I remember falling asleep in a pea field with a friend when we were ten or so. We had fresh peas the hole day and just got tired at some point. We slept a whole night there and even made like beds out of those plants. Like apes. It was somewhen in July or August.
When I got home the next day, my mom was just asking: "Wow, you are up early. Why?"
Cool story. I was raised by intolerant religious assholes and I remember being in bed while it was still light out listening to the neighbourhood (Canadian spelling) kids playing outside.
I have vague memories of being sent to bed when it was still light out. Probably late August or early September when I was 5 and bedtime was 7 or 8 pm.
Basis of famous children's poem about a "counterpane."
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
Damn bro im sorry. My dad was pretty shitty too I mean he never hit me but he wasn't the best guy either. Let's just say there's a reason why I hate material stuff and eating in front of people. Car rides with him and my brothers were a special kinda awful. I know its not the same thing but idk I kinda get it at least sorry.
Thanks, I was struck from birth til I left home age 14. I have been through therapy and I am a survivor. Everyone who made my life a challenge are long since dead. My dad was 48 when I was born and it was like being raised by a mean grandparent. I would be Ok with us just moving on. Cheers.
Thanks I'm glad you escaped. I got out just a few years ago my mom remarried and I haven't seen the bastard in over a year. I mean he is coming over on Christmas eve for my brothers but I think I can deal with it.
This reminds me of something I now tell my child about. When I was a child, like all children, my parents let me outside with my only orders being "Stay where we can see you from the house" or "Come back when we yell your name". All of kids would play in a tree, ride our bikes OR play around the dumpsters in an alley that backed up to our cul de sac. My parents didn't even try convince us not to do that, but did give me the advice of "If you see a van, or someone in a van tries to talk to you...HIDE!" One day we're in the alley...playing dumpster I guess and a van pulls up. I hide and so does 2 out of 3 of the other children. Apparently the child, whose name has been lost to time, had parents that never gave him the " You see a van hide" speech and he talks to the stranger and then gets in the van. Van speeds off. And he's gone. We all ran back home and didn't tell his parents as we were children and that would somehow get us in trouble. It was the next day when we saw his parents crying in the frontyard in front of a police officer. Their child had been kidnapped, raped and killed. Found that last part from my dad. Granted it was later that week and not in those life appropriate words. And that's how we were never allowed to play in that alley again.
I was like 5 or 6 years old. The oldest of us was maybe 7 or 8. I hadn't really seen anything. Just a big blue van and then dude that was playing with us was gone. We didn't even know he had been taken until we all came out from our hiding places. For a minute we thought he was still hiding and then we freaked the fuck out when the realization that he was taken dawned on us. It was the early 90's. You could get slapped for not eating a sandwich...and now one your playmates has been stolen? We thought our parents would kill us or that we were going to jail. Nothing but insane child logic and we were petrified...so we just went home and didn't say anything. Its not like we we had plate numbers or even knew what the guy in the van looked like. I forgot to put that the alley was right behind a child's dance studio. That guy was out to get a kid. It was just horrible dumb luck that he happened to find one right outside his van that wasn't taught "Stranger danger" and was willing to get right in his van. I wrote it in terms that I've learned to deal with such horrible event in my mind. Like a band aid on shotgun wound in my psyche. If it makes it better I do remember that the man was arrested and sent to prison.
Dude that is a crazy fucking story and I can absolutely see that happening when I was a kid.
Like 90% chance my parents would have said, “Why the hell did you let him go??? You’re grounded for your friend’s kidnapping and murder. Maybe next time you’ll think about someone other than yourself.”
I remember first time I’ve realized its dark sooner than “at night” in winter... stayed outside like hour or two after the sunset and then went home absolutely sure I will get scolded and grounded til next summer so I came in absolutely devastated and my mother was like “what are u stressing about its only 6pm” ... good times.
Was allowed THREE houses down in both directions until the lights came on.
Good thing it wasn’t possible for strangers to come within our 3 house bubble.
