117 - How Did We Survive the 80s & 90s?

The one where Fern and Nat dive headfirst into the glorious chaos of growing up in the 80s and 90s. From playgrounds built like WWE steel cages to drinking water from a random hose in someone’s yard, we’re asking the real question:

How did we actually survive?

We’re talking:

• Riding bikes until the streetlights came on 

• Toys that were basically small weapons

• The TV shows that raised us

• Phones that were attached to the wall

• And the parenting style known as “Go outside and figure it out.”

Expect ridiculous nostalgia, roasting, and the kind of chaotic storytelling that only Fern and Nat can deliver.

So grab a Capri Sun, dust off your cassette tapes, and join us as we revisit the wild, unsupervised adventure that was childhood in the 80s and 90s.

Spoiler alert:

If we survived that… we can survive anything. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Welcome back to Limitless Table Talk, the podcast where two people sit down for a normal conversation and somehow end up unpacking childhood memories that definitely should have required a waiver. I'm Fern.

SPEAKER_05 0:14

I'm Nat. And today's episode is basically us realizing we grew up in the 80s and 90s, which was completely a different universe, I believe.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

A universe with fewer rules.

SPEAKER_05 0:31

And significant I can't even talk. Significantly more dangerous. You're alright? No, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

You need help?

SPEAKER_05 0:42

Just a little.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

You know, kids today have GPS watches and phones.

SPEAKER_05 0:51

That is true because now you can track them like with the GPS. I had a bike. Well, I had more like a skateboard. I wasn't like a really a bike person. What about you?

SPEAKER_03 1:05

I had both. I had a bike and a skateboard, but I also had a vague promise to be home before dark.

SPEAKER_05 1:13

Oh my god. I didn't really like so I lived like in a cul de sac. Was it a cul de sac? Really? Okay, whatever. It was a cold de sac. And we we weren't really allowed like to leave the cul de sac when we played. So I I always made sure I was home by dark.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

That makes sense for you though. You were that person.

SPEAKER_05 1:40

Yeah, and the when the street lights turned on before you got home.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

Life was over.

SPEAKER_05 1:48

Done. Finished.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Finito. The chancleta came out.

SPEAKER_05 1:55

Like my mom already had a speech prepared of like the lights were on already. It's getting dark. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 2:04

And the chancla.

SPEAKER_05 2:05

Because that meant it was.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

Oh sorry. That was just me. I always got the chancla or the belt.

SPEAKER_05 2:10

Oh no, yeah, no. My parents.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

But again, it was a different time.

SPEAKER_05 2:13

It was, it was a different time. Well, my parents were not like that. I mean, we both had different upbringings in 80s and 90s.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 2:21

It was more of the grounded.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

Um oh, you were a timeout person?

SPEAKER_05 2:27

My parents grounded, yeah. It was like ground me. So my parents were the type to just ground us. But I would have to hear a long lecture.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

I don't know what's worse. The long lecture? What? Lecture? Lecture? Una cadilla.

SPEAKER_05 2:50

Yes, basically that's what we got. Because you you had to be on time. And that was your warning. The lights turning on.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

I remember that. The lights turn on. We have to be near the house. That was my that was my thing. We had to be near the house.

SPEAKER_04 3:09

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

When the lights turn on. Because the thing is, we would I would we would take adventures. Like very elaborate adventures. And we would get on the bike.

SPEAKER_05 3:24

Who were you? The Goonies?

SPEAKER_03 3:25

Kind of. And we would go on a bike and we'd run into sloth. Hey you guys! And uh no, seriously, we would we would like just bike for miles and miles away from the house, sometimes into like really far places that we probably shouldn't be have should have been going at like nine, eight, nine, ten years old. But once we started seeing the sun go down, we knew it's time to turn around. We knew we had to turn around because if we didn't get near the house by the time the lights turned on, I was getting whooped.

SPEAKER_05 4:09

Okay. So for for my upbringing, it was we couldn't leave the cul-de-sac. Maybe it was a because we were girls, maybe makes more sense.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Makes a lot more sense.

SPEAKER_05 4:18

Um it was you could play right out here, so if my mom stuck her head out, she needed to be able to see us. We used to play like street hockey. Yep, that's what we used to play, but those lights turn on. It didn't matter. I could have been standing in front of my house. My butt better be inside the house the minute those lights turned on. Really? Yeah, they would turn on, and we had about five minutes to be able to make it back into the house because I didn't need the cul-de-sac. And if not, she would come outside in the little porch outside of the house and start yelling my name. And if I if she I made her wait, she would yell my full name. I'm talking about first, middle, and last name. Can you imagine? I was so embarrassed because it was dinner time. Everybody knew lights turned on, it turned dark. It was dinner time pretty much. Everybody ate dinner at the same time. It's not like now. But how about um the most unbelievable thing about growing up in the 80s and 90s?

SPEAKER_03 5:31

Cartoons?

SPEAKER_05 5:33

Oh, I love Saturday cartoons.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yo, they have cartoons.

