I’m 39 this year and feeling very nostalgic. From the time I was around 5 till around 16 I spent nearly everyday on a bicycle, riding with friends, going to meet up with friends, exploring every bit of our town and area etc and I miss those days and that way of living.
Those of you that still ride. Does it feel similar to the “good ol days?”
18 comments
I sometimes miss it I guess. I think it’s amplified a bit because I have a kid but live in a neighborhood without many kids so she doesn’t even have the social opportunities I did.
36 USA, used to live in a small town of 1200 where there was nothing to do.
Pretty much every boy within 3-4 years of each other in the neighborhood got together to make dirt tracks in the vacant lots or forts down by the creek. BMX, Rollerblading (skates are cool now, but they sure weren’t then). Making shitty skateboard ramps with fire-hydrants being the foundation and random scrap plywood and nails. They were constant waves of x-sports fads and everyone jumped on them. There were no cellphones so you when the street lights turned on that was a message from your mother to be home now or you get yelled at. It sounds like it was pretty damn similar to the 70-80’s with the one exception being that computers could be purchased by average working families so *mostly* everyone had one.
I really can’t mention any other technology, we only had computers with 30lb 19″ CRT monitors and a 300MB hard drive. You only had one in your house maximum, and at best you had 56k internet. Even then there was almost nothing to do on computers anyways, exhaust shareware demo CDs you’ve had for 2 years, 3D pinball and drawing boobies in MSPaint. I had some computer games but if you didn’t get pcgamer magazine you would have no idea what was good or not. Obviously everyone had Chex quest.
If gen Z really aren’t going outside much and just stay in and are more absorbed into social media/youtube/instgram etc I suppose this description probably sounds like what I think of the dust bowl or something.
Hell yes I do. I miss hunting and fishing. It’s so rewarding catching your own food. Just basic adventure when you were a kid or a teen. Bb gun or Roman candle fights. I miss going camping in the mountains for a weeknor 2 with nothing but
Basic clothes an axe, knife and some string.
Hell yeah I do. Still enjoy riding my bike around on my personal time to go get beer or a bite to eat. Cycling in a group is super fun too if you have the opportunity.
I’m in NYC – I ride many times a week, when I visit friends I’ll always bike, and love to go on long rides to different parts of the city (mostly for food or beer). Or take it on the train and explore rail trails.
I love biking as an adult even more than a kid because I have more control and ability to create the experience I want. It is hard to find a group of friends to ride with, but there are group rides which get close.
I’d love to have summers off again. Nothing but bicycle riding, swimming in the pond, playing video games in the evening.
Yes please.
Lol, why do you phrase this as a question? Does anyone ever hate having a fun childhood?
I literally still spend all my free time outside on my bike… and I’m in my 50s. I had a riding buddy I met racing 25 years ago just come out and spend two weeks with me and we rode every day. Longest ride we did was 103 miles on forest roads with close to 11,000 feet of elevation gain. Amazing two weeks, he’s coming back next summer to do some bike packing trips.
Headed to Whistler BC for a couple weeks… to ride with friends.
Guess I’m saying, while I work and have responsibilities, I still do that same shit.
It is one of the few things that bug me, that my kids don’t get to experience growing up how I did.
From the age of 8 onward, I lived in Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado. We rode bikes, we snowmobilied, we rode dirt bikes, we camped, we fished, we hunted, we plinked cans with a .22. It was freedom. My two sons were born in Texas, there’s no public land, they don’t know what it’s like to have unfettered freedom to roam and do what you want. Texas is oppressive, both the weather and lack of public lands.
Not necessarily riding bikes with friends, though I did spend plenty of days riding around exploring, but I miss:
1) Being at a point in life where I had essentially no responsibilities and no real stresses (money, housing, etc.)
2) Having no chronic injuries, no aches and pains, no limitations on the activities I could do
3) My friends all being at essentially the same point in life, untethered by jobs, significant others, kids, health issues, etc.
No I still hang out with my friends outdoors all the time. We ride bikes, climb mountains, have bbqs and sometimes just get a load of cans and trip balls by a river for the day. Its even better than when we were kids. And it’s also basically the same group of people from when we were 7 with one or two less and one or two new people.
Heck yeah I do. I miss being a kid, lol. No worries, no stress, no responsibilities.
Don’t miss it at all. Riding bikes was hot and miserable, but when mom kicks you out of the house for the day, what else ya gonna do?
I didn’t really realize i missed riding my bike but then I had my kiddo and when he was four I started getting him into riding, soon enough he was going faster then I could run after, so I picked up a sports check cheapy,
it’s been great for the times I can sneak away on my own and particularly for the chance to watch the kid learn a bunch of new places and gain confidence, double win if I can tucker him out.
Hell yes I miss them. Because I didn’t have a care in the world no bills no responsibility nothing.
Yeah. I remember my childhood fondly.
But it didn’t go away. Now I’m 40, and my children spend their summers and weekends running around with their friends until dark. Riding bikes, hunting frogs in the ditches, just being kids while I sit with the neighbors and have a drink.
It’s odd to me how many say those days are gone, when it’s simply their own choices in where to live and who their neighbors are that killed it.
No it doesn’t feel like that, but it feels like something equally fun but different. People with wheels.
My lifestyle at 35 and at 10 are eerily similar. Do the school/work thing that’s our collective Faustian bargain to not be hunter-gatherers, then get on a bike and explore until I’m hungry or it’s dark. I rode by myself a lot as a kid and was quite cautious; as an adult with a small crew of bike friends I’m having a lot of fun making up for lost time, pushing my limits and hurting myself.