Old time play. What passtimes from your childhood will never be again?

[applegrove]

Did anybody else make bracelets from trashed telephone wires.....the wire that was multicolored? They would come in a bundle of 30? You'd wrap the wire around itself and it would look like a beaded bracelets. I loved that.

This shows you the wire. To make the beaded effect wrap the wire perpendicular and much tighter than this kids does.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

1. Lawn darts. With metal tips.

Especially when we played "catch" with them.

[applegrove]

2. Oh yeah. It is a wonder we survived childhood. Though I look at people who

have trampolines today and think they are nutters.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

11. Oh yes, we didn't have a trampoline but my friend did

We found if one person timed their jump just after another person's, the subsequent force would launch the second person much higher into the air and often right off the trampoline.

After a while, that wasn't good enough so we dragged the 10 foot step ladder out next to the trampoline to create spectacular launches. We eventually dragged the trampoline over next to the house and that was almost too much.

We sat there on the edge of the roof contemplating. Finally, the phone rang and I threw caution to the wind & came off the roof, hit the trampoline, knees buckled, and I rolled off the edge into a heap on the ground.

I did catch the phone call. It was his mom checking in on us to make sure we were alright.

How did I survive into my 40's?

[applegrove]

15. We used to play on a tippy raft in the lake at the cottage. All of us would get on, 8 people.

The raft would start to sink. Pretty soon water was over your head. You dive down and put your fingers through the slats and hold on. Others were falling off the raft and swimming away. All of a sudden there is not enough weigh to keep the wooden raft down in the water and it shoots up, knocking off the last and tallest people, while I would hang on and go for the ride. My dad made up the game. He was fun.

[pipoman]

5. I still have 3 sets

Don't worry, we are just old hippies and so are our friends. .

[Pretzel_Warrior]

12. Lol. :) it would be fun to buy some off eBay

[pipoman]

31. That's where I got mine 10 or so years ago,

I think they are prohibited on ebay now iirc.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

37. Really? Wow.

[GReedDiamond]

17. Lawn darts, aka Jarts, that's what came to mind 1st, for me...

...also, we would put wooden platforms up in trees and call them "treehouses."

We built rafts and floated on algae covered ponds, and made our own baseball diamond on some farmer's adjoining property, which was a big, unused field of dirt, weeds and small creatures like garter snakes and salamanders.

Tinley Park, IL, 1961-67.

[pinboy3niner]

20. We played outside with regular darts

I remember tbe day a kid threw a dart from my front lawn across the street to his house, where his older brother was calling him to come home. The dart buried itself in the back of his brother's neck as he turned to walk back into the house.

Fortunately, no real harm was done. But what a throw!

[My Good Babushka]

77. I got a lawn dart stuck in the aluminum siding

of my friend's house!

[RadiationTherapy]

154. Here is my Memere and Uncle playing lawn jarts in 1969.

Filmed on 8mm and converted (1:44)

[Pretzel_Warrior]

165. That's some great footage. My grandmother has a bunch

Of home movies from when my dad was a kid and later when us kids were around. I believe they had a lot of them converted before they became too brittle to deal with.

[AngryOldDem]

232. We used to play with them in the dusk dark.

While we stood too close to the hoops.

It's a wonder that one or more of us weren't fatally impaled.

[Fumesucker]

3. Saturday morning cartoons

[applegrove]

4. I loved "Rocket Robin Hood" and "Max the 2000 year old mouse".

Last edited Sun Mar 2, 2014, 03:33 AM - Edit history (1)

[Fumesucker]

7. Cecil and Beanie

[Codeine]

118. The SuperFriends!

That awful cartoon turned me into a life-long DC fanboy.

And I'd love to find showings of The Pink Panther or Mr. Magoo to show my own rugrats. I miss that stuff.

[LWolf]

161. and Schoolhouse Rock.

Bugs Bunny, the Roadrunner, Rocky Bullwinkle.

[GP6971]

6. Walking home

from school and not being afraid

[applegrove]

8. Yeah. The world has changed. I walked 10 minutes home from school at the age

of 5. If I had children I would never allow them anywhere.

[Nika]

55. Same here. 1960 was a different time and place.

I used to stop and daydream, and my Mom would just get irritated with me, not worried where I was and go look, My school was very close to my home too.

[Nika]

56. I remember how large black and white console TVs would blow picture tubes occasionally.

I remember neighbors having that mess to clean up a couple of times. This was the late 1950s.

[Nika]

60. The thing I miss more than anything in the world is my Dad, who was a commercial pilot ,,,

... would buzz the house in the company Cessna 310, He died in 1960 of a heart attack. It might be harder in this day and age to buzz a neighborhood in a twin engine plane so low. One never know what is precious until it is gone all too often.

[KansDem]

74. I remember how we would fix our own TVs...

Last edited Sun Mar 2, 2014, 06:48 AM - Edit history (1)

If the TV went on the blink, i.e., picture distorting, we would take off the back to see which tube was burnt out. We would pull that tube out and take it to the grocery store were there was a display of tubes. We'd match up a new tube with the burnt-out one and take it home to install in the TV. "Voila!" TV fixed!

If it was something that we couldn't fix, we'd call the TV repairman who made "house calls."

1960s.

[ProfessorGAC]

235. You Forgot To Mention The Tube Tester!

Walgreen's by our house used to have the machine where you could pull the tubes from the TV, (if you couldn't tell which was not working, 'cuz they all glowed), take them to the store, put each tube into a machine and it would tell you which tube(s) were not working properly. Then you would pick the tubes as you said.

I only remember my dad doing that once.
GAC

[Liberal_in_LA]

157. we played in the woods!

[Logical]

185. Has not changed as much as paranoid people think it has. nt

[Cleita]

9. Or being able to ride your bicycle, put it in the bike rack for the day,

and not have it stolen.

[Aristus]

211. Not true.

Back in the 70's, the good old days, I had not one but two bikes stolen from the bike rack while I was in school. This was in an otherwise sedate, middle-class suburb.

As Billy Joel sang, the good old days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems...

[Cleita]

212. I lived in a small town in the forties and I was able to ride

my bicycle everywhere actually and even throw it down on my front lawn while I went in the house to get a drink or snack and never worried about it getting stolen. I was in my thirties in the seventies and I know bicycle theft was bad then. I took up roller skating back then for exercise because they were attached to my feet and harder to steal. See my childhood experience was different than yours so please don't call me a liar.

[Aristus]

213. I wasn't calling you a liar.

Your post made a generalized point. You even wrote "ride your bicycle" {italics mine} to separate your observation from the strictly personal.

My observation was that it wasn't true for everyone.

[Cleita]

216. The post was about childhood memories. There was no generalization.

It was my childhood memory along with the poster's memory of being able to walk to school. Saying something is not true is like calling one a liar. If you were referring to your childhood memory of it not being true, you weren't clear, so then I apologize.

[stuntcat]

199. I did this when I was 6 and 7!

This was the 70's. I walked at least a half mile by myself, usually stopping to buy candy at a small roadside market that sold fatback and pigs feet.
My parents were at work so I'd be alone til they got off.

