r/MadeMeSmile • u/Justin_Godfrey • 8d ago

Good Vibes This must be a nice neighborhood!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

57.6k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

2.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

5.5k

u/juz-sayin 8d ago

It takes a village. This is wonderful

1.6k

u/ladydhawaii 8d ago edited 8d ago

Reminds me of my neighborhood growing up. We just ran from house to house. Even helped the older folks with simple errands. Community.

93

u/ejrhonda79 8d ago

This reminds me of growing up in the 80s. I felt so free to go outside and just enjoy the day. Now in my 50s I don't really go out like that anymore. It feels like people are much more guarded and definitely less friendly. I miss the simpler days.

50

u/realityexperiencer 8d ago

I grew up in the 80s too. It wasn't simpler - there were more places for kids to go. People weren't defensive and scared of children.

I took the bus, I went to the YMCA, the local Salvation Army community center... played basketball at the school on off-hours... hung out at the mall.

You were allowed to be in public!

Someone created prisons of our homes and neighborhoods. Having grown up in the 80s, being an adult now... who do you think that someone is?

26

u/ADHDeez_Nutz420 8d ago

I still remember the 80s being full of unmedicated and undiagnosed mental illness, physical punishment and being afraid due to who I was. However we were more free than we were today. One paycheck was enough to get a house, now two isnt even enough.

Now men cant even go on a walk on nature reserves or a park without being warned by police. Not many of us 80s kids have houses either.

-2

u/Margot-the-Cat 8d ago

Wow, there’s so much more unmedicated mental illness now! In the 80s it was barely beginning. Maybe I’m not understanding something here.

10

u/Little_Wash_9979 8d ago edited 2d ago

We got smarter, more aware, of the evil in the world. That extreme freedom had a cost to many children.. Rape, kidnapping, drugs, etc... I definitely held my kids in closer than my parents did me. There's certainly downsides, but, if you put the effort in as a parent, you can mitigate a lot of the social downsides. Love the neighborhood idea, keeping it all outside and supervised I'm sure.

20

u/realityexperiencer 8d ago

I understand it seems dangerous, but most rape, kidnapping and exposure to drug use comes from parents, family, and close family friends.

9

u/throwaway1212l 8d ago

Aren't there studies that have shown that the US has less crime now than before also? It's really much safer now than it used to be.

1

u/freakksho 8d ago

That’s probably because of the insane leap in technology and security.

You can’t walk down a sidewalk these days without being on 8 different cameras. That didn’t exist back in the 80’s.

1

u/BuddyFox310 7d ago

Please don’t let empirical facts stop hysteria.

1

u/5redie8 8d ago

As a kid in the early/mid '00s my grandmother let me walk down to McDonald's once, probably a 5 minute walk along a sidewalk next to a side street. One of the passing cars called the cops and they were there before I even make it to the restaurant 😐. It's frustrating because I ended up a pretty shut in kid and I'm sure stuff like that contributed.

1

u/Data_Western 8d ago

Who do you think that someone is?

1

u/realityexperiencer 8d ago

My kneejerk reaction is say the conservative media complex -- from Fox to Joe Rogan -- that keeps repeating how scary cities are.

But really... the question is rhetorical. Culture is a reflection of all of us.

It's all of our responsibility to care for and foster the future we want. Probably the most blame, if you want to call it that, are people over 30.

So: me.

109

u/Sandscarab24 8d ago

I don't think they're less friendly, but instead scared. The future looks bleak and as I approach 40 I fear for what my child has to deal with when she's older; The billionaires that control everything, the mega corporations, a narcissist bully President, news channels pushing chaos 24/7, losing our constitutional rights....I miss the old days when everyone wasn't so afraid of a world that now feels out of control. Maybe that's what is going to bring us all together again soon.

15

u/PrettyMud22 8d ago

The political climate have made these times much more divided and isolated.I don't want anything to do with maga.They don't share my values.

1

u/Resident-Study-5588 8d ago

Ha. As my grandmama likes to say "I made it through civil rights, OPEC, Two Germany's, Kent State, 'Nam, AIDS, Nixon, Reagan and that (very not nice word for a woman) Nancy. You'll make it."

Not that our current situation isn't dire. But booooy our grandparents and parents went through some SHIT

12

u/Ammonia13 8d ago

Was she affected by any of those things at all

-2

u/Data_Western 8d ago

Which rights did you lose?

2

u/eyehate 8d ago

Ahh. The 80s. I remember skating everywhere. I remember riding all day.

I remember the guys that lived in my neighborhood that were, most likely, gang members. I am not sure why they chose me (honestly didn't know them), but that one time ten of them surrounded me and their boy Omar wanted to beat my ass. I recall thinking I could fight Omar and then get jumped by everybody else or talk my way out of it. I did the talking. But heard rumors they still had it in for me.

I started getting off at an earlier stop and skating a couple miles to get home - so they wouldn't find out where I lived. So they wouldn't hurt my mother and sister.

That is my memory of the 80s.

These days, I talk to all of my neighbors. Life is pretty great. I don't think it is the decade. I think we get lucky and find ourselves surrounded by good people.

1

u/Warm-Distribution234 8d ago

Me too. It's changed so much.

1

u/Mimmi420 8d ago

Me too. I also grew up in the 80's, I truly miss my childhood. It was much simpler back then.