In the glorious days before cell phones and social media, American kids experienced a level of freedom and independence that today's kids would just not understand.

We played outside till the street lights came on (and sometimes much longer than that), we rode our bikes for miles and miles while our parents thought we were just riding around the block, and had a secret hiding or hangout spot or two we would use to escape from the world occasionally.

Aside from Christmas and your birthday, the best time of the year was summer break, especially if you lived in warmer or costal areas. So take a walk down memory lane and travel back in time with this compilaiton of video footage that shows life during summer break in the 1970's.