[Tx4obama]

10. Knockers/Clackers and Balllon in a Tube - both NOT safe for kids

* I'm glad mine never broke and did not fly in my eye!


* Legal chemical sniffing aimed at children.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

14. Haha. I remember balloon in a tube but it never

Inspired me. Clackers? I believe my 3 siblings and I all sustained minor injuries from those.

[Tx4obama]

18. It sure did stink. No telling what was in there. n/t

[Ms. Toad]

95. I loved clackers! n/t

[Codeine]

109. We still sell that balloon stuff at my market.

Many, many brain cells later I think they toned down the insane chemical levels found in the original toluene-rich product.

[Blaukraut]

122. I still have my clackers at my house in Germany. Those things scared the crap out of me.

My mother was a clacker champ, though.

[yardwork]

193. Balloon in a tube! Totally forgot about that!

Also loved making rubber creatures in a very hot little oven. Constantly burning our fingers and knuckles and the fumes couldn't have been good for us either.

[Thinkingabout]

13. We made Christmas trees with the wire. The games of tag and hide-n-seek

[JVS]

16. Grampa's adding machine.

[William769]

19. Decent music!

[Pretzel_Warrior]

22. I think every generation says that

[William769]

23. Maybe. But it's my generations music that counts.

[MindPilot]

21. Riding bikes behind the DDT truck.

The truck would come though the neighborhood at dusk spraying thick white clouds of DDT to kill mosquitoes. We rode our bikes through those clouds pretending we were fighter pilots.

[dhill926]

25. ah man….same here haha….

kinda hope there aren't any long term effects….

[MindPilot]

27. And model glue that actually glued models

Yeah, it would make you need to lie down if you got too close, but the shit worked.

[dhill926]

28. yeah….it worked in both ways you mentioned...

or so I've heard….

[Nay]

96. Oh, holy shit, yes. We had fun, but god knows what sort of effect it

ended up having on us.

[Logical]

187. LOL, me too! I thought I was the only idiot! nt

[Throd]

201. The guy in the truck would yell at us, but we didn't care, the allure was just too great.

This was in Sacramento circa 1972.

[MannyGoldstein]

24. 1. Playing with mercury from "accidentally" broken thermometers

2. Clacker balls (now damed and banned by the CPSB)

[Pretzel_Warrior]

40. Oh brother. My brother and I were sorting through boxes of junk

In my grandmother's attic. We found a mason jar with a handful of mercury. Us idiots 8 and 10 years old had no idea the toxicity...we played with that stuff for a couple of hours until we dropped it and it disintintigrated abnd the tiny beads roles down the sloping wood floor into the cracks at the baseboards.

[Enthusiast]

68. We were perplexed by our first mercury.

We shoved it around. We thought it might be a strange, unknown life-form. Seriously.

[PasadenaTrudy]

100. My dad

was a pharmacist and let me hold a glob of mercury....

[FarCenter]

127. Metallic mercury is not particularly dangerous

It does give off some vapor, so long exposure to it will result in mercury absorbed by the lungs.

If ingested, almost all passes through the digestive tract.

It is mercury compounds that are dangerous.

[MannyGoldstein]

136. That's very reassuring! Thanks!

I played with quite a bit of the stuff - it seemed fairly unreactive, but I assumed that I'd picked up some significant risk.

Then again, every other kid I knew did the same, and we don't seem to be having a great die-off.

[wildbilln864]

203. no...I played with some mercury in chemistry lab too and broke thermometers but...

you let some mercury vapor re-liguify in your lungs and see what happens. suffocation.

[ProfessorGAC]

236. Vaporous Mercury, Even If Elemental. . .

. . . is quite toxic. Lots of chemists ended up with liver and kidney dysfunction if they were among the pioneers of amperometric or polarographic approaches to redox chemistry.

Lots of mercury spilled, stuck in the cracks of the lab benches and putting tiny amounts of vapor into the air.

One of them, Bernard Rapp, was a professor of mine.
GAC

[northoftheborder]

168. Loved to play with mercury from old thermometers.

Our science teacher actually passed around the class a baseball sized ball of mercury from bare hands to bare hands!

Do kids ever play in the dirt, anymore? Not sandboxes, just old original dirt and mud pies and cakes.

[madrchsod]

180. it was pretty cool stuff to play with....

[flvegan]

26. Dealing with people without an agenda. Even here. n/t

[Douglas Carpenter]

29. playing with cardboard boxes - converting them into kind of non-winter toboggans or sleds to

slide down grass hills or embankments on. I have that memory from my earliest days in upstate New York.

[pinboy3niner]

32. Some kids here, and many in other countries, will still play with boxes

I've seen kids in Vietnam--kids too poor to have any toys--playing incredibly imaginative games with cardboard boxes.

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. Yup

[Jackpine Radical]

175. I remember Vietnamese kids with incredibly complex

Rube Goldberg devices made out of sticks & tin cans. You'd push them along the ground & the cans would rotate each other like gears & make noise.

[Grammy23]

34. Oh, the joy at our house whenever we got something big in a box!

I remember getting a new hot water heater once and we played inside that thing for days. Around 1955 my parents did some remodeling of our house. My mom got a new Frigidaire refrigerator...black on the outside with PINK interior. It was a really big "ice box" and was delivered in a huge card board box.

My sister and I took it into our backyard and drew on doors,windows and decorations. As I recall, one of us (probably me since I was the oldest) thought we needed to cut those doors and windows open to look "authentic". I ran in the kitchen, retrieved a butcher knife to get the job done and only by a miracle that quite a few of us could claim, managed to cut out the windows & doors without stabbing myself or my sister! Ah, those were. The days!

[Enthusiast]

69. Me too, Grammy23.

Same deal.

[SummerSnow]

183. You just took me down memory lane. I remember when my dad got a new refridgerator

and we took the box and made a club house out of it. One thing we did have back then was an imagination.

[NBachers]

70. Spencerport, outside of Rochester- I was just thinking of refrigerator boxes last week

some kids would get inside and kick up with their legs, while other kids would try to stay on top.

Or we'd tip 'em upright, and four kids inside would try to walk around in them.

We'd dig underground forts and cover them with boards. We'd get one of those round black road flares filled with kerosene and use it for illumination. It's a wonder we didn't all suffocate in there. Playing cards on a flat piece of board in our underground fort.

Standing by the tracks in our old hometown as the trains thundered by. The crew would blow their horn and wave at us. We'd put pennies or nickels on the tracks to flatten them out. The tracks are gone now, torn up years ago. They took the bridge where the train went over our main street down last year.

Watching the freight barges sailing down the Erie Canal.

Apple wars- do kids still have apple wars?

The car dealership in town used to have a scrap area where they'd throw out all the defective parts. We'd dismantle the parts to see what was inside. Once, we discovered that if we re-assembled hydraulic valve lifters in a certain way, we could make a fart noise come out. We set up a little fart-noise factory in the woods and sold them to other kids.

