1. Local characteristics that made cities look different. Shops, buses etc. For example, back in the 80s when I was a kid (and for decades before) each city would have different colours and liveries for their buses. Here in Newcastle we had yellow buses, but when we'd visit family near Liverpool, they had green buses. Manchester - Orange etc Now everywhere (aside from London who have been allowed to keep their red buses) they're all owned by big companies, so you have the same livery everywhere. Same with shops and increasingly restaurants. There's less local variation. The same shops and restaurants are everywhere.
2. Playing Out. Football in the back lane, bike races round the local area, the cheap thrills of Knicky Knocky Nine Doors, where you'd knock on a random door, run off and try not to get caught.
3. League ladders. Before the start of the football season, the likes Shoot! And Match (the two big weekly football magazines aimed at boys) would include league ladders, which you'd stick on your bedroom wall. They had slits in the league position for the top 4 English leagues and the top 3 Scottish leagues, along with tabs for all the participating teams. The tabs would slot into the slits and then every Saturday night I'd get the results from Grandstand (sports TV programme) or The Pink (Saturday night football results paper) and update all the league tables. I loved it. (I was the kind of kid, who used to create my own FA Cup draws as well).
4. Thursday nights with my Dad and Brother.
My Mam used to be out on Thursday evenings. My dad wasn't/isn't a drunk, but on Thursday night, he'd go to the local shop for a couple of cans of beer, and a can of Coke and some crisps for me and my younger brother. And we'd sit down and watch Top of The Pops. My dad would give his critique of all the live performances, videos and Top 40 rundown. Which would tend to be a one mild swear word comment. '****' 'crap' etc. My dad is really into his music and has played in bands since he was kid (he's now 65 and still does). I learnt loads about music from him, even if our tastes sometimes differed (there's a lot the same too).
5. Spending time at my Grandma's. Me and my brother used to spend weekends at my (paternal) Grandma's fairly regularly, which we loved because my Grandma would spoil us far more and let us watch the A Team (my Mam wouldn't because it had guns). She used to take us out all sorts of places. She injured her leg badly in an accident and wasn't as active, which curtailed me and my brother spending weekends there. My Grandma nearly 90 now and it makes me sad that she's been in pain with her leg for nearly 28 years now.