I remember honeysuckle. There must have been honeysuckle vines in almost everyone's yard in the neighborhood and that scent sends thousands of memories through my mind............ Softball games in the backyard or the city plot, either one was fun. BTW, the city plot was literally a plot of land in our neighborhood owned by city.... and it was our playground! Let's see..... hopscotch, match box cars, riding bikes, cops and robbers (which to my recollection was really just an older kids version of hide 'n seek... lol). Oh and the 2 block walk to the little "grocery" store to buy candy.... which we promptly brought home and set up a table at the end of the driveway and sold to the other kids whose parents wouldn't allow them to walk 2 blocks to that little store! lol. A neighbor who sat on her front porch at night and told the kids ghost stories... were we able to sleep at night? Ping pong games and home made ice cream. Catching fire flies and saving them in a jar and even with holes punched in the lid, they would die. Croquet in the front yard. Jan, thanks for the reminder about playing cards pinned to bicycle tires (I had forgotten that one). Rides in the back of my father's car-truck (don't know the proper name of the vehicle, but it only had a front seat and the back was like a pick up truck bed.) Card games: Rook, Canasta, Rummy. Board games: Monopoly, Life, Backgammon. Other games: Trouble, Operation, and some 'haunted' game with a plastic board on legs that glowed (can't remember the name of that one). Barbie dolls and record players (45's until I "graduated" to albums). "Instant requests" on the local radio station. The bell tower at the nearby college chiming the hour (it still does, but I no longer live close enough to hear it.) Ah the memories. Thanks for this thread. It was fun and nostalgic.

mom had a clothes line ( I think everyone did) that we got to put sheets over to make a "tent" we spent the night in, having a blast. best memory I have of childhood.

Going to the drive-in was a treat for us kids. We would be allowed to get in our pajamas and bring our pillow with us and pile in the back of the station wagon and go see a drive-in movie. We got to play on the playground until the cartoons started, then my mom would break out the homemade popcorn she brought with us. One brown grocery sack of white and one brown grocery sack of yellow. Such a treat!

A little late in reading this post, but having lots of fun! We had a boxelder tree in the middle of our yard. It was our "fun tree"...base for playing hide'n'seek when cousins came over on an evening. One branch held our swing. It was also the sturdiest branch of the tree to sit on. We also had a plum brush in the grove, which had a natural canopy creating a place for a playhouse...I spent many hours there. In the winter we made snow angels, built snow forts, sledded down snow piles (Dad piled snow high with the loader when he cleared the yard...no snow blowers back then!) We also played cards with our parents. In school, the popular recess games were Red Rover, Duck Duck Goose, jump rope, jacks...just to name a few. Kids today get a lot of 'thumb exercise' with electronic games, but we try to keep our grandkids busy outside during the summer, or in the fall and winter, with coloring or other activities. Our grandsons like to bake with Gramma, so I enjoy that!

These are some wonderful memories. I grew up on a farm and was outside from daylight till dark, wandering the fields and pastures with our dogs and cats as my companions (they followed me everywhere). We had no close neighbors and my sister & brother were much older than me, so I had to learn to entertain myself. But that was no problem. To this day, I'd still rather be alone than with a group of people.

One of my absolutely favorite things to do was to play in the dirt. My kids think I'm crazy when I tell them my favorite toy was dirt! But I loved it. I had a few tin cans and Mama gave me some old kitchen spoons and a flour sifter. I would spend hours sitting on the ground. I must have spooned & sifted TONS of dirt through the years.

Another favorite thing was to lie in the grass in the backyard at night with my dad. He loved to lay out there after a long hard day of working in the fields. We would look at the stars and watch for satellites overhead.

ShowMama my cousin Jim and I did the same thing. We had his toy tractors and dump trucks big Tonka toys and we played in the dirt for hours and hours. My grandpa's farm had a lot of sand mixed in with the dirt in the long sweeping driveway and we played there alot and in the Chicken house as it had straw mixed in there too with the sand. We made long roads in the dirt and carted tons of the stuff from one place to another.
We also added water and made lots of mud cakes and mud pies and used grass as ingredients.