If they really wanted to reach me at all times they could have paid for a pager. I wasn’t going to.
[laughs in not having cell ever charged]
A practice that has served me well ever since high school
I remember “It’s 10 pm, do you know where your children are?” being asked every night before the local news.
‘Stand By Me’ was a movie about four boys disappearing for a weekend and not one parent was arrested.
It’s 10 pm, do you know where your children are?
I TOLD YOU LAST NIGHT, NO!
Wasn’t that to remind parents that they had kids since most were taking drugs or alcohol to cope with life?
You say the first one like it’s a GOOD thing, that campaign has led to ridicule of an entire generation, and you point to that like it’s a good thing…?
I dunno if “remembering” something is so strong an act as to imply an opinion, positive or negative.
If so, it brings a whole new context to the term “never forget”
My dad tells stories of snowstorms back in the 70s & 80s where they would leave their truck at the end of the driveway with the keys in it and unlocked.
We live very rural (my grandparents were my neighbours growing up), and snowstorms could get bad. So everyone left their vehicles out with the keys in case someone broke down on the side of the road so that they could hop in the truck and turn it on to stay warm. Never had a vehicle so much as damaged, much less stolen.
Yes but also dirty old men tried to grope you in parks and your parents didn’t care.
Are you sure that changed?
Yeah now they try to grope you in the White House
It was very different in that when you went home and told your parents about it they didn’t do anything at all. Nowadays parents act on it.
Definitely not disagreeing with that. I made the comment after reading the title, but before I saw the associated image.
That one sounds more unique to your individual experience, and not a sign of the times.
The fact that you don’t see that as a sign of the times sounds more unique to your own individual experience.
I grew up in this era. I didn’t know a single person whose parents wouldn’t care if their kid was being molested by strangers in a park. There was an entire Stranger Danger topic that was frequently discussed with kids by parents and schools.
Just because you grew up in an era doesn’t mean that you got the full experience others got. Kinda what I’m saying.
In the south (or for young girls most places) for example, this was definitely closer to the norm. Parents obviously would always SAY that they would always try and protect their kids—and maybe they would try—until it got to the part where they were actually molested. Then a lot of parents didn’t believe or want you to speak out 🙃
Statistically, this was more often to happen with people you knew, I’ll grant.
Perfect strangers in the 1980s?
So glad it wasn’t just me, hah,
I still pick up hitchhikers. I consider it a nice thing to do if you are heading in the same direction. It may get me killed one day, but at least I’ll die doing the right thing.
Motorboating titties?
I mean I still ask them to contribute but it doesn’t have to be cash…
Hell, when I was a little boy in 2001, you could still accept a ride from strangers. I mean, sure, you could end up in the car with a wannabe John Wayne Gacy, but more often than not, it was a kind stranger offering a ride to a kid walking home in the 105 degree Texas heat.
I’d argue that’s still the case, and always has been, and likely always will be. I don’t think there’s a larger number of evil people intent on harming hitchhikers, just that it is a dangerous habit and the cases that end violently are the only ones that make the news. It’s more that we’re better educated about it now, and so less people are willing to hitch or pick up hitchhikers now
(If the US had adequate public transit/micromobility infrastructure, worrying about random strangers picking you up – let alone for intra-city travel – wouldn’t be a thing.)
Rural
Urban areas account for 80% of the US population. This only fell from 80.7% in 2010, despite the fact that the minimum population for something to be considered “urban” doubled from 2500 residents to 5000 (under the previous criteria, this would have been an increase). That’s not to mention that there’s nothing stopping rural towns under 5000 people from having adequate micromobility infrastructure, like I mentioned. If your kid is walking home from somewhere, unless they legitimately got stranded somehow in bumfuck nowhere, chances are they’re within biking distance.
The kind of “rural” you’re probably thinking of where someone lives two miles out into the country is basically a rounding error. Please stop using it as a magical incantation to shut down discussion of reasonable public transit and safe and efficient micromobility.
I’m not disputing the benefits of public transit.
I take public transit EVERY DAY. I loved my time city hopping in Europe. I want that SO badly for north america. I’m a very vocal proponent.
I grew up in a rural area. Our small area tried earnestly several times to get a bus route going. First with old school buses and then with some old city buses. They just couldn’t make it work. The population density just couldn’t support it.
My issue, as someone with their feet in two canoes, as they say, is with the mentality that rural populations are rounding areas unworthy of discussion or consideration. Broad statements that erase rural existence is alienating to these admittedly small percentages, but is alienating nonetheless
People who choose to live out in the middle of nowhere shouldn’t hold back the discussion of public transit and micromobility for the vast, overwhelming majority of people who live in areas which are able to maintain that kind of public infrastructure.
The problem isn’t that these populations aren’t worthy of consideration; it’s that they don’t deserve to get brought up as “Well this doesn’t help me, who lives three miles out of the nearest town in a row of five houses” as a way to shut down discussion of something that would improve the lives of basically everyone. (It would help them too, of course, because it would decongest the streets when they do drive into town; it just wouldn’t obviate their car. Also, people in urban areas are subsidizing the everloving shit out of their infrastructure already to allow them to even live out there in the first place.)
