Rhonda

My grandpa wrote poems and one of his was about the games they would play and the things they came up with for fun. They would climb up on the sheds and slide off the roof. The girls had to wear dresses so they tucked their bloomers under them and slid! Lots of times catching their clothes on the tin and getting in big trouble for it! LOL

I spent alot of time as a kid climbing trees and playing in them.
I remember taking sticks and sharpening them on the sidewalk to use as knives. I threw a rope up in the tree and made a pulley and tied it to a basket so I could take stuff up in the tree with me. One branch would be my bedroom and one branch would be the kitchen and one branch was the living room! LOL It was a great big old oak tree and I spent many hours there.

I am an only child so I spent alot of time by myself or with my lab Pudder. We got him when I was not quite two and my mom and dad named him Butterball. I couldn't say butterball so it came out Pudder and he was my playmate and best friend for 12 years.

grammyp

My cousin and I used to make boats and cars out of walnut and pecan shells. We also played "house" with my grandmother's Avon jars under a big mimosa tree.

I too am an only child and used to have pretend playmates. Lassie and Timmy used come and play in my room. They never helped clean though.

cjomomma

I remember my Dad making me a play area outside by putting a tarp up next to the house. It was attached to the house on 1 side and stakes on the other side. I had turned into a house. I had all my kitchen stuff, dolls and barbies out there. I would spend hours playing under that tarp with my little brother.

pookie ookie

Pudder is an adorable name.

Climbed trees and buildings. Painted (murals sometimes), drew, played board games & video games, went camping, acted in plays, ran around at night and made audio recordings.

Rhonda

I'd use the name on a dog now but there is only one Pudder so that would feel weird to use it again! LOL He was like a furry brother to me! LOL I told him all my secrets and whereever I played he was not far away.

mrspete

I loved to play house. Would dressup when I could. Mom had a chenille robe and I wore it as a queen. No jewelry nor high heels nor lipstick, but I still reigned a beauty. I loved my baby dolls. Lived in a coal camp so there were a few girls here and there to play with. I had a close cousin but she didn't like the domestic calm stuff, she was a tom boy, bicycles and tag and ball. I was always clutzy. you don't have to atheletic to show love and comfort. That's me!

At gatherings we did recitations! We would tell stories, local legends and old family tales. But my favorite were reciting poems. My dad did his 'Village Blacksmith' and mom did her, 'Somebody's Mother'. We would hear them over and over each year but still they were an important part of sharing. I found the longest poem I could find and memorized it. The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe !

Lisanne

I was an only child, too, and I spent a lot of time on my own, too.

I wasn't very coordinated, so although I loved to run around, my knees usually had cuts & bruises on top of cuts & bruises.

Often I had my nose in a book. I was and am a huge reader.

I loved arts & crafts, and I'd spend hours drawing, coloring, making dollhouses out of scrap materials, putting together things from kiddie kits, like beaded jewelry or whatever.

I also loved using my brain, meaning crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, logics, and brainteasers.

Now and then I'd write a story or an essay, but more often I played out my stories with my dolls. Skipper ran away from home endlessly and across the country to find her dad (my parents had separated), and my Little Kiddle paper dolls were stranded on an island numerous times. I was into adventure!

I also watched a ton of TV, and I really don't think it was bad for me at all. In fact, I learned an awful lot that I wouldn't have known otherwise, just from cartoons, sitcoms and police shows, not to mention the educational kiddie shows.

When we lived in the city, we lived near a roller rink, so I spent countless weekend afternoons there. Once we moved to the 'burbs, there were more kids around and I was a bit older and allowed to roam the neighborhood. I spent hours riding my bike around. There was a good park a few blocks away, with playgrounds, woods, a pool, tennis courts, etc. Naturally, I spent a fair amount of time there.

My mother sent me off to day camp every summer, and I went to overnight camp a bit, too. At camp, we swam almost every day, either in the pool or at one of Michigan's Great Lakes or a smaller lake's beach. Camp gave me my love of hiking in the woods.

And then there were board games, an essential part of childhood for me! Monopoly, Aggravation, Clue, and my favorite, Careers.

Lisanne

Now that sounds like fun, Mrs. Pete!

You reminded me, speaking of telling old family stories, one of my favorite things to do was to look through a huge box of old photos my mother had and ask her about the people in them. I could do this endlessly.

Chigger Holler Quilter

I loved to play jacks with my Mom and sisters (six older and one younger) . We all sat on the floor and what fun we had! :) We lived only about one block off of the bay (Puget Sound) across from Seattle. We would watch the lights twinkle at night from the bedroom window. I also spent a lot of time walking on the beach. One of my favorite games there was to climb up on the driftwood logs and then run as fast as I could jumping from log to log without having jump off onto the beach. What a beautiful place for a child to grow up! We lived in Suquamish, WA; the little town where Chief Seattle lived and was buried!
Thanks for bringing these great memories to mind. :)

Rhonda

My parents had a closet in their bedroom that when you opened the door to the closet it would swing back and mee the door to the bathroom. Behind those two doors created a hidey hole. I played there alot when I was in grade school.

I also remember having barbies and skipper and ken dolls and I would fashion houses out of cardboard boxes and play for hours on the back porch.

I remember a book of old time stories my grandma had, One of the stories was about these two girls who cut out paper dolls from wallpaper and attached them to sticks for their paper doll house. They would fashion furniture and make play food for the doll house, Til the day when a mouse was found in the house and it has eaten part of the kitchen wall and the paper dolls were scared to go into the house. So Tom Thumb came to call and he helped them chase the mouse away and fix their house.

I have often thought of that story and I can see little girls in the early 1900s playing this way with make believe paper dolls!!