What has disappeared since you were a kid

[The Rube]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

I understand. My brother feels the same way, too, and he HAS two kids (girls). the funny thing is, he was the one that was more apt to just do whatever, and deal with the consequences. I was the one to plan it out, and proceed depending on the risk.

 

[Bakunin]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

Why did kids stop playing outside? Was it parental laziness (too difficult to send them outside and supervise them if need be) or paranoia (fear of kidnapping)?

 

[Twitch Boy]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

They MIGHT still be around, but I haven't heard 'em:

Dr Demento Show (IIRC it was on Sunday nights in my part of the country)
Kasey Kasem's Top 40 Countdown on Sunday Mornings

Whatever happened to John Garabedian's Open House Party?

 

[XYZ]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

Why did kids stop playing outside? Was it parental laziness (too difficult to send them outside and supervise them if need be) or paranoia (fear of kidnapping)?

I think you'll see both of those in some cases, but overall I think it's just the rise of technology. When you don't need to leave the house to talk to your friends and can play games (with those friends) that can be admittedly pretty mind-blowing...why remember an episode of Home Run Derby you saw when you were six and try to go re-create it with a chalkboard in your front yard? The wall of red pines = The Green Monster.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

Gnip Gnop, Rockem Sockem Robots and Evil Knievel toys.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

I had a computer where you had to load DOS onto the machine using a 5.25" floppy disc every time you turned it on because the computer didn't have a hard drive. They were too expensive and only had a few KB of storage regardless. An American 8088 with an orange monochrome monitor.

Kids riding their bikes without helmets. We, like most everyone else here, did it all without brain buckets - bike ramps, natural jumps (into the soybean field right behind my house), and taking on the county dirt track bike trail after a nice, long, soaking rain had passed. Ah, Lebanon Hills Regional Park, I miss you most of all. Only one concussion from all of that and it wasn't even me.

Schwinn bikes.
Like above, kids skateboarding without helmets.
4-bit video game consoles - Intellivision and Atari.
Toy guns.
Pameida Stores (got my first BB gun there, just outside Aitkin, MN)
3-wheeler ATVs.
Having to actually go into a bank in order to do business.
Tornado warning sirens going off and there actually being a tornado nearby.
Kids being allowed to play outside after dark without having the cops called on them. We played jailbreak, kick the can, all that stuff using a few properties with big backyards lined up along side each other, the can in the street net getting run over (cul de sac), and the jail would be the front stoop of the middle middle house.
Frozen vegetable wars in the fall.
Playing football in the backyard, "The tree marks out of bounds. Don't run into it."
Football card pack coming in stacks of 50 for $1 and they still included 10-second flavored gum. I still have 5 Marino rookie cards and a couple Roger Craig ones, too!
Penny candies
Being 9 or 10 years old and finding the older brother's stack of Playboys and Penthouses. Holy schnikes!

And I find it funny that I still see an ice cream truck every Wednesday in the summer along N Dowling Ave in Minneapolis (North Minneapolis!), while on my way to hockey at Victory Memorial, but they won't go anywhere near Brent's complex.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

Gnip Gnop, Rockem Sockem Robots and Evil Knievel toys.

Aw man, I had an Evil Knievel! I got it secondhand from an older cousin out east. Tomboy cousins were better at keeping toys working than my brothers and male cousins.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

These still exist. They just don't frequent apartments, or your neighborhood.

and they don't take checks!

 

[leswp1]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

Ditto. Usually the tornado siren test (at 9pm in my neighborhood) was considered the "last call" for playtime. Otherwise, as long as you told the parents the general vicinity you were going to be in, you were good to go.

Makeshift dirt tracks/laps in a clearing for bike races, kickball at the park, football in a field, whatever. Outside, being active. Heck, even playing "21" at the local bouncyball courts was fun.

My Mum called us home with a cowbell. Never enough cowbell!

...How about cap guns? Ever scrap the gun and just hit the whole roll of caps with a hammer? Yeah, that'll ring the ears for a few hours.
...

We used a big rock and dropped it from the top step.

How is it possible none of us were thrown in a juvenile detention center?

Were we that smart, or was law enforcement / parents that dumb/ignorant?

