As a kid, rode bide to public swimming pool at nite.
Everyone came to our family yard, to play Red Rover, hide and seek, lay on the front lawn and look at the stars.
Walked to public school.

etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

All of the above.

And we rode in the back of pick-up trucks.
We were respectful to ALL adults, even the ones who didn't deserve it. And addressed them as Mr. or Mrs.
Mighty Mouse was my favorite cartoon.
You could trust everyone, or so we believed.
We didn't lock our doors in the house or car.
We had to do our chores and homework before playing with friends.
All the food my mom served was made from scratch. No store bought at our house.
All the neighborhood women met at once a week coffee klatch to catch up on all the gossip. No children allowed.
Our first phone was a 'party line'.
Our first TV was B/W and tiny in a huge wooden cabinet.
Clare

When I was a kid, from age 7-13, we lived in Washington, DC.

My school was right across the street and the play ground had swings, monkey bars, etc.

We also played on the sidewalks: hide and seek, hopscotch, etc. until the street lights came on.

We had a neighborhood movie theater; double feature, serial, news and cartoons all for ten cents. Only a short distance from downtown, we walked to a "big" theater where we could see a movie and a stage show with the current stars, for 25 cents.

At that time DC was safe and as children, we could go any where we wanted to. . . in or around the Capitol, White House, Smithsonian, the Washington Monument (how many times did I walk those steps?) and at that time there was a public, free swimming pool near the Monument.

DC was a fantastic place for youngsters to live at that time.

At age 13, we moved to a rural area in Virginia, and I became an instant Tomboy, climbing trees, playing ball, riding borrowed bikes (I never had a bike.)

I loved both of those situations, and am grateful for having had each experience.

Sue

When I was a kid we went barefoot all summer. If we were at a picnic at the park, I always seemed to step on a hot cigarette someone tossed. At home I was always getting splinters, cuts, etc. We never went to the ER no matter what. I had never been to an ER until I started working in one in my late 20s.

When I was a kid, having a twin sister, I had a built-in playmate. We lived in the country until the 5th grade. We went barefoot all summer & played outside all day, playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians. We took turns being Dale Evans & Roy Rogers. We had a big family and got together often with our adult brothers, sisters and their kids. I don't remember ever being "bored" like I hear from my grandkids from time to time.

When I was a kid I wore "pedal pushers" and spoolies not at the same time.....usually ;o)

Rode a horse up and down the highway, and all over the country side visiting friends.

Drove a tractor back and forth between my parents and grandparents house.

Went uptown on Saturdays to the five and dime stores - there were three of them in our little town.

Had my hair done in a "bubble cut" (what were we thinkin'?)

Sky King was my favorite Saturday show on the little black and white tv we had and I wanted to be Penny before I found out I was afraid of heights and flying lol.

Also, when I was a kid, we took the train to visit out of state grandparents who lived in the country. They had cows that had to be milked and we got to watch. We had to be careful so the cows would not kick us. They had chickens and we got to watch as Grandpadad chopped up ears of corn with a corn knife and threw the corn to the chickens. We sometimes got to go along when it was time to gather eggs, but there was always worry of us getting lice, so we were always told to not touch anything in the hen house. I never figured out what that was all about.

We watched as Gram washed the eggs that had chicken poop on them. They weren't refrigerated. We all sat on overturned buckets in the egg-room, which was attached to the feed room in a small outbuilding.

The egg man came once a week and the eggs were sold, and Gram got some groceries from the truck covered in dust that had lots of doors and compartments on it. We all got to pick and choose lots of penny candies, and put them in our individual coffee cans. It was great!

We went to the bathroom in the outhouse and there was always this concern about us falling in. To this day, I have never known anyone who ever fell in. We usually used the 'pot' at night.

We played in the haymow though there was always concern that we might see or get on to a snake up there. We never saw one. When we got older, we jumped out of the haymow door, the one located on the back side of the barn. What a rush!

It is a small miracle that we 3 came through all that fun unharmed.

When I was a kid, for 15 cents, I could get a bag of chips (5 cents), a Coke (8 cents), and 2 cents worth of 3-for-1-cent candy.

