Before the ’90s, men drove cars and kids rode bicycles – without helmets. Now men wear helmets to ride a bicycle and kids aren’t allowed to ride in a car unless they are strapped into a “safety” seat. I am thankful I was born just in the nick of time to avoid growing up in what this country has become. Gen X was the last generation to experience a degree of personal freedom unimaginable today.
Imagine, if you can, being a high school kid and going outside for a smoke – and not being tackled by a School Resource Officer (i.e., a cop). There did not used to be cops in high schools unless they had to be called – and that literally never happened during my high school years, back in the ’80s. There were no metal detectors and the doors weren’t locked, either. You could just walk in – or out – without having to “check in.” No one wore ID tags. It was a high school. Not a prison. Not yet. Not then.
There was a smoking arcade – a place outside where the kids who wanted a smoke could go to have a smoke. Unimaginable today. The adults aren’t allowed to smoke. And it is not about smoking. It is about being free to do so, if you wanted to. This is the important distinction.
That freedom is a distant memory.
We all drove cars without air bags or ABS and none of us ever “buckled up” because we weren’t ordered to. Yes, I know Safety First! The problem is that when Safety comes First, freedom comes second. Which of the two is more valuable? Americans used to value freedom more. If someone wanted to wear a seatbelt, that was ok. But no one was under pressure to wear one and that was a wonderful thing. Not because it entailed more risk but because we were free to decide for ourselves whether we thought the risk was such that wearing a seatbelt was necessary. Imagine that. People – high school kids – free to weigh risks and make choices for themselves. 
When we were just sixteen-years-old, we could take our younger siblings for a ride. I drove my fours-years-younger sister to her friend’s houses all the time. She did not have to sit in a “safety” seat – or in the rear seat. She just jumped into the car and I took her over to her friend’s house and picked her up later, per my mom and dad’s instructions. High school kids were treated as almost-adults, once.
I was able to buy beer – legally – when I was 18. This seemed fair since at 18 I could also be drafted and made to “serve” in the military. Gen X was the last generation that could legally buy beer at 18 rather than 21, as today – when an 18-year-old can be forced to “serve” (and kill or be killed, potentially) but is not considered old enough to be served beer. 
We got carded sometimes. But no one did who was obviously older than 40. Such idiocy – for that is what it is – would have been unimaginable back then. You carded kids. You didn’t degrade middle-aged adults with “store policy” idiocy.
Our IDs back then were also easily modified so as to make it easier to buy beer – because they were just dot-matrix-printed paper things. No bar codes. Not even a photo, if you can imagine that. Photos came along later in the ’80s – and if you were not yet 18, you got a side profile photo rather than the full-face photo, conveying your fully (legally) adult status at 18. 
There was no such thing – yet – as “zero tolerance” for alcohol, another hysteria of current times when a 17-year-old can be arrested for “drunk” driving if he is found to have any alcohol in his system. You used to have to be actually drunk – and showing it – to get pulled over by a cop. Now you pull yourself over – at “sobriety” checkpoints, where it is on you to convince the cop you aren’t “drunk.” 
When we got to college, later on in the ’80s, we took classes. We didn’t receive lectures about pronouns. It was ok to be openly straight. When we got out of college we got out of our parents’ house, chiefly because we could. Because we didn’t have a debt anvil hanging around our necks and because a college degree was worth something, once. All of us owned our own cars by then. And most of us soon had our own places.
It was a very different time – and it was only 40 years ago.
Sometimes, it feels a lot longer ago.
. . .
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $25 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
If you’d like a Baaaaa hat or other EPautos gear, see here!
The mailing, from the Ohio BMV for renewal of my auto registration, contained a flyer urging people to get ID cards for their kids. For their safety, of course. You can get it at any deputy registrar. From the photo, it looks like a drivers license, but states “nondriver.” You can choose to get the Real ID version, too.
I’m pushing 70, and I didn’t get any kind of ID card until I got my drivers license at age 16. I didn’t get a Social Security number until then, either. And the Social Security card issued to me clearly states that it is not to be used as identification.
How far we have fallen.
