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3 years 9 months ago
- Posts: 55
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Hey all JPDRAVEN aka JAY here.
So after being a part of the site for some time I JUST found the forums section lol. Anyhow this site has been awesome! Before finding the site the only time I really got to be nostalgic with my beloved 80's was when i got together with friends I grew up with and by CHANCE something came up about childhood OR an 80's movie was on and then we'd start talking about the past.
After thinking about it for a while I realized something....
We were all so lucky to be a part of the 80's from a CHILD'S perspective. I dunno how to verbalize the feelings I am having to accurately portray what I mean by this but I'm gonna give it a shot.
I see how kids live now a days. Between the computer and the internet, the texting on the cell phones that 7 year olds are carrying, the cartoon networks that run cartoons 24-7, and all the animated movies that come out thanks to Computer Graphics I truly feel kids are missing out.
Take my nephew for instance. He's 7 years old.... god bless him, BUT the kid watches Cartoons and Animated Movies 24-7, or is either playing Star Wars Battlefront 2 on his computer I built for him OR is on the Nintendo Wii playing Star Wars the Force Unleashed 2, Playstation 2, or his dad's old Super Nintendo.. which that I actually dig cause that was me and his dad right around his age with the original NES Nintendo. But my point is this. The kid NEVER plays outside.
In the 80's I can distinctly remember being obsessed with my BMX Bike, I had a Mongoose Californian, trying to skateboard but never doing it very good, Mongoose Scooters, playing Hide and Seek, taking Journey's on our bikes in the summer to try and get lost lol, finding old abandoned schools and buildings to explore in, Hide and Seek, Daily baseball games in the park across the street from my house, Sleep overs, going to Baseball Card Shows and to the Card Shop or the Comic Book Store, of course going to the toy store, and basically NEVER wanting to be cooped up inside.
We had a freedom about us, a drive to be outside and explore the world. What the hell happened!? There was only ONE day that you wanted to be indoors and that was on Saturday Mornings for Saturday Morning Cartoons.
As ANY 80's kid can attest to, Saturday Mornings was Kid Ritual. It was just as important as getting that toy you were dying for on Christmas. Our lives revolved around Saturday Mornings, Christmas and Christmas Vacation, and Summer Vacation. Speaking of Christmas, that holiday was forever attached at the hip to Saturday Morning Cartoons because that's when all the BEST Toy commercials came out.
How many of you can remember waking up on Saturday Morning around 8am, groggy and still half asleep, grabbing your pillow and a blanket and stumbling down the stairs like a drunk person into the living room to lay on the couch and watch cartoons? I vividly remember before having a TV in my room going downstairs on the couch to watch my cartoons. My dad would be in the kitchen having his coffee and listening to his news station on the transistor radio. I will never forget the sound of his spoon hitting the sides of his coffee mug as he stirred in his milk in his coffee... you know what I'm talking about, that clanking sort of high pitched noise that can only come from a spoon hitting the sides of the coffee cup as you stir. that stupid noise to this day soothes me lol. And for the record to this day my father still goes downstairs every morning to have his coffee and either listen to his little black radio or read the paper. After he was finished it was usually around 9am, and there were so many mornings that he'd ask me if I wanted McDonald's breakfast. That meant HAPPY MEAL TOY! It was a win win for any kid. And sometimes I'd fall asleep on the couch during cartoons, wake up and watch whatever was on and then get dressed to go call for our friends.
But after Cartoons we were pretty much out of the house for the day. This is also when neighbors didn't lock their car doors, slept with the windows open on cool nights, and EVERYONE'S screen door was open ALL DAY. For those of you wondering I live in Nassau County, in Long Island NY, bout a half hour from New York City, the "burbs".
I think back now and I take a look at my childhood. I used to say I hated being a kid. GOD was I wrong. I had it made, we all did growing up here and in that time.
Another thing that I remember so distinctly that it is part of the fabric of my being is how the sun looked in the morning and how the oranges of the sun's rays just had this way of lighting the neighborhood both in the morning and at sunset. I went outside this morning, around 8:30am and it just doesn't look the same anymore. Something has changed. I know that sounds crazy but I'm serious, the lighting is just different now.
To this day even though Im allergic to it loll I LOVE the smell of fresh cut grass, I like the sound of the landscaper's blowers and mowers and I stop to listen to the sound of some construction guys 3 blocks away nailing in nails or cutting wood with a circular saw as they do some home improvements for a neighbor. In the 80's in my neighborhood MANY MANY houses were getting dormers put on them, people were expanding their homes rapidly in the summer. Heck we got rid of our garage and converted it to a den and had a circular driveway put in back then. I remember playing in a block of NEW HOMES being built in the early mid 80's where Bloomingdale School used to be. I remember playing in that school after it was shut down!
Maybe it's because I am close to 36 years old and I feel my own mortality creeping up on me and have a need to look back and be thankful? Maybe it's because the kid in me truly misses the innocence and the simplicity of it all? Or maybe it's because I look around me and see where we are, and how technology is making people home bodies? I don't know I can't finger it just yet.
But what I do know is this..... we grew up in a time that was seemingly limitless with inspiration and influence on a kid. We still had certain freedoms unlike the kids of today. Our parents were the "LAW", the schools never got involved in some of the ridiculous crap they do now, NO KID EVER called the police on their parents, and LAWSUITS were serious things that were not taken lightly. Now a days it seems like a person can't sneeze without a lawsuit being brought on them. Have we evolved OR have we actually de-evolved?
When you had a fight in my day you shook hands when it was over and that settled it. That was IT, done, over with. Not now a days. So much has changed.
Can any of you relate to this?
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DMoney89 wrote:KFC's latest conspiracy to kill off black people for good: The Brand New Double Down Sandwich!!
