Anyone Grow up in the ‘Burbs?

[NHB7]

What was your neighborhood like? Any fond memories? Bad memories? What childhood games did you play. Let’s reminisce.

Me:

We had a lot of neighborhood kids. I was one of the youngest. The boys in my neigborhood loved playing cowboys. When I was about 5 yrs old and at the grocery store with my mom they were selling a full cowboy outfit with cap gun. Mom bought it for me. I was thrilled.

One day I saw all the boys running about the neighborhood playing cowboys. So I put on my shiny new cowboy costume and headed out to show the older boys who the new sheriff in town was. When I walked up they all stopped and looked at me. Then they exploded into laughter and chased me home laughing. I cried all night.


Actually.....Fuck the ‘burbs.

 

[Fuzzybabyducks]

I grew up in the sticks in upstate NY... I rode my bike everywhere...played flashlight tag, caught lighting bugs, stuff like that

 

[ctrlaltdelete]

yeah man life was easy and the only real problems that I had, I made for myself.

 

[Sharon Peters]

I grew up on the edge of the burbs. My best friend's family was one of the last hold outs to sell their land. They owned a couple hundred acres, livestock and coon hunting dogs. It was a pretty amazing childhood. We didn't have much, but damn, I felt like a king when we were out at all hours hunting raccoons.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

I grew up right on the NJ side of the GWB. I was like three blocks from the Bridge. I absolutely loved it. Lots of cool people, even the means ones, and the geeks. Then I moved like 2 or 3 miles north into rich kids territory.

 

[Alphaboy]

Grew up in the burbs and the hood. (Had an unconventional childhood).

We used to play hide and go seek in the dark and football around cul-de-sacs. We'd play basketball and all of the typical swimming pool games.

Not really anything atypical of any other kids, I suppose.

Then one day... We just... Stopped... Playing.

 

[I Am Legion]

I grew up in a very racially mixed suburb. We played street football, stickball, manhunt, climbed trees. We loved BMX and would make jumps in the woods.
We would go to the corner store and buy candy and Marino’s Italian ices. Or 7 11 and play Defender or buy Comics. We played in sumps. We were always getting into something. I remember when it snowed it was a war.

 

[billiam]

We used to ride our bikes everywhere and if someone left their garage door open we'd help ourselves to the contents of their refrigerator. Even if you got caught people in the burbs are too nice to shoot you.

 

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

i was locked in an isoaltion pod in antartica until i turned 15. high speed interent was on point thouyg.

 

[NHB7]

The kids from my hood:

Duke: My older cousin. He was the coolest kid on the block and I’m not the only one who thought so. He was the kid who got in all the fights at school and won. When the corner pizza shop got Street Fighter II he was the best. Grew up to be a meth addict in and out of jail. Hardly talk to him now.

Dustin: Duke’s neighbor. 2nd coolest kid in the hood. His family was all white trash, but somehow owned a home in an otherwise middle class neighborhood. We all had big backyards and he rode dirt bikes in his. He also stole naked pics of his uncles GF that he showed all the neighborhood kids. He moved at age 12.

Victor and Nicole: Siblings. They were half Mexican, but Dad was gone. They lived with white trash Mom and her revolving door of bfs. In hindsight, I’m pretty sure pretty Nicole (who all the boys had crushes on) was extremely anxious and sad all childhood for a reason. She was being molested. She had 3 kids by 20. Victor was one of two boys in the neighborhood younger than me. He idolized me for some reason. He loved me to teach him skateboarding. I saw him 3 years ago. He’s 300+ lbs now and covered in tats. He works in a tattoo shop.

Chad: My other, younger cousin. The least coolest kid in the neighborhood hood. Peed his pants until 10. Cool now though. But has 3 kids in a happyless marriage.

Mark: Only wanted to play soldier. His family was crazy religious. His Dad would walk up and down the street literally carrying a full size cross and preaching. Mark grew up to be racist. In his teens he’d plant Nazi punk music from his bedroom. He died in Afghanistan from a roadside bomb.

