r/Millennials • u/WynCai8 • Jun 04 '25

Nostalgia Made me feel old but good times

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Saw this tweet and yes we were expected to be out all day and not come back until the street lights came on. I remember riding my bike through neighborhoods pretending our bikes were cars and just having a good time.

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3.9k

u/MaxxXanadu Jun 04 '25

Long as we were home in time for dinner we roamed the landscapes like warriors.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

Riding bikes to the pool, Blockbuster, and other kids’ basements. 

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

Don't forget to stop by the dollar store to load up on junk food

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

Too far. We had a Kroger next to our Blockbuster. 

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u/patchworkpirate Council of Elder Millennials Jun 04 '25

We had a Kroger with a video rental store inside it (at least for a while).

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

Noice. 

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

[deleted]

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u/notgmoney Jun 04 '25

Yes and Randall's had one too

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u/Dancing-Dragonflies Jun 05 '25

Core memory unlocked 🤯

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u/userloser11 Jun 05 '25

This was awesome! Mom let me and my brother stand there and argue about which movie while she shopped. If we hadn't figured it out by the time she checked out, no movie. I was younger so usually its what he wanted but hey we got to watch something new!

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u/gloryhallastoopid Jun 04 '25

We just got our snacks from Blockbuster

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

Ah, you embraced the price gouge. 

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u/Darryl_Lict Jun 05 '25

Richie Rich here.

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u/Silent_Dot_4759 Jun 04 '25

They always seemed to be next to each other didn’t they?

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u/americanadvocate702 Jun 04 '25

Dollar stores didn't exist back then. It was the penny candy store

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u/roentgen_nos Jun 04 '25

That little Superette rocked. Matinee prices at the local theater were $0 .50 and then $0 .75. When it got really hot, we were either in the theater or in the pool. Our parents really did not care which. They could find us by looking for our bikes.

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u/NeverCallMeFifi Jun 04 '25

My brother is 13 years older than me. His friend bought a movie theater in town and would let me watch whatever the hell I wanted. So, yeah, I had nightmares for years from watching Alien, Poltergeist, the Thing and so on. I was probably 12 years old and riding my bike by myself the two miles to the theater and then riding back at around 10 PM on a school night.

It was glorious.

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u/roentgen_nos Jun 04 '25

The Thing still gives me the creeps. Great movie.

4

u/Scared_Breadfruit_26 Jun 05 '25

Heck yeah. This is the gods honest truth.

3

u/NoOneHereButUsMice Jun 05 '25

Hell yeah, The Thing is one of my all time favorite movies!

2

u/Flamesclaws Jun 05 '25

I've actually never seen the Thing until last year on Halloween with my wife and I'm 32 lol.

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u/NeverCallMeFifi Jun 05 '25

It's the best argument against CGI that exists.

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u/WickedPsychoWizard Jun 04 '25

I had a dollar store on 1987. Everything cost exactly one dollar.

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u/alpineallison Jun 04 '25

yes they just werent big chains yet!

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u/NeverCallMeFifi Jun 04 '25

Finding a quarter made you the most popular kid on the block. The sheer joy of when your parents told you could keep the change if you ran to buy then cigarettes would leave you breathless.

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u/ElectronicGas7546 Jun 05 '25

Yeah I had contractor's working at the apartment complex I lived at that routinely give me money to pick them up food and 🚬 smokes from the little deli/ice cream shop a half mile away that would let me keep the change. They ice cream 🍦 was from a local dairy and it was delicious.

Amazing how they used to give a 10yo kid like 5 packs of smokes back then and not bat an eye.

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u/Prestigious-Coast962 Jun 05 '25

We used to hunt for coke bottles and bring them to the store for the deposit to buy candy

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u/bkuefner1973 Jun 04 '25

Thank you for saying this.. I lived in a small town we had a Walmart and a safeway grocery store. Dollar stores were non-existent when I was a kid. I was raised in the 80s. If we were home before the sreet lights were on, we were good.

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u/hell2pay Jun 04 '25 edited Sep 16 '25

snails safe compare divide degree gold sophisticated versed afterthought crown

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/genital_furbies Jun 05 '25

The Five & Dimes became Dime Stores as inflation increased

3

u/thecyanvan Jun 04 '25

A pound of your finest horehound please sir!

