I've recently become invisible to women under 35. I'm not sure whether that's good or not. On one hand, it means I can talk to them without becoming massively self-conscious; on the other it means they won't want to talk to me in the first place. Hm...
But if we're moving onto more serious stuff:
1) Losing in school never damaged me; it made me more determined to improve and do better next time...and if I found I'd hit a wall, I either quit or learnt to accept defeat there, which was easy because I knew I won in others. Conversely, winning in school never made me big-headed, because I knew there were other areas where I lost.
2) Friends were called for in person. It was part of how we learnt to communicate across generations, rather than limiting our interactions strictly to our own generation. As a result, we knew the older generations better. We may not necessarily have liked them at times, or they us, but we generally found a way to get on.
3) Roads were quieter, so cycling was easier and safer - even if we often only went as far as the local shop and back to whoever's house.
4) Boredom was a constant danger, especially over the summer break, but we had umpteen ways to stave it off and, often, all the kids in the street as well as the next one over would be involved. There was tension, there were disagreements and fights, but it never went too far and we didn't immediately go for 'massive over-reaction' as a first response (or even a second).
5) Round our way, the strangers were scared of
us.