I remember

[dddaver]

I remember the body counts from Vietnam. Every week the TV news would post a summary. Every week it was several hundred Americans killed and several thousand Vietnamese dead. Week after week, endless body bags.

I remember watching Walter Cronkite on the evening news. I still remember sitting next to my Mother watching CBS Evening NEWS showing the news clip of that now famous pic of a high ranking South Vietnamese official, I think he was the mayor of Saigon, shoot that captured Viet Cong guy point blank in the head with a pistol. GROSS! I was maybe 11 or 12 and thought OMG, this shit is absolutely fucking NUTS! Super horrific! What a crazy time.

My Dad was worried one of his son's, there are 4 of us, would get sent into that meat grinder. That college draft deferment was a big reason some guys, including my oldest brother, went to school back then and made sure they passed. The US finally pulled out, after wreaking all that carnage, just as I became eligible, thank God.

Still ranks high in my mind as one of the stupidest things those old and middle aged fucking politicians did to the young people. But that was only the beginning. Lot more crazy shit came later too. Now just SSDD.

 

[gekolite]

I come from a traditionalist military family, my father won silver star in ww II, my uncle served in ww II, the Korean war, and , ,the Vietnam war (carrier military) with ancestors in the revolutionary war, civil war , , my older brother went to Vietnam, when he returned I was 18 and ready to go enlist,, I asked my brother if that was the right choice, he said hell no, so I did not enlist, went to school and received a 2s deferment, then they wanted to draft me later even with a 2s, thank god the lottery came and my number was high.

 

[Madjag]

I came to Sedona and the Verde Valley in the winter of 1972. There were no stop lights in the entire valley and the main intersection in Sedona, the "Y" was a stop sign.

89A was two lanes with dirt shoulders on both sides. The best entertainment, other than the legendary Peyote parties in Sycamore Canyon, was the big screen drive-in in Cottonwood. My friend and I walked in and sat in front near the playground to watch Superfly. Needless to say, it was fantastic. I still dig the soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield.

 

[al70]

i remember snickers bars were called marathons

 

[gekolite]

silver coins

 

[rbt]

That Highway US 89 goes from Nogales AZ to Piegan MT 900 miles long goes through 7 national parks I have ridden it many time on a BMW 750/7 in the 70's camping in Bryce, Zion, Yellowstone. running pot up to cousins in Murray UT and Ogden, Boise, Burley, Provo, Pocatello, Riding high the whole time had some mushrooms and Mescaline, one time and went camping in Bryce with the tightest little girl from Safford had 15kilo's we sat naked running around Bryce for a week . Damn I wish I could relive that again. I am hoping for alzheimer's 0

 

[theclearspot]

I remember saving up to buy a 7inch vinyl single every few weeks out of my pocket money. Some of the vinyl in the late 70s was coloured. i remember a Dr Feelgood 7 inch being brown vinyl and a Members 7inch clear see through. And PIL made a triple album called metal box which was in a ....yes circular metal box. There was something wonderful about album covers in those days.

 

[ydijadoit]

How about the square vinyl records that you tore out of the National Geographic magazines? I remember one had the "Sounds of space", and another was the sound of whales banging, or something. I wish I was a little kid again, most days!

 

[Madjag]

Skateboards, Stingrays with banana seats, and later on, mini-bikes.

 

[ydijadoit]

My first bike was a girl's bike. (My Dad's logic was, "He might be a little humiliated, but he won't rack his nuts on the crossbar as much!")
Banana seat, metallic blue paint, and despite being a girl's bike, I learned to jump it. And crash it...

 

[gekolite]

when I was a kid manufactured skate boards did not exist, I had a 2x4 with a metal skate hammered flat and nailed to 2x4, I almost killed myself several times on steep hills.

 

[dddaver]

when I was a kid manufactured skate boards did not exist, I had a 2x4 with a metal skate hammered flat and nailed to 2x4, I almost killed myself several times on steep hills.

Mine I made out of a 1"x6" plank remnant maybe 18" long. Probably smaller. My brother's made his from a 2"'x4". And was shorter still.
We split the pair of old metal shoe skates and hammered flat and nailed too. Maybe some screws. So same deal as you.

