When you was growing up and  the street lights came on. What did that meant?

That meant one of either two things, depending on the parent(s) in the household:

On one hand, it meant you’d better be walking in the door no later than 2 minutes after the street lights were on.

On the second hand, you’re in trouble if you didn’t make it inside before the street lights came on.

A pretty effective strategic tactic that parent(s) used to ensure their children paid attention to awareness, paid respect to rule in place, engaged in their ability to discipline themselves to obey and respect authority figure, their parent(s) in this scenario, as well as teaching their children time management and to be on time.

The only times we were allowed to stay out after the street lights came on, (and not be inside before they came on), was when my mother was out with us or the garage door was opened and full of family having their “grown folks” fun nights.