<p>I got a merit award to go to college for free. I did not know any English. I was working to finish my highschool. And yes I have no electricity in my house, so I used to read in a kerosene lamp. I was a lost soul who was starting to get active in politics and started to see some repurcession about it.</p>
<p>solo bike trips to Sardinia with sleeping bag between my handlebars, to Etruscan tombs north of Rome, as far as I could go to get away from other American students studying abroad!</p>
<p>hitchhiking everywhere</p>
<p>oh, the fun, oh the adventure (the danger. . . )</p>
<p>My daughter asked to go to a concert in Austin (4hour drive from here) with some of her friends. She's 17 and a senior. Good kid, Good student. My first internal reaction was ABSOLUTELY NOT- YOU'RE TOO YOUNG!!!!</p>
<p>Then I remembered that her Dad had already travelled all over Mexico with his friends at that age and I had already traveled all over a foreign country with friends at that age.</p>
<p>I'm reluctantly letting her go. In more ways than one. </p>
<p>But she's so young.</p>
<p>is it not ;)</p>
<p>When I was your age. . .</p>
<p>I lived at home when I went to college, so please try to feel a little gratitude for the opportunity given you to go away to college.</p>
<p>Bridge-jumping! We used to go swimming in every polluted river we could find (1970-72): the Connecticut, the Schuykill, the Delaware, the Hudson, the Potomac, the Charles... And we always went in by finding a bridge and then floating down to the next one. (I nearly went over the falls at Great Falls. Seriously, we were STOOOPID.) Someone would stop the car, we'd get out, rush the rail and jump, then be picked up at the next bridge. I will point out that these rivers were often as dangerous for their pollution as for the trash and such in them. The environmental protections put through in the early '70s have made them a LOT cleaner.</p>
<p>My kids are so sane by comparison.</p>
<p>Oh, and Islandmom, I let my then 17-year-old daughter spend 10 days in Paris in a youth hostel the spring of her senior year in HS; she had a great time and went to London the next January for another 10 days. Now she's planning a 6-month trip for after she graduates. It's hard to let go, isn't it?</p>
<p>Yeah, the old "do as I say, not as I did at your age" is sounding a little lame right now.</p>
<p>I am the nightmare parent, in that I was a "Sally sit by fire" and very boring at their ages. I can't believe that I was rewarded for my "good" behavior by a bunch of hell raisers for kids.</p>
<p>Poor J. </p>
<p>I grew up with that bunch of hellraisers. When my brother was a hs sophomore, he announced he was going to to live on a beach for the summer. F hollered, but B (talented prep school student) got on the highway anyway and hitched 700 miles and spent the summer living in the beach-chair shack of a resort. </p>
<p>Not only were parents semi-invisible, they didn't have much control. They certainly didn't have adequate warning for the revolution that happened under their noses. Kids were smoking hash in the 7th grade. We watched campus riots, ROTC buildings burning, older brothers going off to Vietnam. </p>
<p>My boys know most of it. They especially know who had trouble weaning themselves from pot and alcohol and who had unexpected children before they were twenty. </p>
<p>Then again, not so very long ago;</p>
<p>...at the height of the Great Depression, more than a quarter million teenagers were living on the road in America, many criss-crossing the country by illegally hopping freight trains.</p>
<p>The 70's, 80's and 90's were cake, by comparison.</p>
<p>City boy here. Walked only a short distance to school, took the subway to high school. Did not know how to drive at that time; none of us needed cars to get around. </p>
<p>When I was his age - I usually preface that with "Back in the Dark Ages" and usually try to follow it with "but things are different now" .</p>
<p>When I was his age (18) I was a sophomore in college plowing through a tough second year of a science major. Cheoistry, physics, math, German, mostly. Nobody had heard of buying or selling lecture notes. Drugs were not an acceptable item then (not counting beer). I was going to "mixers" at which nobody mixed; otherwise having a good time with other students (except not so much on Saturday nights); playing pinball (the equivalent of foosball in terms of social participation), touch football and frisbee. Football and basketball games and track meets. Some concerts downtown.