I love this all but I can’t help seeing the Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen skit……luxury
Having been an 18 year old when Wisconsin passed the 18 year old to drink law and it was still 21 in Illinois we all went to WI to party. Then IL passed 19 year old to drink wine and beer but by then I was 21 and didn’t care. The reason the laws were changed from under 21 to drink is because the federal government threatened to withhold highway funds (blackmail) so the blackmail worked and 21 became the legal alcohol consumption age. My wife was 19 when the law was changed to 21 and was upset when all the sudden she couldn’t go to a tavern. Of course what we are really talking about here is government overreach into our lives. BTW our high school did not allow smoking anywhere but smoking in the boys room is what smokers all did then. I found it easier to have a smoke in the study hall or commons area keeping the cig under the table.
They threatened to cut off HW funds to get seat belt laws passed too.
One more irony.
Not long after the National Mandatory Drinking Age was raised to 21 my brother and I went to Kent (home of Kent State) to relive the nightclub scene. As we drove the few miles to get there we wondered what it would be like. In the late 60s and 70s it was simply amazing. There were tons of bars serving “3.2” beer and rock bands galore. Joe Walsh and the James Gang was big in town.
We wondered if by raising the drinking age it would have the effect of 18-20 year olds drinking in cars instead of bars. As we exited our car a black Trans-Am swept around a corner just a few feet away. The door swung open and about 24 empties flew out and into the gutter. It then sped off into the night.
It was the most entertaining moment of the adventure as the bars were ghost towns and a doppelganger of its former glory.
We have slid down far enough, that I have to show ID at the check-out to buy….Nyquil of all things, because some meth head uses an ingredient in it to make their drugs. Or, the air cans to dust my computer keyboard-also behind the counter because people like to huff the cans to get high.
I was born in 70, in the Mid West. I feel this article.
Here’s one you can’t imagine today:
HS students with gun racks in their car window.
I went to college in Vermont. The last state to institute “open container” and seatbelt laws, under threat of losing federal funding. I think until ’88 you did not have to wear a seatbelt and your passengers could be drinking alcohol.
“and your passengers could be drinking alcohol.”
Surreal.
Truly.
Also, RE: “gun racks in their car window.”
Can that be done anywhere these days?
Lately, the broken record is: Land of The Flea, Home of the slave.
Hard to imagine this is true:
‘Don’t Let The Empire Gaslight You Into Believing You Are Powerless’
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/11/no_author/dont-let-the-empire-gaslight-you-into-believing-you-are-powerless/
Man, those photos in Eric’s article captured some things Very well. I imagine it to be Impossible for younger generations to even grasp. Idk.
I remember being in Rock Springs Wyoming in the mid 80’s and being shocked and delighted by the drive thru bars. Yes, the regular bar had a drive thru window where you could order up beer and mixed drinks to go. Now there are local cops sending out threatening letters to parents warning against having graduation parties with kegs in their homes.
FTP
I remember it all well. Sometimes I wonder how it is that we still speak the same language as we did back then as it seems such a different time. But one thing is funny, you said we could come and go from school, true, but it still felt like a prison to me.
Co-Ed prison. …For sure.
That said, the prisoners were still allowed to smoke. …They even had car-like cigarette lighters installed on the walls of the local real jail.
…
The funny (not really) thing about the ‘minimum drinking age’ is the fact that a wide-ranging study done a few years ago in, IIRC Switzerland, showed that a 20-year old driver with 0.08 blood alcohol level still had much faster reflexes than a stone cold sober 80-year old.
But hey, if ‘laws’ were based on facts, we would not have had the masks, or the lockdowns, or even the mandatory helmets.
Speaking of which, who needs cops for enforcement of stupid rules?
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been yelled at by members of the general public, both driving and walking/cycling, when riding a bicycle without a helmet. Which is something I still do and intend to keep doing till I die.
I’m in my 59th spin around the sun and still ride a pedaled bike, a mountain bike, for recreation and exercise. I did give up bicycles for a few years in my late teens, but picked it back up as a hobby in my early 20s again. I’ve ridden dirt bikes all my life and mountain bikes were an interesting alternative to me. I also hike and ski, so I’m just a veritable dirty, leftist hippy I suppose.
Eric likes to hate bikes for some reason. I’m not cool enough to “get” muscle cars but currently take all my bikes around in a surplus 1988 6.2L diesel CUCV M1008 pickup, so that’s kinda MAGA.