SPEAKER_05 5:39

How about for me? I guess because since we have kids, growing up in the 80s and 90s was I didn't realize our parents had no idea where we were.

unknown 5:52

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:53

Like none.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

Yeah, I mean, I think that I would wake up, watch cartoons in the morning, right? And then the moment light grazed the front window, I was out the door. Gone.

SPEAKER_05 6:15

Right.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Gone the entire day.

SPEAKER_05 6:18

Like you'd be gone the whole day. Like, like gone. You would come back like you were just on a whole side quest.

SPEAKER_03 6:25

No, I was on a full quest. With side quests. Every time. Like gone. Gone. Gone. I'd be like, like, yo, we're we're on the bike. Let's roll. Boom, we'd leave. And that's the that's the thing. We would leave.

SPEAKER_05 6:41

Because there were no phone, no cell phones in our time growing up.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

We would leave. And we would go to the parks, or we would go to man, anywhere but home.

SPEAKER_05 6:54

I would go to the mall for me. It was going to the mall. I like once again, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:59

But it was you had a different thing because you didn't leave the cul-de-sac versus us.

SPEAKER_05 7:05

Right.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

That we had the whole neighborhood.

SPEAKER_05 7:08

Well, I'm talking about in my teenage.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

And we would leave our neighborhood and go like, like, yo, let's go to like that other neighborhood on the other side. And we would leave and go like far. We would go far.

SPEAKER_05 7:24

I'm talking about like I'm already a teenager, not little, you know what I mean? Like, eh, like nobody would call. Like, I wouldn't, we would leave, and there was no way of contacting yourself.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

No contact.

SPEAKER_05 7:38

Like, there were payphones, but you needed back then. I mean, it started with a dime at one point. But you needed, like, your my parents would give me like 50 cents or a dollar and quarters and say, you need to call after X amount of time. Let us know where you're at. I don't know if it was the upbringing because we were girls.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

That makes so much more sense, though. They didn't even care where we were.

SPEAKER_05 8:06

And then you had to find a payphone and wait behind people because people would be on it.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

There was pay there, but there were payphones everywhere.

SPEAKER_05 8:20

They but they but finding one that was available was hard.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

And it then did not smell like uh like a back alley.

SPEAKER_04 8:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

Because that too. Like those phone, man. Sometimes you'd pick up those phones. Oof. You'd get woof. They had the scent. Yeah. The scent of a lot of bad things that occurred on that phone. So I don't even know what could have. Where would that phone have gone that it would get that stuff?

SPEAKER_05 8:52

I guess it's because so many people handled it. Do you think so? So so to me, growing up in the 80s and 90s, for instance, just like you said, those phones. How many people touched it? How many people, a lot of people would talk so close to it, and none of us even really cared about sanitary.

SPEAKER_03 9:10

No, no, we didn't care. Nothing. Nothing.

SPEAKER_05 9:13

Nothing. But like there was no like yo.

SPEAKER_03 9:16

I I wonder how many people licked those phones.

SPEAKER_05 9:20

First of all, I don't know why you thought of that to begin with.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 9:26

But okay. Um, I feel like my parent well, our parents, or just parents in 80s and 90s, just trusted the system.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

What system?

SPEAKER_05 9:38

Well, the streetlight system. I guess it would just be the streetlight system, really.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

The universal signal that children must go home.

SPEAKER_05 9:51

Like your freedom has expired.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

The second those lights flicks on the the second those lights flicked on, that was it.

SPEAKER_05 10:00

I'm telling you, I would hear my mom's voice echoing through the neighborhood. Like, like Natasha. But you know, and then my full name. I'm not going through all my full name. Just saying. Can you imagine? Did you ever hear Fern?

SPEAKER_03 10:22

Never. I don't think my I don't think my family cared that I existed.

SPEAKER_05 10:28

And if I heard my mom if I heard my mom yelling already, and like the light literally just turned on, I knew someone had snitched. Like she she found out I had not gotten home yet. Because it would take my mom a little bit before she realized because she'd be cooking.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Right.

SPEAKER_05 10:46

So I knew it was probably my sister who turned me in. Your sister my sister.

SPEAKER_03 10:52

Your sister. Man. She gets you.

SPEAKER_04 10:56

My sister.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

She got you so many times.

SPEAKER_04 10:59

Yes. That's all.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

She would just sit in that little rocking chair.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

Stop.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

You know, you know, when you listen to this, you're gonna hear that. You're gonna remember that. She's gonna sit there in that little rocket chair.

unknown 11:15

Stop.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

Looking like the saw puppet.

SPEAKER_05 11:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

The jigsaw puppet.

SPEAKER_05 11:19

She would turn me in for sure because mom would be mom would be cooking and not realize. And then like sometimes I would just start, oh, oh yeah, I got home. I was upstairs. You didn't notice? And I got away with it. But no, I if I heard my name within minutes, my sister turned me in for sure. And you know she did. Yeah. But growing up in the 80s and 90s is so different from now. Like that the whole thing about phones, texting, and all that. Man, when our kids were younger, if we didn't hear from them within 40 minutes, we'd freak out. Like we thought the worst.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

Big time. How didn't but that's connectivity? That's that's how things have connected. Like now it's so we're literally so connected to each other all the time.