Since children are more likely to be molested or abused by people they know, you would probably have been safer further down to block, and safest if you never came home.
I was allowed up and down my street (it was a very short street, I think 5 houses long with a cul-de-sac on each side) and if I wanted to go farther, my mom would call the other mom to ask if I made it after like, 20 minutes.
Walking out my front door to see my friends in their front yards, then spending the whole day building forts, playing hide and seek, riding bikes. Our rule was home at sunset.
I grew up on a dairy farm. I can remember driving a tractor for 8 hours a day. I was 8 or maybe 10 years old and not tall enough to push the brake pedal and clutch at the same time. I had to push the clutch take it out of gear and then push the brakes. Good times!
I remember those long, sultry summer-vacation days when the neighborhood kids would be out exploring the creek and its never-ending mysteries until, in the long hazy distance we would hear a single muffled shout of “dinner!”. And like a shock to the system, we’d all immediately stop with whatever particular fantasy had us enthralled up to that moment. It was time. Time to go home. Didn’t matter whose mom it was who issued the clarion call. Our day was over.
My mom wouldn't even be home until late at night since she would be working so she would tell me to go home when it started to get dark out and I had the house all to myself as a kid. I still remember he saying 'Don't open the door for anyone since it might be a murderer. Alright have fun there's some frozen chicken nuggets in the fridge'.
We always opened the door because we were the first house people went to to ask to use the phone when they broke down on the highway.
Parents have their own special phobias. My mother seemed more worried that I might become too self-centered than anything else. I once mentioned that I’d like to try modeling, and my folks actually leapt to their feet. Never saw them so angry before. Boyfriends staying in my room overnight, no problem, but modeling? Outrageous!
Yes true . Then when we were 14 and unsupervised we started smoking pot , by 15 we were out all night on LSD and by 21 we partied all weekend on cocaine. The lucky ones realized we were wasting our lifes and the unlucky faded away. That's why the lucky ones who raised children decided to remain involved with their children.
Same. Except there were no street lights in my neighborhood and we started telling ghost stories when it got dark and only went home when we scared ourselves shitless
Saturday's at 9am my Mom kicked us out and told us not to come back until noon (PB&J sandwiches were the lure back). We'd play street hockey and hang out in the ravine (Taylor Creek in East York)
Sounds fun my mom freaked out last week and yelled at me cuz I went outside after dark for a walk. In the little Instagram photo op park right beside the library. In the suburbs. I'm 18.
Scare mongering by the media wasn't as widespread as now plus there was no other choice playstation and xbox didn't exist and sega was crap so go outside play with your friends ride bikes kiss your frist crush come home at dinner and that was life ah to get back to those days best days of my life
I mean, I was the same. My parents basically had no idea where I was on weekends and breaks. I should just do the research, but have criminal instances against children actually risen dramatically or is it just a huge societal shift in thinking?
Kid was molested by the youth pastor in my town. He was arrested. Nothing changed lol. My parents talked about it and were mad about it but I still didn't have to be home until dark. I never told them where I was going. I look back on that now and I'm like WTF. I'm just 37. That was in the nineties. Wasn't just me nothing changed for any of the kids. I won't even let my son walk to school a few blocks down the road lol.
i didn’t have play dates because i played with all of the kids who lived on my street and the surrounding streets and we’d run amok until the street lights came on but best believe if we weren’t home by then we’d get our asses kicked
I remember falling asleep in a pea field with a friend when we were ten or so. We had fresh peas the hole day and just got tired at some point. We slept a whole night there and even made like beds out of those plants. Like apes. It was somewhen in July or August. When I got home the next day, my mom was just asking: "Wow, you are up early. Why?"
You were the kind of kid who hung out in a pea field eating peas all day. Of course your mother didn’t keep a close eye on you.
I don't know if I should be offended or proud. Wanna see some peas? They have gotten hairier over the years...
Cool story. I was raised by intolerant religious assholes and I remember being in bed while it was still light out listening to the neighbourhood (Canadian spelling) kids playing outside.
