I remember living in Roswell NM. I'd go hunt for horned toads, chase bunny rabbits(never caught one) and I had a pet lamb named "Lamb Chops". I also had about 50 turtles to care for, some lived in my kiddie pool, others were in little pens(the type you put around bushes for decoration). :0) and.........a little frog lived in the water meter hole.
{{!gwi}}

If it was really bad weather I played on the screened in porch or garage.

Climbing Trees
Playing Cowboys and Indians
Riding a little red wagon down a hill.
Hide and Go Seek
Football
Baseball
Handball
Basketball
Riding Bikes
Skating
Shooting Marbles
Playing Mother "May I"
10 Cuz's and we had a blast
As we got older we played loud music and pretended we were on American Bandstand.

We didn't have many toys.

Very young I think it was the sandbox.
A little older I always framed in a house with lawn chairs and blankets etc and played "House."
Next stage, I guess I spent hours rideing my bike up and down our block.

When we got the whole neighborhood together, we did things like Cowboys and Indians. We spent a lot of time crawling on our bellies around bushes and trees to sneak up on others. We were quite a bunch of dirty little rugrats, and we loved it! In the evening as it was getting dark we often played "Star Light Moon Light" (... hope to see the ghost tonight 1 o'clock..2 o'clock..3......Midnight!) then you chase the other team. It didn't matter that you usually caught nobody, it was the chase that was fun!

At one point in our growing up, Dad allowed us to use the old lumber pile that had accumulated. We built a great fort. It was on the ground behind the house and ours was a 2 story. Dad wasn't too happy when he found out the reason it was so nice and sturdy was becaused we nailed it to the house! LOL We had great times and our imaginations were never stunted!

I don't remember my Mom ever saying that, she couldn't keep me in the house. I was an outdoor person then and a tom boy. I had rather play marbles with the boys and climb trees than play with dolls. That's funny, because as an adult I had at one time 850 beautifully display dolls in my home. Here are some of them.

I played cowboys and indians with the boys mostly. Kids of my generation used their imaginations. We didn't have ready made castles and forts in a box so we built our own. We roller skated and made scooters out old skates. We played house and school and Mighty Mouse and Supermen wearing bath towels pinned on for capes. We drew on the sidewalks with chalk and we played kick the can and baseball in the street. We played with hula hops and jump ropes and ran through the sprinklers when it was hot. We had Zorro swords that had chalk on the end so we could leave our Z. LOL The older boy next door started "clubs" and I was his sidekick. One time he charged the other kids to see "movies" on a toy Mickey Mouse projector.

My kids were the last generation to play outside a lot on our street. They did much the same things as I did but with more realistic and better toys. Except for my toy guns and weaponry. The PC crowd was forming about then and ruined that.

My kids are in their 30's now and for the first time I am seeing children outside again. Maybe all the downsizing brought parents out of the over scheduled kid thing. Maybe some parents today are rebelling against their own over-structured raised in daycare and after school program lives. I'm seeing more parents at home and more kids at play.

We have a hoop back up in our court. Even the little boy next door whose sister was never allowed to play outside has little sidewalk picnics with the kids next door to him and rides his bike in the cul de sac. Nice.

In California: tether ball in the backyard, Barbies, Kiddles-both played with outside, sled on wheels, rode my bike, skated, climbed trees, practiced gymnastics: backbends, walkovers, cartwheels, etc..., at night all the neighborhood kids (including older teens) used to get together and play hide and seek, lay on the grass and look at the clouds.

In Nevada, went for long walks in the desert and rode my bike before I became a couch potato and did nothing but read in my room.

We had the entire neighborhood for our pleasure. Back then you could disappear for an entire day and your parents wouldn't blink. The creek wasn't concrete lined yet and we had forts on the banks - like our own little town. We'd ride our bikes all over - there were sidewalks everywhere and you could safely ride from town to town if you wanted. There was a park with tennis courts and a great big wall for playing tennis with yourself. I still have scars on my knees from roller skating. We played kick-the-can at night. There was hardly anything to do inside back then, we didn't need much encouragement to go outside.

Cowboys and Indians
Red Rover
Simon Says
Dodge Ball
Mother May I?
Hide and Seek
Catching lightning bugs
Blowing dandylions and making a wish
Looking for 4 leaf clovers
Looking for figures in the clouds
Star gazing
Swinging on an old swing

That would be in the 1950's - San Francisco. Playing Hopscotch, playing with my dolls on the long granite front steps of a near-by apartment building. Roller skating up and down the street. My friends and I climbing on the back of the ice truck to get chunks of ice during the summer which in turn brings back memories of the rag man driving his horse drawn wagon yelling out "rags for sale". The only girl allowed in my brother's club house - an empty underground storage area - dark and spooky - great for telling scarey stories.

Traveled freely around the neighborhood spending time at each other's houses

Ran around chasing each other

Dug holes making rivers with the hose

Hung on the clothesline posts

Jumped off the backof the garage roof

Looked for horned toads

Pulled each other around in the wagon

Walked to the local pool to swim

We did not have a lot of toys. Made crowns out of weeds, etc.

One other thing I do remember which we did but my kids did not--when we got home from school we took off our "school clothes" and put on our "play clothes." I suppose that was because my mother ironed, didn't have a dryer, and clothing care was more labor intensive then than now.

red light
hop scotch
school--on the front steps

We weren't allowed to go out of the yard, because we lived 2 blocks from the Mississippi river and it was dangerous, so we sat on the porch and listened to the radio, roller skated in front of our house OR did some of our many chores, like mow the lawn, pull weeds, harvest fruit or flower seeds or sweep the sidewalk. We didn't have many toys, either.

I can remember playing in my back yard as a very young child. I had a sand box with a roof my Dad had made me. I liked to pick flowers and talk to the lady next door if she was hanging laundry. When I got older, I had a best friend who was very adventurous. We rode our bikes orwalked everywhere, to the candy store for popsickles and penny candy, to the Public Library about a mile away, to variety stores like Woolworths and Kresges (later K Mart) . I still emaiul her and send Christmas cards.

We played out on the street/sidewalk in Queens. Lots of jump rope games, hopscotch, various ball games. There were a bunch of us from the apartment building, and we were always busy and active. In bad weather we played in one of our apartments.....board games, card games, whatever was handy. We had fun. I'm still in close touch with my two best friends from those days.

I grew up in a good sized central Illinois town, and we lived on a block of big, old houses. An empty lot was next door to us, and the neighbor kids had worn away the grass at the home plate, pitcher's mound and 3 bases. There was usually something going on.

In the summer we played kick the can and flashlight tag at night, telephone on our large porch, Mother May I on the sidewalk, and stickball or baseball or mumbly peg in the lot. We climbed trees, picked cherries and blackberries, and climbed the roof of the garages across the street and jumped from garage to garage.

In the winter we played Duck, Duck, Goose; Fox and Hound; and made snow forts, snowmen and snowangels. I was a tomboy.

not much when you live where i lived...