Social experiences by generation

There are a range of generations posting here and I would be interested (nosey) to find out how you spent your weekends in your teens early twenties, to see how much has changed or stayed the same.

I worked as a Saturday Girl in my local Woolworths in my last couple of years in school, my 19s 6p later £1:00 along with pocket money fuelled my Saturday ad Sunday nights out.
Friday night we'd gather at someone's house and style each others hair for Saturday, mine was not worth the effort, if curled for waves they'd have fallen out within the hour. The straight hair had been great a couple of years before in my hippy stage.

Anyway, after work we'd rush home and get ready to go to the disco and live band in a dance hall back in town. A couple of drinks while waiting for the dance floor to fill up and off you go dancing the night away until ---- 11:00pm, then just enough time to get the last bus home.

Sundays sometimes you had a date but they were usually for a week day or next Saturday, normally we'd all turn up at the local cinema which, wasn't exactly salubrious, to watch Hammer House of Horror Films or similar, mainly to enjoy the jokes and comments from the audience, then off to the chip shop for a bag of chips and get the last bus home at 10:30pm.

One weekday two of my friends and I had dates with three boys who were also friends, so we all went to a pub in the country, one boy had borrowed his dad's car. To my horror while standing at the bar which had a mirrored wall behind the bar with the shelves for the optics, I realised I was standing next to my deputy head teacher, (we were not strictly of age for buying alcohol) he was speaking to his friends on the other side of him but then looked up and to this day I swear he looked straight at me via the mirror but said nothing, we left pretty quickly, all three girls were in his school at the time.

This is probably between 13 and 17 or so; I would hang out with a guy who was my best friend at the time, named Scott, who lived a few houses down the street.

We'd play baseball, football (American) and basketball in the street and at the school campus across the street; hang out and play music, play Nintendo, scrounge money out of the couch cushions to order pizza; and when we got to 15, we'd occasionally get an older guy to buy us alcohol, and sneak out in our parent's cars, neither of us with a driver's license, after our parents had gone to bed.

We'd go cruise around the Fort Worth Stockyards, pretending we were going to pick up some chicks (we never did, I don't think anybody really hooked up there). One night a police officer set up a checkpoint that we were forced to go through, drunk and 15, no licenses, in a slightly stolen car, with an open 12-pack of beer hidden under my legs.

The cop just waved us on. Luckiest moment of my childhood, probably.

Once we nearly set my parent's garage on fire; that was fun. I can't remember what led to that ...

I left school and had a full time job at just 15, first one was same as Vintage,
in Woolworths, Piccadilly, I worked there till my proper job (GPO telephonist) was ready to start the training course .

Weekends me and a group of friends would hitch hike to St Annes near Blackpool. My sisters boyfriend had a flat there, and as he spent weekends at our house he let me use his flat at the weekends....and we were very sensible, always left it tidier than we found it, so it worked out fine.

From aged 17 I worked summers away doing seasonal work both in the Isle of Man and on the East coast. From 18 worked in nightclubs....I  loved that life....every day to do as I pleased and every night was like a night out...and you got paid too. I met my OH when I called for a cab to take me home one night, he was the driver....it was lust at first sight,  

Life is very different now. OH has retired, we spend week days and weekends doing whatever we fancy, but we usually go out for lunch.
Sundays are special, in summer we are in Wales, we kayak a lot, swim,  walk, we are pretty active., in winter we see family, friends, and just relax.

Nice thread btw Vintage.x

Probably the dep. head teach was being kool, Vint. Good guy.

Yes Quill, he seemed to be ok outside school, in school he was very strict and didn't put up with any nonsense.
Ben, did your parents find you out ?
Syl, that's a pretty exciting life you've led.

Vintage wrote:Yes Quill, he seemed to be ok outside school, in school he was very strict and didn't put up with any nonsense.
Ben, did your parents find you out ?
Syl, that's a pretty exciting life you've led.

Lol, everyones life sounds exciting if we describe it in a couple of paragraphs.
I was a teenager in the so called swinging sixties, it was a good time to be young. Music was great, as soon as the Beatles became well known a different vibe sort of filled the air, music was everywhere, and in Manchester there were dozens of little clubs that used to have all the best acts. The Beatles played in one after they became really famous. They had signed a contract to play in this small backstreet club before they became famous and they honoured the contract....sadly I missed it.

By the time I was old enough to work in clubs the Mersey sound had been and gone, but there has always been great music around whatever the era.
It's funny how we think of certain songs that fit certain times of our lives, when I hear a certain tune .."Me and Mrs Jones" for eg, I get transported back to when I first met my OH. I think we all do that.

I remember Barry Gibbs (Bee Gees) on discussing British rock of that era. He made the point that at that time Brit R&R never used horns...always strings.

That's how I remember British music. Of course, the Sgt. Pepper album broke all rules.

Vintage wrote:Yes Quill, he seemed to be ok outside school, in school he was very strict and didn't put up with any nonsense.
Ben, did your parents find you out ?
Syl, that's a pretty exciting life you've led.

I eventually told them everything. When I was around 35 or so

Original Quill wrote:I remember Barry Gibbs (Bee Gees) on discussing British rock of that era.  He made the point that at that time Brit R&R never used horns...always strings.

That's how I remember British music.  Of course, the Sgt. Pepper album broke all rules.

Rubber Soul was my favourite, the songs were less drug induced.

How did you spend your teen years Quill?

I started working at 14 in food vans, got a job in a kitchen working nights and weekends at 16 all while at school. did a couple of months full time in a pallet factory in between school and uni  (my dad was the account there).
I had saved enough money to not work for the first semester at uni then went back to working in kitchens and then back at the pallet factory part time (about 30 hours) for the rest of uni.

Similarly I was always trying to fit concerts and a social life in around work and study. when I was a teen i was more into metal and punk music but in my 20's more indie rock and electronica (a lot more girls at those gigs )

My parents never had money to spare so it was always a case of if I wanted a social life (or anything 'extra' like brand name clothes) I had to earn the money for it myself. they did make the deal (which if i have kids will do the same) free board and basic expenses while you stay in the education system(with the expectation that you are at least passing). 

Also I look older (a curse now )  so I was more often then not able to buy alcohol from about 16. With confidence and a learners permit photo ID (not fake) I sometimes managed to bluff my way into clubs/venues too. I saw a lot of bands and gigs I wasn't old enough to be at.
Lucky my Dad and Uncle were 'cool' when it comes to music so would often 'chaperone' me and friends at gigs where under age was allowed that way.

From 19 I spent 3 years killing Babies, according to Quill, but then, he knows fuck all about what it was like !