Growing up in the 1980s pretty much guaranteed that fewer rules and a whole lot more freedom were welcomed inevitabilities. Those moments all came together to then show just how loose things really were.
Before phones were up and tracked every move, and safety recalls also filled inboxes, kids were busy creating their own adventures. This roundup thus revisits the wild liberties that many parents would shrug off back then, and also why they feel almost unbelievable now.
1. Mixing up DIY “slime” with food coloring, Borax, and zero adult supervision
2. Riding in the way back of a station wagon
3. Pedaling to a solid 10-speed, five miles away to rent horror VHS tapes
4. Launching off bottle rockets from glass Coke bottles in the driveway as part of a science experiment
5. Keeping a lovely pet garter snake in a shoebox under the bed
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6. Jumping from the garage roof onto a trampoline to perfect WWF entrance moves
7. Ordering Domino’s with a pocketful of couch-cushion coins
8. Swapping Garbage Pail Kids on the school bus
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9. Packing all the kids in your neighborhood into one pickup truck to head to the movies
10. Running errands with dad in his Chevy Caprice
11. Building a sweet backyard BMX ramp from scrap plywood, cinderblocks, and only one rusted nail
12. Catching a ride on a grocery cart in the parking lot, and aiming for the speed bump launchpad
13. Sipping a flat tab Cola that’d been mixed with a melted orange popsicle
14. Calling random payphone numbers collect just to see who would answer, and how long their rage would persist
15. Practicing karate kicks in the living room while Karate Kid also played
16. Roaming your local creek barefoot to hunt for crawdads
17. Hanging at home alone with the microwave, a gallon of milk, and a handwritten note to impersonate MacGyver
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Those neon-lit memories remind us that childhood once came with fewer seatbelts—literal and figurative, and a whole lot more dirt under our fingernails. If you’re craving even more retro moments, revisit 20 Everyday Things 80s Kids Did That Are Now Obsolete. To see a bit of a decade in full living color, flip through 25 Colorized Photos From The Mid-1890s and relive the fashions that made helmet hair a genuine hazard.
