My sister and I were very protected (foster kids) when we were growing up. Our 'parents' were in their 60's and very strict.

We went to school
Came home and did homework and chores
Sat on the porch swing and listened to our radio

We weren't allowed to go to anyone's house or have anyone over.

When World War II started, in 1939(1), I was ten.

After the hired man/men went off to war, there were lots of chores to do on Dad's large farm of 250 acres, 187 of them workable: we had a woodlot, cut our wood for stove and furnace, and a gravel pit.

- I fed the hogs.

- Brought the cows in from the pasture for milking ... actually, that was more often done by my younger brother.

- Milked (some of) the cows.

-Homework from school.

ole joyful

1. On this day to remember the Holocaust, we consider that most everyone in later years agree that Hitler and his crowd were rather a nasty lot ... but many in the U.S. (across a large ocean) didn't seem to think that such a big deal ...

... till Hitler's buddy kicked 'em in the butt.

o j

School, played outside, played with paper dolls.
Mary

I had four older sisters. Indoors, we had paper dolls, and made clothes for them with wallpaper sample books. We used card board boxes to make houses for them, and made curtains, rugs, etc. from the wall paper samples. Also we played card games like Old Maid, Go Fish. DM taught us to embroider dresser scarves and pillow cases. DF taught us how to play Solitaire.

Outdoors, my favorite was learning to roller skate.

Sue

Besides school, which I could walk to, I;

1. Watched Mickey Mouse Club
2. Rode my bike all around
3. Had dinner at the table with my family (thanks, Mom)

I was outside a lot, a tom boy, I did help Daddy in the fields and with the farm animals.
I loved to swing, we had a big swing set and a big swing that was almost a swing bed you could lay on and watch the clouds go by.
I rode my bike till I got my motorcycle then I rode it all the time.
Loved riding my horse but unfortunately not every day.
I went down to the bayou pretty much every day and fished or just watched for gators.
I was not much into dolls. When my sisters were still at home we played music and danced every day. We loved dancing and so did mom she would join in.

What I did the most was read~~play with dolls as a younger child, ran the neighborhood and played. But reading took up most of my time as soon as I learned how to. As soon as we could write our names we got a library card, we lived in a small town and could walk every where, I could new books anytime.

In a small town in South Jersey in the 1950's...

Walked about a mile to grade school in the morning, walked back home for lunch, back to school after lunch, and then walked home after school.

Hung out at the public Library,...head librarian later gave me a part time job there when I was in HS.

On cold winter afternoons, when there was snow...sledding down a hilly street, and ice skating on the lake in borough park.

barbies
skated
bicycled

lived in Mediterranean (California coast) and tropical climates

Roller skated
Jumped rope
Played Red Rover

since we lived in "downtown" Hollywood I was limited to activities...like yoga lady read a lot...did go and play at local park, and a few friends...did have access to the apt pool, when the weather was good....

As I have thought of this all day. Not much else to do with the snow and ice, I also rode bikes, and roller skates, mostly in the spring and summer, but we also did jigsaw puzzles and played all kinds of games, from chinese checkers, to parcheesi, so many card games to tag and hide and seek.
At our house we only had about 2 inches of snow, it was the ice that is causing all the trouble here in Georgia today. Took my nephew a little over 5 hours to get home to his family.
Mary

Helped out at our family restaurant. I was 3 months old when my parents purchased it. It was just a block from elementary school, so it was where I came "home" to everyday.

Barbies, read books, played outside

1. played "school" with my stuffed animals (and then became a "real" teacher)
2. played with paper dolls
3. rode my bike

Rode Bicycle, we went skating at the Roller Barn 2x a week,
Spent most summer days walking to "town" and hanging out at the lagoon/kiddie pool/beach.
Rode horses not everyday but many days after school..

My brother and I were "latch key" kids before that was a term..we spent a lot of time walking to town, hanging out with friends and "minding" ourselves.

Rode my bicycle (on gravel roads).

On rainy days, played with my Gilbert Erector Set.

Went for a swim in the river.

Rainy days? Because cold didn't enter the picture...

