Humor Section!

[Porthos]

 

[Porthos]

 

[Porthos]

 

[GTP]

Oh the "good old days!" lol
My older brother and I would get on our bikes at 7am and not come home till "tea time!" (5.30pm.)
Mum and Dad didn't know or care where we were or what we were doing just as long as we "don't bring the Police to the house to tell me you're dead! You know how that nosy June Langenbaker gossips!"

She was more concerned with the neighbors gossiping than our safety!

 

[Markverhyden]

Oh the "good old days!" lol
My older brother and I would get on our bikes at 7am and not come home till "tea time!" (5.30pm.)
Mum and Dad didn't know or care where we were or what we were doing just as long as we "don't bring the Police to the house to tell me you're dead! You know how that nosy June Langenbaker gossips!"

She was more concerned with the neighbors gossiping than our safety!

Amen. I can remember when I was in 3rd grade. My parents had just moved back to the US and were in the new house they'd built. Back in those days they didn't build developments 100 homes at a time like today. Each sold and built individually. Summer time, bored of course. My mom made up a couple of pitchers of lemonade and gave me and my younger sister (by 1 year) some Dixie cups. Loaded it into my red flyer wagon. Told us we could make some money by going around to the half dozen other construction sites and selling lemonade to the carpenters, etc. I can also remember having dirt clod fights with other boys in the neighborhood

The neighborhood we were in abutted state forest land which went from back of the neighborhood the the edge of the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. Several hundred acres, probably a mile and a half from our house to the edge of the bluffs. All we had to do was be back for dinner and not get too dirty. LOL!!!

 

[britechguy]

Apparently there are a number of us here who grew up in the, "Be back in time for dinner!," admonition when going out the door for the day style of parenting.

In the little borough I grew up in in Western Pennsylvania everyone knew everyone else's business and children. You could run around at will, and so long as you weren't doing anything destructive or injurious to others, you were good to go. But heaven forbid you did something a vandal would do or got involved in a fight, as at least 5 moms and a couple of dads would likely have noticed and promptly reported back to your parents! Also, if another parent did "report you" the trust was for the other parent, and I have to say appropriately so in the vast majority of cases!

 

[frase]

Oh the "good old days!" lol
My older brother and I would get on our bikes at 7am and not come home till "tea time!" (5.30pm.)
Mum and Dad didn't know or care where we were or what we were doing just as long as we "don't bring the Police to the house to tell me you're dead! You know how that nosy June Langenbaker gossips!"

She was more concerned with the neighbors gossiping than our safety!

When the streetlights came on, we knew..it was time to go home.

 

[Blues]

We did things destructive and dangerous to ourselves, our friends, and others... it was about doing it when/where you don't get caught. Lived near a lot of homes in a new development at the time and we would take the excess lumber to build our tree fort in the woods but also take and burn some of the various adhesives they would have. That is just a sample of the terror we would do... it was glorious.

 

[ThatPlace928]

 

[britechguy]

We did things destructive and dangerous to ourselves, our friends, and others... it was about doing it when/where you don't get caught.

Who didn't? But you've hit upon the crux - not getting caught. And kids, because of inexperience, are not typically all that good, at least in the early years, at not getting caught.

You learn from your mistakes, including your mistakes in not being discreet or surreptitious enough.

And you're right that it was glorious. I also look back and think, at times, about just how dangerous and stupid some of it was, too. Some of it could very easily have gone in an entirely different direction than fun.

 

[ThatPlace928]

 

[Blues]

Who didn't? But you've hit upon the crux - not getting caught. And kids, because of inexperience, are not typically all that good, at least in the early years, at not getting caught.

You learn from your mistakes, including your mistakes in not being discreet or surreptitious enough.

And you're right that it was glorious. I also look back and think, at times, about just how dangerous and stupid some of it was, too. Some of it could very easily have gone in an entirely different direction than fun.

Oh yeah the dangers were real sometimes real stupid
One associate, hard to really consider this one a friend, was a bit much and most of us knew it he once made a tennis ball napalm thing and to test/use it through it at the side of his house, which was fortunately brick, and it left a huge black burn circle where it impacted and burst.

 

[Blues]

View attachment 17557

Sounds like the current SNL writers room.

 

[ThatPlace928]

In the mid-80's, I had the orange trimline like the one in the photo....... lol

 

[ThatPlace928]

 

[britechguy]

I had the orange trimline

I still have a white trimline, and, even better, a mint green Ericofon. Haven't had actual landline service in years, though.

 

[ThatPlace928]

I still have a white trimline, and, even better, a mint green Ericofon. Haven't had actual landline service in years, though.

If I looked hard enough, I bet I'd find my orange one in the boxes I've had packed for years and years..... lol

 

[Larry Sabo]

When I was a kid, our phone looked like this and we shared a line with a neighbor down the street...

 

[ThatPlace928]

When I was a kid, our phone looked like this and we shared a line with a neighbor down the street...
View attachment 17560

My grandparents had something similar and they also were on a party line. If you had something you wanted to say to someone privately, you went to their house. The party line was the hotbed for gossip. And, yes, there were people who were addicted to listening in all day long so as not to miss anything. Kinda like smartphones are addicting for some these days..... lol

 

[britechguy]

My grandparents had something similar and they also were on a party line.

My house was on a party line when I was a kid in the 1960s, and unfortunately the other party was our next door neighbor who would literally stay on the phone for hours, talking to her sister, and who would accuse you of listening in if you picked up the phone more than once during those hours.

It never seemed to occur to her that a party line means you have to share time, and that having hours-long conversations makes it impossible for the other parties on said line to make or receive calls.

I was never so happy as when our local phone company did away with party lines and the only option was what had been known as a private line before the change. It was just "a line" after the change.