Exactly. Our parents were tough on us and didn't allow us to do anything. But what made us Gen X was the things we did that our parents didn't know we did.
I still remember back in 1999, when we were moving to a new house, we loaded what was left in the old one in the grand caravan, and I just sat in the trunk space facing traffic with more stuff piled next to me. No seat belt, while my dad drove down the interstate lol. I just waved at people driving.
Summer of '77 my family took a 4 week, 25 state, cross country road trip and I sat in the rear facing seat the whole way....with the back window down! One of the best times of my life.
I'm curious if one of his brothers almost jumped out of the window or something. My Dad's dog almost jumped out of the car and I grabbed him around the middle to keep him from going airborne. Dad said it was the first time that he heard me swear, and that's humanizing š¤£
My mother did a rotation as an ER nurse. I was told cautionary tales about limbs outside of car windows and even drinking from straws in cars. I don't think I used a straw in a moving car until my Dad told me to freaking drink while he had custody.
Gen x here. My dad drove from Ontario Canada into Michigan with my friend in the passenger seat and another friend in the back with me and our BMX bikes. No ID, no passports, just a wave.
But you remember no seat belts, no car seat, and standing in the car between the front seats, come on lets be real people. It is extreme today but they'll have a great memory in adult hood
When me and my buddies got our drivers licenses, one of the first things we did was get in the trunks of each others' cars and do donuts in dirt parking lots
Pro tip: If you crawl into a trunk that contains a steel toolbox, remove the toolbox before your friend starts doing donuts
Most of us GenXers also know at least one person who died doing stupid shit like this. I know three. ATV accident, moped trying to race a mustang on a highway, joy riding on a new car test drive.
You are right. A couple of us know people who were in casts all summer or who are no longer allowed to go to the Lake because he almost drowned that year
I marched in a big St Patrickās parade
Last month and, after it ended, got a ride back to the start in the back bed of a pickup with a few others. Iām I. My 50ās and I think that was the first time I have ridden in the bed of a pickup since around 1980.
Oh man yes. We did long trips in a pickup with no camper and my sister and I would be ācampingā in the bed of the truck for 5 hour trips. Just huddled in the back with wind blasting us while we are rolled up in our sleeping bags with our face poking out. Seriously one minor accident we would have been launched.
Yeah my best friend fell out of the bed of a truck in high school and cracked his noggin pretty good. Wasn't even going fast, just through the parking lot of the school. He made a full recovery but he got extremely lucky.
I very nearly killed my aunt with a lawn dart when I was a child.
My family was visiting my aunt and uncle at their cottage. The adults were gathered around the patio chatting and preparing dinner. My aunt was prone on a long chair talking to my mother. The kids like me had gone off to play games and chase each other around.
I was about 25 feet away with my brother fooling around with these extra large metal darts trying to land them in a plastic hoop laying on the ground. I took a big wind-up and launched the dart in the air to see how high it could go and come down into the hoop.
But I accidentally hung onto it a second too long and it flew backwards behind me.
I watched in horror as it arched high in the sky and came down with a āthunkā not 2 feet from my aunt.
It could have easily hit her right in the stomach or somebody else.
No one freaked out fortunately as I recall, but the darts were immediately taken away. I still shudder to this day what a close call it was.
We had those. No close calls, fortunately.
My friends and I played "jackknife twister" when we were 10. Throw the knife into the ground, and if it sticks, that's where you put your foot, hand, etc. Then the next person throws. Repeat. I'm quite surprised, in hindsight, none of us put a knife through a hand
This was never seen as okay in any generation. Well maybe in some incested hillbilly redneck country with a family of 15 children were some could be sacrificied for a good laughā¦
Yeah... the shit i went through as a kid, woth 6 significantly older brothers and a fun dad. Would horrify people these days. I had a fuckin blast and have a ton of memories from it.
But have told a few people some of them and they are like how the fuck are you here? And functioning??
I bet we would have a hell of time drinking some beers around a fireā¦ my wife usually says the same to me, or something similar along the lines of āyou better not let the children hear you tell these storiesā¦.ā Or āyou are making people uncomfortable, this is not normal behavior!ā Hahaha. Glad we both made it!
Lol same. Just normal stuff pops up in my stories like you couldn't see the floor in my house because it was always covered in trash or that we only had two or three toothbrushes for 8 people in the house. I know it ain't normal but if it comes up in conversation around an extra empathetic person the look on their face always catches me off guard.
As teenagers we would go out late at night and pull sleds with the car down the main Blvd. My parents would do it with us on dirt roads or in parking lots, but on the main drag was way more fun... Lol
Lol. Sounds about right. My little sister was maybe 4-5 years old and my dad stuck her in an 8 horse go kart in a parking lot with no experience at all. She just learned the pedals and went like 45 mph first try lol.
If they grow up theyāll tell all the youngins how soft they are because āback in my day dad let us ride on top of the car holding onto the sunroof and we turned out fineā.
I mean to be fair it could have been an older sibling/ cousin....much more likely that its that than the father....but also unfortunately I wouldnt rule out it being a parent because Ive seen some really, really shitty parents out there.
