I've been thinking about this a lot, how so many things I've grown up with are vanishing from the "American cultural landscape", and how I feel bad my kids probably won't ever get to experience them.
The list so far:
-Model rocketry, where you actually have to glue balsa fins on, and the rocket motors were real rockets, not just compressed air.
-Pumping up the old "white gas" Coleman lanterns, with the plunger. It seems now they're all rechargeable florescent or propane.
-Shooting .22s with 4-H, the Cub Scouts, etc. I think this is another that will go quick. All the old timers in town talk about how they used to come to school and put their guns in their lockers, so they could go rabbit hunting after class. Presently, that would get you thrown in jail.
-Dodgeball. Too violent they say. The school district I grew up in got rid of it around 1998.
-Fireworks, M80s, the like. It seems like even when you drive out of state to get the good stuff, its all noise now and doesn't pack a punch.
-Candles that burn, have wicks etc. I have seen a disturbing trend toward LED candles and other crap.
-Riding minibikes/gokarts/etc. As I have watched urban sprawl increase, I don't see any safe place where most kids can go ride little flathead powered vehicles without getting killed or harassed by the police. This is not to mention that the EPA seems content to legislate small engines out of existence.
-Building plastic model cars. I see they're gone from the shelves of most toy stores, hobby stores, and the like. I remember there being whole walls to choose from, now when I even find them at all, there are only a few simple snap-together varieties. I guess kids don't have the attention span anymore.
btw, I just got out and went thru all 3 of my Coleman 'pump up' lanterns yesterday, as well as both my camp stoves. Gotta make sure they were ready for next summer's hurricane season. One of the lanterns is really old with a larger tank. It burned over 6 hrs on a pump up and 3/4 tank of fuel.
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02:51 AM
KurtAKX Member
Posts: 4008 From: West Bloomfield, MI Registered: Feb 2002
This thread makes me sad. I miss all of those things. At least I was lucky enough to experience those.
I may not have kids but I feel bad for them nowadays. Kids will be lucky now if they get to experience recess in elementary school, everything is to "dangerous"
How about playing outside until after dark and your parents not sending the police to find you. They knew you would come home when you go hungry or tired.
How about just playing outside.
Knowing all your neighbors, old and young, and having them call you over, by your first name, just to ask how ya doin!
Walking in the creek and damming it up to make a pond to swim in.
Building your very own soap box derby car, (with no brakes or steering), from lumber you found lying around the neighborhood, and then having all the neighbors laughing histerically because you and your buddy (riding hanging on to the back) crashed into a tree at the bottom of the hill (and nobody called a lawyer because you hurt the tree..... that tree is still standing LOL).
Falling out of the same tree.
Walking 2 miles to Elgers grocery / hardware store to buy gum, candy, and a "Sparky" balsa wood rubber band powered airplane with real glue and not getting high from it, but spending hours outside flying it all summer.
Slot cars.
Pheasant hunting with sticks when you were 10. Never got one, but spent weeks trying.
Grandparents with a farm, that actually loved having you spend the summer with them
And of course, owning a brand new Fiero! I still remember the plastic on the seats. Floor mats in the trunk, and the sound of firing it up the day I drove it home........ 5 miles on the OD! Shoulda kept her. (sniff)
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08:17 AM
Formula88 Member
Posts: 53788 From: Raleigh NC Registered: Jan 2001
Soft drinks made with real sugar. (Kids may be lucky enough to find some Pepsi or Mt. Dew Throwback) Going to Radio Shack with a box full of tubes to test on their big tube tester.
Mud games/Players getting dirty in NFL football. (with all the fake grass and stadiums now a days, its rare to see a down and dirty muddy, messy game)
Video games that dont have so many difficulty settings that anyone can finish them (I remember when you had to be GOOD to finish a videogame, and it was something special to see the end, and not everyone could even get to the end. Now a days you just put it on easy or even easier and everyone finishes)
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09:08 AM
PFF
System Bot
Raydar Member
Posts: 41446 From: Carrollton GA. Out in the... country. Registered: Oct 1999
I've been thinking about this a lot, how so many things I've grown up with are vanishing from the "American cultural landscape", and how I feel bad my kids probably won't ever get to experience them.
The list so far:
-Model rocketry, where you actually have to glue balsa fins on, and the rocket motors were real rockets, not just compressed air.
