Out after breakfast, home for supper. Being a boomer there was always a bunch of kids in the neighborhood. Did our own thing, games, catching creachers, roaming ever farther, being board together. Longing from our first bike to our first car. That world is forever gone. Even my kids born between 79-81 could only have part of that freedom, world just not that safe anymore.
I was born in 89 in Tomball near Waller on 2920. We used to spend most of the day outside until dinner. Even then we’d do some playing at night. Usually at night we’d play video games or when it was raining. Other than that, we rode bikes, played paintball, explored, trampoline, swam, hide and seek, water baloon fights, tire swings, etc. Seemed like we rarely were inside or supervised. We all went to college and turned out pretty good. We were all active in youth sports and 2 of my siblings were scouts. We playe kickball, football, baseball in the neighborhood.
It’s not really country out that way anymore but better than the city life imho.
My brother can attest to this.
Yep as a 90s kid we RAN around outside for hours on end. Don’t recall hardly ever really being supervised by adults - sometimes we got in trouble or hurt but we learned how to confront life’s challenges. Try as much as I can to get my kids outside and they have their moments for sure but the culture just doesn’t allow parents to give kids that kind of freedom anymore. You will be called a negligent parent and might have the cops called on you, etc…
While coaching little league I told the boys to pick squads and we’d have a scrimmage.
“How do we do that?”
“You pick captains and they pick their players”
So they picked captains. Then they asked “Who picks first?” “whoever holds the top of the bat”. “Huh?”
Showed then how to go up the bat hold the knob while the other tried to kick it out of his hands.
Sides picked, game begins. There’s a dispute as to safe or out at 3rd base. Finally I said “do odds or evens”
Had to teach them odds and evens.
This was natural stuff that neighborhood kids learned. Today, kids are all involved in adult supevised activities and don’t learn to work within a group of peers.
Rules when you didn’t have everybody there:
Hit to right field is an out
Batting team supplies catcher
No stealing or leadoffs
Pitching mound substitutes for first baseman
Second pick gets two picks and so forth
All bats were community bats. Everyone chipped in for a broken bat.
Lost ball in the weeds or woods automatic double.
That’s all I can remember for now.
Having to go bat again after you were on base and a ghost runner would take your place.
The other thing was you couldn’t disrespect teachers and be lazy or you’d get in trouble. Now kids disrespect teachers and are lazy. No trouble for them either. Pathetic excuse for parenting now a days by 75-80% of parents.
I bet you were barefoot half the time too. One of my playgrounds was the railroad tracks. Had to walk on the rails in the summertime. The gravel and the ties were too sharp and too hot, even though the bottom of my feet were like leather.
I still have several pennies that we flattened by laying them on the rr tracks.
For dimes, we coated them with mercury from the thermometers we broke. Made them nice and shiny…and slippery!
I cut my feet in an abandoned house on glass. I remember my mom picking the glass out of my feet.
i’d still rather be skating out on one of the lakes outside pontiac MI than almost anything todays modern society brings, although being on the cliffs of the moon miranda would be okay too.
Skating and lockins were nice too. Actually going to the mall at Willowbrook too.
Your post brought back memories! Lived in Allen Park and spent many winter days playing pond hockey. Nothing better than hot chocolate after a day on the ice.
Also, my Dad and I used to fish Pine Lake all the time. Caught my first bass there!
I was a latchkey kid at age 6 (1984). Sure, my brother would get home from school an hour later but I was alone for an hour each day. We even had a pool in the backyard. It was simple. Do not go in backyard and lock yourself in the house. I’d watch The Jetsons and Transformers until my brother got home.
It was just a different time. There was a major shift in the mid to late 90s. A lot of factors played into it including a little fear mongering, advanced video gaming systems, World Wide Web, and overprotective shift in parental policy.
I understand some of the changes were necessary, but wish we could go back to little more freedom for the kids to roam the neighborhood for hours on end without adult supervision.
When I was 6, I moved to a town called Katonah which was surrounded by the Cross River & Muscoot Reservoirs. No motorized boats were allowed on them. They fed NYC with water. I became a self taught fisherman catching sunnies, perch, small & largemouth bass and the occasional pickerel. I’d save some paper route money and go to the hardware store to buy a lure. To this day, spinner lures are my favorite and I even use them on specks in the surf. I spent hours and hours wandering the woods around those huge bodies of water by myself. My parents were NYC folks and had zero knowledge about the outdoors. Little did I know what a paradise I got to experience,
This is a modern photo. The town was half the size and the highway didn’t exist until I was in high school
I was outside also as a kid but had to watch my daughter for safety. I think bc of all the kidnappings or weird people out there praying on kids, changed things. We now have helicopter parents and kids get dropped off at a gym or other organized sports facility.
Society became more dangerous now than in the 50s, 60’s , 70’s and 80’s.
I’ve wondered whether it truly is “more dangerous,” or if its a combination of more reporting and kids (and adults) being less aware of their surroundings. There are more people everywhere, so the gross number of bad guys is higher, but I’m not convinced there’s more individual danger on a day-to-day basis.
I was a free-range and “latch-key” kid, and both of my best friends from the bicycle riding days ended up in jail later. Even back then, the news had stories of kidnappings, serial killers, poisoned Halloween candy, etc., and we all knew to stay away from certain houses/areas, whether from experience, legend, or just bad vibes. There were bad/drunk/old drivers who were a threat on the roads.
I once got hit and knocked off the road by an old lady driving a Cadillac on the wrong side of the road. My bike was kind of messed up and I had some blood from landing on something in the ditch, so I had to explain what happened when I got home (usually wouldn’t share stuff like that). My dad got mad at me for not “watching out for old Mrs. Williams” because I was supposed to remember that she was a terrible driver. It was my fault I got hit. 
But we figured stuff out on our own, learned self-preservation and the risks of trying to jump burning piles of construction waste on our bicycles. You want to climb a tree? You better make sure you can get down, because nobody is gonna help you, and you better not let your buddies know you’re scared.
As the original pointed out, the biggest thing that kids today don’t have is just free time. Whether it’s from scheduled stuff or just having unlimited access to TV, movies, video games and social media, they never really get “unplugged” time on a meaningful scale.
Great thread.
This reminds me on how parents respond to microbes today.
In order to develop a strong imune system you need to be exposed when you are a child.
Instead children are constantly being protected by a celophane cover.
We all learn from falling down. If someone is not allowed to fail they will develop vertigo. Tiktok, roblox vertigo.
Your right, nothing like riding in third or fourth position through mud puddles on our fender- less fat tire bicycles. Good for immunities but Mom was never pleased.