Anywho, I wear a helmet riding any of my bikes, motor or human powered, and have wrecked seriously enough to have broken a couple. Actually knocked myself out and woke up with my helmet split. So “keep doing till I die” would probably have been cashed in for me decades ago.
I guess all this makes me a candy ass. That’s fine, I can live (literally) with that.
Hi Ryan,
I don’t hate bicycles! It’s weird – to me – that I get this sort of response. I do hate helmets. More finely, I hate laws requiring them. I’m a grown man. You are, too. We both have the right to not be parented. Right?
HA! That this even needs to be said, “We both have the right to not be parented. Right?”
I graduated in 1988. My public high school had metal detectors and a cop. But that was Chicago during the desegregation chaos and I ended up going to Catholic school (St Viator, same as Ted Nugent and Ben Weasel, who was kicked out), which did not have them.
Illinois drinking age was 21 for men (women were 18) for a long time, then it was lowered to 19 in 1973 but raised back to 21 in 1980, so I never got the benefit of doing so legally in high school, although we did have a smoking area.
That’s fookin’ wild, I Did Not Know That: “Illinois drinking age was 21 for men (women were 18) for a long time,”
I suspect there was a certain angle, there.
And man, metal detectors in ’88? Wow. Looking back: From this side of the river, that seems crazy.
And yet, it’s GenX that seems to have invented helicopter parenting. That seems to have obsessed over safety. That stole childhood from their own kids, by not letting them experience the life and freedoms they grew up with. Espousing that there was a boogie man behind every bush. (And I say this all as a Gen Xer myself). The millennials just dumped gas on the fire, and now their kids do nothing but play video games on their phones. And have “play dates” (puke).
As I walked past a playground this morning, the plastic sterile kind surrounded by mulch, I lamented the thirty foot high sun-heated sheet metal sliding board I had growing up. And the metal dolphin on a spring we all rocked to limits of the spring. And the metal carousel surrounded by asphalt. And the seemingly teflon coated twisty slide that you slid down so quickly you got brush burns on your arms. And…
Wish we could have it all back.
I remember in the 90s, a playground with a humungous rocket ship, maybe 60 feet high. My kids loved it, Climbed all the way to the top, like 7 or 8 levels, back and forth, spending hours among other kids they just met. You don’t see that much anymore. Even further back forty years ago, a house was like 60-70 grand with people making about 25 grand. No big stress if you wanted to own a house. Now the same house is 300-500K on an income of around 70. If the value of RE is not allowed to fall, as it should, and create some sort of equilibrium we’re going to have a lot of pissed of people watching out for us. Imagine being in your prime working years 30s-40s and not being able to afford the ‘American Dream.’
America was such a kind and generous place and could easily be again. In the days of my youth, people who acted like the Ds do today were institutionalized for their safety. We still had some freedoms and weren’t constantly hectored and spied upon. There weren’t really people who protested against having nice things. I miss those days of sleek beautiful women everywhere. A time when 4s and 5s were 4s and 5s, not like the 7s and 8s of today. Which are really just the 4s and 5s of yesteryear.
Get rid of all our uninvited guests and restore a healthy amount of fear to the diets of every single politician and their beards would be a good start. They should fear us. We should have no problem getting up in their faces and beating their asses if they mouth off or spew platitudinous garbage back at us. Then, from there we can move on to the grifting tribe of lawyers and bankers that have a stranglehold on society.
Leading edge Boomer here, born 1947. I have hope for Gen Z, they seem to be aware of what is being done to them and are pushing back. There was an incident recently in I believe Nepal or Tibet where government did something (not sure exactly what) to piss off the Gen Z group. In return a bunch of them stormed their parliament, yanked all the politicians out into the street and beat the crap out of them, then set the parliament building on fire. Kudos to them! Our Clowngress needs a similar cleansing.
I think that happened in Nepal Mike. Over corruption and social media censorship, if I’m not mistaken. Caused the President to resign. It is a good sign, people, especially younger ones waking up all over.
You might have missed where youngsters in Mexico surrounded the Presidential palace and raised a little hell. Not sure the damage, or if it continues today. Our media likes to keep us in the dark about stuff like that. Especially when it involves a country, 99.5% Catholic, protesting against the latest iteration of Jewish female privilege, DEI post turtleism. That broad Shinebum looks like a deer in the headlights, right before getting run over.
