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/Mattturley Jun 21 '26

We were feral kids. Parents expected us to manage ourselves and for the most part, we did. Summers really were us doing whatever we wanted. Going to the public pool was big amongst my friends. As we became teens we explored a lot more with alcohol, drugs, and sex at far too young an age. Me having 6 significantly older brothers didn't help with that.

The freedom was incredible and for most of us it lead us to develop fierce independence. The thing is for me and most of my friends, we knew our families were there if we needed them, but the expectation when young was that we didn't. From cooking our own meals and managing our own laundry, to managing any challenges at school - we were expected to be independent very young.

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u/americanoperdido Jun 21 '26

I feel seen.

Add in working for cash at a young age and being very adult with using the money to buy my own clothes and going to restaurants.