Childhood Memories
 

I love to hear the kind of things people did when they were kids. So let's share some fun stories.


I remember playing games when I was in grade school that you just don't see anymore. Blindman's bluff / Drop the Hankie / Freeze tag/ Mother May I? /Green Light Red Light/ Red Rover/ I learned to do cat's cradle in 3rd grade. I still do that one with the kids sometimes. I remember playing chess in the gym on rainy days. We had to make our own fun.

I had a window in my bedroom that had a screen you opened by sliding sideways. We used to have one person at the window as the clerk and the rest of us would ride bikes up to the window and "buy" mint water. I dissolved mints in water and that was our product to sell. LOL

I also spent alot of time climbing in the old oak tree in our back yard. I rigged a pully so I could bring up things in a bucket into the tree. One branch was the living room one branch was a bedroom one was the kitchen and so on. I spent a lot of time playing in the tree. And had lots of spider bites because of it. But it never made much difference to me. They weren't much more than a mosquito bite.

Hope you share some of your childhood memories!!

This time of year, I think of simple summer time fun......catching fireflies, "shorty" pajamas, jump rope, lemonade stands, jacks, marbles, roller skating, popsicles, running through sprinklers, watching heat lightening, pitching a tent in the backyard.

We used to play jail break. From the alley that cut our block in half to end of the block were our limits. All of my cousins would come over and we'd run and hide, get caught and go to "jail" then wait for our team to break us out. I think we only got to do this because that entire half of the block was really kid friendly and didn't mind us in thier yards!

Fishing is one of my most loved childhood memories, It was always the best day when my dad would take me (he's a truck driver so only home about 8 days a month). We'd get loaded up head to the river, he'd bait my hook *cuz at 8 I thought worms were gross lol* and we'd sit and wait..... well he'd sit, I'd go explore the river bank, woods, need something from the car, anything to keep from sitting still! When something bit it was like we were fishing for sharks out in the middle of the ocean, it was such a big to-do :) When we managed to pull it in we'd ooh and ahh and take a picture with whoever caught it holding it ( didn't matter if it was a guppy or a monster they all got the same amount of enthusiasm) and then throw it back. Now those were the days :) I only hope we give our son equally great memories.

we had a bare spot in our front yard--it became home plate for kickball and softball. there was a small hole in the middle of it which was great for playing marbles. our path from front porch to driveway was the net for badminton and volleyball.
Best memories were when Dad would wake up (he worked nights) to use the outhouse and join in on our ball games. I remember the time he hit the softball and it bounced off dining room window---luckily it didnt break but Mom yelled at us kids. we told her Dad did it but she hadnt seen Dad go pst her on way out so thought he was still upstairs asleep. Dad snuck back to bed and Mom never realized we were telling the truth.
we fixed a lot of picture puzzles as a family. everyone would pitch in and take a certain area to fix and grumble when someone would determine their section fit in. Dad would help when he come down to eat a snack before going to work.
Of course he never told us that he would put one piece in his pocket before he left. we all would vie for the dubious honor of putting in last piece and when we found one missing,we would hunt all over the floor for it and when we couldnt find it, we would know Dad had struck again. How he always managed to pick a piece almost dead center every time is what I want to know!

We had a long front walk leading up to steps to our front door and used to play Giant Step and Red Light. Also used to play Chinese jumprope - we used the picket fence as a stand in when there were only 2 of us.

We had a couple of big rocks in the back yard we used to play on - one was mostly horizontal so we could pour water on it and make rivers, lakes, etc. Used to make mudpies too.

Of course chasing the mosquito fog truck in the summer - who know what was in that stuff, oh well, I'm still alive!!

In the rear of the schoolyard at the elementary school was a wooded hill that went up about 50 feet at a very steep angle - the fence was at the top. We girls used to play in there every recess. I imagine nowadays the fence is at the bottom, so Special Snowflake won't hurt herself.

Went berry picking with my grandma and got a bad bad baaaaadddd case of chiggers. I was so miserable for 3 days as I was totally covered! She had me sit in a soda bath that helped some but not alot then my aunt had me paint them with fingernail polish. That helped some too.

I remember long hikes in the hills of Kentucky, picking huckleberries (wild blueberries), swinging on grapevines from boulder to boulder, dropping down into piles of leaves. Finding a creek and stripping down to our undies and cooling off (my 2 sisters and I). My cousin (a male) always kept an eye out for us to make sure we were always safe. Yes we were definitely hillbillies. But we sure did have fun!

I grew up in a city but we played many of the same games. Hot summer days we would sit on a stoop on the shady side of the street and play cards. One thing I remember is that certain seasons were for certain games or activities. Summer time we played stickball or dodge ball in the middle of the street (that was back during WII and there weren't many cars on the street due to rationing of gas) and as soon as school started we would get out our roller skates and the street was for staking instead of ball games.
Sometimes my mother would pack our lunch and I'd take my younger brothers and sisters on the bus to the big public pool, we left home at 11am, pool opened at noon and we left the pool cooled to the bone about 4:30 and arrived home tired and hungry for dinner.

Of course, it wasn't all play time, we had chores to do for our mothers, making beds, washing dishes, going to the grocery store, etc. and all done without any thought of us receiving any money for doing them.

There were quite a few relatives that lived next door to each other (we were in the middle) - so a total of 5 back-yards were "shared" into one giant green-space for us kids - as well as a central "hang-out" for the adults around our back-yard BBQ (in the summer, most of our weekend meals were shared by extended family).

My Uncle Dom (next door) was a genius at keeping the kids occupied. He told us that if you sprinkle salt on a birds tail, it couldn't fly - and you could catch it. He then handed each of us a salt shaker.