Started on Mrs. Brill's walk across the street cause it had a good slope. She NEVER chased us off. She probably enjoyed seeing kids play. Graduated to ramps and curbs and shit. No helmets, no pads. Road rash and bruises were common. How did we ever survive? ;-P

"CAR!"

 

[Hank Hemp]

I believe we preferred the 18-20 inch 1X4.

 

[gekolite]

where I lived we had sand dunes close, so we made sand boards , which were the old Formica counter tops (plywood base) which we cut to3'x 8" and then waxed, the dunes were a couple of hundred feet high, so after sliding down and walking up the soft sand a couple of times we were thru for a while, but a lot of fun.

 

[al70]

i remember finding out santa was'nt real,,,,that was a real bummer,,,,

 

[trichrider]

i remember blue skies. occasionally reminded of the color by passing high pressure cells.
candy cigarettes , bryllcreme (A LITTLE DAB WILL DO YA), slot cars, open campus', helpful policemen.
change, i remember when it was good...

 

[dddaver]

In the hilly areas of central NY some of hills are steep enough so in the summer you could slide down on the grassy slopes in a box like it was a sled. Big boxes like refrigerator boxes were best. Made great forts too. Gravel piles were great for sliding down too, but if you wiped out picking all the little gravel chunks out of your bruises was kinda hard.

Every boys dream in our town was to spy upon the coeds who allegedly tanned their titties while laying on the roof of the local college dorms with sun reflectors under their tits. I did throw snowballs at cars behind that dorm though. With the shear 50' drop behind it, if timed right the snowballs would land on the hood with a loud bang/explosion. No chance of getting caught by the car's driver either. I hit my friends mothers car once though, durn.

I never the saw the hot (in MY mind) coeds sunning their titties, but I did get to see some nursing students who were rooming at the local hospital frolicking in their bras when I was walking by after dark one evening. One exhibitionist babe came to the window and said, "What are you looking at kid?". Almost like she didn't know?

I also saw a lighted window while delivering newspapers early one summer morning and a woman standing next to the window putting on her bra.

Now before anyone thinks I was a perverted peeping tom, I never was so fortunate to see anything like that again, or tried to. It was just happenstance. And a young boys normal curiosity and tittie fetish. I'm pretty normal...mostly.

 

[Madjag]

Remember how great it was to control some true power: M80's and M100s (super rare, super powerful), Cherry Bombs, and Silver Salutes.....the heavy artillery of the firecracker world back then.

Nothing like putting a Cherry Bomb inside a mudball and throwing it at a passing car. Once my friend hit a car door perfectly and the vehicle drove 20-50 more yards down the street until the big Ka-Boom. Made a nice dent in the door and brought the cops around looking for a bunch of kids....

In our drive to explore power as boys we discovered how we could also cause damage or injure someone thoughtlessly. One experiment is all it took to cure us of a particular idea like the mudball incident.

The guys who continued using the dangerous tricks were the ones you had to steer clear of because they had some inner draw toward causing pain. Maybe they were the neglected ones, had some psychological problem, whatever...they liked to bully, they liked to hurt. usually they stuck out in the crowd and were sooner or later nabbed and severly punished by Dads or cops. Either way, they just felt worse and few changed for the better. Those that did change and "learned their lesson" were fortunate.

Growing up back in the late 50's and early 60's had its own unique character. Looking back now I think it paralleled the advent of TV perfectly. One day we were living "Father Knows Best"and the next day it was "Bonanza". Very quickly it seemed that police TV shows took over the screen, though, and it was often "Dragnet" or "One Adam 12" molding kids' minds.

Boys become men in all countries, however TV and movies affected us in ways no one will truly understand.

 

[gekolite]

flexi-flyers ?

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

Flexi-flyers! Standard snow/ice play equipment.


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My neighbors had an insane version of this that had metal skate wheels instead of snow runners. We'd take that thing up the street then rattle at high speed down the pavement headfirst trying not to shake loose any teeth, or dash our brains out running underneath parked cars. It's amazing that any of us survived our childhoods.