30+ People Share Their ‘70s and ‘80s Childhood Experiences That Blew Their Kids’ Minds

If you weren’t feeling well on a day, you had to use the public payphone to call your mom. These phone booths could be seen on every other corner while driving down any street in your neighborhood.

Later these phones decorated public walls and could be found in schools and every public institution building you could think of. Those were the days when communicating was uncomplicated and only used when necessary. You can still find them nowadays here and there, but very few people use them.

While on the subject of phones, until the late ‘80s, households shared the same phone line called Party Lines. You had to listen for your specific ring to know whether someone was calling your home line. It was fun!

You didn’t need to be a phone hacker to spy on your neighbors when they received a call. You could simply listen in to know what they were talking about. Gossiping was so much more fun then.

Cars with huge back windows were the order of the day during the ’70s and ’80s — kids used to sleep in them! Seeing a small boy or girl sleeping in the back window of a car wasn’t a strange sight.

It often happened when a family was on their way to a holiday destination. You would also often see small dogs and other pets sleeping in the back window. Car interiors were much bigger then, too!

Everyone in the neighborhood had to walk to this one bus stop if they wanted to use the bus. The school bus and other public transport stopped at the same point to pick up and drop off their passengers.

This was a great time for kids to socialize with children from other schools than the ones they attended. Even adults on their way to work waited at the same bus stop as the children. Everybody in the neighborhood knew each other.

It may not have been completely legal, but many kids had radios with tape decks to record their favorite music. These magnetic tapes weren’t the most reliable, but you still had your favorite music on hand with their help. These copied tapes were especially great for the popular walkmans.

Some kids even had double tape decks so they could copy from one deck to the other. The ‘70s and ‘80s were a time for music lovers, even for those who couldn’t afford it.

During the ‘70s and ‘80s, access to the Internet was non-existent for most people. It meant they had to rely on other means to get their information, which is where encyclopedias came in. They were available in a huge series of printed books.

Those kids who loved to read found these books a great source of entertainment and information for school tasks and more. It also instilled a love for reading in many kids, as the encyclopedias were quite interesting, with many great illustrations!

There were only four TV channels or broadcasting networks in the early to late ‘70s. By the ‘80s, there were as many as 28 channels, which is far less than what the millennium children are used to.

Many older people remember the first Dallas series and shows like Chips and Starsky & Hutch. TV broadcasting was also only available at certain hours of the day and not 24 hours like it is now.

Even though pen pals are still a thing, it was far more involved in the ’70s and ’80s. Letters were sent to pen pals around the globe, and you got letters from friends you would never even meet.

Snail mail was the means of connecting with people from all walks of life from other states and even foreign countries. Even if you knew that you would never meet them in person, they were your friends.

Playground equipment was made from steel, and many weren’t that safe to use, especially for smaller kids. It’s true that many things made from strong plastic today were originally manufactured from steel, which wasn’t very safe.

Slides, for instance, were made from steel and could get very hot while in the sun all day. Cooling them off with water was necessary, but made the slide super fast and ended up having children flying off the end at break-neck speed. Only the bravest kids went first on hot days.

Car seats for babies weren’t strapped in safely; they were just hung over the car seat’s backrest. These seats were unsafe, and babies could easily get hurt if something unexpected happened. They fit mostly on the front seat of the car!

The ‘70s and ‘80s weren’t safe for children or anyone else in automobiles, but the generation got through it. Regardless of all that, that generation is still going strong.

Arcade games became available in every shop in the US and were a source of entertainment for many kids. Pinball was one of the most popular games, and many kids hung out where these games could be found.

During the ’70s and ‘80s, they were very popular among kids from all walks of life. When other arcade games like Pac-Man became available, they went out of fashion for a while. It wasn’t like today with many gaming consoles — arcade games were in demand, and you’d go wherever you needed to in order to play.

What made chopper and BMX bikes popular was the fact that they looked so much like the chopper motorbike. It was quite a favorite during this romantic era. You wouldn’t find many kids without these bikes, especially younger ones.

The BMX was also becoming very popular, and many kids used these bikes to show off their cycling skills. All sorts of tricks, including intricate jumps over ramps, were performed with these bikes.

During the ‘70s, girls weren’t allowed to wear pants to school; their uniforms consisted of dresses or skirts and long socks. This even happened during cold winter months, so they had to endure the cold. It was the same for many areas in the US.

The dress code changed in many areas during the early ‘80s, when girls protested to be allowed to wear long pants in the winter. But it took a while before most schools allowed these changes.

It was customary for young boys to take long walks in the wild with friends or with their pet. At this stage, it wasn’t considered dangerous to be out on your own until the sun nearly went down.