[JustAnotherGen]

101. Scottsville NY

Just down the road from you . . . We did the same thing with boxes.

Walking a mile to Johnson Park and swimming in the rapids of Oatka Creek without parental supervision.

But I'm from the "Stranger Danger" era. . .

The Double M murders out in Avon, Adam Walsh (he'd be about my age now) and the cyanide scare still screwed up some of that mobility and freedom I had at seven - that I no longer had at nine.

And yes - we had apple wars and crab apple wars. I got in a lot of trouble at the Hilton Apple Fest once.

[Douglas Carpenter]

171. must of been particularly popular in upstate New York. My memories of playing with boxes were in the

very tiny village of Panama, New York in Chautauqua County on the outskirts of Jamestown, New York - about one hours from Buffalo

[newfie11]

76. Yep that was fun

[City Lights]

145. My friend and I made a fort out of the large one from the refrigerator.

Cut windows out and even gave it an address. I loved that fort.

[LWolf]

163. And forts. nt

[VScott]

30. Chemistry sets, woodburning kits, Vac-U-Form

Today any of those would be a personal injury lawyers wet dream.

[IDemo]

84. I burned the sh*t out of myself with my new woodburning kit

And continue to do so today on occasion with my solder station.

[Codeine]

117. Woodburning was the best. Did that in Cub Scouts.

These days a red-hot metal chisel in the hands of a ten-year-old does seem like it would make the moms of America have a collective stroke.

[ProfessorGAC]

237. Chemistry Sets Was The 2nd Thing I Thought Of

The first was Jarts, which someone very early on brought up.

[polly7]

35. Rafting in the sloughs on rafts of old logs,

boards and whatever we could find to put them together, chasing each other on stilts we'd made, building forts and tree-houses in every slough in our neighbour's pasture, building forts and tunnels under the snow, playing ball or hockey until it was too dark to see, swimming and skating in and on the dugout ... so many things. I wanna be a kid again.

[jberryhill]

36. LSD themed media

H.R. Puff'nstuff.....seriously? "Puffin' stuff"

A boy would play his enchanted hash pipe and meet up with puffin' stuff that would transport him to this wondrous place with a deep dark strain of paranoia involving a psychotic maniac.

Yeah... nothin' to see there, officer.

This, folks, THIS was your brain on drugs, and a hell of a lot scarier than some fried eggs:

[demwing]

38. This should give you a decent flashback

[jberryhill]

41. No, God no, I just want to forget

It was bad enough that the Banana Splits' "Sour Grapes Bunch" made me feel things I couldn't fully understand.

[applegrove]

43. Vaguely remember that face. Freaky feeling.

There was a song too.

[jberryhill]

45. Very. Freaky.

I'm horrified that I loved that show. Horrified.

[2naSalit]

222. My younger siblings

were "hooked" on that lousy show and it drove me up the wall.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

98. Drugachussets

&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[jberryhill]

123. Yep, that about sums it up

[winter is coming]

39. Jumping rope.

A nearly ubiquitous pastime for girls (and a few boys) when I was a kid, but not something my daughter's generation does.

[liberal_at_heart]

42. I loved Chinese jump rope.

I also liked double dutch jump rope. I stuck to the basics. I never got good enough to do anything too fancy. And what was the name of the game girls used to play where they would slap hands together while singing a song? Oh, I loved doing that too. Oh, and drawing on each other's backs while watching a movie at school.

[laundry_queen]

61. I know, right?

I was just showing my daughters the other day what 'double dutch' was. They had no idea. Man, that's all we used to do at recess.

[shanti]

140. double dutch

loved jump rope and hopscotch as a kid.

[Ex Lurker]

44. I rarely see kids riding bikes, shooting baskets, or doing much of anything outdoors. nt

[Codeine]

46. I was just thinking about that the other day.

No dirt clod wars, no BB guns, no racing bikes down the street, no Tonka trucks in the weedlot, nuthin'. It's honestly quite sad.

[liberal_at_heart]

48. I think it depends on how the neighborhood is set up.

Kids in inner cities play a lot of basketball. Kids in the suburbs that have good sidewalks or trails ride their bikes or skateboards. Neighborhoods that have a local lake, kids go swimming during the summer. If there are mountains around and the kids have enough money, kids go skiing.

[Cleita]

51. They are mostly micromanaged today.

They have schedules of activities programmed for them all day down to play dates. They don't come home from school, hop on their bike or skateboard and go look for other kids in the neighborhood to play with until supper like they used to. I wondered too why I never saw kids out playing anymore so I started asking young mothers I knew why and this is what they told me in so many words.

[liberal_at_heart]

58. I waited until my kids were big enough where I felt they could fight off an attacker if someone

tried to abduct them or attack them. Little kids just have no chance of fighting off an attacker.

[Cleita]

87. That's a good concern. I didn't think about that. n/t

[Lizzie Poppet]

89. True...and I find that unspeakably tragic.

Another bad effect of the "culture of fear" mentality.

[Cleita]

150. I don't know why things changed so much.

One difference was probably a stay at home parent in each household who also acted as a neighborhood watch of sort keeping kids safe. Of course this was usually the mother and that bred a number of problems of its own for women who were left behind in the workplace.

[Lizzie Poppet]

169. As an entire culture, we're sort of "pulling in" on ourselves.

Our interactions move more and more into virtual space...and I think the isolation this causes has been transmitted to kids. Kids don't (as commonly) head outside and meet up to hang out and do stuff outdoors. They text each other, then go hang out at one kid's place...and play video games, etc. A lot of parents prefer this situation, as they're fearful of various dangers "out there."

I think you're on to something with your mention of the shift to two-income families (or single parents, who usually can't be at home all day, either). The perception is that there's no adult to watch over the kids...or at least be within easy reach.

I consider the fear of having one's kids messed with while they play outside (or walk to school, etc...) is exaggerated rather grossly out of proportion to the actual statistical chance of such a thing occurring. But I understand that when it comes to one's own kid, coldly rational analysis tends to give way to emotion. Human nature. And we're all bombarded by culture-of-fear rubbish in the media on a continual basis...

[Codeine]

112. Homework. My kids have hours of it.

The kindergartner even has an hour+ each day. I think that's just nonsense.

[Cleita]

147. I've gotta agree for children that young.

They need time to be children.

[Le Taz Hot]

99. That's so sad.

One of the things I love about my neighborhood is the kids riding up and down on their bikes and skating up and down the sidewalks. There are 3 out-front basketball hoops I can think of just on my block. My driveway has been "decorated" with sidewalk chalk several times by the neighborhood kids. The icing on the cake is that we're multi-cultural.

[Cleita]

152. Kind of like my old neighborhood back in the forties

in southern CA.

[Jenoch]

195. In my suburban neighborhood in Minnesota

I still see boys riding their bikes with fishing poles and tackle boxes on their way to or from the nearby lake.

[gulliver]

47. Incredible edibles, plastic creature makers, pinball...

...real pinball, not three-level, 800 million points for hitting the side bumpers.