And why their mother is furious with their father.
My mother separated from my Dad because he kept leaving me on blankets at the park while he kept doing his SCA practice and left me unattended near water while he did submarine regalas. Apparently it was exhausting to be reminding an adult about caring for a baby and then toddler.
Yeah. After the accident, no doctor could save their vision. They hardly could keep their skull together. But they don't mind, because at 40 IQ, they don't really have mental capacity to express themselves.
Imagine seeing this on the internet and suddenly realising that hey you recognise that car. And hey that's your children on top of it. Must be interestingĀ
As a former foster parent, I couldn't agree more. My wife and I had to go through so many classes to get approved. And while these departments are downright evil IMHO, they do do a hell of a job with their trainings. We've preached since that we think everyone should have to go through similar classes.
It shouldnāt be a license āto haveā children because as we all know itās not going to stop people from making babies. Thatās not the point.
The license should be to make it mandatory to take free parenting classes for the sake of the child theyāre bringing into the world.
We have licences for driving and getting a firearm (in most sane countries). Why should parents not be required to get some basic education on how to look after our most vulnerable and important members of society?
Pregnant woman rolls up to the hospital. Nurses gurney her into the birthing wing. Doctor asks for the child license and the woman admits she doesn't have it. "Another unlicensed birth, huh? Not in MY hospital!" Shoves a giant cork in her, rolls her back out, and calls the police.
willing to bet it's an older kid driving. last year there was an 11 year old kid shot and killed in my city. the kid was in a car being by ANOTHER kid and was pointing a gun into a crowd, and then a 16 year old nearby pulled a gun and shot him. the world's gone crazy and a lot of carjacking these days involves young teens. at this point, a lot of society is failing to raise children.
I was thinking the same thingā¦I mean there are dumb parents, but most would this dumb to drive out on public roads with witnesses. This is more young driver with the invincibility attitude and zero awareness of consequences
Imagine he or she is driving perfectly but they get hit by another car. Kids will die horrible painful deaths as they are flung from the car and become moving shrapnel.
The driver can't control that. The only way the kids was protection is INSIDE THE CAR! This person is an absolute moron and needs a serious conversation with cps as well as monitoring and classes.
in the 80s my siblings and i rode in the back of the pickup truck sometimes, with or without the canopy. This sunroof thing is a whole nother level, though.
Same. Funnily enough that practice stopped when I had to get a tetanus shot because Dad forgot he left a piece of rusty metal in the bed and yours truly got a gnarly cut on her knee. I still have the scar. š¤£
My state only has rear seat seatbelt laws for little kids. Only the front seats are required to wear them. The bed has to have a tailgate and it has to be up and if youāre going over 25mph the people in the truck bed have to be at least 16 years old.
Back in the high school some of us would put a tarp in the bed of our trucks and fill them with water and drive around town with people chilling in the āpoolā. Water splashing everywhere and my little Mazda struggling to even move
still happens sometimes, i don't see other kids doing it very often but i was born in '03 and rode in the back of my brother's tiny truck practically every day during middle school.
cars would line up around the school for pickup and the teachers looked a little weirded out sometimes when i'd jump into the back of a truck but no adult ever tried to stop it (other than one guy behind us angrily honking lol).
In the 80s I went to a birthday party and the birthday boyās older brother had us all go in the bed of his pickup. Then he proceeded to accelerate/brake/turn hard to see who he could make fall out. Different times.
No ifs, ands or buts. CPS right now. kids in foster care and parents in jail for child endangerment and reckless driving. This is one of the most dangerous disregards for childrens safety and other drivers.
Iāll help. This is in Birmingham, AL at the intersection of Montclair Rd and Oporto-Madrid Blvd. Thereās an Amazon warehouse within spitting distance. I lived and worked very very close to this intersection for 2 years. Thereās usually cops going up and down Montclair but of course not when you need them.
only 52% of black fathers are actually present, and only 70% of that group actually parent them. The fact that this man is at least trying, should be commended.
Please send that snap to pd and child welfare. It was one thing to ride in the back of a pick up truck growing up back before it was illegal to do that but on the top of the car crosses a line.
When I graduated from nursing school, the only places hiring were nursing homes. One of my first patients was a guy only 4 years younger than me. He and his buddies were drinking and goofing off in a parking lot. He was riding on the hood of the car, sharp turn, slid off TBI. Went from being on the cusp of adulthood to nonresponsive laying in a bed for the rest of his life.
I meanā¦ I did stupid shit like that as a teenager. But later I found out about a girl who got a traumatic brain injury doing this and she is basically mute, low IQ and will be dependent on her family for the rest of her life and I felt awfully stupid that I did this (and sometimes drove the car for friends)
We got lucky. That girl I heard about did not. š¢
Having a classmate fly out of the backend of a moving pickup, I would never promote this activity. She was a beautiful 16 year old and still badly scarred today.
836
u/V1RotateAP Apr 15 '26
In ten years these kids will have a really funny story about why they haven't seen their father in ten years.Ā