-Pumping up the old "white gas" Coleman lanterns, with the plunger. It seems now they're all rechargeable florescent or propane.
-Shooting .22s with 4-H, the Cub Scouts, etc. I think this is another that will go quick. All the old timers in town talk about how they used to come to school and put their guns in their lockers, so they could go rabbit hunting after class. Presently, that would get you thrown in jail.
-Dodgeball. Too violent they say. The school district I grew up in got rid of it around 1998.
-Fireworks, M80s, the like. It seems like even when you drive out of state to get the good stuff, its all noise now and doesn't pack a punch.
-Candles that burn, have wicks etc. I have seen a disturbing trend toward LED candles and other crap.
-Riding minibikes/gokarts/etc. As I have watched urban sprawl increase, I don't see any safe place where most kids can go ride little flathead powered vehicles without getting killed or harassed by the police. This is not to mention that the EPA seems content to legislate small engines out of existence.
-Building plastic model cars. I see they're gone from the shelves of most toy stores, hobby stores, and the like. I remember there being whole walls to choose from, now when I even find them at all, there are only a few simple snap-together varieties. I guess kids don't have the attention span anymore.
what else can you think of?
Estes model rockets, model cars and candles can still be had around here.
But yeah, for the most part, science and technology have marched forward.
[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 03-06-2010).]
I bought a lot of that stuff ahead of time, so my kid can do them. (except for the gun part, That'll be at a range when he's older)
Have bins of older toys that he'll enjoy when he's older. (he'll probably like at least a few of them... )
NOT going to raise him to be a beige brainless comsumerling. If he chooses to be one after that...I will mourn his loss.
He WILL question the universe. I don't feel bad because he has already played with stuff i could only DREAM of (or tried to build)
Yesterday, he levitated his toys using an electromagnetic platform. Beats tinkertoys. (till he got tired of the platform and then played with his tinkertoys...)
it's still possible to have a "fun" childhood.
Just hafta follow the rules!
RULE number 1. DIRT IS OK!!!!!!
[This message has been edited by FieroRumor (edited 03-06-2010).]
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11:16 AM
Boondawg Member
Posts: 38235 From: Displaced Alaskan Registered: Jun 2003
How about playing outside until after dark and your parents not sending the police to find you. They knew you would come home when you go hungry or tired.
How about just playing outside.
Knowing all your neighbors, old and young, and having them call you over, by your first name, just to ask how ya doin!
Walking in the creek and damming it up to make a pond to swim in.
Building your very own soap box derby car, (with no brakes or steering), from lumber you found lying around the neighborhood, and then having all the neighbors laughing histerically because you and your buddy (riding hanging on to the back) crashed into a tree at the bottom of the hill (and nobody called a lawyer because you hurt the tree..... that tree is still standing LOL).
Falling out of the same tree.
Walking 2 miles to Elgers grocery / hardware store to buy gum, candy, and a "Sparky" balsa wood rubber band powered airplane with real glue and not getting high from it, but spending hours outside flying it all summer.
Slot cars.
Pheasant hunting with sticks when you were 10. Never got one, but spent weeks trying.
Grandparents with a farm, that actually loved having you spend the summer with them
Wow, we must have gone to different schools together!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
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11:46 AM
hookdonspeed Member
Posts: 7980 From: baltimore, md Registered: May 2008
walking around the neighborhood at night with friends, NOT causing trouble, and not worrying about getting robed / shot.
having fun...
Remember when we used to stuff our pants full of weeds and bushes, then unzip & pull our junk out through the brush, stick it in old lady Johnsons bedroom window and yell, "OLD TOM-TURKEY'S A SPITTER!!! GOBBLEGOBBLEGOBBLE!!!".
And then run away giggling? Ahhhhh, good times & summer nights.
[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 03-06-2010).]
When I was a kid up in Iowa it was nothing for me to just take off on the bike, and go away for a few days.
I wasn't up to "no good" I was just out experiencing the world on my bike. I would ride for a day, sleep under a bridge, or if I was lucky a nice field of wheat (most was soybean/corn), and come home in a few days. I don't think the parents worried about me getting hurt. I didn't have a cell phone, no real way to communicate, and nothing bad happened.