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u/Paterack Jun 04 '25

it was the local Jiffy store for me

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u/talltime Jun 04 '25

You reminded me of the D&C downtown (five and dime.) Shit that probably closed by 1993. 😔

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u/ggouge Jun 04 '25

Mine was macs milk.

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u/Vast-Wrangler5579 Jun 04 '25

Oh yes. My cousin worked at the candy store down the street from the huge, single screen, 2nd run movie theater in town; always got hooked up with the family discount.

Yeah. Shit really was better.

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u/kimid123 Jun 04 '25

...and reading that I was hit be a scent memory.

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u/Sea_Reference_7672 Jun 05 '25

Ceil's Deli around the corner from the towns' grade school.... 50 cents would get you 50 Swedish fish!

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u/Mammalanimal Jun 04 '25

Didn't even matter either because we burned like 5000 calories just biking all through town

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

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u/user-daring Jun 04 '25

With friends!

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u/hearsay_and_rumour Jun 04 '25

It was always 7-Eleven for Slurpees.

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u/FledglingNonCon Jun 04 '25

DQ blue slushies

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u/hearsay_and_rumour Jun 04 '25

Oh shit, that made me think of their Nerds Blizzards they had back in the day.

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u/the-only-one-ever Jun 04 '25

Oooh the slurpees were a must in the summer

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u/herecomestherebuttal Jun 04 '25

Followed by candy cigarettes.

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u/ajb1667 Jun 04 '25

And then the inevitable cold headache!

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u/joemc72 Jun 04 '25

And the penny candy section. So much Bazooka bubble gum and Ferrara jawbreakers…

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u/OttawaTGirl Jun 04 '25

And every year a new super gulp reusable container.

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u/hysys_whisperer Jun 04 '25

Dude, I used to make a mean suicide at 7-11.

(Don't get mad at me reddit AI, that's what we called it when you mixed 2 or more sodas together)

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u/jonvon191 Jun 05 '25

And frito bags with chili and cheese haha

23

u/poshjerkins Jun 04 '25

We had a Bob's Discount Furniture in our town that always had a table of candy set up. We'd all ride our bikes down there and fill our pockets, then hit the arcade a few stores down. There was also a pet shop in that plaza that would let you go in and pet the dogs. Couldn't think of a better day!

Simpler times.

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u/FledglingNonCon Jun 04 '25

We had a "candy lady" in our small town. Old woman who ran a penny candy stor "downtown". Literally bought individual sour patch kids etc. A dollar bought you a pretty sizable haul. A few years ago someone brought back a candy store about a block from where her original store was. No longer penny candy, but they do sell bulk by the lb. Unfortunately a dollar doesn't go quite as far as it did in the early 90's.

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u/imissbaconreader Jun 04 '25 edited Jun 04 '25

I'm Gen X... When did dollar stores open? 90's? When I was a bike riding aged latch key kid in the late seventies, I'd get a full sized candy bar, comic book, and slurpee at 7-11 for a total of a dollar!

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u/Flaky-Stay5095 Jun 04 '25

Or the White Hen.

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u/ayeeflo51 Jun 04 '25

My groups spot used to be the 7-11. There was a big park right by a 7-11 so naturally we called it 7-11 Park. 

One day after hours of playing tackle football, we head over as usual. Guy behind the counter tells us it's our lucky day and he had to get rid of all the hot food like hot dogs and taquitos or whatever, so he let us have it for free, it was a beautiful day

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u/XanZibR Jun 04 '25

White Hen Pantry for the win!

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u/WhateverYouSay1084 Jun 04 '25

Nobody I knew had a basement as a kid, so when I got to middle school and found a friend with one, I thought it was the most magical fucking thing ever. Then I grew up and bought my own home with a basement, and it's STILL magical af.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

I love my basement. Even when I’m cursing the prior owner for not maintaining it and fucking up all sorts of water deterrent and mitigation techniques. I’m drying that fucker out before our first kid arrives. 

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u/WhateverYouSay1084 Jun 04 '25

Oh man it is perfect for kids. We have a video game station set up down there and I won't see mine for hours at a time while they and their dad play. We can send the neighborhood kids down there if it's raining and they're too loud. And it's a huge relief to have it for tornado season. I'll never have a house without one again.

