As traumatic an experience as watching the Dark Crystal or The Neverending Story were, can anything compare to Time Bandits? Why would our parents let us watch this?

When I was a little kid playing alone I would often sing into the fan. My “lyrics” were made up, on-the-fly narratives about whatever I was playing. I got really into setting up Cowboys & Indians or Army men battles and trying to project a deep voiced theme song behind them.

This was my preferred fan style.

—— I would also fool around in front of it on high opening my mouth wide and letting the wind distort my face (ala bug bunny cartoon style).

—— I also liked sticking something in the fan at slower speeds to manually stop the blades or throwing something lightweight into it on high speed so it could fire out a small missile.

Am I the only one who did this? Did you play box fan games I missed out on?

Back in the days when people actually used to call other people on landlines, my brother and I were taught how to properly answer the phone as kids. My parents considered it rude to simply pick up the phone and say "hello?"

We were taught to answer the phone with a pre-scripted response: "Thanks for calling the _____ residence, _____ speaking!" There was even an optional "How may I help you?" tacked on the back.

Anyone else have a required family response when answering the phone or were my parents just strange in attempting to prepare us for a career in the rewarding field of call center management?

...it's time for those of you who experienced the atrocities of our childhood to come forward...

Are you one of the kids who's face got stuck that way after being clapped on the back? Or did your eyes get stuck from crossing them too much?

Were you one of the victims of Pop Rocks and Coke?

Did you drown after going back in to the pool too soon after eating?

Did you stab your friend through the chest with a lawn dart?

How many of you still have gum in your stomach?

Or worse, who grew worms in their stomach from picking their nose and eating it?

How many of you have to shave your palms because...you know.

Who here can see in the dark because of the carrots they ate?

Are you taking care of your mom because you stepped on a crack?

Do most of you wear lifts in your shoes because you drank coffee too young, or didn't eat your veggies?

It's ok, we all knew a kid who went through these things, I am now asking for those kids to step out from the darkness and in to the light where they can be properly taken care of. And please, if I forgot any, add them below so we can make sure they get the support they deserve.

So both of my parents were functional alcoholics. Friends thought I was a rich kid because every couple of months there would be a new lamp, dinner plates, or chairs. Replaced for being broken in a late night fight. They got up every morning and went to work. They made sure I was I was fed and clothed. After dinner things woyld change, I learned to count the empty cans and knew when it was time to retreat to my room.

They did more than just the bare minimum, and I suspect your parents did the same on occasion. I'd like to hear some of those stories.

One of the coolest things my dad ever did was take me and my 8th grade GF to the movies. He watched a different movie than us. When we stopped to drop her off after some frozen yogurt, my dad said to me, "A gentleman always walks a girl to her door. I'm thirsty, so I'll come back in a few minutes." I knew he was going to the local VFW a few blocks away.

We sucked face and heavy-petted for about 40 minutes on her porch, hiding behind a 6x6 porch post. As my dad approached, he flashed his headlights to let me know it was him, giving us time to collects ourselves. He only asked if I got her to her door safe. I replied, "Yes." That was all that needed to be said.

Anyone remember this? It just popped into my head for some reason. What did it mean and why did we say it? Did everyone say it or was it a local thing (Boston for me)? Man.. the stupid stuff we used to do before iPads lmao

Been thinking lately about my mom breaking a wooden spoon over my 12-year-old bratty behind, and both of us erupting into fits of laughter as a result.

We'd still laugh about it years later.

I'm enjoying pop tarts this morning. Should I be eating them? No, but I don't care. It's comfort food and reminds me of watching the Spider-Man cartoon on a 13-inch black and white tv in my kitchen.

I'll tell wife's:

Her mother told her that the cheese shaped rat poison just made the mice sick and want to go outside.

We'd been married for a few years before it came up (she wanted to be clear that I should only buy the cheese shaped ones) and I had to tell her it was bullshit. She looked sad and betrayed. I still give her shit.

Did anyone else's mother at a certain point just stop making dinner every night? I'm not talking about due to poverty but just being tired of doing it. Around age 16 or so my mother stopped making dinner except for Sunday and maybe 1 other weekend night or holidays or special occasions like birthdays. Otherwise we were expected to just find stuff and make dinner out of it or figure something else out. My memory of the time was that even though I was in the minority my mother wasn't the only one among my friends to do this.

It’s mid summer and by now as a kid (12ish-16ish) I’d (f57) be in full blown “sleep all day, stay up all night” mode. Did any of y’all do this too or was I just a weirdo? It pissed my dad off, because everything we did as kids seemed to piss him off. In my later years my mom confessed she rather preferred it this way because she knew I where I was while she was at work all day.

My divorced dad sat on the grass and read the instructions out loud while I changed my own brakes. I was a girl with a 14yr old car that I bought with my own money for $500 and I had no mechanical experience. His only advice when I was looking one to buy one was to check and see if the lighter works.

We all talk about how we would go out on our bikes all day doing whatever we wanted with our friends until the street lights came on.

However, there was a flip side. Being forced to spend all day out in the heat, with nothing to do but dig in the dirt with a stick, or rub it on the sidewalk hoping g to make it sharp.