SPEAKER_05 12:09

It's just so like you know all the time. It's so different, like that upbringing. Like it really is. You don't realize it until you start really talking about it. What about drinking water from the hose?

SPEAKER_03 12:21

The best.

SPEAKER_05 12:22

My dad used to do that.

SPEAKER_03 12:25

We all did that.

SPEAKER_05 12:26

It's another thing that makes absolutely zero sense now.

SPEAKER_03 12:31

Yeah, not even your own hose. Like you don't even drink out of your own hose anymore.

SPEAKER_05 12:36

Like we used to drink out of my dad used to drink out of other people's hoses. Like we would, like, I would do it all the time. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

You just have to let it run a little bit because it would be out there in the heat.

SPEAKER_05 12:47

Sunbaked.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

Getting sunbaked. So you know that the first like minute or two of that hose was super hot, gross water.

SPEAKER_05 12:56

Rubber flavored.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

Rubber flavored.

SPEAKER_05 12:58

What flavor water did you have? Rubber.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

Hot.

SPEAKER_05 13:04

It would taste like I didn't like drinking out of the hose. Like my dad, my dad would be like, oh, you're thirsty. But it tasted to me the taste. If you've never tried it, just try it. Nothing's gonna happen to you. It's just fine. It kind of just like if you like melted tires with poor decisions, that's what your hose is water is going to taste like.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

That makes sense. That makes sense. We're like, oh the taste of refreshing rubber.

SPEAKER_05 13:33

But nowadays they have filtered water bottles now.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

With electrolyte mixes.

SPEAKER_05 13:40

Like, ooh. Now, now even water fountains have a section filtered for water bottles.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

For water bottles, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:50

And I'm like, people, drink out of the the the water fountain.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Yeah, drink out of the fountain, man. Everybody else drank out of it. Why can't you?

SPEAKER_05 13:58

I don't know what that those fountains have.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Drinking out of a hose gave us strong immune systems.

SPEAKER_05 14:10

Probably.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Because all the minerals, bacteria, and you know, creatures that were swimming around in that water.

SPEAKER_05 14:20

Or in the holes.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Or in the hose. We ended up enjoying it. I mean because a hot summer day, you let that you let that hose run for a bit. And you drink that delicious rubber-flavored water.

SPEAKER_05 14:37

That's what it tasted. Like I remember my dad washing the car. And you would say, and then he would just drink the water from the holes.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

What are you talking about? I still do that. I do that all the time. It built a- I wash the car and I'm like, I'm not going in the house to get water. I'm gonna do it right. I'm just drinking water. I don't care. I'm drinking the water. It's good.

SPEAKER_05 14:59

It's it's funny because now, like the like the other day we had somebody knock here on the door. Oh, we're here to measure your water or something, trying to get us to get the filter. The filtration system. And they're like, Oh, look how dirty your water is, and all that. I'm like, man, I used to drink that as a kid.

SPEAKER_03 15:17

Man, ain't nothing wrong with this water, dude.

SPEAKER_05 15:19

Our fridges didn't even have filters in them.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

Nope.

SPEAKER_05 15:22

Like, nope. My mom used to just fill water out of the faucet in the kitchen. Oh, you want water? Here you go. Throw some ice in it. And just drink it.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

But you know, ice is a natural killer of bacteria.

unknown 15:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

When you cool, when you cool water.

unknown 15:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

Did you know that?

SPEAKER_04 15:41

No, I didn't know I wasn't a science lesson, but no.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

It's something I learned.

SPEAKER_04 15:46

Okay.

unknown 15:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

Now you do. Now every everyone knows.

SPEAKER_04 15:52

Okay, weirdo.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

Yeah, because the the the the cooling uh ionizes the water.

SPEAKER_05 16:01

Kids nowadays just don't understand. They they don't even understand the pressure it would take when you had to call someone else's house because it used to be a house phone.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

Oh, it's the worst.

SPEAKER_05 16:17

The person that you were conning may not be the one that answers the phone.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

That makes it so much worse. The anxiety super ridiculous on the anxiety because the parents always answered.

SPEAKER_05 16:29

Every time.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

Every time. Oigle.

SPEAKER_05 16:33

Every time. Or ring.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

Hello?

SPEAKER_05 16:39

It's like you would you would dial the number and immediately panic. What about? You know, I don't know about you, but it would happen to me. I'd be on the phone. Well, it would happen when I would be on the phone with you. I'd be on the phone, we'd be talking blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Someone would pick up. All of a sudden, somebody will pick up, Natasha. Hang up. Hang up. I need to use the phone now. Or do you know how long you've been on the phone?

SPEAKER_01 17:04

No idea. Because we don't pay by the minute.