Are you even reading the messages you reply to? Can I get an unrelated rant too?
What are you even talking about? They wrote: “My issue, as someone with their feet in two canoes, as they say, is with the mentality that rural populations are rounding areas [sic] unworthy of discussion or consideration. Broad statements that erase rural existence is alienating to these admittedly small percentages, but is alienating nonetheless.” My entire comment is spent addressing that paragraph. I’m sorry I chose to focus on the core point of their comment?
Then what’s your perspective on the specific issue of this thread? You say your opinion is being erased… but all you’ve said so far is “I exist”. Which… okay? What impact would that have on literally anything related to this?
I take public transit EVERY DAY. I loved my time city hopping in Europe. I want that SO badly for north america. I’m a very vocal proponent.
So… you just wanted to be heard, but had no actual input to give?
I don’t remember Balki driving me anywhere in the 80s
Your dad is Balki Bartokomous?!? I have so many questions.
Did you grow up in the states or on Mypos? Is your full name Semi_Hemi_Demigod Bartokomous? Do you have your own place, or do you live with cousin-once-removed Larry? Do you know the Dance of Joy, and can you teach me?
No, but he is like a close uncle.
Sadly I have never visited the motherland.
My full name is Semihemidemideus Bartokomous.
I have my own place but Uncle Larry and I are restoring his old Mustang.
Of course I know the dance of joy and would be so happy to teach you I would do the dance of joy!
I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated a response more. Can’t wait to learn it!
Don’t be ridicurous
In the 1980’s Perfect Strangers was a TV show.
(And it was funny)
Don’t be ridiculous.
🎵 Standing taaaaall 🎵
Leave your phone at home?
“It was on the charger! I forgot!”
Not sure that would work.
Taxis still exist.
Now we give perfect strangers a star rating based on how little they talked.
And few of us were murdered.
(Some were.)
Everyone is going to die.
The obsession with safety to the exclusion of all else has taken the life out of life.
Example: Can’t have trick or treating anymore, having neighbors meeting and forging goodwill with neighbors under it, “they might have poisoned your candy.” despite no prior epidemic of candy poisoning having led to this.
People are so obsessed with making the highly, highly improbable happening with others impossible, that most seem to just be surviving. That isn’t living.
Not gonna change, really sad though. The information age turning every random crime with an interesting aspect that happened a thousand miles away from you with the perpetrator arrested into a Netflix docuseries with viewers declaring they’re surprised it hasn’t happened to them because they went on a walk alone once and NEVER AGAIN!
Weird everyone is so obsessed with dying at a feeble age with a shit filled diaper, senile and confused.
If you really want trick or treaters, what our old neighborhood did was petition the city to block off a couple small residential streets, everyone got a little too into the decorating, then we let the local newspaper know. We got about 1500 folk the first year, and when we moved out it was around 3000. Spent a hell of a lot on candy, but for the holiday it was worth it. I haven’t been by since 2019, but my old neighbors and I are still in touch and they still throw the block party.
And people generally just ignore how much we trust each other every day. Like every single other person could kill you if you don’t expect it. Push someone on the street, they fall and die. That’s it. Or have something sharp and purposefully poke it into another person. We walk past hundreds if not thousands of people while walking in the city. The amount of trust humanity requires just to function is insane. And some people think all of that suddenly goes out the window on halloween etc?
Fucking moronic cowards.
I wonder if lower infant mortality and less need for family manual labor -> fewer kids -> more protective of those kids.
You don’t have Trick or Treating?
Dang, it really is great for building relationships.
survivor bias
Don’t be ridicurous.
The fact that I can hear this comment proves I’m old as fuck.
werent mobile phones pretty cheap in 98?
No, they weren’t particularly cheap. And they weren’t anywhere nearly as reliable connectionwise (functionwise they were way more reliable to be honest), and the expectation to always be near it wasn’t anywhere near it is today.
ok. i got the “hagenuk global” with my contract back then and it was working well all the time. that was before 1998. and i won a nokia communicator in 97. still have it. was mind blown as a kid. sms was free back then… so i still dont get the meme really.
In the US, not really. Even if the phone itself was cheap, the plans were high. We moved my last year of highschool and my mom got a phone for me to keep in the car. It was only to call 911 for emergencies because the cost per minute was crazy.
in the EU short messages were still free of any charge at that time. nokia started booming. life was good in the EU and plans were affordable.
My phone didn’t even do text/SMS, heh.
Devices were getting cheaper, not quite to mass adoption but getting there, however service wasn’t nearly universal like it is today. There were whole towns and even some suburbs that didn’t have coverage yet. It wasn’t until the introduction of 3G (around like 2006, if memory serves) that phones got cheap and service became blanket for most people.
Yea I didn’t get a cell phone until like 2004/5 and I only had coverage for like half the places I spent time at in my town. All my friends lived out in the country so I was unreachable most of the time until several years later.
