It used to be that...

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

Families in town were known to drive either Ford, GM, or Chrysler.

When us kids used to "hang out" we were actually with each other, not alone and playing on the same team of some online game.

 

[Legion]

 

[bberg100]

You knew who your neighbors were and chatted with them.

 

[H4nk]

The lady across the street shot her husband dead in the street when I was a kid. Otherwise, she was really nice. We knew everybody.

 

[Phoenixkh]

I grew up in Montana and Wyoming..... we lived in quite a few towns with only 5000 people or so. My parents used to say you couldn't flush the toilet without the whole town knowing. As a kid, that wasn't my experience. There were always lots of kids my age in most of those towns. It was a lot of fun. The only problem was when we moved during the summer and didn't have kids in the neighborhood. Then I read all summer until I met other kids when school started up.

I've never lived in a very small town now that I'm an adult.

 

[silverlifter]

Parenting was so much easier back then... we'd leave the house at dawn and show up after dark for dinner. None of the adults had any clue where we were or what we were doing.

 

[Phoenixkh]

Parenting was so much easier back then... we'd leave the house at dawn and show up after dark for dinner. None of the adults had any clue where we were or what we were doing.

I remember it well... We'd get out of school the week before Memorial Day.... Our parents would basically say.. Make sure you're home before the last week in August. You'll need some new school clothes.

 

[ctr]

You could sleep with the windows open without concern of creeps.

I could walk to the grocery store for a candy bar or bottle of Coke.

One couldn't walk downtown without finding at least a few people you knew.

 

[HazMat Shaver]

All of us kids on the block (of the same age) would hang out together somewhere. But no matter where that was an adult only had to step out of the house and yell and they would know where we were. All the families had the phone numbers of every adult. You know, That phone thing that was hooked to the wall in the kitchen. So when a kid needed to come home a few calls went out and within 15 minutes that kid was home. BTW, I grew up in the City. No farmland or fields to go get lost in. When the street lights came on it was time to go home.

 

[emwolf]

I was a part of the crew that played in the neighborhood, but you couldn't get away with anything. While we were out playing all the moms were getting together and smoking like nicotine fiends and discussing what we were doing. They knew as much as Santa Claus. I do recall having to memorize my friends' phone numbers. Illinois Bell (the phone company) also came to our class each year to teach us how to use a phone. 2nd or 3rd grade we got a phone book we could write down our friends numbers. I had mine for years and I remember I had put a sticker on it that I got (don't recall where) which wouldn't fly today (marketing beer to kids).

 

[Ankerwycke]

The village I grew up in had:

School
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel
Pub
Shop/Post Office
Baker
Blacksmith

All of these are gone now.

 

[RayClem]

We once lived in a small town of about 8000 people. When I took my car to the local Goodyear dealer for service, I would just stand out on the corner and wait for someone who knew me to stop and take me to work. I seldom waited more than 5 minutes.

Once my wife went to the local grocery store and left her wallet at home. She did not realize it until she had gone through the checkout counter. She was about to return the items to the shelves when the cashier said that she should take the groceries home, put them away, and then return with her checkbook to pay the bill. Although we had credit cards, we wrote checks for most things back then. Today, you would have to leave the cart at the store.

 

[Ad Astra]

Like the end of Logan's Run, someday we'll all go outside again.

AA

 

[@ngel]

I also lived in a small town, it was faster to get from point A to B in a bicycle than a car, having a bicycle was a ticket to the world!

We would play futbol (soccer for Americans) all afternoon on the street, broke some windows every once in a while, the ball would get confiscated till somebody brave enough would get it back or buy another one.

We had one large playground smacked in the middle of 3 elementary schools (small town with tons of kids, I guess parents didn't like watching tv at night, or no tv in the bedrooms) and although we had rivalries from being at different schools, that playground was jammed packed every afternoon with kids of all ages, just playing together and busting energy (ADHD was non existent)

We like to think that things get improved with time and technology, I make my best effort to give my kids as plenty of a childhood as I had, but sadly some of the best things from my childhood are just not an option for my kids anymore. We for sure have screwed up some.

 

[Hms123]

Party lines (not what you think, Party line (telephony) - Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_line_(telephony) on the telephone. Riding my bike to the nearby (2 miles) small town to buy comics books and stop at the locally-owned drugstore for a root beer float. Getting my first job at the age of 12 delivering prescriptions on my bike from that same drugstore.

 

[Whisky]

We’d play “war” with very realistic toy guns and run/hide in the neighbors yards, bushes, trees etc and no one ever called the police.

Dropping a dime meant you had to find a pay phone, remember those?

I still, 40 some odd years later, remember my and my best friends childhood phone numbers.

When you had to actually roll down a window. Try using the universal “roll the window” motion now and younger folks just think your making some obscene motion with your hands.

My friends mom would hand us $10 and send us to the corner store for a 6 pack of beer and a pack of smokes. We had to bring back at least $3 in change but we could spend some on candy. We were 10yrs old and no one cared.

 

[BudgetShaverGuy]

When I was your age, I didn’t backpack around Europe, I bombed the $&!@ out of it!

 

[Whisky]

When I was your age, I didn’t backpack around Europe, I bombed the $&!@ out of it!

That was my grandfather. B-24 pilot.

 

[Hms123]

That was my grandfather. B-24 pilot.

My dad (pilot) is the one standing in the middle.

 

[Hms123]

We used to play mumblety-peg in my front yard.

Mumblety-peg - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Can you imagine parents allowing this today? The other parents would be suing before the blood had dried.