Did you grow up in/around a specific local sub-culture?

[Dave Gray]

I was recommended a show recently called "King of the Road" from a good friend I grew up with.  It's on the channel Viceland and is basically a skateboarding scavenger hunt.  There are sponsored teams from different skate companies that go on road trips across the country, stopping at famous skateboarding landmarks and get points for various things: recreating famous skateboarding tricks or finding spots to carry out a checklist of specific tricks.  Each guy on the team has different skills.  There's also weird tricks, like doing a trick with high-heels on, or unscrewing your wheels, so when you ollie, you only take the wooden part of the board with you.  And then there are Jackass-style component, where there are gross, painful, embarrassing or just plain stupid things they can do along the way, for laughs.

Fun show.

Anyway, it reminded me a lot of growing up.  I wasn't a skater, but I was definitely plugged-in to the skate/surf culture of South Florida.  We watched surf/skate videos, played games, surfed and skated a little bit, and also just kind hung out and did our mischievous stuff and drinking in skater locations (abandoned buildings, empty pools, rooftops, stairs and rails, by the beach, etc.)

I don't know if this culture is nation-wide.  I hear about other people having their parties and hangouts in trees and cornfields.  How did you grow up and what was the prevalent subculture there?

[Phishfan]

We were in the woods a lot in West Virginia and western Virginia. It was fairly common to just find a spot to pull your car off the side of the road and have a party in the middle of nowhere. We spent a lot of time camping, hiking, rafting, etc. We were basically hippies spending our free time in nature.

[Tenshot13]

Is redneck a subculture?  I grew up hunting, fishing, the sterotypical 'man' stuff, more associated with people from the south.  I'm a bit different than the rest of my family, as most of them are full on, four wheelin' truck driving southerners, while I live in one of FL big cities, drive a BMW, am more opened minded than the rest of my family on moral issues, etc.  Still love fishing though.

I was into the skater sub-culture as a kid, through middle school, played tony hawk pro skater, wore vans...all that stuff.  I would guess video games are also a sub culture?  I grew up on those, and still play them all the time.

[Dave Gray]

I don't really know what to call it, but most of my friends wouldn't be caught dead in a club wearing a collared shirt on Friday night.  We would have friends over to a house or drink in someone's backyard or behind an abandoned building or something while we had a fire in a trash-can.

[Spider-Dan]

FGC - the fighting game community

I grew up playing Street Fighter II in arcades, convenience marts, bowling alleys, college campuses, laundromats, etc. during the arcade boom of the early 90s.  I was really good and after I got internet access in the mid-late '90s, started meeting up with people from around the Bay Area, traveling around USA to compete in tournaments, etc.

For me, one of the most interesting parts of the arcade-era FGC is that unlike PC gamers or console gamers, which had a sizable barrier to entry (especially for PC gaming), the only barrier to arcade gaming was 25 cents.  Consequently, because of the widespread popularity of Street Fighter, you could be in a tournament and have one match against a MIT grad, then the next against an inner-city gangster, and the next against an immigrant speaking broken English.  It was an incredible amount of diversity, but also a transparent meritocracy: if you win, you're better.

[DaLittle B]

Different groups of friends and different things as I got older...

Surfing when I lived in California..
Before the age of 12 -Hunting/fishing Archery (I was more of Bow hunter than a gun person),4 wheeling,farm stuff,Nintendo stuff
12 till high school- Waning off the above stuff into Dungeons in Dragons,football.
High school - More Dungeons & Dragons, and other role playing games,Simulation strategy gaming,Battletech,Robotech,Magic/Juggling/.doing clown things (Performing).Heavy metal music influence kicked in,played football 2 years in high school,then Jr Sr was into swimming diving,and Boxing...Picked up being a stoner,and drinking,tried to get away from the magic/juggling/performing,and D&D.
Post high school - Boxing,Automotive things,restoring cars.

[masterfins]

I don't know that you could call it a subculture, but if you've watched the movie Dazed and Confused, it's almost autobiographical of the life me and my friends grew up in, back in the late 70's & early 80's.

[Phishfan]

My favorite movie.