Andrew: Fat kid that got bullied by all the neighborhood boys. He eventually never came out. His Mom was single and had no car. She walked a mile to the grocery store and would come back carrying 5 grocery bags. She looked tired, Russian and unhappy.

Victoria: Had c-cups by 5th grade. Made all the boys in the neighborhood confused. We knew we liked her, but didn’t totally know why.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

I grew up in suburbs that were still inside the city limits. Does that count? Anyway, my neighborhood was all Asians, whites, and a few blacks. Baseball on the street every day. Every fucking day. I loved it. We also rode our bikes everywhere with no supervision. When we were older, we would skateboard everywhere (the 90s), and take the bus downtown with no supervision. And yeah, we had some close calls. But parents these days don’t even let their kids go outside.

 

[Brother Numsi]

Grew up in the hood (aka the projects) and the burbs.

Life in the projects was scary at times given all the gang activity but we had fun. My older brothers used to play baseball with the bigger kids in our neighborhood. We had a big field separating the project houses and that's where they would play. We were too small so we used to just play on the swings, do backflips off the slide, and play red rover, hide and seek, or tag. Got beat up and won my first fight in that field.

We moved around a lot until we found sustainable housing in the burbs. It was still a pretty rough area but it got slightly better over the years. Hung out with friends and we would mostly play football or hoop in our backyard. After a while, we all started chasing girls, getting after school jobs, and playing sports for the schools we attended.

Lot of good times and some bad times.

 

[Shawn91111]

I grew up in the suburbs of central NY, my neighborhood (still my parents hood) was great, large amount of kids my age, park with a pool, basketball courts etc 1 block away, hide n seek, football in the steet, and just enough things in walking distance or we rode our bikes. Honestly a very good place to grow up. Pretty much the same adults live in the neighborhood now, but no kids (obviously all grown), mostly seems like a retirement community without being labeled as such.

 

[KONG-D'SNT-TAP]

The suburbs are awesome and had an incredible childhood there.

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

I'm 37 and still live in the same suburb, tis cool, quiet but not too quiet.

 

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

The kids from my hood:

Duke: My older cousin. He was the coolest kid on the block and I’m not the only one who thought so. He was the kid who got in all the fights at school and won. When the corner pizza shop got Street Fighter II he was the best. Grew up to be a meth addict in and out of jail. Hardly talk to him now.

Dustin: Duke’s neighbor. 2nd coolest kid in the hood. His family was all white trash, but somehow owned a home in an otherwise middle class neighborhood. We all had big backyards and he rode dirt bikes in his. He also stole naked pics of his uncles GF that he showed all the neighborhood kids. He moved at age 12.

Victor and Nicole: Siblings. They were half Mexican, but Dad was gone. They lived with white trash Mom and her revolving door of bfs. In hindsight, I’m pretty sure pretty Nicole (who all the boys had crushes on) was extremely anxious and sad all childhood for a reason. She was being molested. She had 3 kids by 20. Victor was one of two boys in the neighborhood younger than me. He idolized me for some reason. He loved me to teach him skateboarding. I saw him 3 years ago. He’s 300+ lbs now and covered in tats. He works in a tattoo shop.

Chad: My other, younger cousin. The least coolest kid in the neighborhood hood. Peed his pants until 10. Cool now though. But has 3 kids in a happyless marriage.

Mark: Only wanted to play soldier. His family was crazy religious. His Dad would walk up and down the street literally carrying a full size cross and preaching. Mark grew up to be racist. In his teens he’d plant Nazi punk music from his bedroom. He died in Afghanistan from a roadside bomb.

Andrew: Fat kid that got bullied by all the neighborhood boys. He eventually never came out. His Mom was single and had no car. She walked a mile to the grocery store and would come back carrying 5 grocery bags. She looked tired, Russian and unhappy.

Victoria: Had c-cups by 5th grade. Made all the boys in the neighborhood confused. We knew we liked her, but didn’t totally know why.

 

[loyalyolayal]

Born and raised in the city. Moved out to a sleepy sea side town and I loved it. My kids are attending school in the city so we all have to be here. If given the choice I'd rather be back in my mom's small town.

 

[kahiljabroni]

Nope. Nobody ever.












