Those ‘ice on the windows’ tweets

I was born in the late 70's, as far as I remember we always had central heating. Turning the light off when you left the room was the rule in our house though, and everything got unplugged at night - although that was probably more to do with my mum worrying about the house burning down.

I used to be allowed out without adult supervision from quite a young age, so long as I was with my friends or my brothers and we said where we were going and what time we'd be back. But I also spent a fair amount of time indoors too, we had a computer in the house from when I was 6, I was also very into Lego and reading.

Another one born in 1970 ... both parents worked, and my mother worked nights.
The old man worked swing shifts, so only one week in 4 would be a day shift.
I'd walk myself to and from Middle School; there was still traffic, but it was nothing like today's volume.
I was a latchkey kid ... the key was hanging off a piece of string long on the inside, which was long enough to reach through the letter box and to the outside lock.
As one parent was always on nights, I could only get changed and then had to be back out - no matter the weather.
I was taught to ride by getting on a friends bike and falling off until I didn't fall off anymore ... and that was it. Escape mechanism in place. I'd just ride - single speed hub, none of that fancy 3-speed Sturmey Archer (and oh to be rich enough to have a 10 speed).
I did fecking miles on that bike - couldn't tell you what it was - but mainly to escape the joys of home life and the physical and mental pain it brought.
The bike was my sanctuary.

I look at my kids, and sometimes feel sad that they have no interest in cycling (or any other sport for that matter); they hardly go out to play - they are happy on the xbox, tablets, computer or phones... but then I think at least they aren't always out to escape the fist, belt and boot.

We live in different times: if I had the distractions my kids have got, along with the parents that my kids have ... I don't think I'd leave the house either.

As a fellow '70s child (born 1970) my memories are similar. We didn't have central heating until the mid-80s so all hot water came from either the back boiler (log fire in living room) or immersion heater. Couple of baths a week, basin wash the rest of the time. Pyjamas, hat, and hot water bottle, with heated blanket if it was really cold. Clothes washing once a week too, in a massive twin tub. Took Mum all day. Only one room was heated in the winter, unless we had guests and popped the gas fire on in the "dining" room. No heating upstairs. 

Dad was a first a docker and then a lorry driver, we weren't exactly poor when he was working although did go through a phase early 80s where they were on strike a lot (Maggie trying and succeeding in abolishing the NDLB). In those years there were no holidays and we didn't have a car for a while either.

Definitely freer to play although conscious that (a) I was male and (b) didn't look like I should be messed with. Also the base level of violence from the local scrotes was lower than it is today. I lived on the edge of a big council estate and whilst there were places you didn't go alone - particularly if you had a nice bike like I did - I had pretty much free rein. And a lot of mates too, so we were always in and out of each others houses with just a "tea is at half 4 if you want some" return home order.

There's certainly aspects of that upbringing I wish my son had the ability to experience - certainly less tech and more outside opportunities and more solo exploring - but living in a draughty Georgian house I'm not looking forward to having the CH switched off this winter. I don't really need to do that - we have a fix until August 2024 - but definitely want to set the habit for when that fix expires or my supplier goes bust. 

Born in the 50s, just, my childhood was essentially the 1960s. First house with central heating was in about 1972, before then we had parafin heaters in the bedroom, coal fires and strange boiler contraptions running on coke for hot water.
 

Our first fridge was in about 1966 (Christmas present for mum, I think!) before then we had a pantry, as most houses did, where there was a little grill to the outside. Ice cream was strictly takeaway and required dad to come home quickly from the corner shop before it melted - not always successfully.

When I lived in Scunthorpe, although I lived on the main road, out the back was some old car park and you could get to an estate through it. There were lots of derelict houses around so there was a scary overgrown garden to explore across the car park, full of monsters, IIRC.

Sunderland was where I learned to ride a bike and I would ride around the pavements locally - a mate got into big trouble for riding from Farringdon (part of Sunderland) to Penshaw Monument and back, which at the age of 8 or so was quite a feat.

I spent my time in Holbeach riding everywhere. As soon as I got back from school I would hop on my Raleigh RSW Mk2 (which weighed approximately 2 tons 4 cwt) and do circuits of the local roads, impersonating Jim Clark working his way through the gears, I would go off for miles down the lanes and roads locally, at 10 or 11 I would have ridden a round trip of 16 miles to Spalding. Mates lived on farms in unheard of places like Gedney Drove End. I remember being terrified riding home in the dark with only the yellow glow of the built in dynamo front light to see by.

