STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
Which decade was the greatest decade to have grown up in?
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Which was the best decade to have grown up in? (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter STEADYMOBBIN 22
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STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
I chose the 80s but I think the real sweet spot is about 1975-1985.
I was born in 77 so I got a little taste of the goodness however, by the 90s - gangsta rap took over and it felt like there was a shift.
I was born in 77 so I got a little taste of the goodness however, by the 90s - gangsta rap took over and it felt like there was a shift.
Mister CIA
Footballguy
I refuse to grow up.
General Malaise
Footballguy
I think I would have enjoyed the 80s as a 20 something instead of the 90s. Seemed like a more fun time to be a party animal.
dkp993
Footballguy
Was born in 75 and feel like gangsta rap is why I liked my childhood. (Well that and the battle rap days, loved LL and KMD going at it).
Mister CIA
Footballguy
Born in 65. I think the best thing about when I grew up was being a totally range-free kid. From the time I was 8 or 9, I had roughly a square mile of suburbia in which to roam on my bicycle. Anybody from Arlington, TX knows the squares I'm talking about.
Yep. And you didn't have to wear a helmet.
dkp993
Footballguy
Was the same for me being born a decade later.
About a year or ago I was diving by a house I lived when I was 11, decide to also drive by a spot friends and I would build dirt jumps and jump our BMX’s. I clocked the distance, it was 8 miles away. Parents with no idea where I was, no phones, no nothing, justly be home by dark. Parents would get put in jail today for allowing that.
STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
Interesting. I wonder if it’s that I just became more aware of how awful the world could be by then? Maybe it just coincided with me losing my innocence it it just felt like dark times in comparison to the bubble gum/pop/glam of the 80s.
Phil Elliott
Footballguy
'70's was pretty cool.
STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
We had that too. My cousins and I once laughed how we would wake up in a Saturday, not even see an adult, leave the house and not return until dark. Nobody even batted an eye/even asked where I was all day.
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STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
I’m glad I grew up when I did but do feel like my older cousins had it better/easier- but the catch is/was - I always felt like they were so much more naive and not streetsmart.
Doug B
Footballguy
Similar here. I shifted the sweet spot a bit to accommodate (a) the heyday of video arcades and (b) the onset of home video games. If it has to be an even ten years, something like 1978-88. But just saying "1980s" is close enough.
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
Oh, I did. Gawd.
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
Yep. And everything after sucked.
jwb
Footballguy
1966 here. Yea, was definitely great growing up in the free-range 70's. And I was 14 when 1980 rolled in - perfect. Good times for sure.
General Malaise
Footballguy
My grandparents bought a house in Arlington, TX in 1983 or so and it had a pool. A tiny pool, but a pool nonetheless, something we didn't have in Dallas. I know of the Arlington in which you speak, but I'd bet neither one of us would recognize it today.
General Malaise
Footballguy
My mom and dad installed a dinner bell by the sliding glass door of our backyard. I'm not kidding - when it was 'supper' time, she would ring that thing like a tsunami was heading our way. I could hear it down the block and would high tail it home.
fruity pebbles
Footballguy
I kinda envy parents back then too. My kids are right attached to my hip all summer telling me they’re bored.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
My dad was born in 1940, lived in DC, was able to take the bus by himself by age 8, as a teenager he was able to ride his bike from their house in DC out the the summer house he was helping his dad build near the beach, was completely autonomous most of his life before getting married in '65. Sounds to me like the 40s-50s weren't too shabby for children.
CletiusMaximus
Footballguy
We wore motorcycle helmets for our pellet gun fights, but yeah - not when biking all over town.
General Malaise
Footballguy
MTV too. The newness of it had worn off by the 90s and then it only sometimes played videos.
dkp993
Footballguy
My equivalent was my grandpa’s whistle. When I was young 6/7/8ish the 2 rules were home by the street lights on and be in earshot of his whistle. He had one of those super powers where you could hear his whistle for blocks.
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
We had one of those bells, too. It was massive. We were out in the country, though.
Bogart
Footballguy
Pretty content with being an 80s kid, born in 1975.
That said, my brothers and I have debated that the best time to be born for music fans was 1950, the year our Dad was born. You get Elvis as a kid, Beatles/Stones during your influential teenage years. You are 19 years old going to Woodstock (yes, if you didn't get shipped off to Vietnam). Your free loving 20s gets the best punk shows (or disco if you felt the need to go that way). And your adult money making 30s, you have money for all of the stadium shows of the 80s.
Instead our Dad spent his musical life on Conway Twitty and gospel quartets. Oh, well.
