PenniF

Wonnie....we lived much of the same life !!!!

We rode the streetcar to the next town on Saturday to spend the day at the movies...just me and my brother - i was 9 and he was 5 !!
Catching fireflies on a summer night....or playing "ghost in the graveyard"....IF you were allowed to stay out after the street lights came one... Hanging clothes on the line in the yard - and using the clothes prop to raise the line up once the weight of the laundry caused it to sag.....buying hot dogs that were actually made at the local grocery store and strung together like other sausages - and they went "snap" when you bit into them. I was lucky enough to grow up in the town of West View -- where we had OUR VERY OWN amusement park....raking leaves or shoveling snow from walks and steps for 25 cents a house...catching crayfish in the crick....

You know....words of that song really do hit home..... "" it's not just a different time, it's a different world ""

Up North

I remember all of this and I think you are referring to your Mom ironing sheets on a mangle. a large machine with a roller and a pressing plate. I used to get to do the flat things

OneDoxieMom

all of these and Weekly Reader newspapers

Wonnie

Oh, my gosh, PenniF, you brought back more wonderful memories! I had forgotten about the clothes props and catching fireflies at night. And we had an amusement park nearby, too. The roller coaster was wooden and when it sped up and down the track the whole thing would shake something awful. Didn't have a creek to catch crayfish in growing up (lived in the city) but we live in the country now and have a creek running through our front yard ....WITH CRAYFISH!!! My father always told me that you could go anywhere and be anything through the magic of books and he was right. I loved my books and I "traveled" all over the world on the back porch laying on the glider.

captlynhall

All your comments take me back. We had a railroad track behind the 1/2 acre garden and loved to play on it. Especially the trestle that crossed the creek. One time the train stopped and my brother and I got to go aboard the caboose. Trains don't even have them anymore. I loved laying out on a blanket on the grass at night and look up at the Milky Way and try to find the big dipper and the north star. I loved paper dolls, and softball, and making mud pies. In the summer, we slept with the windows open and the attic fan brought in a great breeze. We never locked the doors when we went somewhere. For 37 cents, I could ride the bus all the way into the city. I did that alone at 11 yrs. old. I would spend all day, going to the library, window shopping, having a hot dog at the stand up bar. I also remember popping tar bubbles with our toes. We would ride our bicycles for miles, and we could stay out from sun up to sun down and nobody was worried about us. Grandma made us ice-water in a crock that had a push button spigot, so we could get a drink without having to come into the house. I loved Sunday dinners with all the cousins, aunts and uncles.

IrishgalfromNJ

Does anyone remember finding the colorful wire on the street after the utility companies worked on the electric or telephone wires? We used to wind the wire up and make little figure eights then connect them all together to make a necklace. One of my first reuse/recycle craft projects.

MarionsQuilts

I remember most of those, didn't have some of them (hee haw?? LOL)

I remember on weekends and all summer being kicked out of the house at 7 am to go play, and not being allowed to come in unless you had to go to the bathroom or were hungry

I remember making my own "playdates" and not having them arranged for me

I remember when I bugged the neighbour's dog and it snapped at me, it was me that got in heck, and not the dog!

I remember walking about 3 miles from home to the woods (not very big woods in retrospect LOL) at 10 years old with my younger sister to pick blackberries - ALONE! (gasp!)

I remember, as the oldest sister, being the responsible one at 9 years old, and wearing the house key around my neck, and having to babysit my sister for three hours before anyone came home from work

I remember when EVERYONE ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch

I remember riding my bike with my sister sitting on the handle bars and telling me when to turn

I remember pulling tar off the road in hot summer days and telling my sister is was gum (yes, she chewed on it for a bit!)

I remember mud pies, drinking from the hose, sitting on my dad's lap to drive the car, hanging our heads out the window in the car to count the lines on the road as my dad drove slow!

I also remember asking my mom and dad one too many times if we were there yet, and they actually stopped the car and told me to get out and drove away LOL (they drove around the block and came to get me ... I quit asking after that one!)

Those were such wonderful times and while our parents might have seemed harsh, compared to today's standards, it seems to me that people in their 40s, 50s and 60s and up are so much more polite, friendly, willing to lend a helping hand and just plain better people!!!!!

Wonnie

My Mom talked about chewing tar as well MarionsQuilts and about the iceman chipping off pieces of ice for the neighbor kids to suck on.

tate_elliott

In my hometown (pop. about 40,000), I could call my grandmother's house with only four numbers on the rotary dial, bakelite phone.

Favorite TV shows? Roy Rogers, Lone Ranger, and of course Superman! "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!" One year for Halloween, my parents bought me a Superman costume, on the cape, in good-sized letters, it said, "Remember - only Superman can fly!" I guess even then they didn't want any lawsuits due to kids jumping off the roof.

Tate

GingerK

Yes, party lines were great for catching up on all the news/gossip and my Uncle was always well informed--but they also helped him save his farm the day that his straw bale stack caught on fire. Within 15 minutes the whole neighbourhood had gathered and helped him save his barn and cattle.

I remember being sent out to play (at 4 or 5 yrs old) and no one checking on what I was doing for hours on end. Mind you, I knew I was limited to our farm yard and not to go near the cattle. I remember riding my bike to the pasture and bringing the cattle home at milking time--without being told to. I remember shelling buckets of peas--hated that job, would much rather shuck corn or slice beans.

I remember the one roomed school house where I took first grade--30 of us from grades 1-9 except there was no one in grade 4, and most of them were relatives. The next year we were bussed to a town school and I was terrified--more than 30 kids just in grades 1&2 and I only knew my cousin and he was a BOY!! The transition was difficult.

I remember my Mom almost dying from appendicitis. We had no local doctor, the nearest hospital was 30 miles away and there were no ambulances. Not all those old times were good times.