We would always get back from school and just go off - and we had to be back for tea, about 5:30, which was peanut butter or marmalade sandwiches and some cake with lemonade or later on, tea. Being northern we took dinner money to school and had school dinners, so we didn't need a cooked evening meal, apparently.

Bin men wore filthy black leathers, carried galvanised bins on their backs and slung the mess into the back of what was basically a tipper truck with domed slide up covers. We had coal men, lorries to pump out the cesspit, milk floats were universal and slow and motorists never berated the milkman trying to get back to the depot on the last dregs of his battery at 1mph, the Corona lorry came round weekly. I went to school by bus and my favourite bus being the green Lincolnshire Road Car Bristol buses - in exciting times they started having buses with automatic doors. Sunday afternoons in spring and summer we might go out for a drive (a journey without purpose that apparently was acceptable), especially when the tulip fields were in full bloom.

When mum went back to work as a teacher, we started having a bit more money so we started going for a 2 week holiday instead of one. These were invariably to Methodist Guild Holidays, children in dormetries while mum and dad had a bedroom - but no en-suite. The entertainment was hikes or sightseeing bus trips, packed lunch provided, with concerts and other evening entertainments. 

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That seems like a big chunk of what is missing in children’s lives today - spontaneous, unsupervised outdoor play.

Definitely, aged ten in 1978 we would play cricket or football in the park until it was too dark to see or the parkie threw us out. I don't know any parent of a child of that age now who would let that happen. I really don't know if that's because society has become more dangerous (as the DM commentariat would have us believe) or people are just more paranoid. It makes me sad in the school holidays to ride through parks and see empty tennis courts, football pitches and cricket nets standing idle in the middle of the day, in my day (God almighty, I've reached the age where one says "in my day") one had to queue up for hours on end to use them. 

My childhood was much like yours in the 70s/80s.

If I told my parents I was cold they'd tell me to put on a jumper and if I was sat in front of the TV at the weekend or school holiday my Dad who was a teacher gave me a choice. Homework, chores or go out to play, and I wasn't going to walk when my friends and I all had bikes. Pre Playstation and mobile phones a bicycle was all of my friends most treasured possession.

I lived in London from age 8 to 14 and we could spend all day on Blackheath going down and back up the huge holes. We called them bomb craters but I think they were something to do with mining.

We also didn't have a car which didn't seem that unusual to me at the time. Trips around town were bike or bus and holidays were a train trip to the seaside. I seem to remember the GLC made any London bus journey 5p for children and 10p for adults at one point but I might be imagining that.

I don't have recollections to add, except there was more cycling.  There was still plenty of driving though - can't remember how this compares to now.  Older people definitely went with the "one warm room" idea.  My grandparents didn't seem to heat the rest of the house and the room I normally stayed in when visiting had single glazing and an air brick - to my young eyes that mean a hole in the wall!

I'm entirely with you on the mobility front.  But note - this required push or pull.  Pull - because we *had* to do this to get to somewhere enjoyable, or that was part of "play".  Push because we were kicked out of the house, or there was nothing else to do.  This is something which might be "it's the culture" and "we can't get there from here".  Although humans are human wherever they are society - in the broader sense e.g. possibly up to and including language - has a massive effect.

The following might be of interest (although a bit "no shit sherlock"): Westminster Uni Child independent mobility comparison across several countries although missing The Netherlands, which I suspect may be leading.  Reportedly it's the safest European country for pedestrians.

Notjustbikes has a good video on how Dutch-style infra provides incidental exercise.

David Hembrow's reminder that cycling in the NL derives a lot of its popularity from being a social activity - humans like to travel side-by-side in groups and enjoy the journey.

Humans don't tend to make a detailed inventory of what is essential to us.  Even for when we do we're not Epicureans in the original sense, or monks - we don't tend to pick the minimum.  If there are things which involve "effort" we will try to avoid them - unless they provide some other pretty good payoffs.  That can be "enhancing our prestige" though so cultural engineering should be possible.

In general though the trend of human history (and even prehistory) shows an ever increasing number of people using an every increasing amount of resources.  I don't think technology resolves that, rather the opposite.  It just changes the resources we exploit.  Often because we exhausted a previous set.