SPEAKER_05 17:07

And then we'd be like, but I'm on the phone, mom. Or dad. My dad barely did it. It wasn't really my mom. Hang up the phone. And then the phone had the long cord. And you'd pull the phone all the way.

SPEAKER_03 17:21

But it was just Or you had like the super long cord connected to the receiver. But it would be stuck to the kitchen.

SPEAKER_05 17:31

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_03 17:32

Like to the wall. And but you'd be like trying to get away from the kitchen because everybody's in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_05 17:40

Yeah, I remember that. But yeah, the cord was always so long, and then sometimes it would get tangled.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

Oh, that was the worst.

SPEAKER_05 17:49

Oh, and you would let go of the phone and it would spin.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

It would spin.

SPEAKER_05 17:51

To untangle itself. But sometimes I I used to have like boyfriends that would call.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

What?

SPEAKER_05 17:58

Yeah, you were not the only one. Excuse me. Anyways. Um an interrogation would begin.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Good.

SPEAKER_05 18:05

My dad would be like, Who's this? Why are you calling? How do you know my daughter? And the person that was calling just wanted to say hi. Just just want to say hello. Or I would have like neighborhood friends that would call and they'd be like, I just wanted to know if she can come out to play.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

But now you're in a full-on background investigation.

SPEAKER_05 18:35

It was.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

It was like, and then and then See, I had I had I was I had my own line.

SPEAKER_05 18:40

Well, later on I did get my own line.

SPEAKER_03 18:42

I ended up getting my own line. Um, and I had that clear the clear phone that had red and blue and all that. All the little colors inside.

SPEAKER_05 18:51

Oh my god, we had the same phone.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Yeah, it had lights, had a light on the bottom, and then I ended up with the football phone because Sports Illustrated.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

SI, you know, you you signed up for Sports Illustrated. By the way, there was a time we used to get magazines at the house, right? So I would always sign up to get the magazine so I can get the free gift. Because it would be like, hey, if you sign up now, you get a free gift. You get the cool football phone.

SPEAKER_05 19:21

I had a Mickey Mouse phone.

SPEAKER_03 19:23

Yeah. We still have it. I don't know where that is, but yeah. We still have it.

unknown 19:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:30

I know. I know that's one of those things that uh And I know that my parents, my mom, after I would hang up, whoever it was with, she would come and go, What did they want?

SPEAKER_03 19:41

What do you mean, what did they want? What did that do?

SPEAKER_05 19:43

What did this conversation have anything to do with you? What about recording your voicemail? Oh, that was always on the answering machine.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

With the music?

SPEAKER_05 19:52

With the music, and you had to get it like the right timing.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:56

But then like you only had X amount of time to say your message, but you always wanted a cool message with some music first playing. Yeah, yeah. Always, always. The machine would cut you off, and then you had to start all over again.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Start all over again and be like, oh man, what do I have to say this time? Or maybe I should maybe I should put a little less music in the front. The music is so great.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

You know? Oh my god, I remember that. And you'd be like, hey, thanks for calling. Please leave a message after the beep. Then you would play music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

It'd be like, hey, thanks for calling.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

So awesome. Yeah. Please leave a m- I'm not obviously not here because you're hearing my message. So leave a message after the oh now it's stopped.

unknown 20:45

Dang.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

I gotta redo it.

SPEAKER_03 20:47

I gotta redo this.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Come go with me.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

Hey! Thanks for calling. You know, I'm not here, obviously, because you got the oh man. Let me try it again. All right, all right, all right, let's do it again. Let's do it again. Ready, ready, ready? Do the music.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

I don't know the music.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

Hey, I'm not here right now. Thanks for calling. But uh go ahead and leave a message after the beep. All right, ready.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

And then and then and then that was it.

SPEAKER_05 21:17

Mm-hmm. How about the people that you would call their voicemail? And as soon as it picked up, it'd go, hello?

SPEAKER_03 21:23

And you'd be like, hey, what's up, dude? Hello? I'm not here, I tricked you. Man, you got me. You got me. You got me. So I have a friend who who still has a really cool voicemail, and it's been the same voicemail that he's had, like always.

SPEAKER_05 21:41

He still uses it.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

I have my voicemail and I don't even listen to it. He still uses the same voicemail technique. Which is like it's the best, it's the best voicemail where it's hey, I'm not here right now. But if you really want to talk to me You gotta click your heels twice. What? Or you leave a message after the beep. It's been the best message still. Like sometimes I'll listen to it just to hear it because it's so good. I don't even listen to voicemail. And then I don't leave the voicemail because that's not what I do. I don't listen to mine, so what's the point? I don't, I know, I know. But you'll see the missed call and be like, oh, miss call.

SPEAKER_05 22:21

Then you would get home and see the little light blinking. The little light blinking.

SPEAKER_03 22:24

Oh, I got some. Hold on. Now I gotta rewind the tape.