Almost nobody traveled to Europe (expensive and before the jet age) except kids who came from there. Pretty much a typical life of an innocent college student (at least I looked innocent). Probably rather boring, except to my friends. Not a fraternity type (a big thing at our school).</p>
<p>Never have jumped off any bridges; don't think S is likely to either, given his parents, but you never know. Don't plan to celebrate my 80th birthday by jumping out of a plane like George (HW) Bush.</p>
<p>Hated high school. Lectured my fellow students on the evils of marijuana which could lead to heroin addiction. Took some college classes senior year, which allowed me off the high school campus and therefore, with my best friend, used to climb up a canyon to the grocery store and split an entire ice cream cake for lunch. (Does this count as walking uphill both ways?) Spent hours every Friday night cruising the Sunset Strip and driving past homes of boys some friend or other had fantasies about. Read a lot of books. Spent the last half of my senior year in Hong Kong with my family and wandered on my own all over the city, even at night, imagining the lives so different from my own. Lonely and exciting at the same time. Fast forward to freshman year of college. Freshman year, found the room where I could try marijuana. Told friends I'd never been drunk, and they remedied it very quickly, though drinking was for people who were "straight" and I was not. Had my roomate pierce my ears with a sewing needle while the whole floor watched. Bought my one and only ever pack of cigarettes. Would have happily lost my virginity but couldn't find a boyfriend. Because I couldn't find a boyfriend, (and my classes were boring -- but mostly I didn't have a boyfriend) I transferred sophomore year. The rest, as they say, is history.</p>
<p>So Cheers, you know how to handle that kind of crew. I was caught blindsided. The biggest difference I do see between kids back then in my world and my kids is the affuence. I grew up in an environment with pretty mixed socioeconomics though few kids at the extreme ends and the median lower than what my kids experience. The kids that my kids know range up and down the entire economic spectrum but the cluster is more on the upper end. Which tends to consist of kids who are pretty closely watched by their parents and in many activities with high goals for college. /Does not leave much time for shenanigans. There was a much high tolerence for "bad" behavior back when I was a kid. With the world in the state it is, there is more zero tolerance and heavy punishment for things kids used to do all of the time.</p>
<p>Bump. The most enjoyable thread yet.</p>
<p>I lived at home, took 3 trains into the city to college, where I held court playing bid whisk and spades. I went out to a different club every night (was not a drinker , but a hell of a dancer). I find it amazing that I managed to graduate from college</p>
<p>I walked to grade school---ten blocks at one school; three blocks at another. High school was about five miles and there was the dreaded yellow bus. But I soon discovered that for just ten cents I could ride a train that took me within a couple blocks of the high school. Here's the best part: the train was pulled by a steam locomotive!</p>
<p>As I sat in those old commuter rail cars and took in the funky aroma, no one had to tell me that I was experiencing the tail end of a glorious era. I had a little part time job in a real bakery that kept me in enough dimes to ride that train every school day. I also learned about breads, cakes and pies---and continue to bake a few things every other day.</p>
<p>Was a good-y two shoes in high school. Tried drinking Boone's Farm Strawberry wine one night in my garage and had to wash it down with Suzy-Q's. Tried a cigarette once from a pack we found on the street and felt so sick I never tried another one - ever. Studied for Calculus AP exam at a friend's house - he was the local pot dealer and people kept coming in and out to purchase but I kept on studying (heard he later turned into an airport Hare Krishna). On 18th birthday, went to a bar with a friend (back when the drinking age was 18), had one drink, friend and I looked at each other and said this is ridiculous and headed to Friendly's for a Fribble. Was responsible for my younger sister as my (divorced) mom worked full time and went to college full time. Cleaned the house, did the laundry, made the meals. Walked 1 mile each way to and from school, every day no matter the weather because my mother was working and couldn't drive me. Played #1 singles on the badminton team (yes, there is such a thing). Read every book the English teacher assigned - and never used cliff notes.</p>
<p>So it was easy for me to tell my high schooler "I didn't do any of that stuff" because I really didn't.</p>
<p>Of course, then I went to college and discovered 151 proof rum daquiries, free pot and boys, boys, boys. Mix all three together and you have some stories I absolutely CANNOT repeat on a public message board!!</p>
<p>So now that my daughter is a freshman in college, I might have to review the little lectures somewhat.</p>
<p>We used to drink Southern Comfort, the first thing I ever drank was Mickey's malt liquor when I was 15. I only weighed about 100 lbs and I don't even think I finished one before I couldn't stand up. Disgusting. My mom didn't think anything of me saying I better drink some milk before I go out so it will coat my stomach. If we didn't have parties to go to at least one weekend night, life was over.
My 22 yr old is going to a co workers house tonight to carve pumpkins, it is the 14 year old I am worried about. She is at the age when parents start losing their vigilance over what the kids are doing even when they are home during a party.
When I was growing up, many of my friends had single moms that would "go away" for the weekend, or even had been remarried and were more concerned about their new spouse than what their kids were doing. Needless to say, that is an area where I am hyper aware. I don't assume that kids are getting into trouble, but I don't try and assume that they don't need supervison anymore either.
I admit I had a fun time growing up, what I can remember of it, but there were some bad times too and then of course there are those small details of never finishing high school or going onto college until after I had kids.
But mushrooms, I loved mushrooms, but not a lot of cow pastures around here anymore. :-0</p>
<p>OH sybbie-- Spades, I remember we played lots of spades in high schools. I had forgotten. Sounds boring maybe, but we had lots of fun.</p>
<p>I loved a guy so much I lied to my parents and said I was spending the night at my friends and drove to his place in another city (Boulder) - got caught
and grounded! Still love the guy and dont know where he is!</p>
<p>I miss playing spades! Discovered it in college - we would play night after night until 3:00 in the morning in the middle of the hall. Very wholesome...of course, we were drinking our daquiries while we were playing, LOL!</p>