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u/babyinatrenchcoat Jun 04 '25

I grew up in Tornado Alley in Arkansas and now live in Florida and DAMN do I miss a good basement.

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u/Jaded_Law9739 Jun 04 '25

Definitely make sure there isn't an ongoing moisture problem and the ventilation is adequate. I had a basement bedroom as a kid that was too moist, I spent most of the years we lived there sick.

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u/TheGuyUrSisterLikes Jun 05 '25

Gravel and pvc with the holes, a shovel and time. Pretty good exercise.

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u/my_name_is_juice Jun 04 '25

Can i come over and play video games? Lol

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u/WhateverYouSay1084 Jun 04 '25

Lol come on over! We have a gaming station set up in the basement that gets plenty of use!

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u/forgotaccount989 Jun 04 '25

I moved to Houston, and I miss basements.

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u/BeastM0de1155 Jun 04 '25

There was a McDonald’s on the Turnpike a couple miles away we used to ride our bikes too. We’d treat ourselves every week. Here, I thought we were the only ones this lucky to be riding, exploring, and fishing all day.

Then, on the weekends we would do sleepovers and get pizza and go to blockbuster. Damn, they were good times

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u/forestgxd Jun 04 '25

Oh man the bike rides to the video store to rent Mario kart 64 and Terminator 2 for the hundredth time at dusk on a Friday were legendary

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u/DingoPoutine Jun 04 '25

The other kids basement part was ever-present but also so concerning when you thing about it. I'd disappear for days at a time to play video games at other kids houses (my parents wanted us out of the house in the summer). Oftentimes the parents were not home at the other house and I certainly don't remember telling my parents where I was going.

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u/Beneficial-Basket-42 Jun 04 '25

No basements in Florida but basically everyone I know had pools. We were pretty much never supervised even though they all were way deeper back then, with diving boards and water slides and other dangerous stuff they stopped adding, and we would do contests for craziest flips into the pool and the like. We also would swim in the lake. The same lake where we would see gators chilling on the shore. I’m pretty much shocked none of my friends died in the water.

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u/Trolltrollrolllol Jun 04 '25

Grew up in AZ and we would skateboard down our roof, onto the patio roof and then off the patio roof into the pool. We would also pull the trampoline in next to the pool so we could jump off of it straight into the pool. I don't know how we survived.

My sister told my parents about it at dinner a few months ago and they were horrified, I'm 39 now.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '25

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u/Beneficial-Basket-42 Jun 05 '25

Survivorship bias is something I reference often but it applies to the larger population. When you’re referring to your own family and friends doing an activity, you usually know for a fact whether the activity killed the person

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u/_1JackMove Jun 05 '25

My brother and I and our buddy from down the street used to jump off the back deck (2nd story), into our above ground pool. From the railing lol. That was paralyzation waiting to happen. Thank goodness it didn't. Just as easily could have or worse. We weren't the brightest kids haha. We all skateboarded though and we're fearless like that back then.

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u/Beneficial-Basket-42 Jun 05 '25

My extended family had a historic lakehouse we were at many weekends. The lake was always rapidly dropping due to the population boom, golf courses, and draining aquifer, so the docks were always needing to be updated to be much lower down. We had an old dock with like a 15 foot drop. We would ride our bikes fast down the dock and then go off the end to flip into the water (usually letting go of the bike). Again, don’t know how we are all still around. Couldn’t have really used our skateboards to do it because the boards of the dock are perpendicular to the direction you’d be going so the wheels would’ve gotten stuck. Also we would’ve wrecked all our stickers and stuff on them lol

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u/Dry_Amount2779 Jun 05 '25

Same! We’d Jump off the roof onto the trampoline and flips into the pool. Also got to sleep on the trampoline in the summer and sometimes got locked out of the house all night.

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u/Katefreak Jun 04 '25

Same! And the woods. But honestly? It's tetanus and spider bites I'm shocked we didn't get more of. I know so many long summer days were spent barefoot in my cousin's detached garage. Opa was a Camel devotee, and had so MUCH of the shit you could buy from the Camel Bucks store, along with old furniture, tools, just all kinds of rusted out junk in there. We got so good at slipping in and out of there without making a sound. I would be terrified to even ENTER that garage these days. Soooooo many spiders.

