Yeah - I had my first MTB around 1990/1992. I didn’t live in locations where we could do extreme stuff (also we didn’t know about all the stuff you could do - same for skateboarding. That happened in the US), and biking parks were non existent in those days.
There was a military training area, so I could ride following tank tracks - which was great after it had rained, being all muddy and dirty and fun.
We had some higher hills (not mountains) with nice downhill tracks, and I remember not being able to open my hand after an exciting downhill, as I was so tensed.
My MTB peak is long behind me, and of course I always did everything beyond my ability, as I was young and stupid first and then old and stupid.
There is a theme here 