Not much younger than you. While Eric reminds us of what it was like at the end of freedom, I recall school in the 60s. Show & Tell was often a 12yo bringing in his first deer rifle. Gun classes in school. Trucks in the HS parking lot often had 30-30s in the rear window during hunting season. Even in elementary school, I’d walk home alone – more than a mile. Even longer when in jr high. Nothing worth mentioning or thinking about then. And money was silver …
But I’m just mentioning things you also remember.
Yes, we did. We perfected it. Here’s the rub. I am early Gen X. Graduating high school in 1982, the first thing that happened was that states started raising their drinking ages from 18 to 19, 20, then 21. We were the first victims of helicopter government.
We grew up with CAFE, we grew up with the 55 mph speed limit, and we grew up with this stupid focus on drunk driving and then because of declining test scores, we became helicopter parents to hover over and parent the kids to death. Some of it was justified.
I don’t know why the test scores declined other than the fact that in post energy shortage America, women had to go to work, which also coincided with the beginning of the lesbianification of girls in school as well as jilted older women.
Couple that with some generational apathy and you have a lack of societal progress.
During my time as a motorist activist, I found it most difficult to communicate and converse with my own peer group. Of all living generations at the time, (GI, Silent, Boomers and GenX), late boomers and early Gen X were the most difficult to activate. A collective yawn ensued.
Only recently, say, in the last 15 years or so has my generation woken the hell up, after seeing what their kids look like.
I’ve never been a fan of Gen X, although we are the most conservative living generation alive. It doesn’t seem like we like using our brains too much, this group excluded. We like to go into the MAGA cult and pretend everything is going ot be okay.
Generation X should be called generation cope.
You certainly can’t depend on it to reverse the bullshit of the last 45 years or so.
I’m smack in the middle of Gen X. My circle of friends and family who are also similar age I don’t think are really that much MAGA cult. I sense a lot of support for MAGA principles with what I’d call confusion and consternation over Trump double crossing them/us. We’re the generation that’s getting it from all side, supporting parents paying into Social Security knowing we won’t get jack back, paid for our own school and college but helping our kids do the same. We’re the cash register generation.
Same here, Anon –
Our generation will probably be the one that gets reamed hardest as regards Socialist Insecurity. We’re getting close to being eligible for the “benefits” we’ve been paying for since the ’80s, but will probably be told we can’t have any until we’re 75 rather than 65 and by the time we’re 75, there won’t be any “benefits” at all and so if we need money to live, we’ll have to get jobs as Wal Mart greeters. At least the generations behind us will have many working years left to save for their old age after Socialist Security collapses.
“by the time we’re 75, there won’t be any “benefits” at all”
Unless Z and A throw the bums out, should still be solvent. It doesn’t miss it by all that much with booms, and it wouldn’t have been a problem at all if Congress didn’t spend like drunken Strogers.
Gen Z is bigger than GenX, even bigger than Booms. Interestingly, since Booms are a 19 year cohort, while X is only 16, there are more X per year than Boom per year.
With the Trump saving account announced recently I think even the government knows Social Security is going to be means tested sooner rather than later. The deal they’re doing for babies born in 2025+ is to put the money into essentially a market IRA that they can use for tuition at 18 or keep paying into like a savings account. It’s exactly what we asked if we could do in the 1990s. How’s about you don’t steal FICA withholds and let me put the equivalent in my own IRA? I did that anyway because in 10ish years, assuming they haven’t pushed back the age, there’s probably only going to be a drawer full of IOWs.
https://www.fool.com/retirement/2025/07/06/if-you-plan-to-receive-social-security-in-2035-you/
Hi Anon,
The bottom line – for me – is that everyone ought to be free to decide for themselves how to manage their money and plan for their retirement. It is beyond obnoxious to be parented by the government in this regard. I myself believe it is smart to pay things off and thus own things, which means not putting money into “programs” – including 401ks and IRAs. I am not slamming those who think otherwise. I just think differently. I think a paid-for house (paid off years early because money was not spent on 401Ks and IRAs) makes more sense because being debt-free is the greatest security there is, in my view. Screw working like a coolie until you are old and broken, so that you might collect a check once a month. Far better, in my view, to be in a position to not need much money when you’re old – because you have assets.
I’ve thought about this often, BAC, “And yet, it’s GenX that seems to have invented helicopter parenting.”