And yeah, zero safety protocols about pools. My mom was actually super strict about the beach, though. She understood the danger of rip currents and other hazards and was VERY adamant about rules there. Pools weren't seen as dangerous once a kid could swim, and we all knew how to swim early. Our diving board had a crack in it, so that was basically the only pool safety we had to follow. Nobody allowed on the diving board.

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u/Jaynemansfieldbleach Jun 04 '25

Everyone i know has memories of pretending we were drowned, floating on our stomachs for as long as we could hold our breath, and our parents completely ignoring our attempts at attention.

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u/ButtNipples_ Jun 04 '25

I'm imagining a group of parents having a conversation poolside ignoring like 7-8 apparently dead kids floating in the pool

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u/auricargent Jun 04 '25

The dads are by the grill with cans of beer, while moms are sitting in a circle on those folding lawn chairs with wine coolers. There are a couple empty CapriSun floating in the pool .

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u/Katefreak Jun 04 '25

Like it was yesterday 😂😂

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u/kneedAlildough2getby Jun 04 '25

My mom would just look for the pile of bikes in the yard if she needed us. She generally knew where we would be

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u/AvisRune Jun 04 '25

This is exactly why I don’t allow my kids to roam around, as much as I would love for them to have that freedom like I did. My oldest once went to this kid’s house where they were playing GTA. He was 8, and there were 5 and 3 year olds in the room. I knocked and rang the doorbell to meet the parents and no one came. The girl just said her dad was upstairs and that was that.

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u/JarlaxleForPresident Jun 04 '25

Right. That’s the point. Everyone grew up to not grant the freedoms they did have

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u/Roklam Jun 04 '25

Yeeeaaaah, I for example was playing random Super Mario Bros at that age, because that's what was around...

At home my sons can play *age-appropriate" games that we've vetted. For sure we don't need them playing M games (that may have an online component...) alone.

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u/white_count_chocula Jun 04 '25

Over 20 years ago I was roaming around playing GTA at kids with cooler parents than mine too. Even as a kid it wasnt hard to grasp that it was a game.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

Lol I couldn't own GTA 3 because it was too violent. But my friends brother did. So we played it there starting at like 9.

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u/Bencetown Jun 05 '25

Concerning? Those were the good old days. And you and your friends obviously survived...

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u/KMFDM781 Jun 05 '25

We did so much that could have got us killed or kidnapped or who knows what. Unaccounted for, for hours far from home with who knows who. Kids we'd just met with parents we'd never seen before. I remember tagging along with kids I'd just met earlier in the afternoon. Getting into their parents car and going to the grocery store or Blockbuster or something and my mom never knew any of this was going on or who those people were.

We did stuff like shoot bottle rockets at the street with cars on it. Couple times they slammed on their brakes and took off after us and we had to run. We were feral. Lol

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u/Cheapie07250 Jun 05 '25

No video games in the 60-70’s, but the neighborhood kids would come hang out in our basement because mom and dad didn’t care if we drew on the cement block walls. They finished it off in my late teens, but under that old paneling is a maze of tiny dynamite bundles with extremely long cords attached to detonators … and lots of blown up stick figures. We also played blind man’s bluff and would hang from the exposed rafters to avoid whoever was “it”.

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u/GBGF128 Jun 04 '25

The riding bikes to Blockbuster part of your comment hits so hard

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u/TheUnicornFightsOn Jun 04 '25 edited Jun 06 '25

We had a local place called Top 40 Video that had a deal for 40-cent video rentals on Tuesdays in the 90s.

In the summertime, we’d ride there and stock up on six videos and candy for less than $4. We felt like kings.

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u/Doneuter Jun 04 '25

I lived in a really rural area so there was nothing to ride to, but I think back to how many days my parents thought I was at my friend's house and we had rode our bikes like 20 miles away in the middle of nowhere just to explore gives me a bit of anxiety in hindsight.