We had Sunday best clothes - frilly dress, patent leather shoes, ankle socks with frills on them.

We played baseball in the cow pasture behind our street and used dried "cow patties" for bases.

We spent hours paddling in Kent's Pond and catching pricklies.

When I was a kid, all the moms in the neighbourhood were always home. If one of us ever fell or needed anything we could just go to the nearest mom, for a bandaid or to use the bathroom or get a drink of water and such.

We were always sent outside to play, except on rainy or stormy days. Mom used to blow a whistle when it was time to come in for lunch and dinner.

We would go on picnics around the pond. We'd pack peanut butter sandwiches and milk in a mayonnaise jar and go off first thing in the morning on an adventure. We always thought we had been gone for hours - played, ate our lunch - but when we went home it was only about 11 a.m.. LOL!

A trip to see my father's parents in Harbour Grace would be an overnight trip. Today the same trip takes me about two hours over and back because of the highways.

When I was a kid I wasn't allowed out after dinner on school nights and I wasn't allowed to go out with my friends on Saturday until all of my homework was done and my room cleaned. I wasn't allowed to do homework on Sunday.

I'm glad I grew up when I did. I wouldn't want all the pressures of being a kid in today's world for anything!

granlan when i was a kid, we used to go to the amusement park in long beach...my aunt used to live in the villa rivera...

When I was a kid...
I only had ONE doll with ONE outfit.
We walked 2 miles to wait for the schoobus and in winter..once on the bus-we'd take off those DREADED snowpants!
Each week I'd buy a 45 record with my allowance.
We biked up to the 'swiming hole' (that edged a cow pasture), would swing on the rope into the pond!
Mom went to a fire sale at a Bridal shop & bought a small wedding gown & 2 bridesmaid dresses & my girlfriends & I'd play 'dress up' in the attic.
All of us neighborhood kids played softball every night after dinner, in the church lawn.
Me & my sister were NEVER allowed to watch tv or play inside, during the day in the summer. Only allowed in for meals..we need more of this for today's 'puter kids!
All I ever wanted for Xmas each year was an oil 'paint by number' kit.

When I was a kid we stayed gone all day playing outside.
We would:
Ride bikes everywhere
Play on a rope swing we found
Step on honey bees until they stung us
Do cartwheels
Listen to the other families on the party line.
Make soup out of dandylions
Find earwigs in rhododendron leaves
Find dead birds and bury them with crosses made from popsickle sticks and glitter.
Salt slugs
Swing high and jump off
Go to the library
Walk to the high school and go swimming
Build forts
Eat at whoevers house you were at come lunchtime

Trin

when i was a kid....

we had one television - a B&W 13" i believe. we all sat around it and watched ed sullivan as a family.

parents/adults business was their business - kids weren't privvy to money issues, adult issues/talk, etc. no conversations not meant for a kid's ear was ever discussed.

sunday no one did any housework (other than fixing and cleaning up) meals, stores were not opened and we visited relatives - every sunday.

palm sunday was a day to visit family in the cemetary.

in summer, all the kids on the block played outside all day and into the night - playing kick ball, tag, mother may i, jump rope, dodge ball, stick ball, hide and seek, etc.

we made mud pies.

we respected our parents and didn't argue when it was time to come in or bed time. we respected our parents' friends and our neighbors. we addressed everyone as mr and mrs.

we spent wonderful overnights with my mother's mom and and grandmom would roll our hair in rags to curl it. we'd sit up in my aunt's bed while watching mitch miller while she drank her beer and ate peanuts and pretzles and we got the homemade root beer.

i learned to love frank sinatra at the age of six!

walked or rode a bicycle everywhere.

wore hand me downs, but always got a new dress, gloves, pocket book and hat for easter. we also changed out of our sunday and/or school clothes immediately.

i can't recall ever being allowed out on a school night, no matter what my age/grade.

we all put on our pj's and grabbed blankets and pillows, piled in my father's station wagon and went to the drive-in movies.

