1980s summers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We didn't go to camp except for day camps here or there, but nearly all my summer days until I could work were spent at the pool from morning to night. I'd walk there from my house, meet up with my friends, and spend the entire day swimming and eating from the snack bar. Our pool would have teen nights and we'd hang out for that too and then walk home...in the dark! If I wasn't at the pool, I would be out roaming the neighborhood with friends or playing Nintendo at someone's house or sunbathing (no sunscreen!) and reading my seventeen magazines in the backyard. Both of my parents worked and I had older siblings, so I was on my own most of time. My favorite memory of summer was being out all day and coming back to an ice-cold air conditioned house and drinking a cold diet sprite (since that was the only soda we were allowed to have), turning on Oprah and chilling out in front of the tv. loved those times! now my kids are programmed all summer long at overnight camps and other activities.

Programmed summers are super depressing. I hope the next generation changes that

Agree with this.

[Anonymous]

Summers also seem much shorter than they used to. There's been this slow creep to longer school years because some people think school is supposed to be day care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boring as hell. My parents both worked and stopped summer childcare as early as they could. I was trapped at home unless a friend’s SAHM took pity on me. I watched a lot of bad daytime television and soaps.

This.

My mom was a SAHM and she wasn’t going sh!t with us.

Same. It was the 80’s! My mom was smoking and watching soaps. She took us to the pool only after All My Children. Otherwise we were outside on our own, all day every day.

So many of us lived the same life. This is too true. Until we were old enough to ride our bikes alone to the pool so around 8 or so. And sunscreen? What's that? Kids today would never!

We doused ourselves in baby oil - forget sunscreen!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We didn't go to camp except for day camps here or there, but nearly all my summer days until I could work were spent at the pool from morning to night. I'd walk there from my house, meet up with my friends, and spend the entire day swimming and eating from the snack bar. Our pool would have teen nights and we'd hang out for that too and then walk home...in the dark! If I wasn't at the pool, I would be out roaming the neighborhood with friends or playing Nintendo at someone's house or sunbathing (no sunscreen!) and reading my seventeen magazines in the backyard. Both of my parents worked and I had older siblings, so I was on my own most of time. My favorite memory of summer was being out all day and coming back to an ice-cold air conditioned house and drinking a cold diet sprite (since that was the only soda we were allowed to have), turning on Oprah and chilling out in front of the tv. loved those times! now my kids are programmed all summer long at overnight camps and other activities.

Programmed summers are super depressing. I hope the next generation changes that

+1

More depressing than sitting home alone watching TV for days on end? Our parents sometimes wouldn't even let us turn the a/c on until they got home because it was too expensive. The current generation is lucky.

We didn't even have AC in the 80s, at my house. My parents had a window unit in their bedroom.

Current generation is lucky in some ways - very unlucky in others.

[Anonymous]

I also loved that every day there were different kids outside so there was always a shift in the activity. Bike riding one day. Massive games of hide and seek after the streelights came on. Walk to the playground. Walk to 7-11 for Slurpees. Everyone talking about whatever TV show was on the night before. Playing games in the street with someone watching out for oncoming cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Summers also seem much shorter than they used to. There's been this slow creep to longer school years because some people think school is supposed to be day care.

This only seems to be because of more breaks, holidays, 3 day weekends, in-service days, etc. The kids have so many days off it's a joke. So of course the summer is shorter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boring as hell. My parents both worked and stopped summer childcare as early as they could. I was trapped at home unless a friend’s SAHM took pity on me. I watched a lot of bad daytime television and soaps.

This.

My mom was a SAHM and she wasn’t going sh!t with us.

Same. It was the 80’s! My mom was smoking and watching soaps. She took us to the pool only after All My Children. Otherwise we were outside on our own, all day every day.

So many of us lived the same life. This is too true. Until we were old enough to ride our bikes alone to the pool so around 8 or so. And sunscreen? What's that? Kids today would never!

We doused ourselves in baby oil - forget sunscreen!

And we definitely didn't wear helmets on the ride to the pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boring as hell. My parents both worked and stopped summer childcare as early as they could. I was trapped at home unless a friend’s SAHM took pity on me. I watched a lot of bad daytime television and soaps.

This.

My mom was a SAHM and she wasn’t going sh!t with us.

Same. It was the 80’s! My mom was smoking and watching soaps. She took us to the pool only after All My Children. Otherwise we were outside on our own, all day every day.

So many of us lived the same life. This is too true. Until we were old enough to ride our bikes alone to the pool so around 8 or so. And sunscreen? What's that? Kids today would never!