SPEAKER_05 22:28

So my great my great-grandmother used to leave us messages, and it'd be like, you know, she was older, obviously. She was already in her 80s and 90s. And um she wouldn't call to like talk to my mom, and she would leave the message and she'll go, she'll tell the whole story. She'll just tell the whole story. Well, no, the thing is that she would talk thinking that my mom had answered, but it was the machine. My grandmother was in her 80s. My great grandmother, and she would be like, Marisella, it's me, your grandmother. Why don't you answer me now? Because the voice message has stopped, and she's just, it's me. Are you mad at me? But you're not answering. Oh, hello, it's me, your grandma. And she would go on and on, and then say, Well, if you want to talk to me, call me back. And she would hang out. Poor thing. She did this every single time.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

Terrible.

SPEAKER_05 23:28

Kind of like when my mom calls me now and leaves me a message and says, It's your mom.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Really?

SPEAKER_05 23:35

She leaves you messages and says, It's your mother-in-law. My phone number is I know.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

And I'm like, all I had to do was press the number.

SPEAKER_05 23:44

It's just funny.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

It is.

SPEAKER_05 23:46

Oh man. Let's see. What else? What else in the 80s and 90s?

SPEAKER_03 23:51

The toys.

SPEAKER_05 23:52

Oh, they were basically dangerous, bro.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

They were murder. They were some toys not safe.

SPEAKER_05 24:01

Because apparently safety was an option when we grew up. It's not like not safe.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

Like lawn darts. Lawn darts. Who in their bright mind now thought, hey, let's make javelins for kids to throw across the lawn? Like, who will prove that? And in case, I mean, nobody's gonna throw it at somebody else. Who's gonna throw, who's gonna throw basically a heavy arrow at someone else?

SPEAKER_05 24:37

It didn't happen.

SPEAKER_03 24:39

Me. Me. I saw my buddy, and you can ask him. I got a lawn dart and I chucked it at him. Not because not because not because of it being bad, but just because hey, you got this like, you know, flying sword. I gotta throw it at somebody.

SPEAKER_05 25:05

It was just a brilliant parenting era, I guess, because safety was an option. Slip and slides.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Oh, who approved that as a as a toy?

SPEAKER_05 25:18

Like you would put these slip and slides in the backyard on the grass. There were rocks. There were even sprinkler. Dude, the rock.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

Oh my goodness. The rocks.

SPEAKER_05 25:31

Or the occasional tree root that was growing.

SPEAKER_03 25:36

Oh, I'm pretty sure I lost a tooth on a slip and slide. Not because of sliding too fast, but because I hit something on the bottom.

SPEAKER_05 25:46

Because there were always something. It was a little tiny, like you only had X amount of space on it. And then sometimes, yeah, you would just let the water roll on it. But we were like, we want to slide more. So we would put soap.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Oh, oh what?

SPEAKER_05 26:00

Yeah, we would put soap, and at one point, you know, you basically are launching yourself straight into a fence. Because you would just keep going.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

You know what that is? Straight up? Character building.

SPEAKER_05 26:12

It was.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

It it made us stronger.

SPEAKER_05 26:15

It it did, in all honesty. I mean, you know how many bruises I used to have from them? Because you would basically run and throw yourself.

SPEAKER_03 26:23

And nobody ever said the ground. Have you been child abused? Have you been beaten? No one ever asked. They just knew these kids are playing in dangerous places. Listen, go to a park in the 80s and the metal slide was burned where you leave your skin on it because you're basically on a cooking surface.

SPEAKER_05 26:50

But you would still we would still slide.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

You still gotta do it.

SPEAKER_05 26:52

We'd be like, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, let's go again. Let's go again. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

SPEAKER_03 26:56

Your skin is boiling red. Because it's not a big thing.

SPEAKER_05 27:00

No, because as kids we knew we were going to the park, you would wear pants to slide.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

You had to. That's the only way to do it. That was the only time I'd wear pants. It's like jeans, let's go.

SPEAKER_05 27:14

We're going to the park.

SPEAKER_03 27:15

We're going to the park. Give me jeans.

SPEAKER_05 27:17

It was just, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 27:19

Give me them bell bottoms, baby.

SPEAKER_05 27:21

It was just so different. The monkey bars and also metal. The spinning one.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

Oh, I don't even know what that thing's called. What's that thing? But the spinning one. Not safe.

SPEAKER_05 27:33

Not safe.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

And it was metal. Everything was metal.

SPEAKER_05 27:36

You would sit like in the middle. Or even stand in the middle holding onto the rails. And then you would have like two or three friends spin, spin, spin, and you would be like faster, faster. And then when they would you would stop high off, or you would fall because you couldn't get up.

SPEAKER_03 27:53

Concussion bait. You know how many, you know how many concussions I probably had at that time? A lot. A lot. It explains a lot, but just saying. Listen, those iron monkey bars.

SPEAKER_05 28:06

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

Because of course, you go across the monkey bar, ha ha ha, and then you gotta climb up on top of the monkey bar because you gotta sit on top of the monkey bar.

SPEAKER_05 28:14

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

Or hang upside down from it. And it was burning. Burning. Because why would they have thought, hey, let's put some trees around?

