When you have to stay out until the street lights came on..
Since we were one of the last generations to not grow up with tablets, cell phones and Internet to keep us self occupied and absorbed, we always played outside and sometimes would get hurt badly. I can recall three of these times involving a bicycle.
My first one was when I was 10 yrs old on the way to school down the street (straight shot) riding my trusty BMX bike and being mesmerized at the time at how my legs were powering the bike. Right about that time, I remember standing there, looking at my wheel and it was spinning, and some guy ran up to me to see if I was okay. I told him I was and went to the school and to the school office as the guy was very concerned. I ended up with quite a gnarly goose egg from slamming my bicycle into the back of a parked car!
My second one was on the same bike and I built a fun ramp to jump my bike off of on the sidewalk and was having a great time doing so until I somehow landed the wrong way and tore my right muscle in my neck. A trip to the ER later, I was home and back to doing things maybe a week later.
My third and final time, I was 14 and on this really awesome for the time, 10-speed with a black frame with red trim including the cables and seat. It was glorious! I was enjoying my time riding it at the top speed I could and didn't negotiate a turn correctly and ran into a curb and flipped off the bike and landed hands down to the ground. I bent my right arm some and had a 'splinter fracture'. That trip to the ER resulted in a splint which led to the orthopedic doctor who gave me a wrist brace they use for surgeries and I guess Carpal Tunnel. I had to wear that for 8 weeks and it was a long hot summer!
We played in the streets, we rode our bicycles, came home when the street lights came on and well, you know the rest of the story. :) I was 12 when the first ever home computer invaded my home and I was hooked! It was a Tandy Radio Shack Color Computer II with a Tape drive and joystick. It was fantastic! My favorite game on there was a text adventure titled "Bedlam" in which you escape a mental institution. (https://www.figmentfly.com/bedlam/)
My first ever modem was a 300baud modem. I ran up a $200+ phone bill in long distance charges when I was able to magically find all this wonderful software for my computer. I remember being a teenager when AOL was staring to be popular and I used GENIE from General Electric for their WWW Multi user BBS. (I still remember my username, xky06729,publish (Second part was my assigned password) I also ran a few BBS's on Atari 8-bit computers and Atari ST computers. I was rockin' the 1200baud modem and remember the time when I hooked up a brand new out of the box 14,400baud modem. I was speeding along until about 45 minutes later and someone let the magic smoke come out! I was in high school when a fellow student bragged about getting online in AOL ('91-'92) and sat amazed listening to his stories. I still remember the dial up sound especially on the 56k modems with error correction.
I was in my early 20's when I first got my "Always on" internet connection from the cable company and it's never been the same! I have two grand kids which I plan on boring with my stories of the time before the Internet and how much better life was when they get a little bit older. (one's 2 and the other is 6).
Anyone else grow up playing on your home computer which hooked to the TV?
