If you grew up in 70s/80s what things did you do which would be unimaginable these days.

[newlabelwriter]

Just thinking about this. When I was about 9 my friend and I used to go around knocking on our neighbours doors to see if we could pick dandelions (or something similar) for her pet rabbits. Seems such a random thing to do and obviously v v young to knocking on doors to go into their gardens!

My mother used to let me walk our dog to the shop on my own. A beautiful pedigree dog that could easily be taken away from a child. Nowadays even adults get mugged for their dogs, never mind children! The dog also used to sit in the garden by herself for ages, people watching through the fence. It was only waist height and anyone could easily have leaned over and picked her up, but they never did. We didn’t even watch out of the window, she just barked when she wanted to come back in. This was 1980s and we didn’t lock our back door either.

• walking alone

Buying cigarettes for my parents from about the age of 6.

Playing out from breakfast till nightfall in the summer holidays. Every day. Only returning home for food.

Sitting on a wall with a friend talking to any stranger who happened to walk past.

One of our playgrounds was the local building site - I remember pretending to drive the diggers and climbing up into the roof of partly built houses and pretending we were gymnasts as we balanced along the rafters. Another was the local sandstone quarry, climbing up the steep quarry cliffs and paddling in the rainwater pool where a local child had drowned a few years earlier.

Buying cigarettes for my mum (but it was ok because she had written a note for the shop keeper!)
No seat belts in the back of the car which meant my sister and I spent long journeys permanently kneeling and looking out the rear window doing thumbs up to lorry drivers - we got so excited if they did the same back!
Clubbing at 15 till 2am (but mum would pick us up)
My dad introducing a book in which we had to write down whenever we used the landline - we had to enter who we had called and for how long - obviously we just didn’t enter the times we didn’t want him to know about 😂

Went into town on my own regularly from the age of 6

Walked miles and miles with groups of other kids, playing on railway lines and quarries and falling into lakes etc

Got battered by adults at home and at school and nobody batted an eyelid

Dared each other to climb up to the top of the witch's hat and pass fingers in and out of the top hinge

Piled into cars, kids on laps and in the boot - great fun

Doing PE in your vest and pants because you forgot your pe kit. 21 year old dd is horrified by this!

Carrycots on the back seat of cars - not secured
Teacher hitting people on the hand with a ruler
Being made to do PE in just pants age 9

Fighting over who got to sit in the boot of class posh girl's dad's Ford Corsair on the way to a pool party.

Pool parties involved an inflatable dinosaur and rafts. We'd be in the pool but the adults were sat smoking and drinking vending machine coffee, not supervising us.

Village Youth Club had maximum two adult volunteers sat behind a serving hatch, selling cans of pop and keeping an eye out for smoke, from fags or arson. No supervised activities at all.

If you lived on a farm, you might have a Field Car. Normally, this was a dilapidated Vauxhall Cresta or similar that would be worth a fortune now. It was there so the teens of the household and their friends could drive it into ditches, instead of the tractor.

Ooh another - climbing all over a new estate that was being built next to our estate. We were up and down half built houses!
Going for bike rides in the morning and not coming back till the evening.
Playing in the stream and crawling through crumbling bridges

On the last week of junior school before finishing for holidays and going to secondary school our teacher took us to her house for tea. She took a few kids each night. There was no bad intent and we had a picnic by the river Dee. She was a lovely hippy type. No way would that happen now!

@Lunaballoon

Playing out unsupervised all day long in the holidays and after school, often in fairly remote places like disused railway lines, woods etc.

Sitting in the back of the car while both parents smoked like chimneys, not even opening windows.

Spending Saturday afternoons in a pub car park with a bottle of pop and a bag of crisps while parents drank with friends

Spending Saturday afternoons in a pub car park with a bottle of pop and a bag of crisps while parents drank with friends

This was my childhood too

In infants school, so aged 4 to about 6, at the end of the school day we were just kicked out of the school and left alone to stand there till our mum came and picked us up. No adult supervision at all. In fact, all through juniors you were just kicked out of school at the end of the day.

Cycling 3 miles to/from primary school aged 6.5 with my 5 year-old brother.

'Night navigation' to the nearest pub as part of DofE Bronze expedition practice - aged 14 - seeking and being served alcohol.

Needing a 2p piece for emergency phone call when I was a Brownie.

Aged 6, walking my younger brother to school (he was 4).

Collecting old “pop” bottles to take back to the shop for a few pence.

Buying number one single from Woolworth’s.

A record token for Christmas - coloured sticker with £1 on stuck into a card.

Pink custard for primary school lunch.

A packet of salted crisps with the salt in the little blue bag inside.

Star dust - it fizzed around your mouth.

I used to fight with my brother over who "sat in the boot" if we had a big group in the car

It seemed like such fun, never saw or thought of the danger at all back then.

I recognise doing a lot of stuff on this thread, I had forgot about playing in the woods, building sites etc, i as born in the late 50s. I was also sent out to play all day with jam sandwiches when I was about 10

Taking an empty sherry bottle to the local shop for a refill from a barrel I was about 10

Traveling 10 miles to secondary school in the same council van which they used to deliver school meals later in the day. It was a standard transit van, no windows in the back where we sat on wooden benches attached to the sides these folded up for the meals containers. No seat belts, every time the van braked we all slide along the benches and ended in a pile behind the front seats.

Playing in half erected buildings (including lift shafts!) and quarries.

Going trick or treating at the age of around 11/12 with no parents, ever. A man flashed me and my friend, where we just stood there stunned and just saw it as a funny antidote story later..

Buying vinyl singles (or pushing the boat out for a £1.79 12") but only from a 'chart return' shop like Our Price or Virgin so your purchase would help your faves get up the charts.
The 'B' side was usually really good too.

@Sparklingbrook

At our school anyone in the top set of French had to do Spanish. Everyone else had to do typing.

At our school top set French had to do German and everyone else did RE!

Regularly do 7hr trips with 4 kids in the back of a transit van, no seats let alone seatbelts. Then we’d do a trip with 10 or so for a half hour drive over a very windy, very steep road to get to the nearest shop during the holidays. Our dads would go have a beer (or 5) while the shopping was bought, then drive us back.

Getting your mate to write a consent letter from your mum to get your ears pierced around 12 yrs + 😂