We had tons of stuff. First off, bikes. We biked, biked, biked everywhere all the time. Model rockets. Water balloons. Oh yeah, if someone replaced their kitch

We had tons of stuff. First off, bikes. We biked, biked, biked everywhere all the time. Model rockets. Water balloons. Oh yeah, if someone replaced their kitchen cabinets, there'd be cabinet doors in the alley to use as... a bike jump. Soccer or kickball in the alley. Walkie-talkies. Cops & robbers. A swingset to jump off of. Computers. We all had computers; my clique had Ataris. Also records. Movie theaters. Blockbuster. The public pool. The beach. Slot cars. I had a slot-car set, up in our attic. And none of that stuff was expensive, except the computers. Growing up in the '80s was great. And today, we have mastery of technology but weren't shackled to it as kids. Growing up today seems like a stressful, distracted, and rather empty affair.