[adirondacker]

57. Ha! I was trying to think of the name for Incredible Edibles. Thanks!

I owned high score on Trizone during my first year of service! I've yet to encounter a better machine.

[Sognefjord]

49. Climbing trees especially the neighbor's trees.

[Skittles]

50. I used to play in a pillbox

[PumpkinAle]

52. Is that Norfolk?

We used to play in an old pill box too - it was home to so many of our fantasies

[Skittles]

53. yup

me mum's home

[PumpkinAle]

54. Wow - we must have been near

neighbours

Our PillBox was up between Thornham and Docking at a place called Chosely.

[Skittles]

64. my favorite swim spot was Hemsby Beach

[PumpkinAle]

132. Very nice spot

good times.

Still I am very happy to be here now.

[Skittles]

202. here I am as an English schoolgal!

[PumpkinAle]

219. I used to have a kilt like that

gosh - memories

[adirondacker]

59. Kick the can...into the evening hours! nt

[grasswire]

63. yes, kick the can under the street lights

Also a game where you threw a ball over the house. Annie annie over? Something like that.

[jmowreader]

62. Casting lead soldiers

[Codeine]

110. I'm just waiting for my kids to be a little older

before I break out the old Prince August mold collection and show them the fun of casting.

They'll probably be bored stiff, but a man can dream. . .

[Recursion]

65. My old crystal radio kit. Shooting bottle rockets at each other

Some will be missed, others won't.

[Contrary1]

66. 3 Stooges Matinees at the nearest movie house

For some odd reason, Mom and Pop didn't protest much when my two brothers and I asked to go. We weren't wealthy, by any means; so I'm sure other things were done without to fund our entertainment...and most likely, their's.

It would cost around $1.65 total for the three of us, including snacks. Cartoons and a couple 20 minute Stooges' shorts, followed by a full-length movie. Took about four hours.

Mom always said she would spend the kid-free spare time "cleaning house". I dunno if it was because we were young and didn't much care, but the house always seemed pretty much the same to us, pre or post our absence.

Dad never commented on what he was gonna be doing.

[Enthusiast]

67. I got you all beat.

We used to play "Army".

In Army you were an actor. You would pretend to be shot by an ordinance of your choice. Your job was to play the role of the casualty. Kids would do an amazing job of portraying a shot in the gut with a lugar casualty. The one that won became the judge. We spent hours playing this game in the early 1960s. I doubt that it was all that uncommon.

[IDemo]

72. And then popping up and shouting "I'm a new man!"

I don't remember any contests or judging about it, just emulating the "Combat" show to the best of our 10-year old ability.

[A HERETIC I AM]

73. It always amazed me.....

how dramatically varied the movements could be after taking one in the stomach from the enemy.

Rolling around half the yard, falling off a stone wall then getting up on it and falling off again.

A head shot would have been so anti-climactic!

How far was it reasonable and realistic to fly (jump) after a grenade goes off in your foxhole?

Answer?

As far as your little 8, 9 and 10 year old legs could throw you.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

192. "Rolling around half the yard, falling off a stone wall then getting up...

... on it and falling off again."

Nailed it!

Sounds like you had some good times as a kid, too!

Me and a buddy, I was 10 and he 11, were once gathered up by a naval zodiac crew; we had fashioned together a raft and were navigating our styrofoam and wood vessel in the Oso Bay in Corpus Christi, an activity that did not benefit from parental approval. A

Their arrival on the nautical scene looked like this (not my video, btw, lol):

[A HERETIC I AM]

221. LOL....well, nothing we ever did required being rescued by a government agency!

Got arrested as a 9 year old though! One of the gang thought it would be great fun to go to the under construcion apartment units over the hill and knock down freshly laid concrete blocks!

We got caught. Actually, HE was the only one to get nicked out of about 8 of us, but he sang like a canary!

Putting together a homemade raft and being found by the Coasties is one for the books, though! LOL...too funny. I'll bet you were the talk of the school for weeks!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

233. We were heroes at school but our parents,

now they were a whole 'nother story, lol!

"Sang like a canary..." ROFL! Remember how we would used to sing like canaries on everyone but ourselves in an effort to deflect blame, lol?

Good times =)

[csziggy]

71. Playing in the swamp next to our house

Where the alligators and water moccasins lived. That swamp had been dredged and called a lake when the neighborhood was first established in the 1930s but by the time I was a kid in the 50s it had reverted back to a swamp. After Hurricane Donna flooded the neighborhood in 1960, it was dredged again and the city put in storm drains and paved the roads. It's not nearly as interesting now that they keep it mowed as it was when it was an overgrown swamp!

We also swam in Florida lakes - something now not advisable with the parasites that live in the waters. Back then we worried more about the larger critters in the water - I remember swimming one day when Dad called to all us kids to tread water quietly. He was a little upset that a moccasin swam between us and the shore. While alligators lived in the lakes, most of the time they stayed away because we kids were making so much noise!

I rode my bicycle and later my horse miles out in the countryside mostly by myself - something a kid would not be allowed to do today, especially a young girl. In the summer and on weekends I'd leave before dawn, take a lunch and return sometime around sunset. Most of my friends were not interested in riding that far or that long. Sometimes I'd ride to nearby towns but mostly I'd go out off road and explore.

Mostly I remember the freedom - as little kids we had certain boundaries but other than that, we were free to go anywhere in that area we wanted with little adult supervision. In fact, most of the parents wouldn't let us in the homes during the day except to use the bathroom. We'd drink from water hoses in the yard and our Moms would give us sandwiches to eat outside. I don't remember many cartoons from my childhood because we were outside most of the time.

[Nay]

102. Yeah, we were gone from the house all day, too. We got called in at dusk, when dinner

was about ready. We played on the beach all day, built forts, played with friends, etc. No supervision.

We had the luck of having the Gulf of Mexico 3 blocks down the street, and a bay across the street. We'd go to the bay to watch the horseshoe crabs mate in the shallows. Over there, you could also dredge up all the whelks and king's crown shells (with the animal inside) you wanted. Birds everywhere. In the spring, the vacant lot next to our house filled with water and thousands of frogs were born -- we'd watch the eggs/tadpoles/frogs grow up, just for fun.

I truly thing that kids today are not interested in anything because they never actually SEE anything. They are creatures cut off from the natural world almost entirely.

[csziggy]

148. Oh yes - we had wild animals to play with

We caught our own turtles for pets - none of those poor painted turtles from the dime store. We had snakes - one year we found a nest of baby ring necked snakes and took home handfuls of them.

As a very young child before I went to kindergarten, I played with spotted skunks in the backyard. They were pretty gentle and never sprayed me. Mom had to be cautious about coming to bring me in because she didn't want to frighten them into spraying.

