People that grew up before the internet age, how was life different? (1 Viewer)

[Binky The Doormat]

Gee, Bnky.  That's real linoleum on that kitchen floor.

I do love that Yes painting.

900 SF mansion.  

Also just out of camera shot, a metal and Formica kitchen table set complete with swirl pattern.  

 

[brun]

Something I have no idea if kids do now days or not is "toothpick races" ...

I have some great memories as a kid getting together with other kids from the neighborhood, coloring toothpicks and racing them down the gutters on a hill during the spring thaw.

Lot's of baseball cards won and lost during those races.

We didn't use toothpicks. We just used twigs. Never actually won or lost anything, probably just said hooray or something similar.

Played a lot of marbles where we won or lost marbles.

Baseball cards were traded, kept and admired, or clipped on our bikes to make noise in the spokes. 

 

[Phil Elliott]

Anyone ever rent video games at Blockbuster? I vividly remember when Super Tecmo Bowl came out (with all the teams) I rented that SOB and kept it for like 6 months.  When my parents tried to go rent a movie, the bill was in the hundreds.  The arcade by my house gave out quarters for report cards. 4 for an A, 3 for a B.  Putting those suckers on the edge of the game name plate to signify "next", and then having older kids bully me out of my time with Donkey Kong Jr.  Once my dad stepped in and gave them the "what for" so I could get my turn.  Getting three other friends and wearing out the Gauntlet machine at the local Convenient store.  "The Elf shot the food!" Stupid Elf.

Fireworks were big in my neighborhood.  We would drive to Indiana and load up the trunk, then keep them in a friend's shed or tucked away in a closet.  M80s were the greatest, blowing up anything we could find.  Bottle rocket tag was also fun.  If you put one in a toy gun, it was like you were actually shooting people.

Using a magnifying glass to melt all my action figures so their face would look like Toht's face when he saw the Ark of the Covenant. 

The toys were so much better.  Today's toys are so cheap.  My kids' Transformers are the worst.  Complete junk.  The old transformers were all metal and never broke, they just got loose so they didn't fit right anymore but it was after a year of tough play.  I remember getting a new Megatron because the gun barrel wouldn't stay up.

The library's water fountain had the coldest water imaginable.

I used to wake up early to catch cartoons everyday before school on the Bozo show.  On Monday they'd play half of a Transformers or GI Joe cartoon, and you'd have to wait until the next morning to see the other half.  Saturday morning cartoons were the greatest.  I still remember when the video game cartoons came out, and the Rubik's cube cartoon with the little Hispanic kid who was the only one who could solve it, and then the cube sprouted legs, arms and a head and solved crimes and ####.

The 3 Stooges was also big in my house, as was the Son of Svengoolie and the cheesy monster movies. Spectreman... power from space, he'll save the human race.

HORSE and knockout were fun.  Summer was baseball, fall/winter was football.  Basketball was when we didn't have enough for baseball.  Trading baseball cards was fun too.

Friday Night Videos for me was just like taping songs off the radio once we got the good ol' Betamax.  Dang that sucked going to the video store when all you had was Beta.  The section was about 10% that of the VHS selection.  

When CD's came out the first one I bought was GNR - Appetite.  

Playing gangster rap so quietly on my stereo so that my parents couldn't hear. Swear words??? For shame.

Do kids today ever light stuff on fire anymore?  Playing catch with a gas soaked fireball Nerf football with garbage can lids was the epitome of the type of stupid a group of kids could get into with no supervision. 

Stealing wood from construction sites to build tree houses.

What about sneaking around with the remote control and peaking through your buddies window and changing their channels, completely perplexing them for a few minutes was fantastic fun.

Last Blockbuster store still open in US is in Bend,OR. Two other stores in Alaska closing this weekend. At peak there were over 9,000 stores.

 

[Uncle Beaker]

In Miami we would play barefoot in the huge street puddles after the daily afternoon monsoon. Mom's would warn of worms but we paid no heed.

Then the mosquito spray truck would come down the street and we would blindly follow it on our bikes weaving in and out of the toxic fog.

Next day it was down to the canals to swim, one of us staying on shore as the gator spy. His job was to holler if any gator came to close to our swimming spot, we'd rotate in and out.

. Holy crap.  No way I am swimming in a canal with gators in it.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Last Blockbuster store still open in US is in Bend,OR. Two other stores in Alaska closing this weekend. At peak there were over 9,000 stores.

It's the fault of all those people who never did return their tapes.