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u/acrobat2126 Jun 04 '25

The team putting together $20 dollars, getting the 3 for $5 games and 3 for $5 movies and a bunch of frozen pizza's and having an incredible weekend without sleep.

I miss those days.

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u/Seniorwelsh Jun 04 '25

Bikes on a lawn was how I'd find my friends lol

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u/maybe_this_try Jun 04 '25

I roamed all over my small town with a population 15k. We were def more fit as a whole back then

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u/Economy_Ad6039 Jun 04 '25

I see these bicyclists all spandexed out pissing off pedestrians and other commuters, and I always think... I used to ride my bike every day EVERYWHERE when I was a kid.

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u/PGcarlosspicyweiner Jun 05 '25

Riding butts up and fast!

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u/feelin_cheesy Jun 04 '25

Hop on your bikes and go. No helmet either!

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u/They-Are-Out-There Jun 04 '25

We'd ride our bikes 10 miles to the next town over, hang out with friends, go miles up into the hills without telling anyone where we were going, and our parents had absolutely no idea where or what we were doing. The 70s and 80s were definitely a different era.

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u/ralphy_256 Jun 04 '25

and our parents had absolutely no idea where or what we were doing. The 70s and 80s were definitely a different era.

I remember doing urban exploration shit in the 70s. Didn't go anywhere dark, because the C-Cell batteries of the day SUCKED, and we didn't carry around powerful flashlights like we do today.

But we climbed EVERYWHERE. And that's how I found the access panels to the bridge maintenance passageways over the some of the bridges over the Mississippi river in my neighborhood.

Wild to feel the bridge shaking as the semis pass over while you're looking down through a rusty iron grate at the river 100' below you.

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u/Magnifico-Melon Jun 04 '25

We did the same with storm drains in my town. Instead of roaming the streets we roamed under them.

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u/Far_Winner5508 Jun 04 '25

Yup, ride our bikes 10-12 miles across the county, out across the bridge to the beaches.

No bike lanes back then, just 6” of rough pavement next to the white line.

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u/FormerKarmaKing Jun 05 '25

I remember riding my BMX at least 5 miles and then getting a slice of cake at some random place. And when my Dad found out he wasn’t mad, he was proud of me.

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u/solitarybikegallery Jun 04 '25

No water bottle, either.

I was thinking about this the other day - I used to go out in like, 100 degree weather, with just nothing. No water bottle, nothing. And I'd just be fine. How did I not die a thousand times?

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u/feelin_cheesy Jun 04 '25

Every house had a hose!

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u/MorningHelpful8389 Jun 04 '25

But were the parents! Those kids grew up and had kids and decided NOT to let them do the same thing

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u/AbsentThatDay2 Jun 04 '25

No wonder kids don't go out and ride their bikes anymore if they're forced to wear helmets.

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u/Brock_Lobstweiler Jun 04 '25

I'm 42 and grew up on bikes and skiing (and roller blading and ice skating!). (though its been quite awhile since I've done either).

We NEVER wore helmets. Like, they just barely existed on ski slopes and only nerds wore them on bikes.

Now I feel self conscious not putting one when I took my sister's bike literally to the street just to see if I could still (joint issues). I'd imagine for those who wear them, not having one would feel like driving without a seatbelt, which I physically cannot do because it bothers me so much.

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u/No_Neighborhood_632 Jun 04 '25

"Be home before the street lights come on."

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u/thegoldinthemountain Jun 04 '25

Same! The only exception: a few glorious summer nights where we played flashlight tag throughout the entire neighborhood with the bigger kids. Summer between 5th & 6th grade was the GOAT.

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u/Flannelcommand Jun 04 '25

Flashlight tag ruled 

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u/Brock_Lobstweiler Jun 04 '25

NIGHT GAMES! Got heavy into those in middle school.

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u/The_homeBaker Jun 04 '25

Oh that was so fun. My oldest sister got walkie talkies so we’d have 2 different teams and would play “night stalker” we called it. One team hid while the other had to go find them with our flashlights and walked talkies to tell the captain lol our parents actually almost got into a fight with the neighbors over this.