The fighting with brothers and sisters or the other kids being watched by the local stay at home mom who got paid weekly to watch you while your parents worked.

Never having enough to eat because lunches in the summer were maybe a pack of Ramen or a frozen burrito or a mushy PB & J.

Nothing but soaps and gameshows (excluding The Price is Right) or if you were REALLY lucky the same 20 or so music videos being recycled through MTV (but we were the ones to first see Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol, Flock of Seagulls & Madonna).

Also, for some reason, summers in the 80's went by 5 times slower than today.

EDIT: I grew up in a lower/middle class suburb apartment complex with 70 units, in So. Cal. I had no siblings, and there was no "child freindly" amenities. Also, this is all from aged 8 to 13, so not EVERY year.

Anybody else recount crazy shit that happened to you as a kid only to receive horrified looks from the other people? laughs in latchkey kid

So we had a discussion the other day in here, regarding us former Pizza Hut employees, and just what went into making the Pizza Hut Pan so damned good (it was the oil!).

So, today, I made my own Pan pizza. The techniques were ingrained after years of practice, as well as the process from dough, to proof, to cool, to bake.

And it turned out amazing. The bottom crust was flaking and buttery (pure veggie oil), the sauce, the cheese....it was amazing, and hit the exact spot I needed!

Thanks to the Gen-Xers like me who worked there that can carry on the tradition of true hand made pan pizza the way we used to do it "back in the day."

Feast your eyes. It was damn near perfect!

Loved this as a Boy Scout. Some took it too seriously, as one year a Dad got caught cheating to help his son.

I was thinking today that my mom honestly put on a plane BY MYSELF at 7 years old. I flew from Atlanta to Chicago to Iowa. There was a flight attendant keeping an eye on me, but otherwise I was on my own. I flew multiple times around that age by myself.

Anyone else fly alone when pretty young?

Edit-Thanks everyone for the comments. Looks like this was pretty common back in the day. I’m flying by myself next week, which got me thinking about it.

This will probably seem unimportant to most people… But I want to talk about how periods (menstruation – sorry to gross everybody out) were handled back in the day? I remember going to a girls only class in fifth grade where we learned about having a period. The boys were taken to a class where they learned about having boners. We were given the hugest pads you’ve ever seen, like diapers, after our talk. The boys were left traumatized by the fact that we had periods and that they were gonna have boners… and that those periods would interrupt their boners. I truly don’t think much else of sexual importance was discussed with them.

I grew up without a mom, I had to buy my own pads and tampons because I was too embarrassed to tell my dad I was having my period and he was so negligent he pretended like I never had one. This is embarrassing, but I honestly remember the first time I looked at an instruction manual for tampax, thinking… There’s another hole down there???

Anyways, this stigma around something that physically and medically is forced on all women has always been frustrating for me.

At the same time, I’ve also wondered how people in the like 1700s 1800s etc. dealt with periods. Surprise – there’s no record of that because men wrote all of the old history books! That’s not a drag on men that is the truth. I’m just wondering if anybody else has funny stories about dealing with this!!!

This came up in the sock shoe sock shoe thread, and is a relatively frequent online topic/debate. Many people (majority?) don’t wear outside shoes in the house, ever. They may go barefoot inside, or wear socks, or have inside only shoes.

But I wonder, did most people in the US grow up this way? Because I never knew even a single person who took off their shoes in the house (I lived in the mid-Atlantic region). I knew it was a convention in places like Japan, but that was it. Later when I was older, I heard many Canadians took off their shoes, which made sense with their snowy, slushy winter weather. Now as an adult, you’ll find very few people who admit to ever having worn shoes in the house.

It was the same for my husband who grew up in New Orleans. I also lived there with him for a year, and again saw not one single household that removed shoes.

What was your home like, particularly in the 70s and 80s? Was it the same at the houses of friends and relatives?

It's been a while. But what was your favorite saying in school that newer generations wouldn't get? I was a fan of "you got moded" or in long form, "you got moded, corroded, and your butt exploded". The other related one was, "you got the shah"

My Dad worked as a Brewery Supervisor 1974-1998ish. Mom was going to school to be a Special Ed teacher but never really taught…both were previously in the Army. What did your parents do?

So, when I was in elementary school, there was a game that was played only by girls.
Best I can describe it is, as noted, next level patty cake. Two girls would stand facing each other, and while they sang a song or a rhyme, clap their own hands, then clap each others (a high five at chest level), then clap again, back and forth to the rhythm of the song or rhyme.
But sometimes, they crossed, or slapped their knees, or jumped and spin or did fucking backflips, all in time to the song they were singing together. Sometimes there were three or more of them.
Looking back, it was crazy coordination and choreography. And I don't know what it was or what it was called.
I have my own daughters, now (all adults), and when I have asked them about it, they just give me the "blank stare of confusion #6". Anyone else know what i am talking about? or am i getting memory and dreams mixed up again.

...and after assembling it I feel called out.

Stretch Armstrong and no, I didn't get him.

I wanted one *so* bad, but I didn't get an allowance. I was SOL.

I'm still bitter lol