1971
For a good chunk of the year nuns ruled my weekdays until 3pm.
Late afternoons were for ‘smear the queer’ and other ball games. Sometimes we played with ropes.
When at home I had to listen to my parents.
My parents were married and lived together (and did until they died).
Saturdays were for fishing with my father. We used a 2 cycle motor which used an oil/gas mixture. It had 5hp and I could drive it. It made lots of smoke but we thought carbon was good for plants.
Children from the local large city would ride into my neighborhood on bicycles. In the group one bike would contain 2 children - the rear one would have bolt cutters in his hands for severing locks from the bikes of my friends.
Gilligans Island was a popular TV show. Danger Will Robinson was a phrase you heard on TV. Speed Racer was still watched.
A war was going on but we didn’t know much about it until my friend’s much older brother died in it.
Too bad no one in your community had the sense of civic duty to "do something" about that.
Regards,
I’m recreating tge 70s in my hood
Bmx bikes
Hoops
Ping pong
Swimming in the lake
Going to the soda shop
Cruising main st
Music and fun
I was 7 in 1970 living in Bowie MD.
We had over 80 kids of all ages on our street alone. We counted.
At night we played chase (usually 10-15 kids per team).
We played Red-Rover, hopscotch, 4 square.
Bike races, bike riding, far away from home, no helmets, not phones, just kids on bikes.
We made ramps, jumped them with bikes, skates, and big wheels.
We would treasure hunt on bulk trash days.
Summer, would wake up leave and only come home for a late lunch or dinner.
If the street lights came on, everyone went home.
Winter, snow forts, snowballs at the bus when it went by.
My mom would drop us off at a fishing pond, leave, pick us up hours later no supervision. Same with ice skating on that same pond.
Never heard of a kidnapping, rape, or anything worse than a stolen bike.
Good times.
I grew up in the 70’s. We played smear the queer, tackle football in the back yard and really enjoying them in the snow after sleigh riding. We had bb/air rifle BB guns and stayed out of trouble with them, we were taught gun safety. We went to the mountains with our air rifles, winter and summer and the only rule was take a book of matches in case you get lost.
We rode our bikes to little league practice and games and rode them all over town and we made ramps and did the evil Knievel jumps, pimped them out with lights and speedometers. We had apple fights, rock fights, bottle rocket fights and the occasional fist fight with a brother or neighbor. We watched Gilligan, Batman, the Brady Bunch and Specter Man and waited for cartoons on Saturday morning.
We also had responsibilities. At age five I was splitting kindling up for my great great parents wood cook stove. At age seven I was cutting grass with a push mower. We cleaned fence rows each fall and spring, we dug waterline ditches by hand when needed and we washed dishes and did chores around the house. Our parents both worked and we would be left at home starting around age seven in the summer. Our great grandparents lived down the hill from us and we would go down there and eat lunch, she always cooked dinner as she called it.
When we screwed up we got punished, spanking with a switch or belt or grounded as we got older. If you got paddled at school you got a spanking when you got home. Older kids were responsible for watching out for younger ones if no parents were around. Unless you were bleeding profusely or had broken bones you rarely went to the doctor. OTC and home remedies for colds and such. Mumps, chicken pox all par for the course. It was a fun time to grow up!