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Miss my Yellow Metal Tonka Truck. That truck was indestructible. I could beat other toys with it with its sharp metal edges. We didnt need safety stuff back then.. seat belts ... who needs seat belts.
Miss my Yellow Metal Tonka Truck. That truck was indestructible. I could beat other toys with it with its sharp metal edges. We didnt need safety stuff back then.. seat belts ... who needs seat belts.
A little girl I went to grade school with had a disfiguring scar running down her face from her eye to her mouth and chin, from going through the windshield of a car (she had been in the front seat during a collision). She was teased mercilessly by the other kids for being 'ugly'. She would probably disagree with you about the seatbelt thing. Unfortunately for her, they were pretty much unheard of back in the early 50's.
Miss my Yellow Metal Tonka Truck. That truck was indestructible. I could beat other toys with it with its sharp metal edges. We didnt need safety stuff back then.. seat belts ... who needs seat belts.
A dear friend of mine was killed in a car accident when she was thrown out of a car she was riding in on the highway. Ironically, her car had seat belts, she just wasn't wearing one. Other passengers in the care were and were okay.
Who needs seat belts? People need seat belts, that's who. They save lives. Not having them isn't something to be nostalgic about.
For me, it was hitching a ride on the back of the ice cream truck. Got chased by Saul the uce cream man with a bat once.
Playing outside. All day. Large grassy area at the apt complexes were full of residents outside. No smartphones, tablets, distractions like that. Full throttle sun, smell if grass trees, food that people brought out to share. A sense of community, from seniors, kids, adults, even the local weirdos were cool and hung out.
Frisbee football, tackle football and soccer in same area above. Climing trees too. We got to over 2 stories on one tree. It was scary. Made it down with a few scrapes.
Watching Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and Andre the Giant wrestling on TV, while viewing like a live comic book through young eyes. And Sat morning cartoons, and Kung Fu movies and Godzilla in the afternoons on TV also.
Arcades. Large ones, with Gauntlet, Moon Patrol, Pac Man and others.
The exitement of buying a cassette or record at the store. And the challange if getting the plastic wrapping off of the cassettes!
Good times!
Great post. Your childhood sounds a lot like mine; we must be about the same age, but I was a million miles away in the north Bronx.
As a late teen growing up in the 70's, hitchhiking was a common means of getting from point A to point B. Somedays, after being at school all day, my two best friends and I would trek down to the main thoroughfare just outside of town. We'd stand there for minutes with our thumbs in the air, hoping for a ride.
No matter how long it took, someone always stopped, asked where we were headed, and gave us a ride as close to our final destination as possible. Neither male nor female drivers seemed worried about being assaulted by young hitchhikers. We were always respectful, comical, and thankful for the ride, no matter how close or far they were able to take us.
This is just one of so many good memories.
That died out after too many incidents in which female hitch-hikers became statistics. Also, as the drug culture expanded. too many drivers became statistics, as well. Sad that life took a turn for the worse, in general.
In high school, a few friends and I rode in the back of a pickup truck. This was the late '90s.
In hindsight, gosh, we were so idiotic.
What do you mean? What's so idiotic about that? People still do that in rural areas. The summer camp I went to routinely transported gaggles of kids in a huge flat-bed truck. Even crossed international borders with it, and used it in Canada. Lots of fun!
A little girl I went to grade school with had a disfiguring scar running down her face from her eye to her mouth and chin, from going through the windshield of a car (she had been in the front seat during a collision). She was teased mercilessly by the other kids for being 'ugly'. She would probably disagree with you about the seatbelt thing. Unfortunately for her, they were pretty much unheard of back in the early 50's.
Seat bets were around in the 50's. What weren't around is the cross-body kind. Kids wearing the lap seat belts could still bang their face on the dashboard of the car, if a sudden stop was made. Dashboards were designed differently, back then, and protruded out more.
Great post. Your childhood sounds a lot like mine; we must be about the same age, but I was a million miles away in the north Bronx.
Im 41. Grew up in Gravesend Brooklyn, not too far from the Bronx. My neighborhood felt like the center of the universe, many shared the same feelings from kids to adults in a lot of neighborhoods in every borough. Being close to 4th of July I remember people gatheting on the rooftops to watch fireworks not just from Macys, but local shows put on by people.That is nonexistent now.
Im going to throw in Freestyle music as what was the soundtrack of Summer for us. I grew up into a metal/rock guy and still like Freestyle music.
I'm only 22, but screw it, I'm contributing to this thread.
I miss angsty rock music - nu metal, post-grunge, emo, stuff like that. It's not that there isn't emotional music being produced anymore, but it's by and large in the rap world (like Kendrick Lamar), while the rock that's survived at all has shifted to being dancey, carefree, and super-synthesized, no longer even pretending to be about anything meaningful - Maroon 5 and their ilk.
Rap isn't bad per se, but I can't connect to it as well as I can rock - I'm white and upper-middle-class; it isn't intended for people like me.
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