I was talking to my aunt the other day, and she said she will never get to take her daughter horseback riding at night in the summer because it's just too dangerous. She used to go when she was a kid, and had to stop in the 80's because of the drug addicts wandering the back roads at night, and cars flying around not expecting to see a horse.
Brad
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12:13 PM
MidEngineManiac Member
Posts: 29566 From: Some unacceptable view Registered: Feb 2007
the other day i was going thru some of my old antiques and got into some of the record collection i have from the 1920's my 7 year old asked me why those cd's were so big lol!!!
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12:21 PM
Boondawg Member
Posts: 38235 From: Displaced Alaskan Registered: Jun 2003
the other day i was going thru some of my old antiques and got into some of the record collection i have from the 1920's my 7 year old asked me why those cd's were so big lol!!!
Remember when we used to stuff our pants full of weeds and bushes, then unzip & pull our junk out through the brush, stick it in old lady Johnsons bedroom window and yell, "OLD TOM-TURKEY'S A SPITTER!!! GOBBLEGOBBLEGOBBLE!!!".
And then run away giggling? Ahhhhh, good times & summer nights.
Must be a regional thing.. we didnt do that as a kid
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12:36 PM
RotrexFiero Member
Posts: 3697 From: Pittsburgh, PA Registered: Jul 2002
Originally posted by User00013170: Must be a regional thing.. we didnt do that as a kid
Boy, you really missed cultivating a perversion that would bring you a lifetime of enjoyment! And as soon as I get this anklebracelet off, i'm pickin' me some weeds!
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12:49 PM
$Rich$ Member
Posts: 14575 From: Sioux Falls SD Registered: Dec 2002
Originally posted by KurtAKX: -Model rocketry, where you actually have to glue balsa fins on, and the rocket motors were real rockets, not just compressed air.
what else can you think of?
im pretty sure you can still by kits at hobby lobby they have a good selection of stuff they have great airplanes that you can launch with rubberbands that go a good 200' in the air, there awsome and just a few $$
i miss riding my bike to the fire work stand and buying fireworks, and then darn near blowing my hand off and then going back and buying more
i miss riding our biles to the local truck stop that was about a mile away, and digging thru the huge trash bins to collect cans (to have $$ to buy fireworks) and comming across alot of interesting things in the trash (lots of nudie mag's)
man i would never let my kids go hang out in a truck stop parking lot.....
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12:50 PM
buddycraigg Member
Posts: 13620 From: kansas city, mo Registered: Jul 2002
I've been thinking about this a lot, how so many things I've grown up with are vanishing from the "American cultural landscape", and how I feel bad my kids probably won't ever get to experience them.
The list so far:
....-Riding minibikes/gokarts/etc. As I have watched urban sprawl increase, I don't see any safe place where most kids can go ride little flathead powered vehicles without getting killed or harassed by the police. This is not to mention that the EPA seems content to legislate small engines out of existence. what else can you think of?
I have preserved this one for my own kids to my wife's dismay. Every summer we tear up the grass around my suburban house. Btw EPA, I ain't wrong, I ain't sorry, and its probably gonna happen again.
Real entertainers who can sing, dance, and write music from their peers.
Yeah, real innovative music they can call there own, and look back on nostalgically years latter. I cant imagine anyone ever taking out old Brittany Spears or Gangsta Rap cd's years from now and saying, "God they were great!"
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07:20 PM
Boondawg Member
Posts: 38235 From: Displaced Alaskan Registered: Jun 2003
Remember when we used to stuff our pants full of weeds and bushes, then unzip & pull our junk out through the brush, stick it in old lady Johnsons bedroom window and yell, "OLD TOM-TURKEY'S A SPITTER!!! GOBBLEGOBBLEGOBBLE!!!".
And then run away giggling? Ahhhhh, good times & summer nights.
quote
Originally posted by User00013170: Must be a regional thing.. we didnt do that as a kid
quote
Originally posted by hookdonspeed: yea... i never did that one either... wth man?
Yeah, like i'm the only one creepin' on a warm summer night!
Being held in a parents arms in the car ride to the doctor or home. Not paying attention and kissing the metal metal dash in a sudden stop and wishing there seat belts. All day bike rides by myself. Change in the pocket that could buy stuff. The thing is, me and my kid are so different, I question if he would given the choice. A used car for a hundred dollars that can be kept for a couple years without lots of DMV and smog fees each year.
)