Our little town also had an Arts & Crafts program to help out parents who had to work but could not pay child care. We met in the shop classroom at the junior high and did all sorts of crafts - making plaster molds and painting them, metal work, limited carpentry, ceramics, braiding, leather work, etal. I think the main cost was to pay for materials. I was frustrated since they would let the boys use the power tools, but girls were not allowed, but I did make a book case/shelf, doing everything but cutting the wood to length - I still own that piece and am still proud I planned and made it myself.

I think you're right - kids today often have no opportunity to really get involved with life and be hands on. A lot of the things I learned and am still interested in began with childhood exposure - making things, watching wildlife, love of animals, and so much more. Watching videos can add to those interests, but without getting personally involved they just wouldn't give the same thrill of personal discovery and achievement.

[leeroysphitz]

75. When I was 10 or so my friends and I would sneak down to the tracks behind the grocery store

and play tickle the hobo. Nothing bad ever happened, of course, but I can't imagine letting my son do that these days.

[livetohike]

78. Swinging on vines. Spending the whole day in the woods, until our neighborhood built a swim club.

Then we spent all day at the pool, came home for dinner and then back to the pool until it closed. I can still spend all day in the woods, but vine swinging days are over. Can't be in the sun all day either, due to skin cancer issues (no doubt from all those childhood days in the sun).

[callous taoboy]

79. Epic hide-and-seek games after sundown-

involving all of the neighbor kids, boundaries set at a certain number of houses' lawns in all directions from base. I used to come home with feet totally black from running in the street.

[Octafish]

91. Yep. And ''Kick the Can''...

...Everybody on the block from 3-18 would play, sometimes all at the same time.

And it was safe. And the neighborhood didn't mind. And it was fun. And it was unforgettable.

[callous taoboy]

80. catching all types of bugs and reptiles-

When we moved in to our central Texas neighborhood in the mid-60's the environment was pristine and supported an amazing variety of creatures. We had horned toads (horny toads) living in the fields all around the hood. The variety of butterflies, luna moths, large bumblebees and other insects was something I took for granted. We'd even usually always find box turtles in the woods down by the creek. All of the horny toads in that area are gone, and box turtles are very rare to find any more. The variety of insects has also dwindled. Sad.

[Orrex]

81. Cleaning out the ashtrays after your parents' cocktail party

Ah, the 70s.

[Cleita]

88. 40's for me. My parents didn't smoke, but their friends did. n/t

[spartan61]

82. I remember going "pollywogging."

We would take a large jar to the nearest pond and catch pollywogs (tadpoles). Then we would take them home and try to raise them to be frogs. I don't think I ever raised one any longer than the time it took the tadpoles to begin growing their back legs. Mostly they just died in the jar.

I don't think the kids today have as much fun as we had growing up because we spent everyday outside playing with our friends. Today's kids seem to spend most of their time indoors playing with their electronic gadgets.

[SalviaBlue]

134. We used to go to a nearby ditch an catch the polliwogs.

We also had salamanders in our yard... Haven't seen a salamander for decades.

[LWolf]

162. Yes.

I drove my mother crazy catching way too many things. I liked to collect caterpillars and chrysalises and turn the butterflies loose when they emerged and dried. I caught lizards and tried to turn them into pets; the alligator lizard was memorable, because he was large, kind of intimidating, and got loose in the house.

My mom came home once and found me racing snails on her glass coffee table.

[adirondacker]

170. Yes! and newts! along with every insect that hatched their larva in small ponds or pools. Definitley

my favorite pastime as a child.

[CanonRay]

83. Strike-em-out

Paint a strike zone on the brick wall of an abandoned building. You have to strike the other guy out, using a hard rubber ball that will bounce back when you take a pitch. We used to play with just two kids, you and him. Sometimes teams, with an outfielder. Anybody else do this? We were in Chicago.

[FreeJoe]

85. My kids to many things mentioned here

I'm not sure why people think many of these things have gone away. I live in the suburbs with my two middle-school aged kids and they do or have done many of the things listed here.

They both walked (or biked or scootered) to and from school almost every day from kindergarten through sixth grade. When they biked, they left their bikes there all day unlocked along with everyone else. On rainy days, it wasn't unusual for lots of people to just leave their bikes there overnight or even over the weekend. I can't say that none were ever stolen, but I never heard of it happening.

Saturday morning cartoons are gone, but that's because kids can watch them 24/7 with the proliferation of channels, DVRs, Netflix, etc. Mine even watched many of the same shows I watched (Loony Tunes, Speed Racer, Land of the Lost, Gilligan's Island, and Scooby Doo! all come to mind). I do miss the Saturday morning tradition, though.

My kids don't range as much as I did, but they still get around. They made the slightly over two miles each way walk to the store with a friend yesterday and blew their money on candy like I did when I was there age.

Balloon in a tube hasn't gone away. My wife got some for the boys at the dollar store a couple of months ago. Nasty stuff, but they have fun with it.

They loved cardboard boxes. When my youngest was about 2 or 3, he tore off the wrapping paper covering a push car. When he looked at it, he didn't even notice the car aspect. He just said "Wow! A Box!". Those were good days. We stopped by the box store and bought them boxes to play in, cut doors into, and paint all through elementary school. That, and making forts with blankets, chairs, and couches, were a common activity.

We didn't exactly buy them a wood burning kits. We got them soldering irons for electronics projects, but their favorite use of them was burning things into wooden planks. My youngest especially loves playing with fire, so we give him supervised opportunities to learn how to do it safely.

As for local kids games, they play them all the time here. Roughly every third house in the neighborhood has a basketball hoop on the driveway and ours gets used many, many times a week. My kids and neighbors kids are frequently out on their bikes, skateboards, and scooters. This Christmas, some type of stunt scooter became popular and lots of the elementary school kids have them. A couple of neighbors even built some small ramps for jumps.

Even games of tag, hide-and-go-seek, and such are common. I haven't heard them playing kick-the-can, but many of their games were common when I was a kid. They played zombie tag last night.

We haven't caught any bugs or reptiles in a while, but that was quite the thing a couple of years ago. We had a pet snake and a pet turtle that were both caught in the yard. They spent a few weeks as pets and were then set free again. Lizards were a popular catch for a while. My biggest animal rule has been that they must leave the lightening bugs alone. They are few and far between here, so I want them protected.

I do miss Jarts, but I understand why they are gone. We played a lot of croquet when I was little, but now it seems that everyone with a yard big enough has a pool inconveniently placed in the middle of it. We've done it at the park a few times, but it never really captured the kids imagination.

They have lots of cool things I would have loved as a kid. I'm not just talking about all the new technology stuff. We had little eggs of silly putty, but they have one pound bags of the stuff. And it isn't just pink. They have clear, glow-in-the-dark, and color changing "Thinking Putty". It's wicked cool stuff in big blogs. They also got to play with Bucky Balls. We stocked up on those before they were, understandably, taken off the market.

All-in-all, I don't see my kids lives as all that different than mine when I was their age.

[bigwillq]

86. Playing outside

[chrisa]

90. Our community pool was a swamp with fish and snakes.

There was a section you couldn't go to because it wasn't safe (too dirty, and too many snakes). I was pretty happy when they demo'd that and built a real pool.

