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Just throwing this out there to see if it gains steam. I feel there is a general age frame that 75%+ of us are in, and we are getting that point in life. I know I have loads of these at this point, but I am just going one by one.


Back in my day, I walked to kindergarten when I was 4 1/2 years old. I had a birthday in an in-between month for our school system, so my parents could start me a little early or a little late, and they chose early. Kindergarten was 1/2 day at my school, and I had the afternoon session. My mom would drop me off at my aunt's house, who lived about 4-5 blocks away from my elementary school, on her way to work. I was just put in front of the TV for a couple of hours, and at about 10:30 or so, I would set off to school by myself. And at about 2:30pm, I would walk back to my aunt's house and wait until my mom picked me up at the end of her work day.

Just a perfectly happy 4 year old doing his thing.

We didn't get kindergarten until the next year. My sister went but I didn't start school until first grade.

My school also didn't do the "in between" thing. You were either of age or you weren't, so I had to wait a year (missed by a week). My cousin was a month older than me but a year ahead in school.

My main back in my day thing was riding my bike everywhere. Miles from my house, no helmet or reflectors. Especially to vhs rental places to get horror movies. Oh, and buying throwing stars from Cutlery World in the mall at 12.

We old farts grew up in a very different world. I grew up out in the sticks so crime was even less of a worry for us in the small town where I went to school. No kindergarten in my time, but it was added by the time I was in the 4th or 5th grade. We also had K-8 on the same campus and the high school was literally one block away, so technically, we had K-12 in one place.

I would walk several blocks from school to a local church where the cub scout and boy scouts met. My piano teacher was about 6 blocks from the school. I would have been 7-10 at the time, give or take. Lot's of the town's kids walked up to a mile by themselves to get to/from school. I was 7 miles out and rode my bike once . . . ONCE!!! Getting there was mostly downhill, so no problem, going home was a big problem!!! LOL

Interestingly enough, kids were bussed from the neighboring town to our high school because they didn't have one of their own. Last time I was through my old stomping grounds, about 20 years ago, they were in the middle of refurbishing and adding onto the high school, so I suspect the population had jumped considerably since I'd left.

And . . . NOOOOOOOO!!!!! I was NOT the cause of the population spike, nor was that the reason I left. You bunch of cynical bastids!

THEYTOOKMYTHUMB wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 8:31 pm Oh, and buying throwing stars from Cutlery World in the mall at 12.

Amateur! We made our own in shop class when the teacher wasn't looking. At least until a few of the idiots started throwing them at the wall in the steel storage room, which shared the wall with the English classrooms. Needless to say, they were not happy with the noise and our shop teacher wasn't happy that the stars were being made and imposed harsh punishments for anyone caught making or having them on campus.

I don't have a lot of specific stories to tell, just that we had total freedom back then. We could go pretty much anywhere at any time as long as we were home before dark. We never got into any trouble and no one ever bothered us.

I especially remember that there was a store about 2 miles from my grandma's house. We would set out with no money, confident that we would find at least one returnable bottle on the way. You got a dime for each bottle, and a dime would get you handful of candy. The "old" lady who owned the store drove a red 69 Mustang Mach 1, which to this day is one of my favorite cars.

1911Colt wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 8:00 am I don't have a lot of specific stories to tell, just that we had total freedom back then. We could go pretty much anywhere at any time as long as we were home before dark. We never got into any trouble and no one ever bothered us.

I especially remember that there was a store about 2 miles from my grandma's house. We would set out with no money, confident that we would find at least one returnable bottle on the way. You got a dime for each bottle, and a dime would get you handful of candy. The "old" lady who owned the store drove a red 69 Mustang Mach 1, which to this day is one of my favorite cars.

Same experiences here, except for the old lady in the Mustang.

We lived 4 miles from a small country store and would retrieve cans and bottles along the way. $3-5 went a long way back then. 25 cent candy bars, 50 cent sodas, potato wedges for a buck and a half. There was also a large lake that we'd ride our bikes around occasionally. That was an all day thing, something like 20 miles. It was a real workout on a single speed bike and only slightly better on a 10-speed.

