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jca2's avatar

When you were little, up until late teens, how did you pass your free time?

Asked by jca2 (16845points) March 22nd, 2024

When you were little, up until your late teens, how did you pass your free time, and approximately what decade was it?

When I was little, until my teens, this was the 1970s, I’d spend a lot of time reading, doing drawing, water painting, coloring (both free and coloring books), practicing my handwriting. Sometimes my mom would do a craft with me, like candle making. Outside was riding bikes, jumping rope, hopscotch. Sometimes I’d walk to my friend’s house, or my mom would drive me, and we would walk around their neighborhood. In the winter, we went sleigh riding and ice skating. We lived in an affluent suburb with a cute little town, so with my friends or with my mom, we could walk to the town and go to gift shops, the toy store, book store, stationery store – all things that are not so much any more.

When I was a teen, in the early 1980s, I was able to take the bus to friend’s houses to hang out. We’d listen to records, look at
magazines at the cute guys (Scott Baio, Erik Estrada, Shaun Cassidy, rock stars like Robin Zander from Cheap Trick), maybe walk to the local candy store or diner for a soda or some candy, and when we could take the bus or be driven, we’d go to the movies sometimes, or shopping. I could also take the train to the city (NYC) starting around age 14, both by myself and with friends. It was about 40 minutes on the train, and then maybe a subway. We used to walk around Greenwich Village, sit in Washington Square Park.

How about you? What did you do to pass the time, both when you were little and when you were a teen?

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20 Answers

SQUEEKY2's avatar

Dirt biking.

seawulf575's avatar

IT changed from when I was a child to when I was a teen. As a child (1960’s to about 1973), I played with my friends outside, usually, or inside. Outside we would climb trees, build forts, catch praying mantises and snakes, hiking in the woods, riding bikes, camping out in the back yard, playing sports games and other boy things like that. Inside it was usually board or card games. I also enjoyed drawing though I was never good.

In my teen years (1973–1980) I got into reading for pleasure, listening to music, I started going to rock concerts (Genesis was my very first one), going to parties, discovering recreational pharmaceuticals, running and hiking at the local park.

jonsblond's avatar

Ride my bike, swim, roller skate, read, sing along to my records, watch television. I was little in the 70s, early to late teens in the 80s.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Ride my bike.

Play nes.

Watch fox kids cartoons.

Sleep. Listen to radio.

Read Forgotten Realms and DragonLance novels in the lrt train. Averaged one novel per day.

Watch news and soap operas.

janbb's avatar

Little – Read, climb trees, do art, play with friends, ride bikes

Teenager – Read, meet friends after school for snacks from stores, go to the beach, talk on the phone, listen to music, go into NYC and walk around the Village

anniereborn's avatar

As a little kid I loved playing outside. I loved climbing trees, doing acrobatics in my back yard, playing with my dolls, riding my bike, playing in the cemetery across the street, roller skating, playing all kinds of games, coloring books, exploring nature, dancing and singing and listening to the radio.

My teen years were spent doing theater at both school and community theatre. I also spent a lot of time chasing boys, reading, watching TV, especially MTV, talking on the phone and hanging out with good friends. Oh and of course, shopping at the mall !Oh and of course, I started going to concerts as soon as I could drive.

I was a kid in the 70s and a teen in the 80s.

LifeQuestioner's avatar

Wow! It seems like there’s a lot of us on here, at least of the people who have answered this question, who were young kids in the ‘70’s and and teenagers in the ‘80s!

So in the ‘70s I read voraciously. Actually I always have, but it started when I was 5 as I taught myself to read when I was 4. So I always had a pile of books I was reading! I wasn’t too much into playing Barbies, but I was horse crazy like a lot of girls are and so I had little horse sets that you could buy in the toy store, and I would play with those and also figure out how to put them on my bookshelves so they looked nice. I didn’t do too much with crafts until I was a little bit older, except maybe some latch hooking here and there. We played outside, especially badminton. I also had a next door neighbor kid who would come over and we would toss the football back and forth. I rode my bike and I also liked to walk around our block and pet every single dog and cat that were outside. When I got to be about 9 or 10, I wanted to go walking in the woods but my mom wasn’t really keen on it. I’m not proud of the fact that I would act like I was walking up to a friend’s house and then go walking on the paths in the woods. She also wouldn’t let me ride my bike in the street even though once you got off the main road, (not that busy itself), there were hardly any cars driving. So I would ride up to the corner on the sidewalk and then as soon as I got out of sight of the house, I would get on the road and ride most of the way around the block until I had to get on the sidewalk again. I’m not proud of my being so deceitful but I thought it was just silly that I wasn’t allowed to do that.