Ok I did. It was awesome. We were outside all day every day all year round

 

[deev]

Grew up in a commuter town near Edinburgh, Scotland. The small private estate I grew up on had a lot of young families and every evening there would be 20+ kids out playing football (soccer, no lycra!), racing bikes, fishing, building rope swings, joining scouts and making fires etc etc.

When I went to uni and graduated I moved to Glasgow, Scotland biggest city and realised that where I grew up and was raised was pretty much idyllic and there are a lot of kids who aren't anywhere near so lucky. I mean I knew that there were rougher places than Linlithgow, but not quote the levels of deprevation some people were living under.

I also realised that my parents sacrificed a lot to get me to that place and to grow up there, they weren't rich, my father was a scaffolder and my mother worked saturdays, they did without so my brother and I could have. It's made me compassionate towards underprivileged kids and yet highly contemptuous of parents who live on schemes who wont do simple things to better themselves for the benefit of their own children. If I ever have children I want them to do better than I have managed, sadly, in Scotland, aspiration seems to be a dirty word for many poor people.

I work in discount retail and see people every day, some people who desperately want to leave the poor areas my shops operate in, working as hard as they can with children who, despite the area they've been born into, speak well and have been raised well and then other kids who are almost semi feral. The parents of the later seem almost afraid that their children will outdo them, it's tragic.

I manage supermarkets, no great shakes but I get to live in the burbs again through my and my wifes hard work, both of us the products of working class backgrounds. It makes me sad when I see parents spending even one penny on cigarettes and alcohol when they live in shit holes and they deprive their children of the chance at a better life than the one they have.

I grew up in Linlithgow, if your Scottish and earn an average to maybe lower 40% income you could live here, there's social housing, the town is 600+ years old, has a Palace where kings and queens lived and died etc and this exact view is one I took entirely for granted when I was floating about in a Kyak or a sailing boat during outdoor education, which was pretty regular.

I had this.

I was lucky. I was lucky because my parents worked their arses off.

 

[NHB7]

Grew up in a commuter town near Edinburgh, Scotland. The small private estate I grew up on had a lot of young families and every evening there would be 20+ kids out playing football (soccer, no lycra!), racing bikes, fishing, building rope swings, joining scouts and making fires etc etc.

When I went to uni and graduated I moved to Glasgow, Scotland biggest city and realised that where I grew up and was raised was pretty much idyllic and there are a lot of kids who aren't anywhere near so lucky. I mean I knew that there were rougher places than Linlithgow, but not quote the levels of deprevation some people were living under.

I also realised that my parents sacrificed a lot to get me to that place and to grow up there, they weren't rich, my father was a scaffolder and my mother worked saturdays, they did without so my brother and I could have. It's made me compassionate towards underprivileged kids and yet highly contemptuous of parents who live on schemes who wont do simple things to better themselves for the benefit of their own children. If I ever have children I want them to do better than I have managed, sadly, in Scotland, aspiration seems to be a dirty word for many poor people.

I work in discount retail and see people every day, some people who desperately want to leave the poor areas my shops operate in, working as hard as they can with children who, despite the area they've been born into, speak well and have been raised well and then other kids who are almost semi feral. The parents of the later seem almost afraid that their children will outdo them, it's tragic.

I manage supermarkets, no great shakes but I get to live in the burbs again through my and my wifes hard work, both of us the products of working class backgrounds. It makes me sad when I see parents spending even one penny on cigarettes and alcohol when they live in shit holes and they deprive their children of the chance at a better life than the one they have.

I grew up in Linlithgow, if your Scottish and earn an average to maybe lower 40% income you could live here, there's social housing, the town is 600+ years old, has a Palace where kings and queens lived and died etc and this exact view is one I took entirely for granted when I was floating about in a Kyak or a sailing boat during outdoor education, which was pretty regular.

I had this.

I was lucky. I was lucky because my parents worked their arses off.

I went to Edinburgh when I was 13, But was too young to appreciate it. I spent most the time looking for cool skate spots. Met some Scottish kids my age and we skated for hours. Had a lot of fun though.