You know, it's really weird being the same age as old people!

1911Colt wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 8:00 am I don't have a lot of specific stories to tell, just that we had total freedom back then. We could go pretty much anywhere at any time as long as we were home before dark. We never got into any trouble and no one ever bothered us.

The irony is by every objective measure, kids are safer today than we were. Kids are just not interested in going out, parents are over protective and social media all feed it. We lost the ability to be content in ourselves and the ability to dream. To 1911 colt's point, just go out and see what happens, no plan, no destination. No ability to communicate with everyone at our fingertips and we all survived.

But I digress, back in my day I enjoyed RC racing without the internet to tell me how to do it

Today would have been one of the few days that I would get out bed early, voluntarily, and just sit in front of my boom box, listening to the main local AM station that would list all the school closings. They would just go county by county, and I would get so annoyed because nobody cares about the other counties!! My county was relatively dense, and had a decent snow plan/response, so we were always one of the last to make the list when we did. Then when they didn't cancel, I remember being so jealous of all of the kids I knew in the more rural surrounding counties, who always got out, because they were going to have an awesome day in the snow while I was in school.

We didn't get much snow where I grew up, but I did live in a canyon, so any amount of snow and nobody was getting out. Like you, our school didn't close very often.

We actually did have a "smoker's corner", until they decided that minors shouldn't be smoking and banned it.

We also had an open parking lot, until they decided that they needed to chain the driveway to keep kids from leaving, that is when I started parking on the street so I could leave whenever I wanted. Not saying I was a hooligan, but I was so fed up with school and the bureaucracy that if I wanted to leave, there was nothing they were going to do to stop me.

THEYTOOKMYTHUMB wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 8:31 pm My main back in my day thing was riding my bike everywhere. Miles from my house, no helmet or reflectors. Especially to vhs rental places to get horror movies. Oh, and buying throwing stars from Cutlery World in the mall at 12.

Yeah this. We would ride (occasionally pushing the Schwinn Speedster up the really steep stuff) up into the hills and then just bushwhack down through the properties, cross orchards, wander power line corridors through farmland and then stumble out on another road and ride our bikes back to a friend's house and just be gone all day. I remember one time the neighbor kid and me took our big wheels up to the top of a hill and were speed running them down, pedals at Mach 7, just kinda feet in the air....cars going by. Anyway I look over and there is my mom coming home from work, slow motion eye contact and mouth drop.....I really don't remember if she stopped right there and read me the riot act or gave me a look that said, "you better get home now, Buster Brown."

Dirt clod fights, bullies, pocket knives and throwing stars at school...BB guns, playing with fire. Standard stuff.

Halgar wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2025 4:19 pm We actually did have a "smoker's corner", until they decided that minors shouldn't be smoking and banned it.

At my high school, there was a smoking area until the year before I got there.

My first semester of college, Fall 1994, I went to school in Wilson, NC, which is as much of a tobacco town as you can get. There were numerous indoor smoking areas, but it wasn't allowed everywhere. But I remember working at some desks that were in an open study area, and they had ashtrays built into the desks!

I left there and finished my college career at Va Commonwealth University in Richmond. Richmond is kinda known as the Capital of the Confederacy, but as times have changed, VCU is HUGE in Richmond, and is more known as a liberal arts and medical college. But throughout my tenor there ('94-'98), there were smoking areas in most of, if not all of the main buildings. The main building that I had most of most classes in, due to my major, had a large open area as soon as you walked into the building, and it was a smoking area. IT WAS THE MAIN ENTRANCE INTO THE BUILDING!! So, to enter the building, you had to walk through the stupid 18-21 YOs (including me) chain smoking before going to class!

As an ex-smoker of many many years, I am fascinated by how much smoking was allowed back in those days! Through the '90s and into the '00s, you could smoke almost anywhere!

I am a former smoker as well, even when I was, I tried to be courteous to those that didn't and stayed away from doorways and such.

My middle school and high school both had smoking areas. The middle school was almost always teachers, but "smoke 'em if ya got 'em" was the policy.

Watch a movie from the 30s up to about the 50s. Men and women both had a cigarette in one hand and bourbon in the other.