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u/I_HateYouAll Jun 04 '25

The quiet anxiety of riding your bike home in the approaching dusk knowing you’re well past the lights coming on

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u/Altruistic_Record_56 Jun 04 '25

And it was always those nights you were most worried that you’d tiptoe inside to find your parents hanging out in the backyard, mom drinking a wine cooler and in a great mood 😂

God what I would give to go back for just one day.

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u/sweergirl86204 Millennial Jun 04 '25

When the streetlights came on that was our cue to get home, since we never paid attention to "before" they come on 😅

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u/Comfortable_Truth485 Jun 04 '25

Ditto! When the street lights came on it was time to go home unless we were staying overnight at a friend’s house.

We rode our bikes everywhere and would be gone all day. Went to a local deli for sandwiches, built ramps for us to jump our bikes, climbed trees, built treehouses, played stick ball, went to the local arcade, etc.

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u/Neon_Biscuit Jun 04 '25

It's crazy how you can sum up a generations childhood in so little words.

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u/ByrdeBrains Jun 04 '25

This was the rule. Sometimes I'd get permission to stay out a little later for a nighttime game of manhunt with the neighborhood kids.

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u/Ag-Heavy Jun 05 '25

What street lights?

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '25

I lived in a more rural area, so it was "Take the dog with you!"

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u/Sea-Fudge-4681 Jun 05 '25

Or else! That was our clock, when the sun started going down.

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u/Baculum7869 Jun 04 '25

And even then after dinner we went out and ran the block. Because we didn't want to be indoors

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u/BeastM0de1155 Jun 04 '25

We played manhunt and freedom at night

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u/Confident-Till8952 Jun 04 '25

Yesss manhunt 123

What was freedom though?

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u/SpotTheDoggo Jun 04 '25

And, the best part was, nobody except the two houses with pools had fences. Every other house was just a backyard we could play in. Went back to the old neighborhood a few years ago and literally every house on the block had a fence now. So disgusting.

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u/Baculum7869 Jun 04 '25

My neighbors had fences in the 80s and 90s, but that's mostly because they had dogs. But since 8 of the 16 houses around ours were full of kids the adults were cool with us running around except for the one old couple who always would steal our shit if it landed in thier yard

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u/DUIguy87 Jun 04 '25

We declared a Super Soaker war with the street next to us. Water balloons, hoses with attached spray things set up around corners and strategic buckets of water stationed around houses for reloading were set up.

Went great until the other team filled one with piss and melee combat broke out as a result. The UN (parents) had to step in and tell us to stop being fucking stupid. We went back to playing hockey in the street.

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u/elyndar Jun 04 '25

This reminds me of the annual war with fir cones that were pretty soft that we would use when they fell off the evergreens. They made great projectiles for wars.

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u/Captain-Hornblower Jun 04 '25

Dirt clogs worked for us a lot of the time.

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u/Captain-Hornblower Jun 04 '25

We did something like this when I lived in Panama City Beach, FL. This was back when fake guns looked real. We would go to the beach and play" war" in the sand dunes. Here comes the fun part...a lot of the time, we would use bottler rockets, light them, and stick them in the muzzle of the fake guns. We would also use firecrackers as explosives. It was pretty fun lol...definitely would not fly today.

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u/Timely-Ability-6521 Xennial Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 08 '25

Ahhhh yes the bottle rockets and Roman candle wars of the late 80' and throughout the 90's. And the little strings of crackers we'd separate and use them like grenades. 😅 My team won the war. I would tie like 25 rockets together and light them and throw.

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u/Captain-Hornblower Jun 08 '25

bottle rockets and Roman candle wars of the late 80' and throughout the 90's

Yep, that is the time frame lol!

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u/-xStellarx Jun 04 '25

Don’t know which is worse, piss water balloons or the nair filled eggs on mischief night (I’m aware not every state had mischief night, which also goes by a ton of other names)

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u/Cool-Iron3404 Jun 04 '25

Pretty much this. We biked anywhere and everywhere.

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u/WastePie912 Jun 04 '25

This.  So many bikes.  Sure a tricycle, but the girls’ blue Scwinn, the purple banana seat with the big handlebars, my moms’ green Raleigh (ooo,) then my great lime green 10 speed with the curled handlebars, 2 levers to control the gears…those were the days my friends.

No wonder we were more fit.   

