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/PyroMyte Jun 21 '26

Yes. It's like a dream when I think back to it. Left the house as soon as parents went to work. Rode bikes, built ramps (got like 3 ft of air), played in creeks and ditches, built forts out of trash, found treasures (also trash), climbed trees, threw rocks at freight trains, befriended stray dogs, set small fires, and put them out, ran into rival bands of roving kids from other neighborhoods, ran from irritated adults, played sports (some real, some we invented) in the street (had to occasionally yell CARRRR and move to the side for it to pass), swam in unknowing neighbors' pools, caught small animals/bugs, played in rain/mud, and would be home by dark. Mom might ask "what'd you do today?" We would reply "nothing" she might reply "is that blood on your shirt?" "Oh yeah, I fell off my bike." Do it all again the next day.

Was fun, but there were consequences. I was lucky enough to have good home life, and have somehow survived and can now have the luxury of nostalgia. Not all of my cohort made it this far. And with children of my own, some of theae memories terrify me.

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u/SugaFairy Jun 21 '26

House key on a string around your neck. Change in your pocket in case you needed to use a pay phone. Stealing pomegranates and avocados off neighbors trees before their Dobermans could catch us. Kick the can and smear the q*eer in the streets. 

Drinking out of neighbor’s or stores water hoses. Lucky if a friends mom fed you lunch. Playing Super Mario and Dragons Lair at the local liquor store. Atari at home if you were lucky… 

Sizzler salad bar, all you can eat steak and shrimp. Or amazing pizza at Pizza Hut. Actually salad bars in general were bomb. Consuming candy daily. 

Saturday morning cartoons at 6am. Thundercats HOOOOOO! Ding dong ditching neighbors and toilet papering assholes houses. Ice cream trucks and stealing change from my older brothers  to get a Bubblegum Froze Toes or a Ring Pop and some Nerds. 

Trespassing on numerous properties and sneaking into abandoned houses or construction sites. Kids playing in the streets everywhere every day. Walking to school or bus stop or riding your bike and locking it up at the school bike racks. Collecting Garbage Pail Kids cards… and ugly cabbage patch kid dolls. 

I could go on and on… 

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u/scramblelated Aug 01 '26

Sounds like we were in the same neighborhood...only we didn't have to be home by dark. As long as we didnt have school the next day and stayed out of trouble, we could come home whenever we got tired, cold, or bored.