SPEAKER_05 28:27

No. They didn't even have those little tents.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Canopies didn't exist.

SPEAKER_05 28:31

Oh, and the floor was not like nowadays that the that they have the rubber flooring.

SPEAKER_03 28:36

It was sand.

SPEAKER_05 28:37

It was like sand or rocks.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

Sand or rocks or gravel.

SPEAKER_05 28:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:42

Because I remember like the little park close to where I grew up, you would slide down the thing and it was gravel when you would hit the ground. Because it would made that sound every time.

SPEAKER_05 28:54

Yeah, I remember those. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 28:57

Jeez. Things are so different.

SPEAKER_03 29:00

And then even the little, even the little uh like horses. Oh yeah. Like those, the spring, the iron spring on.

SPEAKER_05 29:08

I never really liked those, so that was oh the seesaw.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

The seesaw? Also burning metal. Everything was metal. And and like they weren't even painted metal, they were just rusted metal.

SPEAKER_05 29:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:22

Because I think at one point they were painted.

SPEAKER_05 29:25

Well, when they first started, and then they were like, eh.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

The elements.

SPEAKER_05 29:29

And it goes back to what I was saying. Sanitary. Nobody really was like, okay, you finished playing. Come here. Let me put hand sanitizer on.

SPEAKER_03 29:36

There was no hand sanitizer. That thing didn't exist.

SPEAKER_05 29:39

As little kids, because obviously we were really little kids when we would do those. Then there was the kid that ate the dirt. Uh huh. You always had little, you know, kids running around boogery.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

Drool.

SPEAKER_05 29:52

And nobody cared.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

Blood. Because you know, kids would cut themselves on those things and no one would care.

SPEAKER_05 29:58

Their parents would clean and go keep going.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

And your hands would be filthy. And you'd be like, you know. Oh, I hear, you know, it's lunchtime. You're a little kid. You'd go grab, you go grab your sandwich full of your hands. Hold on. I draw the line. Full of dirt.

SPEAKER_05 30:13

No, I I did not do that. I cleaned my hands before eating if I had dirt in it.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

Well, I I would I would just brush them off.

SPEAKER_05 30:22

No, I would wash my hands. I would wash your hands.

SPEAKER_03 30:25

Where? My parents would in the sink.

SPEAKER_05 30:27

My parents?

SPEAKER_03 30:28

In the water fountain.

SPEAKER_05 30:30

My father used to make us do that.

SPEAKER_03 30:32

In the water fountain? In the water fountain. See, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 30:35

He would turn it on and go put your hand underneath it.

SPEAKER_03 30:37

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 30:38

And then dry your hands on your shirt. Which made no sense because my shirt was already dirty from running around. And then you can eat. That I did do. Like my dad would just, we don't need to go to the bathroom to wash our hands. The water fountain's right here. The fountain metal. Hot. Press that button and you're burning your hand, and the water was coming out hot. You still better drink it and wash your hands with it.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 31:02

Yes. No, see the the the uh the older people that took me to the park.

SPEAKER_06 31:08

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

Your grandparents. My grandparents, they didn't care. They were just like come and eat. Come and eat. But they would say it in Spanish, of course. Come and eat your lunch. And they would I would eat my lunch. Yeah, because it's not. And I would just brush off, brush my hands off on my shirt or or on my jeans or whatever, and then moving on.

SPEAKER_05 31:30

Because it was common to go to the park and have, you know, you would see almost every family there with their little lunch boxes with sandwiches and all that. Now, like when our kids were growing up, or now actually, you don't really see parents and all that with like lunches from home. It's usually like fast food, or they don't eat there, they just leave and go eat somewhere. Or lunchables. Right. But before, like it wasn't like that. Like everybody, okay, it's lunch time. Everybody go to the little picnic. There were more picnic tables than you see now, really.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 32:07

Did you wear a helmet when you were on a ride bike?

SPEAKER_03 32:10

No. Okay, now I don't remember. That didn't exist.

SPEAKER_05 32:13

It didn't exist.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

It might have, but that wasn't like a thing.

SPEAKER_05 32:16

Parenting era. Where no care. Trust the system, basically.

SPEAKER_03 32:21

Trust the system. Hey, if you fall on you, you know, you're gonna be fine. They're gonna get back up.

SPEAKER_05 32:26

We didn't wear pads like for our elbows and knees. I mean, at least now this is just our experience. Now there may have been some of you.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

You know, I would love to know if you grew up in the 80s and 90s.

SPEAKER_05 32:38

And you may have had a different upbringing.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

You may have had a different upbringing. Maybe you had the helmet and uh pads. The bubble wrap. I don't know. Bubble wrap. Um, you know, I don't know. My parents were very well listen, I they didn't even give me the little the little wings when to swim. You know, when you're like my dad used to just throw us in. We would just get thrown in. Um, and uh it was uh swim to survive.

SPEAKER_05 33:03

That was my dad. My dad would be like, I got this, and he would just throw us in and then go.

SPEAKER_03 33:08

Swim to survive.