We doused ourselves in baby oil - forget sunscreen!

And now we have skin cancer

[Anonymous]

I also remember being so relaxed some days because the only thing on the afternoon agenda was read library books, eat cereal, and watch some movie on cable.

[Anonymous]

Lived in a small New England town. Part time waitressing and babysitting jobs. Was in a summer theater program so I had rehearsals daily and hung out with kids from the theater. Had a friend with a pool - hung out there a lot. Went out for pizza and ice cream. Went to the movies. Watched tv. Rode my bike to all these activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Secondhand smoke, pervasive racism, casual child abuse, institutionalized homophobia, incredibly bad music, shitty movies…

Yeah, the 80s rocked.

My lord get another hobby besides raining on peoples parades. This shit is getting old. Start another thread of you want to talk about how shitty the 80’s were.

The 80's weren't "shitty." I'm sure your 80's were fine, great even. But others have a different experience. The title of the thread is "80s summers." Are we only to talk about drinking from a garden hose?
NP

So you honestly think PP is talking about his/her 80’s summer experience, filled with pervasive racism, casual child abuse, and institutionalized homophobia? S/he didn’t even know what those things were back then. C’mon. Let’s not be intentionally obtuse.

Just because you didn’t recognize it until you looked at it in hindsight doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Lots of girls didn’t even realize they were sexually assaulted until much later when they learned what sexual assault was.

My H is an investigator and a girl took the required sexual assault and alcohol abuse training in college and was like oh yea my teacher did that to me. Called the police and was like I did realize that was sexual assault until I saw the video.

Another wrote her college essay on the hardest part about being a step daughter is sex with her step dad, the college turned the essay over to the police.

Yeah, that’s still happening.

But in the 1980s there was a lot more looking the other way, or "don't sleepover at so-and-so's house, you know how her dad is, wink wink" and everyone would chuckle. We did it with priests, parents, teachers, coaches, bosses... camp counselors, man... wasn't new, but those were the last days it was acceptable.

Same with physical abuse—I knew lots of kids whose fathers were rage-a-holics and everyone would just say "boy, he's going to get it when he gets home!"

Of course it still happens, but now if a teacher knew a kid was getting his ass beat or a stepdad was touching his daughter, there would be a lot better chance it would be addressed.

[Anonymous]

Pretty boring actually. It was hot where I lived so no one played outside or rode bikes where I lived. People did swim team but I found it a joyless grind so quit. No one did day camp. A few friends (mostly the Jewish ones) went to sleep away camp which made it even more boring.
I read a ton-that was before the whole YA genre so mostly read the classics in paperback from the library. The entire works of Shakespeare, etc. I also watched a ton of TV — mostly old movies from the 30s and 40s (thanks Ted Tiurner!) but also reruns of things like the original Star Trek. It was pretty hard to get minimum wage jobs in my town so not that many people worked. I didn’t have a car so couldn’t get a job. I would typically see my friends maybe 1-2x per week when I could convince my mom to drive me, but more often summer after my junior year when a lot of my friends could drive.

[Anonymous]

HOURS of TV, followed by the pool, followed by more TV and candy bars. If we didn’t go to the pool, we walked around with friends. Lots of reading and listening to music.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was 8 the first summer of the 80s and 17 the last summer of the 80s. At younger ages, I was on the swim team, did day camps (I think some were half day). At 11, I did my first sleep away camp for five days in addition to day camps. At 12 I did two two-week sessions of sleep away camp b/c my newly separated Mom went to Europe with a friend for two weeks and it didn't line up with the sessions. I also was gone for four weeks at camp at 13. I don't really remember what I did the summer after Freshman year, but it probably involved going to the pool a lot, also went to a one week French camp. After soph year, I worked part-time at Baskin Robbins and did French camp; After Junior year, I did a month long sleepaway Governor's School; summer of 89, worked at Thalheimer's bakery and went over a boy's house after his busboy job ended and made out on the couch in his basement until 1 a.m.
I always read a lot. I think I actually watched TV less in the summer -- all those reruns! -- but as a latchkey tween, I watched an absurd amount of bad TV (Love Boat, Three's Company, etc)

Yep. This isn’t in the right order, but the line up was Love Boat, Threes Company, Guilligan’s Island, I love Lucy, Leave It to Beaver, Brady Bunch. Price is Right. Then the soaps.

[Anonymous]

It’s funny how many parents program every one of their kids days now. It’s so sad. We are lucky to live in a neighborhood where kids spend the summers home. Very old school