So long as you were home before dark or in time for supper, you could be on your own in the wild. The ’70s and ’80 were a time when you could grow up without being worried about too many things.

These days, you wouldn’t think of sleeping with your front door or any door in your home unlocked. There’s a lot of crime going on around the world, but it seems that the ‘70s and’80s were an era of peace.

Rural areas at that time weren’t very much affected by crime, and those children grew up in a protected environment. Maybe it was because there weren’t as many crime reports on TV as there are now…

Yes, we know that McDonald’s was supposed to be a drive-through, so when would kids have a chance to play? They were there because birthday parties were allowed at many McDonald’s branches around the country.

Small kids were even allowed behind the serving counter to see how the ice cream cones were made. They could even try to make cones for the rest of their playgroup or all the other kids who came to their party.

Even people who didn’t drink had a bottle of some type of spirit stashed under the sink. That was because it was used for a wide range of ailments in the ‘70s era. A quick splash on a wound, and it was cleaned.

Many other types of homemade remedies were prepared at home that couldn’t always be found in pharmacies. People relied a lot on medicine and remedies that were prepared from recipes carried over by word of mouth and made cheaply.

It was a lot more common for parents to forget their children at different locations when they were supposed to pick them up after school or training. This happened a lot because there weren’t many ways they could be reminded as there is today with cell phones.

So, it was easy for a parent to forget when they were busy or needed to take off from work to pick up their children. Many times the kids had to walk home instead or take the bus to get home.

Wearing seatbelts was a point of debate for professionals and laypeople in automobile history. Before it became law, many refused to wear it, and some argued that it was unsafe to wear a seatbelt. A lot of research went into it.

So, it was part of the daily scene to see people driving their cars and not wearing seatbelts. These days we know how important it is to wear seatbelts. Imagine how unsafe you would feel in that era!

The small fries you get these days when ordering from most fast-food outlets make you feel like you’re on a diet. Growing up in the ‘70s and ’80s, it was very different, with large french fries serving as your entire meal.

Some days you would have only a basket of french fries for lunch, and it would fill you. These large French fries were a favorite of many kids in the US.

You could find these vending machines selling soda in your school’s cafeteria for a quick drink. These vending machines were everywhere — not just in schools but all over town; you could find them loaded with different types of sodas.

Everywhere you go, you would find them outside of shops and stores with a wide range of flavors to choose from. You could have a can of soda for 20 cents in the ‘70s and up to 50 cents in the ‘80s.

It wasn’t easy to listen to your favorite song if you didn’t have it on vinyl or an audio tape. You could only call your favorite radio station and ask them to play it for you then hope for the best.

That was if you could get a call through to the station because everyone else was also trying. The fun part was that if you got through, you could hear yourself on the radio, and your friends could hear you, too.

While vinyl is back in fashion, during the ‘70s and ’80s, this was how you listened to your music. You would find record players in almost every home with a pile of LPs placed neatly in a row.

In many homes, you could see these huge shelves with rows of LPs of many different artists. Greatest hits albums from many great singers could be found among these rows and rows of vinyl records.

In the ’80s, a dental van would come around by some schools and provide dental services to kids. This was done free of charge, and they did whatever they thought was needed, like fillings and other dental repairs.

There was this fluoride rinse you had to swish in your mouth for about a minute. Some even gave you these red tablets to rinse your mouth with, so it would show where the issue was on your teeth.

These old heavy steel merry-go-rounds were a common sight on playgrounds all over the US during the ‘70s and ‘80s. Children from that time would spin it as fast as they could while laying on their backs hanging from them.

This was quite a dangerous thing to do, but nobody ever told the kids not to do it. Maybe because the parents also did it and nothing happened to them. Kids would pick as many things off the ground as they could while spinning.

Jarts was a popular backyard lawn game during the ‘70s and ‘80s and played by thousands of young Americans. This game was played by throwing the projectiles straight up in the air, hoping they would land inside the circle.

Lawn darts, as it was sometimes called, caused many injuries to younger kids, and it was banned in the late ‘90s. This game disappeared from the scene and is no longer sold in the US.

Apart from the physical punishment naughty children could get in school, some teachers would also throw things at their students. Some teachers threw the blackboard eraser at children and didn’t care where it hit. Sometimes these teachers were very accurate.

So, if you were talking in class, being hit at the back of your head with anything the teacher could find was nothing strange. Some teachers were strong, and you would certainly feel it when the eraser bounced off your head.

Although it was invented in the ‘50s, this fashion wasn’t very popular in America initially. The punk scene of the ‘80s was when acid-washed jeans were the most popular in the US among the youth.

Heavy metal bands in the late ‘80s made it popular while wearing them with motorbikes and fringe jackets. Those listening to glam metal used to wear them, and some of them even bleached their jeans to nearly white.

