If you remember doing these 9 things as a kid, you grew up in a simpler time - The Expert Editor
Remember when summer days stretched on forever and the biggest decision was which tree to climb? I've been thinking a lot lately about how different childhood was for those of us who grew up before smartphones and social media took over. Not better necessarily, just... simpler. The other day, I was watching my neighbor's kids playing in their backyard, each glued to their own device, and it struck me how much has changed. If you're like me and remember a time when entertainment didn't come from a screen, you'll probably recognize these experiences that defined our younger years. 1. Playing outside until the streetlights came on This was the universal curfew, wasn't it? No texts from mom, no GPS tracking, just that simple rule: when the streetlights flickered on, you'd better be heading home. We'd squeeze every last minute of daylight out of those summer evenings, playing capture the flag or hide-and-seek across multiple yards. I remember the panic that would set in when you suddenly noticed it was getting dark. That mad dash home, hoping you'd make it before your parents noticed you were late. There was something magical about those twilight hours - that in-between time when the world felt full of possibilities. 2. Drinking from the garden hose When was the last time you saw a kid do this? We'd be outside for hours, getting thirsty from all that running around, and nobody thought twice about turning on the hose and taking a drink. That metallic taste of warm water on a hot day - it wasn't pleasant, but it did the job. These days, everyone carries water bottles everywhere. Kids have hydration schedules. But back then? The hose was our water fountain, and we survived just fine. Sometimes I think we've complicated things that used to be beautifully simple. 3. Making up games with whatever you could find A stick became a sword, a cardboard box transformed into a spaceship, and that old bedsheet? Perfect for a fort. We didn't need fancy toys or gadgets - imagination filled in all the gaps. I spent entire afternoons with friends creating elaborate worlds with nothing more than what we found in the garage or backyard. Do kids still do this? I wonder sometimes. When every desire can be satisfied with a quick online order, does necessity still mother invention in young minds? 4. Calling friends on the house phone Remember having to ask their parents if they could come to the phone? That nervous feeling when you didn't recognize which parent answered? And heaven help you if you called during dinner time. There was an etiquette to phone calls that seems almost quaint now. The kitchen phone with its long, twisted cord was command central. You'd stretch that cord as far as it would go, trying to find some privacy while your family went about their business nearby. No texting to coordinate plans - you actually had to talk to people. 5. Recording songs off the radio This required serious dedication. You'd sit by the radio with your finger poised over the record button, waiting for your favorite song to come on. The frustration when the DJ talked over the beginning or end of the song! Creating the perfect mixtape was an art form. I must have spent hundreds of hours perfecting mixtapes, carefully planning the song order, writing out the track listings in my best handwriting. It was how we shared music, how we expressed ourselves. Those tapes were precious - each one a labor of love. 6. Looking things up in actual books Need to write a report? Time to bike to the library. Want to know how something works? Better hope your family had a good encyclopedia set. Research meant real effort - card catalogs, dusty reference sections, and taking actual notes on paper. There was something satisfying about the hunt for information. You'd discover things you weren't even looking for as you flipped through pages. I learned more from random encyclopedia browsing than I ever did from targeted searches. Sometimes the journey really was more valuable than the destination. 7. Watching Saturday morning cartoons This was appointment television at its finest. You had one shot to catch your favorite shows, and if you missed them, you were out of luck until next week. We'd wake up early, pour a bowl of sugary cereal, and plant ourselves in front of the TV for hours. The commercials were almost as memorable as the shows - who else can still sing those cereal jingles? It was a shared cultural experience. Come Monday, everyone at school had watched the same things. Try explaining that to kids who can stream any show, anytime, anywhere. 8. Getting film developed to see your photos Taking pictures meant something different when you only had 24 or 36 shots per roll. You couldn't just delete the bad ones - every click cost money. Then came the anticipation of dropping off the film and waiting days to see how they turned out. Half the photos would be blurry, someone's thumb would be covering the lens, and the lighting would be terrible. But those imperfect pictures were treasures. They went into albums or shoeboxes, physical memories you could hold. I still have boxes of old photos in my closet. When's the last time anyone printed a photo? 9. Being completely unreachable This might be the biggest difference of all. When you left the house, you were gone. Your parents couldn't track your location or send a quick text to check in. If plans changed, you figured it out. If you got lost, you asked for directions. There was a freedom in that disconnection that's hard to explain to younger generations. You were present wherever you were because there was nowhere else to be. Your attention wasn't split between the real world and a digital one. You experienced things fully because there was no screen to retreat into. Final thoughts I'm not here to say everything was better back then - it wasn't. We have incredible advantages today that we couldn't have imagined as kids. But something was lost in all our progress, wasn't it? A certain simplicity, a patience, an ability to be bored and figure out what to do about it. If you remember these things, you experienced a childhood that's becoming increasingly foreign to each new generation. That's not good or bad - it just is. But sometimes, when I see kids today scheduled and supervised and constantly connected, I'm grateful for those simpler times. They shaped us in ways we're probably still discovering.