[pondwater]

I remember back around 81-82, me and a few friends drinking on the rooftop parking of the old Boca Raton mall where Mizner Park now sits. We did it quite a few times before we got busted, haha.

[Dave Gray]

I remember back around 81-82, me and a few friends drinking on the rooftop parking of the old Boca Raton mall where Mizner Park now sits. We did it quite a few times before we got busted, haha.

I remember the old Boca Mall.  I didn't realize you were from here.  You still live in the area?

[pondwater]

I remember the old Boca Mall.  I didn't realize you were from here.  You still live in the area?

No, I left in 83-84. Haven't been back to the area since. The farthest south I've been since is Tampa, Orlando, and Cape Canaveral.

 Yeah, the old Boca mall, spent a lot of time there as a kid. Had Jefferson's, Britt's, and an inside movie theater. I lived in the neighborhood behind the mall that had a bunch of old style Florida houses from I think the 50s or 60s. Went to elementary school right next to some railroad tracks with a 7-11 or convenience store across the street. I also remember they had a Wendy's across the street from the old mall. Me and my sister would go in there and hit up the all you can eat salad bar.

I lived in Boynton, Delray, Boca, Deerfield, and Pompano. And probably some others I don't remember. I was only 8-10 years old, but back then the Boca area was kind of small and cost of living didn't seem to be very high. What's it like now? I'm pretty sure everything I mentioned above has been torn down. Seems much more upscale now. Back in the late 70s-early 80s it was much more middle class. Probably have to be rather rich to live there now I would imagine.

[Dave Gray]

Pretty much everything you mention is still here, just updated since then.  The old Boca Mall turned into a more outside, upscale plaza-style mall called Mizner Park.  The 7-11, Wendy's, and old houses near are still there.  Much of the construction (not just in Boca, but in all of the cities you mentioned) are still from the 60s, like with additions and closed-in garages and stuff. 

East Boca is still largely the same, except costs went way up with real estate.  Most of the "new money" built out West, though.  There is a ton of stuff west of Military Trail, going all the way out to 441 that largely was nothing in the 80s.

[pondwater]

Pretty much everything you mention is still here, just updated since then.  The old Boca Mall turned into a more outside, upscale plaza-style mall called Mizner Park.  The 7-11, Wendy's, and old houses near are still there.  Much of the construction (not just in Boca, but in all of the cities you mentioned) are still from the 60s, like with additions and closed-in garages and stuff. 

East Boca is still largely the same, except costs went way up with real estate.  Most of the "new money" built out West, though.  There is a ton of stuff west of Military Trail, going all the way out to 441 that largely was nothing in the 80s.

I thought I had read that they tore down all the old houses in the neighborhood behind where they built Mizner park and built upscale houses. Very interesting, might have to drive down that way and check it out next time I visit the parents in Ocala. I probably won't recognize any of it. I remember we got caught drinking and smoking pot and my nutty mom put me in some kind of place for troubled kids. It was called Sabal Palm in West Palm Beach, it was across the field from the juvy DC. Ahhh, memories, haha....

[Dave Gray]

I don't know about your house or neighborhood specifically.  There are many houses that have been bulldozed and built up by the intracoastal but not full neighborhoods, that I can think of.  Funny enough, my wife and I have been looking at houses recently, so I just happen to be looking around and noticing how old so much of this stuff is.  So many houses without original AC or jalousie windows and Florida rooms with no logical place to put a television.   ...good stuff.

[pondwater]

I don't know about your house or neighborhood specifically.  There are many houses that have been bulldozed and built up by the intracoastal but not full neighborhoods, that I can think of.  Funny enough, my wife and I have been looking at houses recently, so I just happen to be looking around and noticing how old so much of this stuff is.  So many houses without original AC or jalousie windows and Florida rooms with no logical place to put a television.   ...good stuff.

Yeah, I remember those old crank windows. Those things sucked. God damn giant cockroaches came through those windows. We called them palmetto bugs back then and those fuckers would fly and stick to you. Must be a Florida thing because I haven't seen cockroaches like that since I left south FL.