When I was a kid, we used to...

[Loyal]

build ramps and jump them with our bikes.

I lived in Texas for a couple of years and we lived in subdivision that wasn’t developed yet, and so every open lot was a potential race track or a place where kids built wooden or earthen ramps. I ask for something like a BMX racing bike (maybe called a Mongoose?) for Christmas. It was light bike with a magnesium frame, if memory serves. I had an old Schwinn that was heavy. Well, my parents got me a moto style bike that was heavier than the Schwin, but it front shocks looked a little like a motorbike, without the motor. I was so disappointed, but I realize today that the bike I wanted was a couple of hundred dollars in 1976-77, which was a small fortune. But dammit, all my friends had the light bike and I was last in every race and I couldn’t jump shyte!

SONOFA!!

 

[Loyal]

as a kid I got to watch Disneyland getting built in Anaheim, good times.
train

I saw Steamboat Willie when it first came out!~ train

 

[Loyal]

I mentioned in another thread of getting out of school and finding kids outside playing something...baseball, football, frisbee....whenI was a little older, I always had a tennis racket and balls going to play a game or just hit a tennis ball against the side of a building. Especially in SoCal in the early 70’s, A/C wasn’t that common, and so kids went outside for the shade at least. Almost all kids in the neighborhood were outside doing something. A fat kid was a rarity back then....

 

[CGI_Ram]

build ramps and jump them with our bikes.

I lived in Texas for a couple of years and we lived in subdivision that wasn’t developed yet, and so every open lot was a potential race track or a place where kids built wooden or earthen ramps.

All a kid needed... some woods to play in, close enough to the house... not exactly “deep woods”.... Just enough to hide, climb, explore.

We had an area behind our house undeveloped for most of my childhood. From as long as I can remember, to about age 15/16.

There were dirt piles for ramps and water puddles. Some of the water puddles were big (more than puddles) and fun when temps were below freezing.

A lot of the dirt piles would resemble bike ramps today they race on. Huge piles. I guess they were bulldozed that way, but they were idle piles for a few years.

Frigg that was fun! I remember using an old car hood for a special ramp. Shit like that.

our house backed up to a middle school. It was a sweet setup since the middle school included about 100 acres of grounds for football and soccer fields and also bordered a creek.

We also had a grade school within eyesight. Played a lot of football and baseball on those fields.

My parents must have known that would be an energy burner.

 

[dieterbrock]

Had woods behind my house that had quite a trail system. At entry there was a high side to the right, and low side to the left. The high side trail was the crest of a ridge, seemed like it was 100 feet high as a kid. The further you went in, the higher the ridge was. In the winter after a good snowfall you'd have your choice of slope to go down from the benign to the downright nuts. In the summer, we'd ride our bikes down some of those hills.
Those woods were awesome. Built some of the most elaborate forts back there. Im sure there's still some old playboy magazines and old cigarette boxes still back there. Countless hours spent back there and if you needed a drink, our house was the closest and it was free game to take a sip from our garden hose.
Man, what a life as a kid in those woods. Ice skating, sled riding, bike riding, sneaking smokes, building forts

 

[snackdaddy]

If I only had half of the Topps Baseball cards I collected from 1963 thru 69, I d be filthy rich

I feel the same about the comic books from the early 60's to early 70's. We had stacks of them. Easily over a thousand. DC comics. Marvel. All the Archie's. On rainy days I would grab one from the bottom to read. It was like watching reruns. When I moved out my father decided to clean the garage and threw them all out.

 

[RamFan503]

We used to catamaran down hills on our skateboards. To do that, you sat on your board with your feet on the other guy's skateboard and locked arms. To turn, you'd lean one way and then the other. It was great fun and you felt like you were going 100 mph. I took a piece of my ankle bone off once when it got caught under my buddy's board. Two weeks later we were back at it.

 

[AvengerRam]

We used to walk to "Planetarium Video," our local arcade, typically with a pocketful of quarters to play our favorite game (Galaga was mine). Then, a couple of doors down to the 7-11 for a Coke slurpee.

Ah... the simple pleasures of youth.

 

[Loyal]

We used to walk to "Planetarium Video," our local arcade, typically with a pocketful of quarters to play our favorite game (Galaga was mine). Then, a couple of doors down to the 7-11 for a Coke slurpee.

Ah... the simple pleasures of youth.

Ahh man...My perfect Friday night (before Chicks dug me...lol) Was to go to an arcade for a few hours, and Galaga and Pole Position were my two favorites. I turned over Galaga! After the arcade I went to a movie, like Alien. Good times!

 

[CGI_Ram]

Those woods were awesome. Built some of the most elaborate forts back there. Im sure there's still some old playboy magazines and old cigarette boxes still back there. Countless hours spent back there and if you needed a drink, our house was the closest and it was free game to take a sip from our garden hose.

Man, what a life as a kid in those woods. Ice skating, sled riding, bike riding, sneaking smokes, building forts

Yes... THIS.

I believe I ended up sharing in a thread somewhere...

We had two treehouses within bottle rocket of each other... one two levels, the other three. They were insane. Not sure where we got all the wood.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Put tape or bags on cats paws.

 

[Juice]

We used to go around and pick up all the Coke and Pepsi bottles that had a deposit on them. The kids at the nearby college would never return them and just throw them away. We knew the best spots to get the most volume. We would turn in the bottles and by Cokes, candy, and peanuts at the local store that we could walk or ride our bikes there. We'd put the peanuts right in the Coke bottle and drink them down over Moonpies.

 

[Dodgersrf]

We used to go around and pick up all the Coke and Pepsi bottles that had a deposit on them. The kids at the nearby college would never return them and just throw them away. We knew the best spots to get the most volume. We would turn in the bottles and by Cokes, candy, and peanuts at the local store that we could walk or ride our bikes there. We'd put the peanuts right in the Coke bottle and drink them down over Moonpies.

We did that often

 

[Loyal]

We did that often

It was like finding money on the street......

 

[Loyal]

A friend of mine and myself would play dirt clod army. We'd set up our green army men (my favorites were the bazooka men!) in earthen defenses positions, about 20 feet away We'd each take a turn throwing dirt clods at the other's Army positions, and whoever had the most survivors, won!

 

[FaulkSF]

One of my neighbors had one of those vaulted garages with stairs and an attic. We used to play GI Joe's and chuck them over the edge when they died.

We were a newer development and they had some abandoned citrus they were trying to develop over. We'd go back there and throw dirt clods. Of course we threw rocks first until a couple of us came home with bruises.

 

[IowaRam]

physically change the tv channels , all three of them


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZccAS0GrkE

 

[-X-]

physically change the tv channels , all three of them


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZccAS0GrkE

Don't forget UHF - channel 51ish.

 

[CGI_Ram]

Don't forget UHF - channel 51ish.

View attachment 38438

Remember the first TV remote controls?

Full Featured! Channel up/down, Volume up/down, Mute! But... only if you got the “Space Commode 400” model.

The “Space Co-Pilot 300” model... that piece of shit only had channel up/down...

 

[Selassie I]

physically change the tv channels , all three of them


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZccAS0GrkE

I had those three channels too... but I also had one or two Japanese channels depending on what time of day or night it was. The popular children's programs had English subtitles and all the kids preferred those programs over the ones on the regular channels.... they had real violence and stuff that was purposely not shown on American children's programs. I'm sure that is why I don't mind watching subtitled movies to this day.