Both.

Why did kids stop playing outside? Was it parental laziness (too difficult to send them outside and supervise them if need be) or paranoia (fear of kidnapping)?

Everyone is in daycare until dinner time. THen they need to do their homework

Overhead projectors.
mercury thermomometers
kids toys that aren't plastic and chunky shaped
playschool little people that were actually little
playpens (now they are playyards that are not square)
TV rabbit ears, climbing on the roof to get the TV antenae to work
KNowing the name of the mailman and his 12 (yes 12) kids
kids sports that were actually for kids and for fun , not to position them to be in the nhl,nfl, nbl by the time they are 18

 

[RaceBoarder]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

One thing that stands out in my mind was out "Fort" that my friends and I had back when I was 11/12... It was along a creek in a small wooded area that was adjacent to a large retention pond/field... To get back there, we had about a 1/3 mile bike ride along a single track dirt trail... For being that age, we were quite the engineers... It was 2 stories and solid as a rock... We had a couch, shelving, "Lockers", a giant slingshot out one of the windows, and a fire pit... That thing was awesome... All of our building material was "borrowed" from all the houses that were being built in the area... All sorts of hi-jinx took place back there... Now if some kids were to do that, they probably get arrested for trespassing

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

They MIGHT still be around, but I haven't heard 'em:

Dr Demento Show (IIRC it was on Sunday nights in my part of the country)
Kasey Kasem's Top 40 Countdown on Sunday Mornings

Top 40 Countdown is now hosted by Ryan Seacrest IIRC.

 

[streaker]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

That and the agony of defeat guy.

Jim McKay

 

[streaker]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

"You got an uncle in the furniture business,..Joshua Doore" Funny what we remember.

I remember Sinclair gas stations. They used to give away plastic toy dinosaurs. I had a toy box full of those things.

They still have one in Garden City. Middlebelt/Ford road.

Oh, and does anyone remember Viewmasters? I had one with audio, too.

 

[zamboni crash-test dummy]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

how about this one:

Bruce Williams and Talknet. I honestly don't think I paid attention to music until I was in high school.

Long time ago I worked over night shifts and would listen to Bruce Williams and then Art Bell 'Coast to Coast.' Except Sunday nights when it was Dr Demento and then Dr Ruth.

 

[zamboni crash-test dummy]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

They MIGHT still be around, but I haven't heard 'em:

Dr Demento Show (IIRC it was on Sunday nights in my part of the country)
Kasey Kasem's Top 40 Countdown on Sunday Mornings

XMRadio used to play the original Kasey Kasem's American Top 40 broadcasts from the 70's on the 70's station and the 80's on the 80's station on Saturday afternoons. I got rid of XM a year ago so I'm not sure if they still do.

"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars."

 

[Greyeagle]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

Dinasours
The apostles
buggy whips
leaded gas

On a serious note, I was in Best Buy with my dad (67) and son (17) a few months ago and we walked by a turntable. My son asked, "what is that?" To which my dad answered "it's what you play your 78s on" Holy time warp, Batman.

 

[HockeyBum]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

TV theme songs.
Cigarette vending machines.
RAX restaurants (not sure of this was just a Minnesota thing or not).
Prizes at the bottom of cereal boxes.
Buying wood hockey sticks (usually in a barrel) from the hardware store.

To the person who mentioned Ice Cream trucks, unfortunately those are alive and well in my city. There are at least 3 paedophiles... errrrr... salesmen that stalk my neighborhood during the summer.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

They still have one in Garden City. Middlebelt/Ford road.

Comins, MI as well. In the northern lower, on M-33. I don't think it operates any longer, but the dino sign is out front and both pumps are still standing.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

On another note, this :

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dwpqiaWKPkQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[St. Clown]

Re: What has disappeared since you were a kid

TV theme songs.

I read something about that. I can't remember if it was here or on some other site. Theme songs left the TV world becuase in this world of shortening attention spans, they cause viewers to turn the channel. So if a show has them, they have be very short and have a very strong hook to them.

Cigarette vending machines.

I remember being in the bar with my parents after softball games and they'd give us money to go buy some from the machines using pocket change. How that's changed on so many levels.