It's 1986; you and I are 12 years old. Here's what we’re doing today. First we pump up the tires on our BMX bikes. Then we get as much of our allowance as our moms will allow us to take. First stop, AM/PM mini-mart for a pack of candy cigarettes and a Pepsi.
So much good nostalgia reading this! We rode our bikes to the field next to the train tracks where the factory burned down and played knights jousting, with bikes for horses and cattails for lances.
Yes. Joanie, I grew up knowing my parents' music and culture (and liking it), and the world wasn't really that different in the 80s than it was 20 years earlier.
I was thirty-two in 1986, but the life of a kid you describe seems just like the life I had as a boy two decades earlier, and, for that matter, like what my parents told me about how it was when they were kids in the 1930s. The difference between then and now is the freedom children once had, which seems to have ended by this century, to be replaced by screen time, organized activities, and continuous adult surveillance. The helicoptering of kids isn't doing them any favors.
It's 1966. We are riding our ponies in the woods before it gets really hot and throwing tomatoes at each other. Then we eventually get home and we all have sandwichs and help Mom around the house and yard for a bit and help in the barn making the ponies comforatable. we have home pool and the gang of us 8-10 kids spend the rest of the day in the pool until everyone gets chased home around dinner. After dark, may be more swimming, catching fireflies and chasing toads. The dogs bit e the toads and start drooling and foaming at the mouth. We might ride our ponies in the dark. Parents? what parents? they may be drinking martinis, smoking and playing bridge by the pool. Our parents saved us from the nazis, we grew up and changed the world. what is today genZer doing? They seem to be spending their time amputating their sex organs.
Such a great read! I went to 10 schools growing up and even New York City had a "vibe" like your town in the late 60's and early 70's (greenwich village); and then came the morning and/or afternoon paper routes my brothers and I had in our three Pennsylvania towns, then came the sodas, Pez, and comic books we'd get on days of "collecting" (I made 10 a week for the Pittsburgh Press, 10 bucks for the Post-Gazette. In NYC I worked at Mike's Grocery on Sullivan Street for 33 cents an hour) Can you tell me where your town was?
There was nothing like going to the town dump with my dad (no trash collection in those days). My brother and I would find worthless treasures that my father actually let us bring home, germs and all.
I was telling someone yesterday how the year 1985 was “the year.” Huge tv shows, dynamite movies, endless great music. Yes should note gay men were dying of AIDS and the government had no concern or wanted to pump them full of AZT. Thank you again Fauci. Wasn’t perfect but man what a difference nearly 40 years makes. Today there’s chaos, division, delusion and hysteria. WTF happened? Wasn’t the Internet suppose to take us to a much higher level?
Nice!
I grajewated high skrool on June 5, joined the Navy November 10 🤣
Candy cigarettes! This took me back.
Nostalgia. So powerful.
So much good nostalgia reading this! We rode our bikes to the field next to the train tracks where the factory burned down and played knights jousting, with bikes for horses and cattails for lances.
this made my heart cry
Ahh Commando’s! My favorite place. I love this trip down memory lane you give us.
I wish for a trip to the record store again either you one day soon!
Do you remember how many times we went to see Return to Oz?
J and MiddleSis, Are you two bro and sis?!
Yes.
Amazing to me how 1986 was still so similar to 1964, when I was 12. The computer age really did change everything. Fundamentally.
Yes. Joanie, I grew up knowing my parents' music and culture (and liking it), and the world wasn't really that different in the 80s than it was 20 years earlier.
I was thirty-two in 1986, but the life of a kid you describe seems just like the life I had as a boy two decades earlier, and, for that matter, like what my parents told me about how it was when they were kids in the 1930s. The difference between then and now is the freedom children once had, which seems to have ended by this century, to be replaced by screen time, organized activities, and continuous adult surveillance. The helicoptering of kids isn't doing them any favors.
It's 1966. We are riding our ponies in the woods before it gets really hot and throwing tomatoes at each other. Then we eventually get home and we all have sandwichs and help Mom around the house and yard for a bit and help in the barn making the ponies comforatable. we have home pool and the gang of us 8-10 kids spend the rest of the day in the pool until everyone gets chased home around dinner. After dark, may be more swimming, catching fireflies and chasing toads. The dogs bit e the toads and start drooling and foaming at the mouth. We might ride our ponies in the dark. Parents? what parents? they may be drinking martinis, smoking and playing bridge by the pool. Our parents saved us from the nazis, we grew up and changed the world. what is today genZer doing? They seem to be spending their time amputating their sex organs.
Such a great read! I went to 10 schools growing up and even New York City had a "vibe" like your town in the late 60's and early 70's (greenwich village); and then came the morning and/or afternoon paper routes my brothers and I had in our three Pennsylvania towns, then came the sodas, Pez, and comic books we'd get on days of "collecting" (I made 10 a week for the Pittsburgh Press, 10 bucks for the Post-Gazette. In NYC I worked at Mike's Grocery on Sullivan Street for 33 cents an hour) Can you tell me where your town was?
Sure! Cortland, New York. Smack in the middle of the state, 20 minutes south of Syracuse. Population about 20,000.
There was nothing like going to the town dump with my dad (no trash collection in those days). My brother and I would find worthless treasures that my father actually let us bring home, germs and all.
I was telling someone yesterday how the year 1985 was “the year.” Huge tv shows, dynamite movies, endless great music. Yes should note gay men were dying of AIDS and the government had no concern or wanted to pump them full of AZT. Thank you again Fauci. Wasn’t perfect but man what a difference nearly 40 years makes. Today there’s chaos, division, delusion and hysteria. WTF happened? Wasn’t the Internet suppose to take us to a much higher level?
Ah candy cigarettes. They sold them into the 1990s here in Ireland. :)
This is a perfect encapsulation of that moment.
Yesssss!! And these comments!!!! Love you all!!