That said, my brothers and I have debated that the best time to be born for music fans was 1950, the year our Dad was born. You get Elvis as a kid, Beatles/Stones during your influential teenage years. You are 19 years old going to Woodstock (yes, if you didn't get shipped off to Vietnam). Your free loving 20s gets the best punk shows (or disco if you felt the need to go that way). And your adult money making 30s, you have money for all of the stadium shows of the 80s.
Instead our Dad spent his musical life on Conway Twitty and gospel quartets. Oh, well.
General Malaise
Footballguy
I was born in '73 so my experience with the 80s was as an adolescent. I could be wrong, but it just felt like our country was more united, that there wasn't so much division and bickering and back biting each other. Of course, we didn't really have outlets for it like we do today and there wasn't 24 hour news cycles going on. But I remember things like "Hands Across America" and I remember watching the Olympic Torch pass through our city with thousands of people lining up to watch it pass. I recall Farm Aid and the music collaborations to help fight hunger in Africa. It seemed like we came together to help tackle issues in the world. I loved that everybody we knew wanted to know who shot JR, from kids to grandparents, it was all anybody talked about for a while.
Of course, there was the fear of the Cold War and nuclear war was a real concern of mine (especially after that TV movie "The Day After" - I should NOT have watched that) but American felt so.....strong and invincible to me. We dominated the Olympics absent the communists but it just felt like we were the best at everything.
I was just a kid, so maybe my recollections differ from those who were older, but I just felt a sense of pride and security being an American in the 1980s and I don't know that I'll ever feel that way again for myriad reasons.
Of course, there was the fear of the Cold War and nuclear war was a real concern of mine (especially after that TV movie "The Day After" - I should NOT have watched that) but American felt so.....strong and invincible to me. We dominated the Olympics absent the communists but it just felt like we were the best at everything.
I was just a kid, so maybe my recollections differ from those who were older, but I just felt a sense of pride and security being an American in the 1980s and I don't know that I'll ever feel that way again for myriad reasons.
STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
My buddy who lives a few houses down has one similar to what you’re talking about. He rings it from time to time.
STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
Not necessarily. Born in 77, I would say I did most of my “growing up” in the 90s.
Admittedly nostalgia is my thing so I probably romanticize the 70s/80s more than they deserve but I sincerely think I would have adored growing up about 5-10 years earlier.
A couple things I was a little too young for
The first Cowboys SB runs
Seeing the first Star Wars in the theater
We got super soakers but all I wanted was one of these:
Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
For me, or for everyone?
Deamon
Footballguy
worst for music by far.
I think everyone is just going to pick the decade where they were a teenager, as those memories are nostalgic. From a lot of social media posts/memes/etc, the 90s dominates at all. Best music by far (and it's not close), still played outside/got dirty while still enjoying big jumps in technology/video games. Nothing will ever top the 90s (But yes, it's nostalgic to me as I was a teenager then).
I'd be surprised if many people voted for a decade that was outside of their early teenage years.
kupcho1
Footballguy
Yes!
I could state the obvious that the music was great (e.g., punk, new wave), but every generation thinks that of their era. I will add that hooking up pre-AIDs was nice.
It was morning in America.
IvanKaramazov
Footballguy
Given the rate at which technology is changing, I think my vote for "best decade to have grown up in" has be "right now." If I were given the choice between starting my life over again in 1972 vs. being born on August 11, 2023, I would very much like to see what comes next.
That said, I do think Gen X picked an objectively wonderful period in which to be born. First of all, none of us lost our fortunes in 1929, lost our farms in the dust bowl, got gunned down while trying to establish a beachhead in occupied France, got shot down over Hanoi, etc. Our biggest childhood trauma was watching a spaceship blow up at school, which wasn't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things when you consider how things went for our grandparents and parents. We got to enjoy the best rock music ever made in the mid-70s through the early 80s, and we got to enjoy the best hip-hop music ever made in the 1990s. Movies from that era are just plainly better than most movies made today, both in depth and breadth. We were the last generation to have a normal, pre-internet upbringing. I'm kind of floored by how many of us had literal "dinner bells" that our folks relied upon to communicate with us while we were off playing with our friends completely unsupervised.
I know it's a cliche to say that the best time to be a kid just coincidentally happens to be when you were a kid, but for us, there is a good logical case to be made for exactly that. The internet really is one of the very few human inventions where it is accurate to talk about "before the internet" and "after the internet" as two completely different eras. We got to experience both, as well as the transition from one era to the next. It was an interesting time, one that you might expect our descendants to simulate if they ever gain the ability to run such simulations.