we ran after the ice man, the (amusement ride) whip came around in the truck, we followed the bug man (gasp! right behind whatever that sweet smelling stuff was he sprayed) and at times, were allowed to put on a swimsuit and dance with the rain drops (which looked like ballerinas)

we moaned about chores, but did them so we could get outside on a saturday to play with our friends.

my dad got two weeks off every year and we spent them at the jersey shore. we only got to the beach once each week. all the other days my parents had these planned out activities that we would all begrudge ... until we got there. those two days we got to go to the beach - my father went deep sea fishing and had some peace and quiet without us!

matters were handled differently as well...no one sued anyone. one parent would discuss a "situation" with another and somehow things got resolved, because it seemed to me everyone knew each other in our neighborhood.

the closest thing to a video game was a pin ball machine, but only the big kids played it!

great idea for a thread!
maryanne

When I was a kid...

Elvis wasn't king...it was the Good Humor Man

We played kick baseball in the street

I could get a cheeseburger, fries and a coke for .75 at McDonalds

board games were fun to play

I had wooden stilts and a pogo stick

Used to play on the Monkey Bars - High Bar and Swing Set on the school playground.

When I was a kid...
We had a BW television with 2 channels on it.
When the news was on the children would have to be quiet.
The weather man would "draw" the weather on the map.
A treat on occasion was to see "Topo Gigio" on the Ed Sullivan show then it was off to bed.
We had one phone in the house and the parents used it.
We used to walk to someones house to see if they could play.
Our christmas stocking truly was a ladies stocking and it had mostly fruit in it only a small amount of choc. coins and a box of animal crackers.

When I was a kid...

...I wore white cotton gloves and a hat when my mother and I took the train downtown. Chicago was 'downtown', as opposed to 'uptown', which was the center of our suburb. With coal-fired train engines, those gloves were filthy in no time. When I was very little there was an attendant posted in a tower at the train crossing to lower the crossing gates. He was a WWI veteran who had lost an arm in the Great War.

...It was rare for a family to own more than one car.

...We had no 'organized sports'. We played outdoors a lot. We walked, ran, roller-skated, rode bikes. I had an Irish Mail: You sat in it and caused it to move by pushing and pulling the handlebars.

...We girls played dolls and traded picture playing cards that we kept in little boxes, filed in categories: "Dogs", "Cats", "Birds", etc.

...We didn't make plans to play -- didn't telephone or ring doorbells. I'd go next door and call out, "Oh, oh! MAR-I-LYN!" to see if she could come out and play. She and I would go down the street to see if Joanie could play, and so on. Sometimes we had enough for Red Rover or Red Light/Green Light, but mostly we played house. As the youngest I got darn sick of having to be Baby!

...I walked eight blocks to school (First through Sixth); walked home for lunch *hour*; walked back to school; walked home after school. Sometimes I walked alone, but uusually there were one or two other kids -- no adults. Sixth Grade boys were proud to be 'Patrol Boys' at the crossings. On the rare occasion my mother was not home at lunchtime -- or the neighborhood ladies were having a bridge afternoon -- I could take a bag lunch and buy a carton of milk at school. Very few kids did that often. We had all that 'dangerous' playground equipment at school to play on at twice-a-day recess: monkeybars, wooden-seated swings, a merry-go-round. (I knocked myself cold on the bars once!) I soemtimes wonder if the kids we call 'hyperactive' today just don't get enough exercise!

A lot of memories come from an era where most mothers were not employed outside the house. We may not have had as many 'things' in these one-paycheck households, but our own mothers and our neighbors mothers were *there*. I don't recall that there were many single-parent households then.

We actually were raised in 'a village'. Mothers looked out for their own kids -- and the neighbor kids, too. Kids felt safe and protected, and we naturally respected these caring adults.

DH and I were wondering yesterday just when door-to-door salesmen died out -- because there wasn't anybody home anymore.

When I was a kid.....
kids played baseball in the street or at the park with no adult intervention.
we didn't have a TV set.
we made our own fun.....building stilts, making go carts, building towns in the vacant lot across the street, playing Mumbley Peg with a pocket knife on the front lawn...
we never went out to eat until it was to a relative's house.

