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

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?