While we’re on the topic of garments, the bell-bottom pants of the ‘70 were also something to remember. This is a style of trousers that get wider from the knees down, and some were very wide.

Bell bottoms came into fashion in the early ‘70s and were connected with fashion and rebellion at the time. Many people from the current generation haven’t even heard of this style, but they were very popular in the ‘70s.

Midi skirts were an early ‘70s fashion that had blown over from the previous decade. It was designed to be anywhere below the knee and above the ankles. These new-length skirts became very popular.

But that was only after a very intensive marketing strategy that was launched in the early ‘70s. It’s also considered a comfortable length which helped make them a popular garment around the world. They’ve been making a comeback lately, and it’s easy to see why!

For just over $750, you could buy the world’s first personal computer in the US, the Kenbak-1. This computer was slow and heavy, had a monochrome screen, and wasn’t in every home.

It wasn’t customary to walk into a home and find a computer in a teenager’s room, or even a TV for that matter. Technology wasn’t common in the ‘70s, and only those who really knew about these things had one in the ‘80s.

They say that the ‘70s were groovy, and for good reason — it was the decade of colorful makeup. It was known as the time of sparkling eyelashes and dramatic eyeliners to make a statement.

Funky colors and shapes were used to create an appearance of youthfulness and fun. Together with that, women wore colorful clothes — from natural hues to very bright colors. It was a time of extremes when it came to makeup.

The ‘70s marked the beginning of punk music, and, in the US, it all started in New York in the middle of that decade. Different punk styles were created, like punk rock, disco-punk, and techno-punk were some of these that emerged.

On the other hand, disco emerged from dance music, and the subculture was born in the US. The urban nightlife was the breeding ground of this music genre that became very popular in the ‘70s.

Young professional and successful people were called Yuppies in the ‘80s and were characterized by an abundance of arrogance. Unfortunately, not all these driven young people could handle the stress, and some didn’t make it.

Many of these yuppies were branded with an ailment called the Yuppie flu caused by the high-stress factor. A lot of great companies emerged from these times and provided abundant work opportunities for many talented young people.

When people get tired of diets and sweaty exercise, other body fat removal methods become the norm. That is what happened when two Italian doctors invented this cosmetic procedure to help shed the load.

This method of fat removal became very popular in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and many people wanted it. Different types of liposuction have been invented since then to make it safer, less painful, and more effective.

In the middle of the ‘70s, the first Star Wars movie was seen in the US and became an instant hit. This movie started a cult-following worldwide that is still going strong to this day.

With the success of this movie, science fiction movies became a popular genre that raised them to blockbuster status. A six-issue comic version was released with the movie, which became very popular and a great collectible.

It was normal for kids to play outside during the ‘70s and ‘80s, and nobody panicked when a child was seen alone. Finding a small kid playing alone or with friends in the park wasn’t strange at all.

Unfortunately, those who don’t want your child to be safe have developed methods to improve their success, making it difficult for everybody. That was a time very different, and children enjoyed what they had at their disposal.

Kids today are often labeled as selfish, spoiled, or unruly for simply having their own opinions and expressing them out loud. Kids growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, however, didn’t have that luxury.

The main parenting philosophy at the time was that children should be seen but not heard. Kids from the ‘70s and ‘80s didn’t question everything, or rather not out loud.

Imagine if shows on TV only aired in the morning. That’s the case for the ’70s and ’80s. After four in the afternoon, everything on TV was meant for adults. This is how kids from the ’70s and ’80s remembered TV, which was great.

Shows like cartoons and other educational stuff were shown in the mornings for children who hadn’t started school yet. Afternoon children’s shows were meant for kids who were old enough to go to school.

Few kids are walking to school or riding their bikes these days, but in the ‘70s, it was the norm. Only those kids who lived too far away from school got dropped off by their parents.

This was a great time for kids to bond with friends during the first few years of school. It also meant that you could spend time with the girl or boy you liked, even for only a few minutes.

The school nearest to your home is where you were educated for your whole school career. Parents wouldn’t do extensive research to find the perfect school for their kids. You were just one of many other kids.

It was so much cheaper for children to go to school, and most had mothers who stayed home to be with them. These are some of the special things kids who grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s held dearly. Wouldn’t the world be such a different place if this was still the case?

It may have been an economical way to give as many children as possible their injections, but it was unsafe. This type of pistol injection could get about 1,000 injections per hour, and they used the same needle for everyone!

The children of that time didn’t know better and simply got it done without question. Not everything from that era was bad, but this was one good riddance of the ‘70s and ‘80s for sure. It’s amazing there weren’t worse consequences.