When I was a kid, Daddy was a Regional Sales Manager for a pharmaceutical firm. He left on Monday and came home on Friday. How we watched for his car to come down the street and run after him yelling "Daddy's home!"

It was a treat to go out to eat. Since Daddy ate out all week long, he wanted a homecooked meal on Friday night. Then when they could, my parents would take us out to eat at Pizza Inn or sometimes on a Saturday night, Chinese.

When I was a kid, every Saturday night Mama rolled our hair on those sponge rollers while we all watched "Lawrence Welk".

We got up on Sunday and went to church. My parents were strict Southern Baptists who didn't believe in working on Sundays, so the ONLY work we did was wash the dishes so there wouldn't be any "uninvited guests".

We were not allowed to watch much TV so we had to pick wisely. Every now and then, Mama would let us stay up a little late to see the first 5 minutes of The Danny Kaye Show. We were encouraged to be creative.

I didn't know anyone whose mother worked outside the home.

My mama canned, jammed and jellied. She made everything we wore. My mother could stretch a dollar further than anyone I knew. We weren't rich, but we weren't poor. We had just what we needed. I still have my Barbie, Ken doll and all the clothes. My Aunt Ora made a bunch of them with matching hats & coats. I made my doll "furniture" from odds and ends which my daughter finds utterly amazing.

I can remember my Uncle calling the house saying "Kennedy's been shot!" He was downtown Dallas in the crowd when it happened. I was 3 but I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was such a sad time... even for my Republican parents.

My post got too long... sorry!

When I was a kid, our TV only got three channels and it was black and white. A ride on a bus and a pay phone call cost ten cents each. You could buy a Coke at Woolworths for a dime also. Postage stamps cost three cents.

I could lie on my back on the grass and put a leg over each shoulder.

Now my balance is so poor I'm afraid to lift a foot up to walk over something.

When I was a kid........ We went to a drive in for dinner every Friday night!!

Only Dad had a car and could drive. He drove to work Monday thru Fridays. Mom walked to the local stores during the week. Friday nights we'd all go to a Fish Fry Restaurant, then we went grocery shopping at a big super market. We kids sat in the car. Mom did the shopping and Dad paid the bill when she was done.

When I Was a Kid...

Mombondo (Audry) was in charge of taking care of us. She wasn't really old enough to do so, but since our mom was never home, she had to. So she always sent us to the park by the river and she would bring lunch to us. Lunch was Kool-Aid, poured over saltine crackers. :)

We used to walk from one end of our little town to the other...we never worried that someone would take us. Mom always said, "if they do, they'll bring you home by dark".

We used to lay in the grass in the park and find animal shapes in the clouds.

We loved to walk on the tar that spilled out of the vessel high in the air. It was like walking on black marshmallows. That was fun, until we got it in our hair. We got in trouble.

We always watched Lawrence Welk, Art Linkletter and Ed Sullivan on our little black and white tv.

We spent a lot of time at Grandma's house. She listened to Paul Harvey at lunch time and we weren't allowed to talk during that time. If we did, she would say, "shhhhhh!!! Listen!! Paul Harvey's on!" LOL We loved Grandma!

Our first phone was a party line. Our number was 68. That's it, just 68.

I have to quit...that last one made me feel really old! LOL

Our phone number was 16M and our mailbox number was Route 1, Box 16.

I don't remember ever going to a restaurant or drive-in with my parents. I don't know if they had drive-ins when I was a kid (I'm almost 80) and any eating we did away from home was picnic style. We would drive from Wisconsin to Minnesota often and as we neared Minnesota, we would stop and buy smoked fish, fresh bread and canned beans for a wayside meal. Just thinking about it makes me hungry for it.

We played Marbles for keeps...

You drew a circle in the dirt...

You each put the same number of marbles in the circle...and took turns shooting your shooter at the marbles inside the circle, trying to shoot the marble outside the circle.

If you shot one of the other kids marble outside the circle you got to keep it.

I had quite a large bag of marbles from winning.

I don't know where my marbles went..