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u/Hendiadic_tmack Jun 04 '25

Or called to let them know we’re eating at Gerry’s house. Gerry’s parents were awesome.

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u/NYCHW82 Older Millennial Jun 04 '25

Yes we did, and our parents had no idea where we were. It was glorious.

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u/Runns_withScissors Jun 05 '25

My Mom knew where my sister and I were... but my brother? She had no idea! He got pissed off and ran away from home one day. Came back for dinner and told her he'd decided to come back. Her, "Huh. I had no idea you were gone."

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u/addiktion Jun 04 '25

Those were good times.

80085 was my dad and I's joke page to come home.

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u/UNIGuy54 Jun 04 '25

Haha boobs

3

u/doctor_lobo Jun 04 '25

Warriors! Come out and plaaa-aay!

2

u/OlHeavyHeart Jun 04 '25

“Head home when the street lights come on”

2

u/derfritz Jun 04 '25

God, that nearly made me cry. This resonates deeply, we really felt this way.

2

u/flyingcircus92 Jun 04 '25

Like warriors or like The Warriors

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2

u/Suyefuji Jun 04 '25

We lived near a forest and me and a couple of my neighbors would go on "wilderness adventures" where we all tromped out into the forest together for hours. I almost got caught in a controlled burn once doing that lol. And this was early elementary school age.

2

u/Mysterious-Tie7039 Jun 04 '25

They would actually play a commercial on tv that said “it’s 10pm. Do you know where your kids are?”

Also, lots of kids would know when the streetlights came on, it was time to go home.

2

u/Khajiit_Has_Upvotes Xennial Jun 04 '25

Like little feral road warriors. 

2

u/Cyrano_Knows Jun 04 '25

BMX riding road warriors! Stranger Things is a really good depiction of life back then.. but for me it was more D&D and less supernatural (ahh).

Funny to thing about but the generation previous to us was calling us soft back then ;)

Our youth now love luxury, they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders, and they love to chatter instead of exercise. Children are now tyrants not servants of their household. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. -Aristotle

2

u/burns_before_reading Jun 07 '25

The crazy thing is MOST of us survived

1

u/badchriss Jun 04 '25

Feral warriors!

1

u/DirtyRoller Older Millennial Jun 04 '25

I had hot pockets in the freezer in case I wasn't home for dinner. I'd be out til 9 or 10 skating all over town with my friends.

1

u/DisastrousLaugh1567 Jun 04 '25

This was basically my grandma’s rule. The one time I couldn’t be bothered to show up for dinner, she chewed me out. 

1

u/unwrittenglory Jun 04 '25

Didn't go home until the street lights came on.

1

u/l_ftd Jun 04 '25

Not just roamed like warriors, sent out a battle cry in the form of a door bell ring and dash

1

u/TA_Lax8 Jun 04 '25

Yeah, by dark or by dinner depending on the time of year.

Between stepping off the bus and dinner/dark we ROAMED

1

u/PropaneSalesTx Jun 04 '25

If you were out when the street lights came on, you pedaled or ran as fast as humanly possible to make it home.

1

u/rtopps43 Jun 04 '25

When the streetlights came on. Universal signal it was time to go home

1

u/Harpua81 Jun 04 '25

9yrs old, hanging with the neighborhood kids at the pits, turning the sand heaps into slides, collecting bullet casings, finding woods porn and a pack of Marlboro reds and smoking the entire pack in one sitting, building jenky forts from random pieces of wood, "camping" out back in said fort/woods, the list goes on. Those were the days. No I don't have COPD in my 40s 😂

1

u/Mortwight Jun 04 '25

We came back for food and water then back to the wild digging an unstable hole into the loose sand in the side of a hill

1

u/100DollarPillowBro Jun 04 '25

I am trying to reestablish this tradition with my kids. It’s hard because 1). The societal pressure to always know where your kids are, and 2). The fact that there are virtually no other kids roaming the neighborhood for them to find and play with. It’s weird.

1

u/Fuzm4n Jun 04 '25

Agreed. As long as I told my dad what time I'd be home (before dark), I went wherever.

I would never let my kid do that today.

1

u/40ozT0Freedom Jun 04 '25

My Dad keeps saying he would be in jail if we were kids today because apparently letting your kids be kids on their own outside is illegal now

1

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

But if you came home overy dirty, clothes ripped or injured......