Those creepy-crawly ovens that cooked that rubber goo into bugs. It was so easy to burn yourself on that thing.

[TroglodyteScholar]

92. Yes!

Used to make pretty bracelets for all the girls on the playground.

Had totally forgotten....

Edit: do kids still smash pennies on railroad tracks?

[Nay]

93. Jacks. I never see kids play jacks any more. Also hopscotch. nt

[babylonsister]

104. Hopscotch here, too...and kick ball.

Five kids in my family, enough for two uneven teams.

Catching fire flies was also a good memory.

[Codeine]

106. The kids still play hopscotch in my neighborhood,

but yeah, jacks seem to have gone extinct along with marbles.

[MrScorpio]

94. Enjoying a Hostess fruit pie and Saturday morning cartoons. nt

[aikoaiko]

97. Being kicked out of the house and told to come back when its gets dark.

My son is 8 and I think I know where he is every second of his life.

When I was eight, I was told to go out to play and my mother didn't know where I was until sunset when I came home sweaty and dirty.

[PasadenaTrudy]

103. Aurora monster models!

Looks like you can still find kits. I had so many - - Godzilla, phantom of the opera (Lon Chaney), creature from the black lagoon, the wolfman,.....

[Codeine]

108. Or any plastic models.

I built monsters, cars, planes (suspended from the ceiling on fishing line, natch), ships, and eventually an entire bookshelf full of WW2 military models. Kids seem to have let plastic modelling go the way of the dodo.

[MindPilot]

240. Did you get into the anatomical models?

Visible Man, Woman, Horse, Dog. The eye, the tooth, the skull. And then there was my absolute favorite of all time, the Visible V8 and the Visible Chassis. It was so detailed that the brakes actually worked--the brake fluid was vegetable oil.

All the TV & movie cars like the Munsters & Monkees. I probably would have a pretty decent inheritance right now had I not drained all my parents' equity building models.

On a cross-country road trip, my dad set up a bench for me in the back of his Dodge van so I could build models. He drove, mom slept, I turned Don Garlit's rail into a display piece for purple metalflake!

Yes, I painted the nipples and pubic hair on my Visible Woman.

[PasadenaTrudy]

111. My list:

I was born in 1964, for the record

-swinging for hours. Trying to get as high as possible then jumping out of the seat.

-catching tadpoles and crayfish in a stream off the L.A. river. Even caught a catfish once!

-catching toads at Devil's Gate Dam

-going outside after the rain and just looking into puddles. I actually got to do this yesterday!

-being healthy enough to run and jump. Monkey bars and metal slides.

-pogo stick and jump rope, skateboarding and roller skating. The occasional trip to the ice rink.

-riding my Big Wheel, of course, and then my purple Schwinn with the banana seat and sissy bar

Board games I could still play, if I wanted, Parcheesi, checkers, Monopoly, Battleship. I still have a Spirograph set around somewhere.
Sea Monkeys, ant farms, Magic Rocks can all still be tracked down online. Oh, and Twister was fun back when I was flexible.

Quite a list! Makes me realize how much fun my childhood actually was. I won't even go into being tortured by an older brother

[Codeine]

113. Spirograph!

I wonder if they still make those? My daughter would love that.

[PasadenaTrudy]

131. Ebay

That's where I found mine.

[jmowreader]

166. Do you have a "traditional toy" store in your area?

There are two in Coeur d'Alene and two in Spokane. Both have Spirograph sets. I just checked Amazon and it's there too. Brand new. Made by someone else but same as it was.

[notadmblnd]

105. We made jewelry with gum wrapers

played games with strings (cats cradle) and buttons.

[Nay]

116. You know, I can STILL make a bracelet out of gum wrappers!!! nt

[notadmblnd]

125. I couldn't

I can only remember the begining 3 steps for cats cradle but I do think I can remember how to string the 2 buttons to make them clap and spin though.

[applegrove]

142. They used to play cat's cradle in Eritrea too.

[indie9197]

107. Making creepy crawlers!

You know that process where you squeeze the plastigoop into the bug-like metal molds and cook them until they were rubbery? I loved that smell

[Codeine]

115. Remember Shrinky-Dinks?

You'd draw on a piece of acetate with colored markers, toss it in the oven and it would shrink down to make a detailed little piece of what we considered art.

[Raine1967]

130. I loved Shrinky-Dinks!

I just looked around! they are still available! http://www.shrinkydinks.com/index2.html

I think I'm going to get some for my nephew for Easter!

[texanwitch]

184. I loved doing that.

Kids today do not know what they missed.

[randr]

114. We had enough kids in my neigborhood to make up baseball teams

Some times we had to close a field if we were lacking numbers.
We had a ritual of holding the bat to chose who would go first to pick sides. Rarely played a game with the same players on either team.

[otohara]

119. Parents Not Worrying About Where You Were

we use to disappear for hours and never get yelled at when we returned home. Never told my mom about anything stupid we did or dangerous situations and there were a few.
No cell phones or arranged play-dates.

[Codeine]

121. My wife freaks out if the kids even leave a specific part of the yard.

I guess spending hours wandering through the world as a kid, like we did, is gone.

[indie9197]

126. Yep, same for me.

As long as I made it home in time for supper things were fine

[LWolf]

160. That's the #1.

I used to take off alone on my horse...bareback with nothing but a halter and lead rope, and be gone all day long. No cell phone, no adult knowing what direction I rode off in or where I'd end up.

Or I'd be with friends and we might ride for awhile, then head into town for lunch at a local place...which had a hitching rail for our horses. Then we'd head off somewhere else...nobody ever came looking for us.

Or we'd take a bus somewhere for food, movies, shopping, or hanging out; no specific place we had to be, and as long as we were home by supper, we were good.

[otohara]

164. No Bottled Water

I wonder how we survived, hours without food or water.

One time I climbed a backstop fence that was several stories high and once I got up, I froze. It was one of the only times I was glad to hear my mothers voice from afar yelling my name, it got my ass down - my fingers hurt for days. For a girl with Polio, I was kinda crazy - I hung out with the boys and did what ever they did.

[Logical]

189. One day my best friend and I took off at 700 am....

Got home at 700pm, just recently realized we walked 14 miles that day. Parents had no idea.

[Blaukraut]

120. Playing Cops and Robbers or treasure hunt in the woods

I grew up in a rural area in Germany, with a wooded mountain right outside the village. The terrain was huge and we'd spend all day roaming the woods, playing games. We'd build forts, tree houses, wade around in the mountain stream, usually without any food unless it was supposed to be a picnic day. On those days, we'd pack a few sandwiches, but they usually got eaten before we even made it into the thick of the woods.

Other than that, we girls played in the streets, jumping rope, and a game called rubber twist. When we got to be a bit older, like over 10, we got to pitch our tents in the backyard and sleep outside. Not a lot of sleeping involved when half the village kids were camping. Lots of roaming the streets at night, though.

We generally didn't mind the weather, either. Summer sun, rain, snow. It didn't matter. We were outside.