Imho, Gen X is split in two. In age, I suspect. Or, possibly, in indoctrination of some kind?
I think, it’s only the latter age group of Gen X who went all helicopter. I think of them as: The Power Rangers Gen X.
They are not at all the same as the early, 1st gen, Gen X.
Hi Helot,
There is a split, I think, among Gen X. Some look back on their childhood as having been less than ideal on account of distant. not-very-interested parents and so – when they became parents – tried to remedy that by being very interested and involved, in everything. It’s a slingshot effect, I think. And it seems to be headed back in the other direction, from what I can tell. The Gen Z kids are (like me at their age) wanting the space they’re being denied by the helicopter people!
I had an interesting observation last night. I watched an old Richard Pryor stand up show he performed back in 1982. Besides his outstanding observational humor and storytelling ability there was pictures of the audience laughing. Mostly African-Americans mixed with some white people. First, the African-Americans were all well-dressed. They were all thin and fit with a youthful appearance and same with the rest of the crowd. Everyone was sitting intermixed and enjoying the show. Richard Pryor said something profound. He said he took a trip to Africa, and while he was there it dawned on him that he didn’t once think to himself of using the N word to describe either himself or the black people there. They were just people living their lives. He said he would never use the N word to describe his fellow African-Americans ever again even though it is acceptable to use amongst themselves. He didn’t want to denigrate his own race with that term. (Chappelle take note) He used motherf’ers a lot but not the N word.
Today look at how far down we have come. We are obese. We are ugly. We take no pride in our appearance nor behavior. Thanks to public school cafeterias, sugared engineered products, fast food, and high cal sugared soft drinks. Not since the Civil War do we hate each other, both racially and politically like never before. We are two peoples occupying the same land. We have been successfully divided and conquered. There is a lot to blame; Marxist-Obama, Islam-911, several over reactionary unnecessary wars, a corrupt 2008-economic collapse then a corrupt manufactured pandemic, a corrupt stole election. We saw how low our countrymen could go along tyrannically during the pandemic. I think there is hope but unfortunately, I think there is also more to come.
Separate observation.
I watched a video of these guys who have a Lamborghini rental service (Daily Driven Exotics) in California. On one video, by accident he turned down a residential street and turned around and while leaving he was stopped by a guy. (Back in the day this would have been common for someone to admire the car.) The guy started yelling at him that he was some rich small penile A-hole and then had his construction employee smash his Lambo windshield with a sledgehammer. The Lambo guy stayed calm and called police which arrested sledgehammer guy. It took almost (2) years to resolve through civil courts to get restitution. Point here is WTF has happened to California, the car land of the USA back in the 80’s, is now full Marxist and anyone driving a car like that is a target. God help us.
“Today look at how far down we have come. We are obese. We are ugly. We take no pride in our appearance nor behavior.”
While there are always exceptions to a rule, it’s even FAR worse than that.
Woke up in 2007, unplugged broadcast television -and stop ingesting Fluoride in 2008.
We live in our own little bubble -like it is still 1984.. analog just about everything including cars, motorcycles equipment etc.. hell we love movies and tv shows and have a huge dvd collection! Entertainment on our terms. NO gov money or help ever.
We live love and are extremely happy for the most part and very grateful.
Modest, humble, honest and caring people we try to be.
But we might as well be ‘Aliens’ from another planet as far as most other people are concerned. Family, friends you name it all turned on us during the covid scam.
Just for loving & caring enough to try to warn them about an agenda at play.
Are we are supposed to continue to find value in these greedy narcissistic self centered egotistical losers that think that are amazing when every indicator points to them being completely worthless vulgar human beings?
Hate to say it but I don’t think so.. it is going to take some SERIOUS tough-love to rehabilitate this nasty population we have today.
We have a saying around here: Where there are people -there are problems.
Present company excluded. 😉
I wish there was a way to fix typos here.. especially when trying conjure up a Clark Griswold Christmas Vacation style rant. 😀
Was still a very good comment on our current situation, AMC. My wife and I reflect on feeling like strangers in our own land how lonely that feels at times. We’re grateful for everything. Mostly each other and having kids that reflect a lot of our values and aren’t complete shitshows.
Thanks Norm, Amen.