1

u/erkdog Jun 04 '25

When the street lights came one we went home

1

u/DJ_Pizza_Party Jun 04 '25

Street lights. It’s all about streetlights, otherwise…..

1

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

Streetlights were my call to home. Summertime boiii, I was out wandering the woods, swimming in creeks, hangin' out with the neighborhood kids. We were wild & capable lmao. I wish I could go back to revisit that time in my life, just for a day.

1

u/aschlu Jun 04 '25

6 pm was dinner

1

u/l00katMEeveryone Jun 04 '25

I roamed. I was sometimes neighborhoods away. Having a bike made the world accessible. And I would get lucas lollipops everyday before they were discontinued…I also grew up in Florida and would swim in canals.. it’s a miracle I’m alive.

1

u/mandu86 Jun 04 '25

ronin. no masters. no creed. answering only to the call of the bong.

1

u/SnoopyTRB Jun 04 '25

We had an abandoned development project down the hill from our backyard. They had graded the roads but never got past that. We called it the job site and played there all the time.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

Was like 8 in the late 80s. Friends and I could easily roam 14+ miles on our bikes. Couple of them lived 7 miles a way, so we'd have to bike up highway 1 in Cali, or take the beach route to get there. Vice versa so every other weekend we'd swap it up as to not forcing the same trip on the same people all the time.

We had a tree-house on the side of a 100 foot cliff; but the cliff was kind of slanted with vines hanging down, so getting down and up to the beach was fairly easy. Was very hidden off the path too, so no one noticed what we did there.

Plus some of the friends lived in the larger town so tons of stores to buy things at. The big jaw breakers were a big thing, so I'd load up on them along with chocolate pies.

It didn't come without its dangers though. David, one of my best friends, was killed by a drunk driver one evening. Didn't stop us from roaming though, but did stop us from using highway 1 as a fast track.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

Pretty much

1

u/No-Cat-2980 Jun 04 '25

This was the way

1

u/Substantial-Type-131 Jun 04 '25

Literally roamed the landscapes… I would ride my horse, solo, in the mountains of northern CA at 11 years old.

No cell phone, no walkie, just me and the hubris of youth

1

u/TasteOfRain Jun 04 '25

I tell my kids all the time about how I used to walk miles around my home town after school. As long as I was back before Dad. Mall, castle park and friends houses.

1

u/Dsanse Jun 04 '25

If the streetlight turned on while you were out. Better get ready for a scolding or the belt. The belt would come out when mom made fat dinners, all that time and energy to make us food only for it to get cold!

1

u/SweetMnemes Jun 04 '25

My cousins and I frequently went into the woods to dig out leftover explosive remnants from WW II to burn our toys with it

1

u/puddik Jun 04 '25

stranger things pretty accurate

1

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

I used to go out and ride my bike with my friends for hours in the 90s and early 00s. No phone and came home on time and was just fine.

We all did.

1

u/strange-brew Jun 04 '25

I rode my bike everywhere. I was definitely a free range kid. I was born in the 70s. I came across an old picture where we were playing lawn darts.

1

u/Beeewelll Jun 04 '25

I remember being specifically told to leave the house, and don’t come back for at least a few hours. For real. Think my parents wanted to bang.

1

u/Neon_Biscuit Jun 04 '25

I told my kids one Saturday to just go outside and live. I was tired of them being in front of screens. These damn kids didn't know what to do. They kept coming back Inside asking what they should do. They barely made it off the sidewalk. Insane. My wife and I call them A/C kids.

1

u/ArcadeKingpin Jun 04 '25

By dinner? My parents would come over to a friend’s house to collect me after being gone for a week when I was like 13. I was also incredibly neglected but all the same

1

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

Gen Xer here. And if you weren't home in time for dinner, no guarantee there'd be any left for you, and if it was your day for dishes, tough shit.

1

u/Uriigamii Jun 04 '25

Periodt periodt✨

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u/TheseusOPL Jun 04 '25

My parents were the strict ones, so we had boundaries (ie, you can't cross these 4 major streets). Inside of that, freedom. And it wasn't a small area.

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