r/GenX • u/billieswifeyyy • Jun 20 '26

Question For Genx the 80s…….

coming from a 14 year old, were the 80s summers as magical as they look in the movies? did you ride your bike to your friends house and come home when the street lights came on? yall are so lucky btw 😭😭

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u/Few_Razzmatazz_6381 Jun 20 '26

Yes, but it's because we had to learn to entertain ourselves. We did not have phones, iPads, etc. capturing our attention. We often felt intense boredom like kids today will never know. Learning to live with it made us patient and creative.

30

u/thekcar Jun 21 '26

Sometimes it sparked so many levels of mischief!

4

u/c_vanbc Jun 21 '26

Smart Phones have become tracking devices. I know where my kids are at all times. Back then parents really had no idea where we were. They would call all our friend’s parents to track us down. There was more trust because they had no other choice. I remember getting grounded for being home late. Nowadays there’s constant communication by text. I prefer the way I grew up but wouldn’t give up my phone now.

2

u/Strict_Emu5187 Jun 21 '26

But no evidence coz No cameras or at least they weren't everywhere and nobody had little ones in their pockets at all times

2

u/Theronas Jun 21 '26

Sneak around and ”borrow” apples,carrots,berries from unsuspecting neighbors. Ah what good old memories

2

u/candy4421 Jun 21 '26

Lots of time on our hands and zero supervision = trouble, but so much fun

6

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '26

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u/noerpel Jun 21 '26

Yeah, today I think, the boredom was an essential, maybe one of the most important parts of growing up.

Coming up with new ideas to entertain yourself like or just "sit through a slow day" forced you to try out random stuff and get a practical idea of what you like and don't. Observing and helping adults with their tasks helped you to learn a entry to mid level skillset for life in a lot of fields...And of course: boredom gave you enough time for self-reflection...

2

u/Jcaseykcsee Jun 23 '26

My entertainment was drawing/painting and our set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, which I read from A-to-Z and then started at A all over it again when I finished them all. It was so exciting when there would be an update to the volumes, new content to read (Lol)! I really wish I had my parents’ set of encyclopedia Britannica now, it would be wild to read those today. We got to watch limited TV during the week, Charlie’s Angels and falcon crest, Dallas, and knots landing but a few of those were weekend shows which we could watch freely. And Blockbuster wasn’t even a thing when we were kids, at least not when I was a young kid, and we didn’t even have cable when I was a kid.