But I do have Denny's....He kept his in a bag someone sewed for him.

I love getting them out and looking at them. They were so pretty

patti

When I was a kid
my sisters and brother and I would put on plays and shows for the neighbor kids, and charge a dime, then go to the ice cream store and get ice cream.
We played outside until the street lights came on.
I hated going to bed in the early fall when it was still light outside.
The first cartoon I remember watching was The Flintstones on one of those little black and white tv's that was in a tall case. It seemed soooo tall!

When I was a kid, I went to a 4-room school with two grades per room with one teacher. Also, teachers had paddles, and were allowed to use them (fortunately, I never got paddled in school, as my mom told us we would get it again when we got home if we did!). We were also allowed to go barefoot to school from the first of April until school was out. I loved being a kid in a country school.

So, Patti, you are actually telling us that you have lost your marbles? {{gwi:1587325}}

Sue

When I was a kid I would get a ride from our corner to the opposite corner in the Helm's Bakery truck, then the Helm's man would give me a donut to walk back home with. That was so much fun! I will never forget the wooden drawers in that truck...full of donuts!

When I was a kid most of the above I can relate to, except did't have a TV, nor heard of such. lol
My favorite radio program was 'Let's Pretend' plus all the other oldies.
My parents moved quite often, my Dad always looking for a better job and a relative would tell him to come here or there, so attended many schools, some one room, others larger. Attended at least 10 different schools and part of 2nd grade and most of 7th grade was homeschooled as no bus would come where we lived out in the boonies.

Lived on farm with my grandparents once for a year or so and helped my grandmother gather eggs and clean them to sell.

My cousin and I played paperdolls by the hour when we weren't out on the tiny sidewalk skating with clamp on roller skates. Walked to school when living here.

Lived in Idaho, Florida, Minnesota and California, not once but several times in each state.

When I was kid....

We played Cowboys and Indians or Cops and Robbers with realistic looking guns

Kids carried pocket knives to school and played mumbly peg on the lawn during lunch break

Nobody sued when a kid broke their arm or a collarbone falling off the monkey bars at school or off someone's backyard swing set

My brother and I would fight with bloody raw chicken feet the grocer at my grandma's summer place would give us (no one thought to worry about salmonella back then)

On Saturday a quarter got you into the kiddie matinee where you could see two movies, several cartoons and maybe even win a door prize during intermission

You could buy tickets ahead of time and ride the roller coaster at the Santa Cruz boardwalk over and over without getting off

I practically lived at the roller rink winning all the races even when they handicapped me making me start way back.

Best memory of all is when I was around 5 and not yet in school. We'd just moved to the suburbs and didn't have the fenced backyard landscaped yet. So that first summer I had my very own mud pit to play in. Every morning my mother would get out the hose and wet it down and let me out there to play with pail and shovel and items from the kitchen. I would sit there happily wallowing in the mud until lunch time dressed in nothing but a pair of panties. We had a 3/4 bath leading to the outside and I'd jump in the shower and get hosed down. After lunch back out into the yard I'd go to make my pies and build my roads and whatever imaginary world in the mud.

When I was a kid we only had treats at school 2-3 times/year for holidays and it was only a cupcake and an orange drink. We didn't have snacks, we didn't have birthday cupcakes, we weren't given food as rewards.

In the summer we spent all day riding our bikes and/or walking from place to place, rarely checking in with adults. If I had softball practice, I got myself there. My parents didn't chauffer me around.

Good one Sue!! LOL
I thought of many more after reading all of your messages. Sharon in Florida, I think we grew up in the same neighborhood!
I can't remember what I did yesterday, but I do remember that my firat phone number was CH6-2234.
It is still on my ID bracelet that I had when I was a kid.

Trin

There was a pizzeria near us that sold a whole pie for a dollar. My mother always cooked everything from scratch,we never bought pizza. We ate out once a week at a fish-fry restaurant. I always got fried shrimp in a basket and french fries and a chocolate milk shake.

the only time you got a ride to school was when it was raining really hard. We walked to our grammer school and high school.