You articulated it just fine, my man. Just fine.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/meme-one-day/
I could say the same about myself…I was born in 87, but my house appears to be stuck in 1995 with analog stuff and incandescent lights for the same reasons. I try new things, but life is better keeping all the newest digital stuff for work only where I get paid to deal with it.
I was born 61 finished hs in 80 yea our small Va town hs had a smoking area and NO cops. Now I am the old man screaming at the sky”what the hell happened?” Even the Moose club tossed us smokers outside..I need Doc browns DMC 12 … to go back to the 70s.
There’s a big slop of propaganda/C.I.A. in this bit of truth: “Now I am the old man screaming at the sky”what the hell happened?” ”
WHy am I seeing this line online more than once?
Anyway, catch the DMC 12, you better invite us, too.
Back in the 80’s when I was in high school, a lot of the boys used to go hunting before school and went straight on to school with shotguns and rifles mounted in the back glass gun racks in their trucks on school property. A lot of us carried knives on us in school and no one batted an eye.
We also had hunting safety courses in high school given out by the Game Commission and the elementary kids used to have WRE (weekly religious education) in a mobile unit next to school property during school hours (voluntary of course).
There was no violence in school except for the occasional fist fight and that rarely happened. No one then ever entertained the thought of shooting or stabbing anyone then.
I believe that schooling today is just early training for incarceration later and living in a police state.
Gen X’s way of living then would be considered RADICAL to today’s standards. I’m glad to have grown up when I did.
Could you imagine the hyped-up talk shows on the Tee-Vee even mentioning Any of that?
For them, it never was.
…Monsters.
so true my husband hunted with his school principal one day back in the 60s. Hey good news though the boy scouts still teach gun safety! And survival skills. I didn’t believe it at first. Very cool!
In our HS in the 70’s the girls wore cute outfits miniskirts and cute jeans because we wanted the guys to notice and we felt great from al the exercise and sports and had pride in our appearance. We had a place to smoke but it was unauthorized and only the stoners went there. They smelled not great and seemed checked out (gee wonder why). The rest of us went to class did clubs college prep, sports then went home and had free time with friends. Most weekends there was a game at Stanford, golf, tennis maybe to the beach in Santa Cruz in the summer and a party at someones house. The parents might even be home hidden in the background somewhere (it was Atherton so large homes). There were no drugs but always a keg. Nobody got arrested, no one cared there was a kegger down the block. They were just low key accepted events. People kmew how to behave. We had a party and told our neighbors before hand. They smiled and told us to have fun, we did and the party was pretty much over by midnight. The next day the guys returned the keg and we girls cleaned house. The guys just wanted their brewskis. Girls didn’t drink much anyway. I wish all kids could live the lives we lived.
Also the wealthy kids would volunteer, the middle class kids (i was one) had jobs. We all still got along. I never felt looked down on because I worked and we just had friends with a lot more money. We all dressed the same and went to the same churches so we didn’t stand out.
RS,
My brother threw a keggar when our parents were on vacation. When the party was at full steam, my brother passed the hat around for contributions to get another keg which had just run out. Once he collected the $, he called the police on his own party. He let the police in and pointed out all the guys he wanted exited but kept all the girls and a few of his friends. The keg returned and the party continued. Pure genius.
Yeesh, Pure evil genius, you mean?
That’s low down Red. Nothing to be proud about, At All.
Yeah we did not call the police. Most parties were hosted but it was acceptable to charge $5 at the door. The cops didn’t show up at parties unless it was a brief pop in to remind people to keep the noise down or end the band because live bands had loud amps.
We had one in northern CA in the early 90s where a cop tried to push his way in through the door and got knocked out for his trespassing.
He got smarter when he woke up and left.
Today, of course they would call SWAT and gun down a bunch of kids.
Back then, almost nobody was fat. A handful of kids were pudgy but obesity was practically non-existent. Girls were thin and not tattooed. everybody went out drinking on their 18th birthday… not that they hadn’t done it before then, of course.
I was just thinking about the 18 year old drinking age. Way back when, it was fairly common for kids to take a gap year or two working in a ski town. Or a beach resort. Somewhere where hospitality was important. Maybe a few friends would decide to take on the ski bum life and run out to Aspen or Vail for the season. They could pool their money and rent an apartment -not cheap but affordable for 3 or 4 kids with maybe a little help from mom and dad for unexpected expenses. Get a job tending bar, waitressing, washing dishes, or if you knew how, tuning skis, or driving for delivery or hotel shuttles. Get first tracks in the morning, take an afternoon nap, show up to work at 5:00 and work until 2:00. Hang out with your attractive young coworkers. Learn how to work. And on your day off, go bar hopping -because you skied with the other bartenders and waitresses and got the “locals discount.”
