I really think long ago childhood was more fun (and creative) than all the "stuff" children need today. We lived out-of-town and my cousins were my playmates!

Climbing up into the barn loft and jumping out was fun and scary. Making roads under the trees using rakes, brooms, and rocks was an absorbing task.

Finding rocks dug up when a well was drilled was always exciting
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Then there were hopscotch, marbles, throwing a pocket knife into a circle, and playing basketball by throwing the ball into a bushel basket attached to the garage.

We also played "Eeny-ivy-over," Prisoner's Base, Roller Bat, Bum-Bum-Bum, Slinging Statues, Freeze Tag, Hide and Go Seek,etc.

Bored? Never! There were also paper dolls, books, making doll clothes, etc.

Memories! Many of you have similar childhood experiences to mine. Growing up in a tiny rural town had its charm, and problems. My Grandpa ran the General Store and if I would put a candy bar on the counter he would smile and say "Yah" and I didn't have to pay. When he retired the new owner was a very mean and spiteful man so I never went near his store. Our one room school meant about a mile walk and quicker if we cut through the field, but not when the bull was nearby. Girls were not prized and men who fathered only girls were not esteemed. Girls were told to keep quiet, never do better in school than the boys, and never have "high falutin" ideas. Our minister was against girls having any higher education of college or training. So of course I couldn't wait to leave and see the rest of the world! I remember 4-H county fair competitions, Sunday School recitations, canning fruits and veggies on the hot summer days, cutting corn out of the beans, feeding the stock, hunting eggs, finding kittens in the barn loft, choosing fabric feed sacks for dresses, planting, weeding and harvesting from a big garden. For games we jumped rope, ran races, climbed trees, made dolls from hollyhock flowers, made mud pies, and in winter skated on the farm ponds. We didn't have skates just slid around with our boots. Keeping the wood box filled, and dusting were two chores I didn't like. But ironing and cooking I did like. Of course we had a bully. He lived at the end of the one road through town and caused all kinds of problems. Luckily we had Grandparents nearby to help. When our little school closed and we had to ride the bus over an hour each way to high school in the big town we were overwhelmed. But just at first. Most of us adapted well and some went on to college. I remember playing "Annie, Annie Over", "Mother May I", "Freeze Tag", "Hide and Seek", and boys played softball. Roads were graded and oiled each summer, dusty and stinky! In winter Dad wore ice creepers on his boots. Power would go out often and everyone had wood stoves and fireplaces to keep warm and cook. Our phone was a party line and everyone listed in. One woman had her phone next to her ticking clock so we always knew when she was there. Our minister told us he would not let Santa Clause come to our house if we messed up our Christmas speech, so we really knew it! Think I wrote before how he substituted raw colored eggs for boiled ones in our Easter egg hunt and they broke all over our new clothes. He thought it was funny, we didn't. Our school had 22 kids in grades 1-8. My class was the biggest ever with 5. I was the only girl. We had very few girls in the county. The first graders sat next to the eighth graders (both of them) and they helped us learn to read and write. Anyone else remember Dick, Jane, Puff and Spot? Some years we didn't have some grades as no child was that age. The bully I mentioned was held back twice until he got bigger. We had outhouses and a tornado shelter dug out underground with a concrete top.
We used our ink wells to put spring flowers in and had box socials at school where people prepared pies and other treats packed in a box and it was auctioned off to raise money for the school. Some boxes were marked by girls hoping their boyfriends would buy them. The school had a stove in the middle for heat, cloak rooms, water bucket, stage and desks bolted to the floor with seats that folded up. I learned to sew on Grandmas treadle machine and still have it and it still works. I know I'm rambling but thought just keep popping into my head. When we tell kids today what our life was like they think it was "Little House on the Prairie" and it almost was!

Ao many of us played outdoors until the streetlights came on. Rode bikes and roller skated a lot. I wish there was a way to get today's youth off the computers and video games and learn to really play. Do you remember ever being bored?

Wonderful memories everyone!! Thank you for posting your memories! This is always a fun thread to post!
I hope to see more posts so keep adding stories as you remember them!!

Many memories in the country but this one always comes to mind first.
One day I went berry picking with my grandma. As we were picking she says "stop,don't move" so of course I listened. I watched as she reached down then all of a sudden her hand came up and she flung a snake through the air across the field. I was amazed at what she did. Once that snake was gone we went right back to picking berries as if nothing happened. So glad she reminded me to use the bathroom before we left. Sure my pants would not have been dry lol.

Wearing my new silver high heels (with my green socks) to the nursery at the military base in California. Mama was going to the commissary and they didn't allow children, so my sister and I had to stay at the nursery. I remember a lady in the parking lot pointing and laughing - I must have been a sight! Was 6 years old that year. I still remember those high heels. They were BEAUTIFUL!

I grew up in the country and we played outside all day and right back outside after supper. There were all the neighbourhood kids playing with you and we played games like " Red Rover" ( am I showing my age here?) and we also played hide and seek in the corn fields- I don't know how we ever found anyone, lol! We also used to have a lot of picnics which I think have gone by the wayside as well. Life was good!

I grew up in central Ohio in a town of 15,000 or so. There was a dense woods behind our house and a city park (softball fields, etc.) beyond it at the bottom of the hill. Between the woods and the park was a small stream over which we walked on rocks we relocated every summer. Wish I had that kind of balance now!

The creek -- a "run" in the local parlance -- was full of crayfish. We used to play with them, dare each other to touch one, etc. If you had told us then that people in Louisiana ate those things and that someday they would be among my favorite foods, we would have thought you were crazy. Do kids still have that much fun today? We didn't have TV so there was litle keeping us in the house, but with all the electronics every kid seems to have today, do they still explore the natural world that surrounds them?

I just thought of another wonderful memory and had to share it. My youngest brother, just five years younger than me with two other kids inbetween, got into coin collecting. We all helped him look at the dates and mint marks on pennies to complete his collection. On warm summer rainy days, he would bike to the bank and buy sacks of pennies. I'm sure they were heavy and I can't remember how he got them home -- he thought baskets on bikes were for sissies, so he must have just carried them.

We would dump the bags full of pennies on a card table on the front porch and we would sit, with whatever neighborhood kids happened to be around, sifting through piles of pennies. The task was simple, so we talked, told stores, etc. It doesn't sound like much when I write it, but sitting there with friends on the dry porch with the rain pouring down just a foot or two away -- it just didn't get much better than that.

Yes, I should. We've had two deaths in my generation in March and it's has me thinking a lot about my own mortality. so have been thinking I should write down a bit of "history". What I need to do too, is to print out all of these posts because so many of them have reminded me of similar things in my own life. I really do feel sorry for today's kids tho, missing out on all the wonderful adventures we all had!!