the things I like that no longer seem to be a thing:

As a young kid, you could just bike around anywhere with anyone from a really young age as long as you were 'home for dinner'.

And then even after dinner we could take off again if we didn't have sports practice or something.

My parents were relaxed about my coming and goings, but some of my friends parents were not. But in high school, at least once they got out of the house, they couldn't monitor them anymore.

No cell phones with everyone taking pics and videos of all the stupid crap you did when you were young and stupid. I'm so glad about this one.

The higher drinking age and the less drinking by the young has a lot of up sides that I don't want to minimize along with greater awareness of issues around sexual assaults, etc.

But I had a lot of fun going to college when the drinking age was still 18, alcohol consumption was high, and as far as I knew at the time...

There were plenty of college girls who were also into sex, drugs, and rock and roll...

...who didn't seem to have regrets about any of it.

you could leave your bike on the ground, in a front yard, lying against the window at quick trip or 7 eleven, and not have to worry about someone swiping it.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by Stewie

We need to bring back Halter Top day to Royals games. That is all.

Did you miss the part about everyone being fatter these days?

[Pepe Silvia]

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

[DJJasonp]

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

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by DJJasonp

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

Mission: Impossible

With Peter graves and Greg Morris.

[Son of Logical]

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.

[Son of Logical]

Originally Posted by DJJasonp

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

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

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DJJasonp

you could leave your bike on the ground, in a front yard, lying against the window at quick trip or 7 eleven, and not have to worry about someone swiping it.

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

[penchief]

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.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Son of Logical

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.

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.

[Graystoke]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

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

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

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

I know we have discussed this before, but what size school and city do you live if you and (everybody) drove to school with .22’s in the window rack?

I went to a school of 450/500. In a city of 100k.

Very, very few folks had their hunting stuff in a car/truck. Car stereo theft alone in the 70’s was out of control. If somebody’s gun got stolen out of a truck (locked or unlocked) there was a Dad who was going to kick his son’s ass.

Everybody I knew practiced incredible caution with their firearm.

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."