But I think by the time you’re 21 most of that urge and willingness to live on top of a bunch of relative strangers is passed. I had sort of a hybrid introduction to legal drinking because I turned 18 in Pennsylvania and moved to Colorado when I was 20, but grandfathered in. There absolutely was a different vibe in CO, and not only because the bars were better. But I had my fill of roommates and lived in a studio apartment in a building full of “adults.”
I bring this up because the modern ski town has completely lost its soul. Everyone wants to blame AirB&B but I saw it when I came back in the early ’00s. The staff wasn’t middle class white kids working as an excuse to party and ski. The new working class was Spanish speaking, or Lithuanian/Polish/Slovakian, or sometimes Asian. They didn’t ski, they were here to work. I’m sure they enjoyed themselves, but it wasn’t the same at all. The ski industry is wondering where their future customers are going to come from, and with good reason. By preventing kids’ gap year tomfoolery, the 21 year old minimum drinking age meant two generations of middle aged parents aren’t looking back at the fun they had that season in Vail. And they’re not showing up to get a few runs in and party. Now the people who are paying the ridiculous lift pass prices are there to ski, and that’s what they do. No dinner, no party, just ski and go home. Maybe they’ll squeeze at least one more generation out of this model, I’m sure the GoPro kids are keeping the slopes crowded, but the towns themselves are really struggling to stay open.
Good analogies RK. It seems no one thinks this stuff through, or at least wonders why.
My peers just missed PA changing from 18 to 21, we were pretty pissed, but Jersey of all places still kept 18 for a little while longer so we just went there (we were in Philly metro area). It also helped to have a friend who went bald at 17 and could pass for 30 so no card check.
‘Jersey of all places still kept 18’ — ChrisIN
… until Senator Frank ‘Blood Borders’ Lautenberg came along and unconstitutionally imposed a nationwide drinking age of 21. His target was New York state, which also was age 18 until Lautenberg shut it down. His poisonous legacy lives on, in domestic violence ‘disqualified for life’ gun grabs as well.
I grew up in NJ along the Delaware, so I remember lots of PA folks coming over to take advantage of the lower age. Even today they still come over to buy liquor (and gasoline). PA has some of the worst alcohol rules in the country. They’ve loosened up a little but if you want any kind of hard liquor, you’re better of coming to Jersey if you can.
PS. Lautenberg was the worst. A truly horrible person.
(((Lautenberg)))… are you surprised?
Hi Chris,
I grew up in NJ and was the guy who went bald at 17 😆 . I was the designated buyer whenever a bunch of us wanted to party. Never once got carded, a few times the store owner would make suggestions as to what I should get. Great memories.
RK: That’s an interesting perspective.
It is also a factor in the demise of small towns throughout the upper Midwest. The raised drinking age, the DUI cops, and the whole puritan crusade of the last 40 years, has killed the small town bar and the culture. It only takes a few ruined lives with the excessive fines and cruel punishments for people who drink and drive home, in the middle of nowhere, to tamp down the local tavern. The towns are shrinking, ageing out, and disappearing. As is our whole western culture.
And with the death of the neighborhood bar, local pub or whatever you want to call it, a means of coming together and discussing the issues of the day without media control has been lost.
No facebook or Xcrement censors to control or direct the conversations. Ideas would live or die on their own. And revolutionary ideas could flourish, develop and come to fruition.
The elimination of the bar/pub is a great way to keep the commoners in line.
^^ THIS! ^^^
For the record,
you can still get that at a Dominican Colmado (Think 1950 Norman Rockwell, with a Caribbean Flare)
Green plastic Preresidante chairs, local neighborhood kids running errands,
and “Abous” (old folks being cared for by kool little kids)…
Unfortunately, Puerto Rico ..Has been FULLY compromised,
by USA, USA commercialism thus the DR…is all you got kids.
Good Night, and Good Luck.
