Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 14:26     Subject: 1980s summers
Anonymous wrote:Secondhand smoke, pervasive racism, casual child abuse, institutionalized homophobia, incredibly bad music, shitty movies…

Yeah, the 80s rocked.


Hey! The music was good!

But you are on point with the rest…
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 14:26     Subject: 1980s summers
Pretty boring but relaxing. Both my parents worked full time, they didn't have the money for summer camp or a nanny, so it was just me and my sibling reading books and watching TV with a summer pass to the pool where we would go for an hour when my mother came home..
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 14:23     Subject: 1980s summers
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
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 14:18     Subject: 1980s summers
Anonymous wrote: I turned 10 in 1980 and graduated hs in 1989. We weren’t bored at all and we didn’t have any activities either. As tweens we rode around on our bikes in groups. It was fun.


now you'd be run down by some guy in a truck with a 7 foot hood, and there would be protesters at your funeral, angry that you had tried to impose a woke bicycle lifestyle on them.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 14:14     Subject: 1980s summers
I turned 10 in 1980 and graduated hs in 1989. We weren’t bored at all and we didn’t have any activities either. As tweens we rode around on our bikes in groups. It was fun.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 14:07     Subject: 1980s summers
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


Until I was 10 I had "unprogrammed" summers... day camps some weeks, a lot of staying at home, wishing my friends would come home from vacations, not talking to most people I had gone to school with, begging my mother to take us to the shitty town beach. no sports, no nothing.

After 10, I went to 8 week summer camp, had tons of friend, went on adventures, camped in the wilderness for days, did ropes courses, rode horses, learned to sail and basically developed all of my recreational interests I had as an adult.

I would rather make sure my kids have a variety of camps and activities to go to—with healthy input from them on what it is, and careful thought to make sure there's lots of interactions with their friends—than having them sit at home and watch youtube shorts, which is what unstructured summer is now.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 14:02     Subject: 1980s summers
I was in high school from 81-85, so summers were sports camps and summer jobs. Hanging out in the suburban neighborhood with friends doing nothing really, just talking and playing games. We'd go to the movies or bowling sometimes. Once we could drive it was a lot of driving up and down the main drag in town, hanging out in parking lots, looking for parties.

Summers in 85-89, college years, were all summer jobs and parties.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 13:58     Subject: 1980s summers
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
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 13:57     Subject: 1980s summers
Anonymous wrote:SAHM made summers amazing. Life when you could sustain a suburban house on one income. All the kids were around. Pool, bikes, games, sports, and randomly going to whatever friends houses and eating lunch. Worked the snack bar at the baseball field. Babysat for some money. Walked to the mini mall or blockbuster. Begged to go back outside after dinner to play kick the can, jailbreak etc….

When we got older there was drinking in the woods, bonfires, driving around the mall area, parties, and intense scavenger hunt races (prob my best memories)


We too had massive scavenger hunts. Met at the mall parking lot. Lists given to everyone. I remember McDonald’s Golden Arches being one and we just got a cup and another car took the small electronical drive thru sign. Def not legal but some great nights!
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 13:55     Subject: Re:1980s summers
Anonymous wrote:My brother and I, and everyone we knew, went to camp for eight weeks in the summer. I never drank from a hose. I was never allowed outside without an adult for more than 15 minutes at a time. I was allowed to go to very specific places only. I only got ice cream from an ice cream truck once in my life. I was in 9th grade before meeting anyone who didn't go to camp.


Are you Jewish?
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 13:54     Subject: Re:1980s summers
Anonymous wrote:My brother and I, and everyone we knew, went to camp for eight weeks in the summer. I never drank from a hose. I was never allowed outside without an adult for more than 15 minutes at a time. I was allowed to go to very specific places only. I only got ice cream from an ice cream truck once in my life. I was in 9th grade before meeting anyone who didn't go to camp.


Omg that’s terrible. I hated summer camp so much.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 13:52     Subject: 1980s summers
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.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 13:43     Subject: Re:1980s summers
My brother and I, and everyone we knew, went to camp for eight weeks in the summer. I never drank from a hose. I was never allowed outside without an adult for more than 15 minutes at a time. I was allowed to go to very specific places only. I only got ice cream from an ice cream truck once in my life. I was in 9th grade before meeting anyone who didn't go to camp.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 13:40     Subject: 1980s summers
SAHM made summers amazing. Life when you could sustain a suburban house on one income. All the kids were around. Pool, bikes, games, sports, and randomly going to whatever friends houses and eating lunch. Worked the snack bar at the baseball field. Babysat for some money. Walked to the mini mall or blockbuster. Begged to go back outside after dinner to play kick the can, jailbreak etc….

When we got older there was drinking in the woods, bonfires, driving around the mall area, parties, and intense scavenger hunt races (prob my best memories)
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2024 13:34     Subject: 1980s summers
The Holderness Family has a song about it - pretty accurate! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlwA6xuYwLU