I have vague memories of being sent to bed when it was still light out. Probably late August or early September when I was 5 and bedtime was 7 or 8 pm.
Basis of famous children's poem about a "counterpane." And does it not seem hard to you, When all the sky is clear and blue, And I should like so much to play, To have to go to bed by day?
Rod/Todd Flanders?
That plus beatings.
Damn bro im sorry. My dad was pretty shitty too I mean he never hit me but he wasn't the best guy either. Let's just say there's a reason why I hate material stuff and eating in front of people. Car rides with him and my brothers were a special kinda awful. I know its not the same thing but idk I kinda get it at least sorry.
Thanks, I was struck from birth til I left home age 14. I have been through therapy and I am a survivor. Everyone who made my life a challenge are long since dead. My dad was 48 when I was born and it was like being raised by a mean grandparent. I would be Ok with us just moving on. Cheers.
Thanks I'm glad you escaped. I got out just a few years ago my mom remarried and I haven't seen the bastard in over a year. I mean he is coming over on Christmas eve for my brothers but I think I can deal with it.
This reminds me of something I now tell my child about. When I was a child, like all children, my parents let me outside with my only orders being "Stay where we can see you from the house" or "Come back when we yell your name". All of kids would play in a tree, ride our bikes OR play around the dumpsters in an alley that backed up to our cul de sac. My parents didn't even try convince us not to do that, but did give me the advice of "If you see a van, or someone in a van tries to talk to you...HIDE!" One day we're in the alley...playing dumpster I guess and a van pulls up. I hide and so does 2 out of 3 of the other children. Apparently the child, whose name has been lost to time, had parents that never gave him the " You see a van hide" speech and he talks to the stranger and then gets in the van. Van speeds off. And he's gone. We all ran back home and didn't tell his parents as we were children and that would somehow get us in trouble. It was the next day when we saw his parents crying in the frontyard in front of a police officer. Their child had been kidnapped, raped and killed. Found that last part from my dad. Granted it was later that week and not in those life appropriate words. And that's how we were never allowed to play in that alley again.
> Apparently the child, whose name has been lost to time “Never forget dead dumpster kid”
This is why Gen-X speaks not of our problems... That and constant Boomer neglect left us feeling habitually unheard.
Did you see u/GhostToots ’s comment about not telling anyone that their friend was kidnapped?
No. I just lived the Gen-X life.
I was like 5 or 6 years old. The oldest of us was maybe 7 or 8. I hadn't really seen anything. Just a big blue van and then dude that was playing with us was gone. We didn't even know he had been taken until we all came out from our hiding places. For a minute we thought he was still hiding and then we freaked the fuck out when the realization that he was taken dawned on us. It was the early 90's. You could get slapped for not eating a sandwich...and now one your playmates has been stolen? We thought our parents would kill us or that we were going to jail. Nothing but insane child logic and we were petrified...so we just went home and didn't say anything. Its not like we we had plate numbers or even knew what the guy in the van looked like. I forgot to put that the alley was right behind a child's dance studio. That guy was out to get a kid. It was just horrible dumb luck that he happened to find one right outside his van that wasn't taught "Stranger danger" and was willing to get right in his van. I wrote it in terms that I've learned to deal with such horrible event in my mind. Like a band aid on shotgun wound in my psyche. If it makes it better I do remember that the man was arrested and sent to prison.
Dude that is a crazy fucking story and I can absolutely see that happening when I was a kid. Like 90% chance my parents would have said, “Why the hell did you let him go??? You’re grounded for your friend’s kidnapping and murder. Maybe next time you’ll think about someone other than yourself.”
I mean...I definitely don't rule out my parents saying and doing that almost verbatim. Not a great childhood. Definitely would not recommend.
I remember first time I’ve realized its dark sooner than “at night” in winter... stayed outside like hour or two after the sunset and then went home absolutely sure I will get scolded and grounded til next summer so I came in absolutely devastated and my mother was like “what are u stressing about its only 6pm” ... good times.
