Phannie1

Dad was military so we only got to grandma's once a year.. but when we got there so did all the cousins. Folks never had extra money for treats like Ice cream or coke. We kids, about 8 of us would scour the neighborhood for pop-bottles to turn in for deposit money. It took a few bottles at 3 cents per bottle to buy Icream. then the parents would scoop out the treats for everyone. My grandkids would not know what a deposit on a bottle is.

Susan G.

We played ball in the pasture using dried cow patties as base. When we were done we would then go to the creek and wash up before going to the house. We would catch fire flys at dusk and put them in jars or we would play hide and seek after dark. We rode our bikes barefoot and without helmets. We drank from the water hose so we didn't have to go inside. We played in our sand box with trucks and cars. During canning season we helped Mom snap beans and shuck corn. We also mowed our own yards with push mowers. But best of all we all sat down to dinner together as a family. Those were the days. I miss them. Things aren't the same anymore.

maryb119

We grew up with cousins who lived a mile down the road. No one knew who was brother and sister or who was cousins because we were all so close in age and looked alike..dominate family genes...We loved growing up like that. We would play ball or ride our bikes or ponies. We played in the woods at grandma's house and build forts in the trees. we were always outside. We still talk about things we did as kids when the family gets together.

sassey

we made stilts and walked all over the place in them played kick the can and smashed milk cans with our shoes to walk on played red rover made a lot of mud pies and went to the creek to swim

Teacup

I loved reading these great memories! One of my favorite things in summer was playing outside at dusk until we got called in at dark...catching fireflies, playing hide-n-seek, etc. Did anyone else have a Popsicle Man who came through your neighborhood? We had an ice cream man in a truck and a Popsicle Man in a van that played chimes as they hit our baby boomer neighborhood full of kids. Money was tight, but sometimes Mom would allow a popsicle treat because it was less than ice cream and two of us could split a popsicle (banana and root beer were my favorite flavors). I loved visiting my grandmother, we'd sit on her front porch glider or back patio swing and she taught me her favorite poems. Loved Memorial Day and Labor Day, when we got together with the side of the family with 20+ cousins at our house. A big cookout, playing ball and all the cousins lining up, smallest to largest, to crank the homemade ice cream freezer. Then the adults "packed it off" in brined ice to harden. Could hardly wait to eat it. And long summer days reading anything I could get my hands on. I would zoom through my library books and re-read my favorite worn paperbacks bought at the Scholastic book sales. I read most of the volumes of our Encyclopedia some summers!

Painiacs

Playing dressup! Thegirls,wore " gowns" the boys were pirates! Cops and robbers' jumprope! 24 robbers came knocking at mydoor, as i ran out they ran in........how about the hand clapping games girls? Miss susie had a baby, she named him tiny tim... or my darling play mate, come out and play with me..... dont forget playing doctor/ patient or teacher/ students or house!!! Grew up 1\2 in usa 1$\2 japan. Games were same just said little. Differently!!! Dont forget rock,paper scissors!! Still say in japanese not english!! Lol

mltquilt

Once our household chores were done we played outside all day (4 of us kids + any neighborhood kids around). We lived at edge of town and would walk a 50 gal barrel on its side around the yard to see who could stay on the longest. It was kinda like a log roll only with one person at a time. We played hide 'n seek, Red Rover, picked berries, and caught horny toads. When it got really hot we would sit inside and play cards with our dad or dominoes. Had to learn to count to do either of those. It kept our minds agile. TV was only allowed for a couple of shows of 30 minutes each then off it went. I don't think we ever told our parents we were "bored."

mltquilt

helenquilt

All of the above. I thought using a single nail to hold a syrup bucket lid to the side of a stick was the neatest thing. Of course the ideal was to get the nail in the center so it would roll. I spent hours rolling it around to make designs. Was this the beginning of my quilting. We lived on a farm and had all the chores to do. I was the oldest and only girl with 4 brothers. I always helped mother with the laundry done in the #3 wash tub with the rubboard. Then hang them on the line just so. Everything had to be lined up with largest first. Always put the sheets next to the house and your unmentionables behind them so if someon drove by they couldn't see them. I truly miss those days when our parents had all the responsibilty.

LenaBeena

Sounds like many of you had similar memories to mine.
Walking a mile to the little one room school - where we had a water bucket and wood stove, brought our lunches and used outhouses, played in and on top of the storm cellar, learned our ABC's well enough to go on to high school a hour bus ride away with 1,000 students and were we lost; oh yes!
Attending a country church and saying our speeches at the Christmas pageant every year - scared we would make a mistake, wearing brand new clothes made by Grandma at her treadle machine, smelling the evergreen trees all aglow with lights, and at the end each child receiving a paper sack with candy, nuts and orange inside.
Winter time - sledding down the many steep hills and sometimes landing in the creek at the bottom, wearing ice creepers on your boots to walk upright, doing your chores in the barn with blue fingers, wonderful smells from the kitchen as soup simmered and coffee cakes baked.
Summer was hot, sticky, smelly when the county oiled the dirt road, and fun - all the games you have mentioned plus finding kittens in the hay loft, Vacation Bible School, vacations with endlessly long car rides, county fairs and if your 4-H project was good enough on to state competition, tap dance recitals, piano recitals, family reunions, picking and canning jars and jars of vegetables, fruits and jelly, a fan on top the refrigerator blowing hot air as you stirred another batch of hot grape juice while getting the jars ready, eating supper in the basement where it was a bit cooler, turning your pillow over at night to get the other cooler side, hauling water by buckets to the garden, digging potatoes and Dad quoting "If any would not work, neither shall they eat." and since you loved mashed potatoes you worked harder!
Spring and Fall - get the garden ready or put it to sleep, put on the screens then replace then with storm windows, clean and clean and clean some more, stack firewood and put the ashes on the roses, wash windows and organize closets, force your feet into new school shoes and feel freedom to kick them off, sew and patch and mend, weddings to attend, births to celebrate, birthday fun, funerals at the end of a long life.
Thanks for letting me take a brief walk down memory lane. Interesting how "good" some of the experiences now seem when we complained about them back then.

Rhonda

Leena I can really relate to your story. I did go to a one room school house for the first two years of school. I remember we had a light pole in the yard and we kids would put our ears to it to hear the hum. We thought we were hearing people in hell talking lol.

I would find kittens in the loft above my grandpa's tool shed and spend hours trying to coax them down the stairs to play with me. We climbed up on the hay bales and there would be cats sleeping in them. We spent many hours playing with barn cats.

My grandpa's chicken house was long and wide and it had a floor of mixed straw and sand. My cousin Jim and I made roads in this and played like it was a sandbox with all his metal tractors and dump trucks etc. We weren't allowed to go in there when Grandpa had a bull in the one half of that building. He would put one in there when he was getting ready to take it to market. They were usually mean and we were told to stay well clear of him.

I grew up playing with the pigs and the calves and dogs and cats of course. My grandpa had a really big dog probably had great dane in him and I use to ride him back to the back pasture with my grandpa to go bring up the cows for milking. His name was Jack. How's that for exercising my brain? LOL That was 50 yrs ago! Surprised I still remember his name.

My grandma had a full kitchen in the basement where she did her canning. They also had the tv in the basement. So grandma and I would make popcorn balls and sit with grandpa and watch tv and eat popcorn balls. Such wonderful memories!