When I got to be a teenager I still liked to read and ride my bike. I also started doing cross stitch at some point although I couldn’t tell you now how I initially got interested in it. I also was getting more involved with my church youth group, I sang in the choir and played handbells, so that took up a good bit of my time. And when I was in high school, I used to come home from school and sleep till almost dinner a lot of days. I didn’t struggle in school at all and I didn’t have to study much so I think that meant I had more free time than maybe the average high schooler. Plus, I got up around 5:30 in the morning so I think I was tired by the time I got home from school. I also dabbled in stamp collecting for a bit because my dad ended up passing on his collection that his mother had given him. That’s probably hitting the main things but I always had a lot of different interests.

KNOWITALL's avatar

Late 70s and 80s.
As a child I played with chickens, cows, made dirt bread and pies, rode bikes a lot, swam in ponds, visited neighbors. Lots of family time when grandma introduced chores and taught me about cleanliness.

As a tween we played basketball, rode bikes, played soccer, built snow forts, layed out to tan, listened to radio and made mixed tapes, went rollerskating, went to mall.

Dutchess_III's avatar

All of the above. We also built huts on the creek. Swam in the creek.

60s to 70s.

janbb's avatar

I did a lot of swimming in ponds, ice skating and sledding too – not all in the same season!

Blackwater_Park's avatar

If it was nice outside I was playing in the creek, fishing, shooting anything and everything with a bb gun, riding a bike… If it was bad weather or after dark I was reading, listening to music on cassettes or playing our NES. Into my mid-to late teens I was playing guitar whenever possible.

rockfan's avatar

When I was a kid I had severe social anxiety, so growing up in the early 2000’s didn’t help things. Most of the time I was watching tv, reading and playing video games. After highschool is when I started hiking, swimming, and generally being more outgoing.

Dutchess_III's avatar

THE STREET LIGHTS JUST CAME ON! Get your happy butt home!!

At home we played under the street light after dark

mazingerz88's avatar

River for a swim, field hiking, biking with friends, catching spiders, play bingo with older relatives and neighbors, listen to my aunts talk on the porch in the evening, sneak in watching scary movies on TV when no one’s around, smoke cigarettes on top of tombs at the cemetery…

As a young teen, mostly the same but a more mature version of it, some x-rated. lol Also, writing love letters to a crush.

Older teen…listening to Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall songs. Love it. And much later Thriller. So this year I already got tickets for the MJ musical!

jca2's avatar

I forgot to add, when I was little, I also spent a lot of time playing with Barbies, stuffed animals and my dollhouse.

JLeslie's avatar

I was a very young child in the 70’s and I used to play in the playground, play with toys, go bike riding, visit friends in the building (I lived in a 6 story building so I could take the elevator to a friend’s house) go sledding in the winter, climb trees, and see movies with my parents. Sometimes we took the train to see my grandparents and aunt. I took ballet and some other classes after school, but not a lot, it wasn’t very regimented every day, I had lots of free time. We loved going to the pool and I played tennis.

Age 10–15 we lived in a townhouse and I would play in the streets or visit friends as I got older. We went to the pool in the summer. I watched a lot of TV. Went to the mall, and at 14 I started working in the mall. My friends were more obsessed with boys than I was. The first date I went on I was 14, but I never was very eager to date, it was more like they asked me and I said ok.

16–18 I had a boyfriend and free time was spent with his family a lot. They had parties almost every weekend or some sort of event to go to. Soccer game or picnic or something. That was weekends. Weekdays I often went to his house after school while I was still in high school, we had sex almost every day, take a nap sometimes. We would have a snack at his house or go to a restaurant. I finished high school a few weeks before turning 17. After that I went to college part time and worked part time so my schedule was different and my bf was working full time, but still lots of time with his family.

cookieman's avatar

I was a child in the 70s and a tween/teeb in the 80s.

Drawing, reading comics, playing with action figures, watching television.

Pretty much what I do now.

Strauss's avatar

Grew up in rural Illinois in the fifties and sixties. Explored cornfields, gravel roads, railroad tracks and sidings; in good weather we’d ride bikes all over town, and sometimes over to the next town, stopping in meadows and woods. Had a “special” spot on Mr. Anderson’s farm where the creek pooled and I learned the joys of “catch and release” fishing. In the winter it was snow forts and snowball fights and sledding down the hill. Bad weather meant board games that would last for weeks on end.

That whole area is now fully developed suburbia, alas!

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

I spent 10 years in my grandparents basement, during summer breaks, doing a 3000 piece puzzle.

Also I had a swingset in my grandparents backyard, that I loved to swing in until I got to big for it.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Swimming in the deepest part of the creek. Watched a huge snake drop out of a tree into the creek. Squeal!!!!!

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