-made forts out of the couch cushions
-built with legos, tinkertoys, and lincoln logs
-played board games-parchessi, monopoly, checkers, card games, payday

one extra, still played barbies. We made the shelves in her house and would pull her up the string to the different "floors". Different from when we were outside and the pine tree was her home and she drove around in her car which was my skate, being pulled by the strings.

1. paper dolls were a major part of my young life. Anybody remember Betsy McCall? Every month McCall magazine had a full page of young Betsy and several out fits to cut out. I had boxes and boxes of her, her clothes, plus drew, colored and cut out many of my own designs for her to wear.

1.In Summer, roller skating, climbing trees with my best friend Joan

1.In winter sled riding and reading...and making more clothes for Betsy.

gazinia, just for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Liana's blog

Seems a lot of us liked our paper dolls. I remember when you could go to the five and dime (we had two, Danner's and Ben Franklin's) and buy a whole booklet for a dime. Of course, a dime was pretty hard to come by back in those days and when you were 7 or 8. We cut furniture out of old Sears and Penney's catalogs and make pretend rooms.

I read a lot, too. Like YogaLady, we got library cards very young. The library had a summer reading club. If you read 10 books and gave an oral book report to the librarian you got to go on a picnic at the end of summer. I usually had read at least double that amount.

We also played games. We played riddle-dee-dee, I see something you don't see. Then you would give a hint--like it begins with a "B". When we would go to Grandma J's, she'd play cards with us. Mainly "War" which can last forever--bless her heart.

Summer was for bike riding--with some friends we used to ride 5 miles out into the country to my grandparents' farm. We'd go to the creek to cool off and explore the woods. This was in 7-8 grades.

Winter was sledding and ice skating at Herkles pond. Usually a fire to warm us when needed and hot chocolate in thermos bottles.

Gosh, sometimes it'd be fun to be young again.

Horse
Dog
Tree swing

ate 3 meals with my family
prayed every night
we sang every day as my Mom and Dad were both singers and all the kids sang well too.

1.) Played outside with my then (only) two brothers with games we made up ourselves.
2.) I snacked outside a lot. I cracked hickory nuts, picked berries or fruit and veggies that we had grown in the garden. That's how I avoided eating foods I didn't like. Lol!
3.) My brothers and I liked to catch bugs, worms, crawdads or whatever so my parents would take us fishing.

Played outside with neighbor kids.
Rode my bike.
In the summer we would go swimming at a very large public pool.
Roller skated on sidewalks.
Walked on homemade stilts.

I walked on homemade stilts too.

Played jacks on the kitchen floor.

Played fort in the livingroom with sheets over the tv trays.

Ran around in the front yard with a towel clothes pinned on my back as a cape and I could be Superman.

My parents had 6 kids in 8 years, so it was a loud boisterous household for many years.

We built forts all the time with pillows, blankets, heavy books to hold the blanket on the end table, loved it.

We played hide and seek in the house and outside all the time.

We played Hide the Button the most. Get a button out of the "button box" (aka sewing box). Go in the "front" LR and hide it, then have the others come in the room. You're getting warmer, you're getting warmer, you're burning up......you're freezing cold. So simple and so fun. You could hide it on top of the lamp finial, on the floor, just behind the leg of the chair, etc.

Great memories everyone!

1. Made our bed before we came out for breakfast.
2. Got washed and dressed before we came out for breakfast. No pj's at the table!
3. helped mom with the housework before we could play outside.

I grew up in a very strict household. We started chores the day after our 5th birthday.

Great stories everyone. We did not live near town so that was something we never did was to do things that were in town. No books only while in school and those I got only during school time. I loved to read too and still love to do it but can not find the time. I have my own library now. I did have paper dolls but only seemed to play with them when somewhat older with a girl in the neighborhood that I could visit from time to time. I was never interested in dolls. My parents were very, very strict. I could not wear lipstick until I was 16 and could not date till I was 18. Had a lot of chores to do to, milking, pulling weeds and housework and such. The things in my first post are things that I did growing up the most.

Sue

Swinging on a tree that would allow us to drop in to the river, to swim
Always climbing trees
Lots of baseball

I had a lot of siblings, we made our own fun...didn't have bikes etc.