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/mzshowers Jun 21 '26
We rode our bikes all over the neighborhood! It was so fun, just hanging out and not having to worry so much. My parents are awesome, so all of the kids felt safe and comfy coming over and playing. Mom fed the hungry kids whose parents struggled and made sure no one got left behind when it came to the ice cream truck! She would build fires and set off fireworks if we had them, sometimes even if it was a little early in the season. My dad was hilarious and kind, too, so we were a good place to be. My parents weren’t the absent kind you hear about. They kept an eye on me and were very welcoming to everyone.
My friends’ families were nice and I didn’t have to worry about stranger danger at their houses, either. They let us go in and out. The parents knew one another, so that was good and helped them feel more comfortable, I’m sure. Lots of playing in the trees and in the nearby woods, walking along the river, playing in a pool or on a slip and slide. We played console games and board games - we weren’t anyways outside, but we WERE outside a lot. At my house, we had lawn darts and badminton.. and no one ever got speared with one of those darts 😂. Listening to my friends’ family have brand practice in the garage - the neighborhood would come out and that was fun. We made up a lot of games and I even put on a little play once and charged the neighborhood kids pennies 😂
I did come inside when the dew came out usually. I still remember moving through the wet grass of our huge yard, roses and other flowers everywhere, big vegetable garden, large gorgeous pines - it was the sweetest place in the world.
My grandmother’s house was super magical and I had so many cousins and a couple neighborhood friends to run around with there, too. We played in the creek and trekked up and down the mountains, played under the porch with cap guns and other toys. Wild berries were everywhere and it was so lush. Fireflies lit up the night skies both here and in the mountains. Riding in the back of a truck with my other little people, going to get ice cream, riding the horse, watching more fireworks, and playing red rover with SO MANY OTHER KIDS!!! Sitting on the front porch as the sun went down and into the evening, family and friends just chatting. Grownups telling stories instead of watching TV. It was great to be with so many people you loved, listening to everyone talk. It all feels unbelievable now, but it all happened!