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I was a child in the 80s as well; the idea that we spent a lot of time outside does not jive with my memories. I had the same dump truck as in the article, but

by jbm 4y ago

I was a child in the 80s as well; the idea that we spent a lot of time outside does not jive with my memories. I had the same dump truck as in the article, but this did not inspire me to go out and explore the neighborhood alone. Other than my backyard and a local park, there literally was nowhere worth going where I lived (a suburb of Montreal). There were no kids in the immediate neighbourhood, and everyone seemed to be living in their bubble. Suburban isolation was very real, at least for me. The quality of everything then was much worse than people seem to remember. Recessions bit harder, schools were worse in every way (activities, teachers, handling bullies, etc..). I really don't know why people miss the 80s, it was an awful, ugly place. My friends at the mosque and my friends on BBSes were literally the only bright spots in an otherwise dull and dreary childhood. On a semi-related note, my daughters used to spend a lot of time in the house, but recently they started going to the park more often. Having friends in the neighborhood is huge.

Brian_K_White 4y ago
I grew up in the same 80's, 70s and 80s actually (born in 70), in a few different locations without this overall memory. I had other kids, yards, woods sometimes, city blocks other times. Tonka trucks in particular were never my most favorite thing although I did have them. But I had, did, and loved all manner of other equivalent outdoor and slightly dangerous things. There was nothing intrinsically terrible about the 80's as a kid as far as I would say. Economic problems were the parents problems, even though that means you don't get to have the flashy stuff from the Sears catalog, it didn't actually matter. And I was a geek that didn't easily make friends with the normies, especially later in high school when I really started to have my own firm (and differrnt) personality. I too found my true community on bbs's. If you grew up in a kid-desert, and you were not good at amusing yourself, neither of those problems are "the 80's". I spent countless hours amusing myself alone working on random nothing projects with nothing but some pieces of wood in the yard or something. A kid doesn't really care what there is to play with, they will play with it. In the country it was everything found in the woods, or fishing, or working on minibikes that spent 500 hours apart for every hour running, in the dreary city with no yard then it was busted appliances from the curb etc. I lived in both worlds, and both under and over 10 yrs, and so you can't say I just was lucky to live anywhere especially good by chance. We moved a lot and some places were shitty little apartments in a city, and some were single family houses not very near any other houses let alone ones with kuds let alone ones with kids that liked me. One absolute change from the 80's is in the 80's, and this is in the city too not just the country, I could bike myself all over the place. I don't know but I just assume that today parents either don't allow that, or the rest of society doesn't allow it even if a parent wanted to. Which is a shame.

by jbm 4y ago

Brian_K_White 4y ago

I grew up in the same 80's, 70s and 80s actually (born in 70), in a few different locations without this overall memory. I had other kids, yards, woods sometimes, city blocks other times. Tonka trucks in particular were never my most favorite thing although I did have them. But I had, did, and loved all manner of other equivalent outdoor and slightly dangerous things. There was nothing intrinsically terrible about the 80's as a kid as far as I would say. Economic problems were the parents problems, even though that means you don't get to have the flashy stuff from the Sears catalog, it didn't actually matter. And I was a geek that didn't easily make friends with the normies, especially later in high school when I really started to have my own firm (and differrnt) personality. I too found my true community on bbs's. If you grew up in a kid-desert, and you were not good at amusing yourself, neither of those problems are "the 80's". I spent countless hours amusing myself alone working on random nothing projects with nothing but some pieces of wood in the yard or something. A kid doesn't really care what there is to play with, they will play with it. In the country it was everything found in the woods, or fishing, or working on minibikes that spent 500 hours apart for every hour running, in the dreary city with no yard then it was busted appliances from the curb etc. I lived in both worlds, and both under and over 10 yrs, and so you can't say I just was lucky to live anywhere especially good by chance. We moved a lot and some places were shitty little apartments in a city, and some were single family houses not very near any other houses let alone ones with kuds let alone ones with kids that liked me. One absolute change from the 80's is in the 80's, and this is in the city too not just the country, I could bike myself all over the place. I don't know but I just assume that today parents either don't allow that, or the rest of society doesn't allow it even if a parent wanted to. Which is a shame.