[alphafemale]

124. Twack somebody on the back of the head with a stick launched rotten apple.

I was really good too.

I think that might be classified as felony assault now.

[aikoaiko]

234. We had rotten apple fights. Good times.

[narnian60]

128. Badminton, croquet, paint-by-numbers.

[Liberal_in_LA]

158. paint by numbers...lol. i completed some crappy pbn pics

[Squinch]

129. Finding cray-fish in the local creek (they're all gone now) and a "high dive" that was 2 storeys

high next to a lake that all the kids used from about the age of 6 without supervision. "High dive tag" was a big deal.

[Whisp]

133. when does a kid get to sit in the yard with a stick anymore? Carlin on kids.

lol. he was such a brutal man.

[larkrake]

135. scottie dog magnets

candy cigs, sweet/sour sticks, cards on bike wheels

[indie9197]

137. Paper kites that cost about 10 cents in the 60s

and asking mom for an old sheet to rip for the tail.

[indie9197]

138. Smear the queer

that was a pretty rough game in elementary school

[shanti]

139. wire bracelets?

bah! i remember making necklaces from chewing gum wrappers as a kid. also, i remember loving my paint-by-numbers sets. horses were my favorite subject.

me and sis also had fun unwinding golf balls and stretching them out across the road for cars to plow thru.

[applegrove]

143. We had that I think.

[applegrove]

146. That sounds about right. I can't think where I played that though. I just recognize

the lemon and how you made it work. I don't remember the context at all.

[lunatica]

149. Going 'exploring' in the steep ravines, streams and cliffs and meadows which were our 'next door'

My brother and sister and I would just leave and go all over the countryside with our dogs and some of the neighborhood dogs. The mountainous areas were quite extensive on the outskirts of Mexico City close to the highway to Toluca.

Many times I took off on my own with all the dogs.

years later I asked my mother why she never seemed to worry about us. She said we always knew when it was lunchtime and dinnertime and that we invariably came home in time for both.

We were 'the' family to go visit on weekends. Our cousins and friends loved playing in the mountains. Our house was always full of family and friends on weekends.

Those memories are the best of all in my lifetime.

[shenmue]

151. Handball

We used to play it all the time when I was a kid. Now it's hard to find. My high school was one of the last places I knew to have an official team.

[Skidmore]

153. Jacks.

Played them so much. Couldn't wait to grow up so I wouldn't have to come in from recess for class and I could then play anytime and for as long as I wanted.

[Liberal_in_LA]

155. clackers . those hard balls hanging on a string that you clacked together

Often bruising your hands. My hands hurt just thinking about them

[bettyellen]

156. Nunchucks!

And klic-klacs, used as nunchucks. Good times!

[Liberal_in_LA]

159. card table set up with 1000 piece puzzle

[kimbutgar]

167. Chemistry sets with real chemicals

I wanted to be a scientist but was never encouraged because I was a girl and went to Catholic school for 12 years and girls were more encouraged to be wives and mothers. But I nagged my parents to buy me a chemistry set from sears. I used to love experimenting until the day I spilled my mixture on the carpet and burned a hole in th carpet in my room and caused bad fumes. I lost the chemistry set after that but I did get a microscope which I used to look at bugs, mold and even part of a dead mouse.

I also loved climbing fences. I could climb almost halfway down my city block. Until I got to one house where the wife used to Scream at me and try to hit me with a broom. She knew when i got home from school and was looking out her backyard window waiting for me to inflict her pain. I was about 11 then. She one time hit me with her broom when I rode my bike past her house going over a little driveway hill. I fell off my bike and she kept hitting me as I tried to get up. A friend saw her hitting me and ran down to my house and told my Mother. My Mother ran down the street and when the women saw my mother ran in the house and wouldn't come out. She got me home and cleaned me up. Later that night my Mother told my Dad what she did. He went to the house her husband answered the door and apologized profusely telling my Dad she was sick in the head. It turned out her son died at a young age and She was never the same again. I was told to stop my climbing the fence by her house and not ride my bike or skateboard near her house. I had to get off my bike and walk it past her house then resume my ride. I eventually stopped climbing fences at 12 but nowadays somebody would have tried to shoot me.

[Jackpine Radical]

174. Runing around in the woods with a single shot .22

hunting squirrels.

Making & launching home made bombs & rockets. Any kid who did that today would be behind bars for life.

Catching leopard frogs to sell to the bait & tackle store as bass bait. It was perfectly legal in the 50's, but has been illegal for a long time now, and rightly so.

Skinny-dipping in the river.

Getting chased across the field by the neighbor's bull.

Sneaking back to a trout pond with a Prince Albert can full of worms, a fishing line, hooks, & a jack knife to cut a tag alder pole with.

For that matter, having a jack knife in my pocket every day when I went to my 1-room country school. Most of the boys carried one, AFAIK.

[Arugula Latte]

176. We used to catch the ferry over to Shelbyville

One time I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Give me five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.

[Tx4obama]

191. What was the purpose of tying an onion to the belt?

[SQUEE]

196. It was the style at the time.

you know.. the style

[Tx4obama]

197. No, it sounds like some sort of internet hoax from EIGHT YEARS ago, links below

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=A0SO8xL7yBNTO2wAySJXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzcWhsZnZxBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDI3MV8x?qid=20060821123115AAXnlAA

http://askville.amazon.com/wearing-onion-belt-news/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=68420998

[indie9197]

208. LOL WTF? good catch nt

[SQUEE]

210. It was a rant by Grandpa Simpson..

"Last Exit to Springfield"

[Arugula Latte]

238. That's so funny!

I like to think Grandpa Simpson would be proud that his rant has caused so much commotion!

[Codeine]

194. Makin' fun of the OP? That's a paddlin'. nt

[SummerSnow]

177. Oh my I made those bracelets out of wire too :)

I'm going to miss double dutch, hopscotch , marbles and Skelly. Silly Puddy, School House Rock, Saturday morning cartoon line up. I also remember my grandmother taking the first fresh fallen snow and made ice cream. You could do that back then, now it may make you really sick

[madrchsod]

178. playing hide and seek after dark...

today the cops would be called on you or someone would shoot you.

[Drew Richards]

181. Lead soldiers and indians and my spring cannons we used to shoot lit qtips at make believe forts

Thank god really those lead soldiers were really toxic to a childs brain development.

Oh and my mr science chemistry kits.

[Arugula Latte]

186. Those were totally boss.

Mine had streamers on the handlebars.

[Logical]

190. Whiffle ball 6 hours a day! Hitting into moms garden was an out! nt

[Ino]

198. Standing outside your friend's house yelling "Ohhhh Debbie!"

No kids ever rang the doorbell. It just was not done.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

200. Secret decoder ring,

from Capt. Midnight!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WvKlqMjfk1Y#t=80

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WvKlqMjfk1Y

[tanyev]

204. Ooh! Making chains from soda pull tabs.

Old school soda pull tabs.