I went home for lunch everyday. If I ate in the cafeteria it was a special treat. Cookies were a nickel and Dreamcicles were ten cents.

We also had a BW tv that had the dial. It was years before we got our first color tv.

I watched Creature Features on Saturday night and non-violent cartoons on Saturday morning.

SamKaren
your resident DJ

Kids didn't knock on my door for me to come out. they yelled from the street ”Oh, Mag ee”

so did @chisue i see

i'd get up early and look thru my neighbor's trash and get presents for my dad.

When I was a kid, I wore slacks to school - I did not own any blue jeans. I wore shirts that the maid ironed, and I always had a pair of black leather shoes and a pair of brown leather shoes, which I coordinated with what I was wearing. I made sure not to get my clothes dirty during recess at school.

When i was a kid, my best friend, Barbie, taught me how to whistle (using two fingers from each hand) on the bus coming home from school one afternoon. I was, apparently, a very quick learner. My first successful whistle was so loud that our bus driver slammed on the breaks . . . and then ordered Barbie and myself off the bus! To this day, I can still whistle louder than any other person I’ve gone up against. My kids think it’s hysterical (LOL).

Sidewalks seemed exotic. I lived in the country and rarely was I taken into a city.

I ate pizza with a knife and fork.

We played football in all the neighbors' yards and it never occurred to me that we should ask permission from the homeowner, nor did they ever chase us away. We climbed the trees in their yards and took apples from their trees, too. Nowadays I'm puzzled that no one ever objected.

In summer we made sassafras tea and sumac-ade.

I had a neon green flag on an eight foot pole attached to my skinny-wheeled ten-speed bike.

I started getting old ...

When I was a kid, I didn't wear a helmet when I rode my horse. I rode my horse every day. If the weather was too bad to ride, I sat on his back in the barn. I wore blue jeans to school almost every day until the 8th grade, when we had to start wearing dresses. My mother usually made me wear a dress on picture day. Before I had a horse, I had a goat that pulled a wagon.

When I was a kid life was simple and soooooo different from today's madness.

I spent the first 3 years of my schooling in a one-room school.

We used to always check the coin slots on pay phones and frequently found coins

Sometimes tbe pull tab rings on sodas would snap off when trying to open the can

Most cereal had prizes inside

We wore bread bags over our feet inside of boots

There was a machine that xrayed our feet at the shoe store

Mom would have us find the produce man to weigh our bananas and write the price on them

Our parents left us alone in the car when running errands

We played with Yard Darts Eventually they were banned Also the heavy clacking balls on strings What were they called?

No one waited at the bus stop with us

I climbed every tree in the neighborhood.

It’s a bittersweet feeling to see the posts by my KT friends who are no longer living.

Lisa they were called Clackers. I had 2 of them...purple and blue. Mine never shattered.

People didn't generally allow fear of what might happen to control their lives. Kids carried pocket knives, teens carried rifles, illness was something you avoided best you could and accepted as part of living. Neighbors resolved issues of bad behavior without calling the police, men protected their families and neighborhoods, everyone's parent became YOUR parent if you misbehaved and, get this, you actually had to win to get a trophy,

There were inside voices and outside voices. There were places for adults and places for children. In between places were stores, family restaurants and movies. But any screaming or misbehaving child would immediately be removed.

We learned to swim in creeks, lakes and rivers, not pools.

At the bakery a child would get a free cookie, at the butcher's or meat dept. a child would be given a hot dog or a thick slice of bologna.

Most of the neighbors didn't own a car and rode the bus to get to work, stores, etc.

My family had credit at the little country store. My mother would give me a note to the owner saying I could buy a coke and candy bar and to charge it. Off I went on my bicycle as soon as I finished my chores. The store owner kept the charge records in an oblong wooden cheese box. There was a credit book for each family that had a charge account. On payday mother would pay the bill. The owner would give each of us a free courtesy pop that day.

I sold soda pop bottles for 2 cents each, for spending money. I loaded the bottles in my goat cart to take them to the little country store nearby. When I got my money, I bought a soda and candy for me and a soda for my goat. I always got Black Bing Cherry for him.