SPEAKER_05 33:09

Come on, you got it.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

Uh uh, you know, that that's how that's that's actually how we taught our kids to swim. It was swim to survive.

SPEAKER_05 33:16

Because everybody has different upbringings, so this is just our experience.

SPEAKER_03 33:21

What were those things called? The little the little wings, the little the little wings you would put on your arms, which is which is bizarre to me because you can just fall right through the wings.

SPEAKER_05 33:31

You know, no, those things suctioned on because you would put air in and it was like yeah, but you could still drown.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

Can you?

SPEAKER_05 33:40

No, because it held you it's just wrong. I don't know how those arm things held you up.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

I don't know how that's what I'm trying to say. I don't know how they held you up, but they held you up, man. Because we never listen, I I never had them. You didn't have them.

SPEAKER_05 33:53

I didn't have them, but our kids did.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

Our kids they did, and it held them up for a little bit, but it held them up until then it became swim to survive.

SPEAKER_05 34:02

Well, basically, yes. Yeah, but it held them up. I don't know how, I really never understood the physics. What are those things called?

SPEAKER_03 34:10

Arm wings? No, they were not arm flotation devices.

SPEAKER_04 34:18

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_03 34:19

I don't know what they're called.

SPEAKER_04 34:20

It's gonna drive me nuts now. Oh what were they?

SPEAKER_05 34:25

I don't remember. But whatever. We didn't really have a pool, but we had to learn how to pull how to pull. Look at me.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

We had to learn how to pull no matter what skis.

SPEAKER_05 34:36

My favorite growing up in the 80s and 90s was Saturday morning cartoons. Going back to the cartoon.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

That was my jam, man.

SPEAKER_05 34:45

Oh my god, there was nothing like eating breakfast, sitting in front of the TV, and just watching cartoons, but this was cartoons like back to back all morning.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

Dude, it was the best. So I remember, and I'll never forget, I would wake up super early before everyone else.

SPEAKER_05 35:00

Voluntarily, right?

SPEAKER_03 35:01

Voluntarily on my own. Like, I can't wait to get up because you know you're gonna hit all of these awesome cartoons, you know. For me, it was ours, it was He-Man, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Centurions, Rainbow Bright. Oh, yeah, that existed. That was on at the time, so I would have to sit through it. Oh man. Um, the popples.

SPEAKER_05 35:28

I used to do like the whole Tommy. It was like everything, it was everything, it was so good.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

What channel were you watching?

SPEAKER_05 35:35

The Get Better channel, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

You were watching like the old school channel, yeah. And I was watching like the new school television.

SPEAKER_05 35:42

No, because I used to watch it. My dad used to wake up early, so he used to watch it with us.

SPEAKER_03 35:45

Right. Scooby-doo.

SPEAKER_05 35:47

Well, we watched Scooby-Doo, but it was like Looney Tunes and all that, and Tom and Jerry, because he used to like watching um Elmer Fudd and uh The Rooster.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

Um, what was his name? Now it's gonna drive me nuts.

SPEAKER_04 36:10

I don't remember his name now.

SPEAKER_03 36:12

His name was complicated.

SPEAKER_05 36:18

I don't remember now. Now we're both staying quiet because we're trying to think of this now. Frog, what Foghorn Leghorn Leghorn.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

Foghorn, that's why I said it's it's a complicated name. Foghorn Leghorn.

SPEAKER_05 36:32

So we used to watch it with him. Yeah, it was I remember, and then Tom and Jerry, but those were our favorite ones.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

Because the thing is not only that, but there was multiple channels playing multiple different cartoons at the same time.

SPEAKER_04 36:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:45

So that's that's why I was saying, like, depending on the channel that you were watching, like like I was watching He-Man, G.I. Joe, and Transformers, because those were all like back to back in the block, like at the same, you know, right after each other.

SPEAKER_05 36:58

Well, Tom and Jerry Looney tunes and all that were also back to back.

SPEAKER_03 37:01

Right.

SPEAKER_05 37:01

They were on they were on a block, they were on a different channel, all back to back.

SPEAKER_03 37:05

And then, and then it got to a point where you finished the cartoon part, and then they got into like a little bit of a teen programming. So after that, I remember like Saved by the Bell.

unknown 37:18

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:19

What about Alf?

SPEAKER_03 37:21

Alf. Oh, alien life form. Oh, that guy was so good. What did he like to eat?

SPEAKER_05 37:27

Cats.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

Cats.

SPEAKER_05 37:32

I loved Alf. And it was like you knew the the times that the show it was going on.

SPEAKER_03 37:38

You knew it. You like I don't know if you were like me, but I I I would have to make my own breakfast. So I would grab the cereal, the bowl, you know, and make my own breakfast and eat my my own thing. Like I would sit there and watch tart. And then once the once the sun started coming out, I would basically count time, count down until my buddy, who lived across the street, was ready. Because we would um we would meet up at at a certain like after the save by the bell or whatever that show was. Right. That was because we would watch all the cartoons and then that one show that was on after the cartoons, which was like the teen whatever that teen show was.