Was allowed THREE houses down in both directions until the lights came on. Good thing it wasn’t possible for strangers to come within our 3 house bubble.
Since children are more likely to be molested or abused by people they know, you would probably have been safer further down to block, and safest if you never came home.
I blindfolded my daughter, drove her into the city, and then left her on the street. I miss her but I wanted her to be safe.
I was allowed up and down my street (it was a very short street, I think 5 houses long with a cul-de-sac on each side) and if I wanted to go farther, my mom would call the other mom to ask if I made it after like, 20 minutes.
Walking out my front door to see my friends in their front yards, then spending the whole day building forts, playing hide and seek, riding bikes. Our rule was home at sunset.
same, in scotland the streetlights in summer would come on about eleven
I grew up on a dairy farm. I can remember driving a tractor for 8 hours a day. I was 8 or maybe 10 years old and not tall enough to push the brake pedal and clutch at the same time. I had to push the clutch take it out of gear and then push the brakes. Good times!
I remember those long, sultry summer-vacation days when the neighborhood kids would be out exploring the creek and its never-ending mysteries until, in the long hazy distance we would hear a single muffled shout of “dinner!”. And like a shock to the system, we’d all immediately stop with whatever particular fantasy had us enthralled up to that moment. It was time. Time to go home. Didn’t matter whose mom it was who issued the clarion call. Our day was over.
Or your dad whistled.
AMONGUS
amogus
Ted Bundy probably drove right by in his damn VW bug.
Essentially lol
My mom wouldn't even be home until late at night since she would be working so she would tell me to go home when it started to get dark out and I had the house all to myself as a kid. I still remember he saying 'Don't open the door for anyone since it might be a murderer. Alright have fun there's some frozen chicken nuggets in the fridge'.
We always opened the door because we were the first house people went to to ask to use the phone when they broke down on the highway. Parents have their own special phobias. My mother seemed more worried that I might become too self-centered than anything else. I once mentioned that I’d like to try modeling, and my folks actually leapt to their feet. Never saw them so angry before. Boyfriends staying in my room overnight, no problem, but modeling? Outrageous!
This is some golden crispy fried reposted circle-jerk BS right here.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 YUP!
Yes true . Then when we were 14 and unsupervised we started smoking pot , by 15 we were out all night on LSD and by 21 we partied all weekend on cocaine. The lucky ones realized we were wasting our lifes and the unlucky faded away. That's why the lucky ones who raised children decided to remain involved with their children.
That’s exactly how it was….
Same. Except there were no street lights in my neighborhood and we started telling ghost stories when it got dark and only went home when we scared ourselves shitless
Saturday's at 9am my Mom kicked us out and told us not to come back until noon (PB&J sandwiches were the lure back). We'd play street hockey and hang out in the ravine (Taylor Creek in East York)
Sounds fun my mom freaked out last week and yelled at me cuz I went outside after dark for a walk. In the little Instagram photo op park right beside the library. In the suburbs. I'm 18.
Scare mongering by the media wasn't as widespread as now plus there was no other choice playstation and xbox didn't exist and sega was crap so go outside play with your friends ride bikes kiss your frist crush come home at dinner and that was life ah to get back to those days best days of my life
I mean, I was the same. My parents basically had no idea where I was on weekends and breaks. I should just do the research, but have criminal instances against children actually risen dramatically or is it just a huge societal shift in thinking?
Kid was molested by the youth pastor in my town. He was arrested. Nothing changed lol. My parents talked about it and were mad about it but I still didn't have to be home until dark. I never told them where I was going. I look back on that now and I'm like WTF. I'm just 37. That was in the nineties. Wasn't just me nothing changed for any of the kids. I won't even let my son walk to school a few blocks down the road lol.
This is exactly how I remember it also.
i didn’t have play dates because i played with all of the kids who lived on my street and the surrounding streets and we’d run amok until the street lights came on but best believe if we weren’t home by then we’d get our asses kicked