That said, I do think Gen X picked an objectively wonderful period in which to be born. First of all, none of us lost our fortunes in 1929, lost our farms in the dust bowl, got gunned down while trying to establish a beachhead in occupied France, got shot down over Hanoi, etc. Our biggest childhood trauma was watching a spaceship blow up at school, which wasn't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things when you consider how things went for our grandparents and parents. We got to enjoy the best rock music ever made in the mid-70s through the early 80s, and we got to enjoy the best hip-hop music ever made in the 1990s. Movies from that era are just plainly better than most movies made today, both in depth and breadth. We were the last generation to have a normal, pre-internet upbringing. I'm kind of floored by how many of us had literal "dinner bells" that our folks relied upon to communicate with us while we were off playing with our friends completely unsupervised.
I know it's a cliche to say that the best time to be a kid just coincidentally happens to be when you were a kid, but for us, there is a good logical case to be made for exactly that. The internet really is one of the very few human inventions where it is accurate to talk about "before the internet" and "after the internet" as two completely different eras. We got to experience both, as well as the transition from one era to the next. It was an interesting time, one that you might expect our descendants to simulate if they ever gain the ability to run such simulations.
Don Quixote
Footballguy
I’m happy that I graduated high school pre-Columbine. (Not trying to post about politics or start political debate. Just happy that I graduated before that era.)
Poke_4_Life
Footballguy
I was born in 76. So my wild days were from roughly 95-05.
It actually hits a bit of a sweet spot for me as I was always fascinated with computers and was able to use the early versions of the Internet but didn't have to deal with everyone having a camera phone when I was being young and dumb.
I could make arguments for other time periods but would not have wanted camera phones around in my party days.
It actually hits a bit of a sweet spot for me as I was always fascinated with computers and was able to use the early versions of the Internet but didn't have to deal with everyone having a camera phone when I was being young and dumb.
I could make arguments for other time periods but would not have wanted camera phones around in my party days.
Scoresman
Footballguy
Way off on the music. 80s pop was just so much fun. My car radio is always on Sirius 80s on 8.
My early teen years were mostly in the 90s and I still voted 80s.
jwb
Footballguy
That's the norm now. But, to me anyway, it's how parents want it.
Parents now seem to be very heavily involved in their kid's entertainment and social lives. My younger friends (30's / 40's) are right on top of their kid's activities, all the time. They all hang out together in groups with other parents with kids. My neighbor's kids (9 and 11) ride their bikes in the driveway, and no further, ever. The kids in my neighborhood are seemingly never allowed to just "go out and play". It's really weird to me, but I'm not a parent, so my view is definitely from the cheap seats.
ChiefD
Footballguy
I was born in '69, which is awesome for a few reasons.
- When my kids friends ask how old I am I can tell them I was born in the 60's. Which always elicits a "damn you're old" response.
- I grew up in an era where we could drink beer in the park as teenagers and the cops didn't really bust our balls or anything
- you could fool around with girls and it was consensual and nobody had hangups about it and you could just have fun
- no camera phones to capture all the destructive behaviour
Hastur
Footballguy
Born in August of '70, so I tell people I was conceived in the '60's
Keith R
The Don
This Era has cyberbulling, plus so much helicopter parenting. Constant checking in, not to mention cell phone location tracking. And large amounts of time spent in front of screens, leading to poor physical fitness.
I'll take the 1980s childhood over this
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
When I'm lyin' in my bed at night
I don't want to grow up
Nothing ever seems to turn out right
I don't want to grow up
How do you move in a world of fog that's
Always changing things
Makes wish that I could be a dog
When I see the price that you pay
I don't want to grow up
I don't ever want to be that way
ghostguy123
Footballguy
I don't know, I just know it isn't this one, or the one before.
otb_lifer
Footballguy
SFBayDuck
Footballguy
'72 here so not too far off from you. Free range childhood, be home when the street lights came on. Rode our bikes everywhere, played in creeks, would go fishing solo for hours, stickball in the cul de sac. And yet we also got Atari and cable tv in grade school and Blockbuster in middle school, which was good considering it was Portland and raining 4-5 months of the year. I loved early-80s pop music as a youngster (MTV played videos!). By early '88 it was all hip hop for me and discovering all of the music from the previous few years that hadn't made it to most places in the 'burbs (including mine, nobody I knew listened to it). Missed out on dating apps, but in the early-mid '90s I was meeting girls on Prodigy Message Boards and then AIM.
The downside was hitting college in 1990. Not that I didn't have fun (I was there for 6 years after all), but at least here in the PNW it went right from girls all wearing giant sweatshirts and shoulder pads to girls all wearing baggy flannels. Not a bit of skin, ever. It was like unwrapping a present, you only had an educated guess on what might be inside. Combine that with the peak of AIDS in terms of public awareness (Magic's announcement was '91), and sexy fun time took a big time dip for a few years there on campuses.
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