The only times I saw a cop in school in the 1980s and early 1990s was on Career Day or when we were learning about things like “Stranger Danger.” (Never mind that the real danger was from people who you knew, like the priest/minister/rabbi or Scout leader…or even in your own family.)
In the 1980’s, I never once saw a cop in our high school. Not even in the parking lot.
In a town of about 30,000.
We had a designated smoking area at my school Fayetteville-Manlius High outside Syracuse NY. It was a covered breezeway between buildings where teachers and students would hang out between classes.
No cops, no ninnies.. pretty much just normal happy people. Wtf happened?
Laws requiring that cars were sold with seat belts came into effect in 1968, luckily my Camaro was built before that law came in. Of course GovCo will come up with some way of forcing them to be installed into a car that never had them.
If you suspect a store will card you as a graybeard in good standing what you can do is put those items on the belt last. That way if they want to play that game you just walk away and they can put a whole cart full of goods back on the shelf.
I remember reading about a returning Vietnam VET who was kicked out of a casino for underage age gambling (and probably winning). Sure he was an infantry Sergeant, medals and all but the rules are the rules and you have to leave.
40 years ago can be a long time in the scheme of things, though. Things can change dramatically quite quickly. Think of the change between 1885 and 1925. At the beginning of that period, nobody had electric light or motor vehicles at the end of it, almost everyone did.
I was born in 1965 — only 20 years after Hitler was in power, LOL. My dad was born 40 years after the turn of the century — the 20th century, not the 21st.
I don’t feel old but like it or not I guess I am.
‘There was a smoking arcade.’ — eric
Probably this was an amenity unique to tobacco-growing states such as Virginia and North Carolina.
No public school I attended ever permitted kids to smoke — though teachers did in the faculty lounge.
During each break, a teacher was assigned to the bathroom to catch kids smoking. Arguably, this was a valuable life lesson in how nanny government would be weaponized against them when they grew up.
But yes — if we could teleport back 50 or 60 years, it would be astounding to witness how loose and relaxed things were, before everything got locked down with IDs and verification. You could actually sign in to a hotel under an assumed name. Nobody checked your ID. Nobody cared.
Back in the 70s (60s?) “unisex” started coming in. Women didn’t go to the beauty shop/men the barber shop–we all went to the unisex place where they played rock music, the walls were painted black and they had macrame hanging planters (real philodendron soon replaced with fake). Now mothers take their boys to get their hair done with them and no-one thinks it’s odd when boys/men color their hair. Where I live the public schools have unisex uniforms. When the high school lets out everyone is wearing khaki pants w/black polo shirts.
In my neighborhood when the high school lets out the kids are wearing pajamas or sweatpants with those ugly shoes that dentists and nurses wear. Crocs?
I am not rah rah for a dress code, but it is evident that parents no longer parent. My kids may have lounged around the house in sweatpants and pjs, but I would be damned if they walked out of it in that getup.
Ha! …Good on you.
I wonder what ‘it’ is, that the pjs/crocs are a-okay nowadays, but 20yrs ago, ‘er I mean, 40 yrs ago, it couldn’t even be forced upon the youth?
Hi helot,
Lazy parenting. But, we see the same thing walking into a Walmart or onto an airplane. Less and less people care about their appearance. It is the first thing people see and they judge us accordingly.
My daughter, even very young, was self policing on clothes. No goof wear ever out in public and once the day got rolling even on the weekends no PJs after 9AM. Swear she’s a puritan throwback.
She did ask once “Dad is this dress too short?” “Well kid, you gotta advertise if you want to move the merchandise”. “MOMMMM … Dad’s being disgusting … again!”
Hi Sparkey,
There is nothing wrong with being a Puritan atavist! Be proud, my dear, you raised a daughter with class. 🙂
We had a HS smoking area in Philly metro area, in the early 80’s.
My high school (South Dakota — not tobacco country) allowed smoking in the senior lounge. It was right inside the front doors, next to the library, but no one fussed about second-hand smoke. Not even sure the concept had been invented. The janitor even maintained the spittoons.
That all changed when the old principal retired (’80, maybe?) and we got some east coast pecker for a principal. Smoking gone his first day, guns no longer allowed on campus after his 4th or 5th year, belt knives banned in school by 8th or 9th year.
Hmm, top down control & power imposed.
The result = shit.
Culture destroyed. Easy peasy. Nary a peep in protest.