anybody out there ever play "Old Bloody Tom" (with his nightgown on)? It was a favorite in our neighborhood.

We used to catch "lightning bugs" which is what we called fireflies. I was just asking why we never see those anymore.

We also played jacks, red rover, colored easter eggs, etc. outside allllll day long.

There's NO WAY I'd let my kids run the neighborhood today like we did, back then. It's a different world. Now we go to the Y and have play dates at the park, and such.

[quote=jkwynn]We used to catch "lightning bugs" which is what we called fireflies. I was just asking why we never see those anymore.
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Oh, do I remember those lightning bugs, they were marvelous!
We'd put them in a jar with cloth over it and carry them around in the dark. I remember Grandma sitting on the porch with her pipe and pointing out that the lightening bugs were on all the bushes, and each bush would light up, each in its own turn but not all at the same time. Never could understand that.

Yes, it is a different world, and I'm not too sure of anyone nowadays where kids are concerned. But we lived in a marvelous world, way back then.

We would lay in the grass and stare up at the clouds and make images of them. Also try to scare each other with spooky stories. It's a shame kids can't be out after dark now, but you know, my parents and neighbors were all on their porches while we played outside after dark.

We lived in Ohio until I was nine. We played kick the can, cowboys and indians, and in the winter my dad would flood our vacant lot so we could skate. We had tons of kids in our subdivision and ran the neighborhoods with no worries of anything bad happening. We moved back to Michigan in 1962 but I still keep in contact with my best friend from Ohio.

We lived on base and I had a sidewalk that went all around our houses in a square. I would get up and put on my skates and skate all day. I collected marbles and comic books. Loved to play jacks and hopscotch. I used to put on a puppet show for the neighborhood kids and I was all the characters. And riding my bicycle with the cards on my wheels to make noise. Great memories.

Jacks, hop-scotch, marbles, bike riding, cowboy and indians,
anything outside. Our school playground had swings, 2 high slides monkey bars and merry-go-round. Kids have no idea the fun we had. No TV at our home. At bedtime Mom read us a story then to sleep. Next morning outside we went.
Spending the night with a cousin or them staying at your home.

Absolutely! I remember playing almost every one of these games. I have 7 sisters and no brothers. We got our first TV when I was a teenager, so playing outside was the only thing to do. We also didn't have A/C. I was an avid reader (and a librarian today) but I'd go outside in the shade of the pecan trees to read.

We also made up games and were allowed to "run loose" as long as we stayed on our farm, which is 25 acres, so we had lots of room to run, play, and spread out. There was no fighting allowed, so when someone got mad, she just stomped off and stayed away until she cooled off.

Since we have no brothers, we made up a game we called "boys," which was so innocent it's ridiculous now. We made up imaginary brothers and talked to them or about them for hours. Of course, for all that practicing, I couldn't talk to a "real" boy until I was a senior in high school!

Did anyone play "Ghost in the Graveyard," which was basically hide and seek but at night? Instead of being It you were the ghost. We'd play only when cousins were visiting because we weren't allowed outside at night otherwise, and we were really afraid when we did play!

We played all of those plus 4 square, any kind of tag you could think of~ freeze tag, TV tag,etc;oh and remember when Barbie lived in a shoe box not a townhouse? Jump rope, single or double dutch! Just be sure to go home when the street lights came on!!!!

I was also brought up in the country and small village -- we played something called mumbely peg and "war" -- a circle in the dirt and using a jackknife cut the circle into smaller and smaaller pieces -- the last one left was the winner. There were still lightening bugs when my boys were young to catch and try to read under the covers.

I think that with no long field grass left, they aren't surviving. sad !!!