Sure don't miss stepping on the darn things, though.

[brewens]

205. Every kid riding his bike to school with his baseball "mitt" on his handlebars.

Maybe all 70's kids didn't do that but I'm from a baseball town. Every recess we sprinted to the diamonds we had in corners of the school yard to play all spring. When the bell rang we sprinted back, taking the game up as we left it the next recess.

Any Saturday during the spring, we'd be on the phone getting games lined up. We could ride to the school and more likely than not, someone beat us to the best diamond. Not to worry. Most likely they would be playing "workup" and we'd be just enough to make it six on six or better and get a game going!

I was mainly a football player but tall and fast for a big guy. I couldn't hit worth a shit but was such a good outfielder that my freshman coach had to start me in center field even though I batted ninth. Even though I couldn't hit, I was really pretty good at weaseling walks and beating out chincy ground balls. In a double header, I stole four bases against our arch rival and other than a couple fat guys, I was easily the biggest kid in school. You learned to play baseball somehow in my town if you could, whatever you could do. If you actually started for our American Legion team, you were at the very least a college prospect, and every year the major leagues drafted someone off that team. One year I saw seven no hitters pitched by our guys and all four regular starting pitchers threw one. Those guys were just awesome!

One year we hosted the American Legion World Series. One highlight of that was seeing Kurt Russell who had already been in a few movies playing shortstop for one of the teams. He was a good player and really cool about hanging out and signing autographs though I never bothered to get one.

[wercal]

206. Just being outside and able to roam the neighborhood

[deutsey]

207. Staying up late on Saturday nights watching scary movies on UHF

Back in the '70s, I had two horror movie shows to choose from every Saturday: one on the Baltimore UHF channel ("Ghost Host&quot and the other, my favorite, on the Washington, DC channel ("Creature Feature&quot .

Creature Feature's host was Count Gore De Vol:



He was hilarious and sometimes showed some really scary old movies, but mostly showed cheesy old movies and made fun of them.

Svengoolie on MeTV tries to capture the spirit of these original programs from the '70s, but it's just not the same.

[PD Turk]

209. Yo-Yo's?

I haven't seen kids playing with Yo-Yo's in years....

[WinkyDink]

214. Anything with a toy gun. Riding a bike sans hands and helmet. Skates with keys. Hopscotch.

[kwassa]

215. Frisbees and hula hoops

[Junkdrawer]

217. Came home from school, changed, and "stayed out" until the street lights came on.

Supper worked in there somewhere...usually.

No over-protective adults in sight.

The only kid we lost was a 4 yr. old. Seems the grandmother sent him across a crowded street to his mother - the older woman never saw the speeding car.

[el_bryanto]

218. you could also tie them to the end of Han solos pistol and pretend they were lasers

Or that grappling line.

Bryant

[Throd]

220. Riding in the bed of an El Camino at 70 mph.

[2naSalit]

223. Marbles!!

We did a whole bunch of stuff mentioned above but I remember playing to win the coolest looking marbles in a match and assessing the value of one's collection.

And my mom used to throw us out in the snow if we wouldn't go out willingly to play. And we always had to be home by dark whether we were out in the woods collecting frogs or tadpoles or lizards, climbing trees and making forts. The woods were our playground wherever we lived... until we started living in cities, then life kind of sucked after that.

[applegrove]

224. I remember my mom putting my brother and I outside on cold, cold winter days

in our snowsuits and scarves. We had to stay out for 1/2 an hour. We were four. On the coldest days we would stand at the door for the whole half hour waiting for her to open it. Certainly not the best way to stay warm.

[2naSalit]

225. When it was really cold

we had to stay out until our hands and feet felt cold, then we could come in again however long that took. She wouldn't make us go out if it was below zero but we did have to walk to school no matter how cold it was, unless there was a hurricane or a blizzard.

[Skittles]

228. my brother and me

Wisconsin!

[applegrove]

229. You are so lucky to have black and white

photos. I love them. Don‘t have any of us kids in sich detail.

[Skittles]

231. trailer baby!

we moved so much, my dad would write where we were on the pics

[Hassin Bin Sober]

243. Thos booties were made for ass kickin'...

....and that's just what they'll do.....

[RoverSuswade]

226. Bending beer cans to fit our shoes

then go clanking down the sidewalk or street. I don't know why we even did this. I suppose to annoy grownups. They made a lot of racket.

[defacto7]

227. Buying M-80s and Cherry bombs by the gross traveling through Wyoming

as a kid. Gluing the Cherry Bombs to the top of model rocket engines, putting the engine on a long stick then sending them up about a quarter mile... << BOOM >> Best bottle rocket ever. I was 9 years old.

Gathering the cardboard tube from the inside of cash register paper rolls, emptying the contents of 3 or 4 M-80s into it, sealing the ends and wrapping them in massive amounts of heavy tape, dig a hole in the side and put in a fuse. Take them out to my uncle's farm and see what happens in an open field. Very big kaBooms and foot deep holes 2 feet in diam. My uncle only made me stop when his cows stopped milking for a week once. I was 13.

This is very dangerous kids! Don't try this at home. You'll get picked up by the FBI and sent to Guantanamo.

[Codeine]

244. Being a kid in Wyoming was a bit surreal at times.

There was a year-round fireworks stand a short walk from one of the places we lived -- kids could gather up their pocket and couch cushion change and buy all manner of potentially hand-removing explosives, and my friends and I regularly went on unsupervised walks/hikes/wandererings armed with our own personal .22 rifles, which just about every ten-year-old boy had.

And later, as a southern California teen, we discovered a K-Mart that sold black powder to teens. I can't imagine it was legal even in the 80s, but we could buy a can from the outdoor/hobby department no questions asked. Many a plastic film canister or Dr. Pepper can was pressed into service as an impromptu bomb casing.

In retrospect, I'm very lucky to still have ten fingers, two eyes, and the ability to hear.

[Iris]

230. playing a record backwards

To great secret messages

[KittyWampus]

239. Catching fireflies in a jar during the Summer. Rarely see them any more.

[Jamaal510]

241. Gangsta' rap and slow jams for me.

Today's mainstream rap and r&b are so watered-down lyrically compared to the throwbacks that it drove me to listen to other genres (such as metal and jazz) that I never thought of listening to when I was younger. I was a little kid in the 90s, but I used to love listening to both of my big brothers' tapes. The hardcore rap that they had was what I was raised on. Unfortunately for hardcore and gangsta' fans like me, much of today's fans don't care for that style of music, so it went underground. And what are we stuck with now? That's right--Drake and Lil' Wayne.

[cherokeeprogressive]

242. Over The Line. A 9 inning baseball game played with as few as 4 people...

Singles and Home Runs only.

Frisbee. I can STILL toss a Frisbee (prefer a 165 gram) that will land on your head (It's all in the wrist) from almost 50 yards away.

Hide and Seek (Used to make out with the girls on my street when we were hiding).

[B Calm]

245. Throwing M 80's on Mr Johnson's roof in the middle of the night. .

Don't ask