SPEAKER_05 38:26

In my house, we would watch the cartoons in the morning. My dad was the early riser, and he would do the breakfast and all that. He was very big into doing breakfast, and so it was watch the cartoons, and then it really it was mostly family day. So, you know, like the Brady Bunch? You remember the Brady Bunch?

SPEAKER_06 38:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 38:45

Well, we used to do the we were basically the Brady Bunch. We would go to like JC Penny and Sears and just like walk around. And that was like our Saturday afternoon.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

So that's what would happen, right? So that's funny because for us, for me, I would I would wait till that show finished. We would meet up at literally at this in the middle of the street, because we lived across the street from each other, we were the same exact age, and we would cat we would talk about all the cartoons we just watched, and then we would play until it was time for me to go with my grandparents to the mall. Right. Because everybody went to the mall. Every Saturday we would go to the mall and we would walk, they would walk the mall every Saturday, and then I would get to go to the toy store. So sometimes he would come with me and we would hang out, and we it, you know, it was it was a bl it was a blast, man. It was a different time, it was a blast, it was the best.

SPEAKER_05 39:42

And for me, it was like the same thing. It was basically we all did the JC Penny and all my cousin would come with us. My cousin and my aunt and my and my uncle and all that, they would come, and it it was just normal. Yeah, it was normal every weekend doing pretty much the same thing, not like nowadays, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:07

But every I mean it was always the same thing. It was watch the cartoons, do the thing, play for a couple hours, and you knew you were going to JC Penny or series, and then we knew we were I I knew I was going to Bird Eines, yeah, basically which which ended up becoming Macy's because nobody knows what Bird Eyes is at most.

SPEAKER_05 40:24

I feel like growing up in the 80s and 90s made us stronger and wiser and built our immune systems.

SPEAKER_03 40:32

It did, it did, it did. Honestly, the 80s and 90s were wild.

SPEAKER_05 40:38

I we had less safety, less technology, and I believe way more freedom.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

And guess what? We survived.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

I will survive.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

Well, barely, barely. Well, I mean, we're here, and and not only are we here, but we're talking about it. And we're talking about it to a point where people actually want to hear about it. Because I get asked all the time, like, like, what was so different about the 80s? You know?

SPEAKER_05 41:07

We probably lost a few brain cells along the way. But hey.

SPEAKER_03 41:11

Several bikes.

SPEAKER_05 41:13

At least the water hole, the the water holes built character in us.

SPEAKER_03 41:19

And possibly immunity to things science still has not identified.

SPEAKER_04 41:25

Fair point. Fair point. Fair point.

SPEAKER_03 41:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 41:30

That makes sense. But man, if you really let us, I I think we can talk forever. Dude, we can go still things about the maybe we'll you know what? Maybe we will continue this on the next episode. Maybe we can do a continuance because there's still we didn't talk about like a little glimpse. Like we didn't talk about internet.

SPEAKER_03 41:52

We didn't talk about oh, the 90s, like the beepers. We didn't talk about we're gonna have to do a part two, man. We're gonna have to do a part two. We gotta do a part two, baby. So good. Um, yes. We gotta do a part of it.

SPEAKER_05 42:04

We're gonna we're gonna do a part two because music, internet, stuff like that. These kids nowadays don't know. A lot of kids don't.

SPEAKER_03 42:12

Like, like actual, like, you know, we talked about like the outside twist, right? The the the the Transformers, Voltron. Are you kidding? There's so many things.

SPEAKER_05 42:24

Yeah, we're gonna have to do a part two because if not, we're we're gonna we're gonna be here all day.

SPEAKER_03 42:30

Yeah, yeah. So I'm gonna say, I'm gonna do a wrap-up this time. Okay, which is when you're feeling nostalgic, go there. It's okay. Remember it. It's okay. It was great. Some people had different experiences, some people had had amazing experiences, some people didn't. But I think that one thing is for sure we're still here, we're stronger, we're thriving, we're thriving, and we're living to tell the story, and ain't no thing today can compare to growing up then without constant communication, no technology with no real technology, but like even the TVs sucked. Come on, man. If you lost a remote. Oh, it was it was forget about it. You what about the ones that had the time? Anyway, we're gonna get into that one in the next one coming up next week or the week after, depending.

SPEAKER_05 43:40

Nah, we'll do it next week.

SPEAKER_03 43:42

All right, all right, continuing, we'll continue it. All right, so until then.

SPEAKER_05 43:46

I'm Nat.

SPEAKER_03 43:47

I'm Fern.

SPEAKER_05 43:49

Follow us on Instagram at Limitless Couple305. Send us messages, whatever you want to talk about. If you want to continue hearing about this, let us know. Or if you Have a topic you would like to hear, let us know as well. You all have yourself a great day, great night. Don't know when you're listening, but thank you for listening to us. We love you all.

SPEAKER_03 44:11

We appreciate it. We period.

SPEAKER_05 44:14

Oh oh oh go ahead.