Sometimes I want to be a kid again.

[JohnMOhio]

I received this via an e mail and thought you folks might remember being a kid.

Sometimes I want to be a kid again. I want to go back to the time when:

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo."
Mistakes were correct by simply exclaiming "do over."
"Race issue" meant aruging about who ran the fastest.
Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "monopoly."
Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening.
It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.
Being old referred to anyone over 20.
The net on a tennis court was the perfect height to play volleyball and the rules didn't matter.
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.
It was magic when dad would "remove" his thumb or take my nose off my face.
It was unbelievable that dodgeball wasn't an Olympic event.
Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot.
Nobody was prettier than Mom.
Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.
It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big people" rides at the amusement park.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.
Building a giant snowman or a snow fort.
Abilites were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare."
Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minutes ads for action figures.
"Oly-oly-in-free" made perfect sense.
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
War was a card game.
Playing cops and robbers or cowboys and indians.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.
Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin.
Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
Older siblings were the worst tormentors but also the fiercest protectors.

I am sure some of us could add a few more of our childhood memories. Maybe life was just simpiler then. At least as a Kid it was.

[avery53]

Yep, life was a lot simpler back then.
Westerns were king.
Going to the malt shop after school.
Getting in a fight at school got your a$$ paddled, and no law suits were filed.
The older I get, the more I miss those days! :icon_e_sad:

[JohnMOhio]

Another thought I have is that when we played among our selves, or alone with our cars and trucks, we used our imagination. Today, games of imagination are brought to the player. Your only the player these days. And some of the "games" are just to real.

[John Sukey]

You recited the pledge of allegience in grade school every day.
Skates had steel wheels and you used a skate key to put them on. Oh by the way, in-line skates preceeded the double wheel ones, so they are nothing new.
Erector sets
Lincoln Logs.
Wind up toys instead of battery powered ones.
rubber band guns
Today's dollar candy bars were a nickel and the same size.
Magic decoder rings
Crackerjack prizes
Iceboxes used ICE
Movies, World news, Cartoon, Serial, Main feature

[Louis of PA]

Sugar rationing during the war: one of its harsh consequences was the scarcity of bubble gum. When the corner store received their rationed supply, word spread like wildfire through the neighborhood, and I recall standing in line with my two older brothers to buy two pieces of Double Bubble, the maximum allowed.

Once our Daschhunds used the chairs to get onto the kitchen table to devour a quarter pound of butter, also rationed. Mom's response was to shed some tears. Then she roasted us for not pushing the chairs all the way in, the way we'd been instructed day after day.

I won't get into the numerous flat tires, nobody really knew how to do retreading.

[IditarodJoe]

LOL. I was relating to this thread until iceboxes that used ice came up . . . you got me with that one, John! And wartime rationing was definitely before my time,. (My grandfather did, however, hold a patent on a "tire regroover".)

I enjoyed saving up to buy the latest 45 RPM single. With a early morning paper route that yielded an astounding $5.35 a week, I learned to budget my money early on.

[JohnMOhio]

Mr. Sukey, I suppose you also remember the penny candies like Dots, Mary Janes and Bulleyes. I can recall a couple more but can't remember the names of them. We used to go around collecting pop bottles and milk jugs for the cash and then buying the candy. If a good movie was playing we would save all week so we could get to see it instead of buying candy. A good week was when Mom or Dad would give us the price of admission to the movie and we had money saved for pop corn. That was the early 50's for me.

And yes, there were still a few real ice boxes in the neighborhood. I also remember when a neighbor 3 doors away was the first to puchase a TV. Friday night fights was his thing and the rest of the time, it was for the kids on the street to watch cartoons, Howdy Doody and of course the Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Bob Steele, Lash La Rue and other westerns of the time. Of course you can't leave out Sky King and I am sure others could be added.

[phil441]

The icebox thing caught my memory of being a kid.
Immediately after the war, my dad, a Navy vet, set up a cabin, actually a POW cabin moved from a POW camp in north Texas, to a property he'd bought on Lake Texoma. I remember that each time we went up there, the last stop was a little store that sold blocks of ice. The Ice Box was a center of life. It was a nicely finished wood box with a tin interior.
Years after we abandoned the old cabin to move to a newer concrete block structure I started wondering what happened to the old ice box.
I went back to the old site only to find the tin box but little else. The pretty wood was gone.

[JohnMOhio]

Another thing I remember before Frisbies came along. Flying popcicle sticks. We would take three of the sticks and make then in shape of a fan then interweave two more to hold them in place. Trick was to sail them as far as you could and have them stay together upon landing. Of course, most of the time they didn't.

At my Grandfathers home, the chore of the day was to take the empty milk jugs down to the spring, fill them up and carry them back to the house. Water was always near ice cold and so good. When you made cool aid with it, you never needed ice cubes.

[Darreld Walton]

Saving up my hay bucking/milking/pipe moving money, walking in at 12 years of age, and buying a new Winchester .22, no paperwork, no ID, no questions, and no dirty or curious looks as I strolled out and strapped it to the handlebars of my Schwinn Typhoon and took it home, with two bricks of WW .22 LRHP in the basket.
Reciting the Scout Oath and treating it like a real oath. Trying my best to live the Scout Law. Getting my photo in the local newspaper when I got my Eagle Scout badge, and again when I was taken into the Order of the Arrow.
Learning the lessons of winning AND losing.
Scores were kept at all games, and the thought of hitting a baseball from a pipe on a stand would've got us laughed off the lot.

[Marine A5 Sniper]

The ice house trip every week
The ice box
Home made ice cream
Choking stray dogs to death that people dumped out near the farm (22's were too expensive to use)
Churns and butter molds (ours was a swan) and churning butter at night
Milking cows every morning before daylight (breakfast)
Always drinking warm milk
The flour cabinet
The food cabinet (to keep flies off the food)
Hog killing time
Making soap at hog killing time
Hanging chickens on the clothes line and cutting off their heads
The rolling store
Cleaning the mule harnesses
Loading the corn crib
The corn sheller and daily shelling of corn
Slopping the hogs
Chopping wood for the stove every day, 365 days a year
Flower pits and putting the flowers away for winter
Ground slides and getting to ride on the slide on the way out to get a load of wood
Moving the outhouse every couple of months
Using the outhouse in freezing weather and trying to keep your butt from sticking to the frozen wood
Using slopjars at night and keeping it under your bed afterwards
No heat at night and ice forming on the inside of the windows during winter
Never taking a bath (no bathrooms, no tubs) and not knowing what a shower was
Sitting in front of a fan most of the day in summer
The porch swing
Grand dad's rocker
Hot water bottles
Winding the clocks every three days
Putting kerosene in all the lanterns
Sweeping the yard
The rope and tire in the big oak tree
Putting dried peas in the flat tires and adding water (never needed air)
The old smoke house
Having two gardens (and weeding two gardens)
Canning time and picking the figs
Flour sack shirts
Going barefoot to school
Having no toys - period
Listening to the radio at night (no TV, no FM)
Biggest dreams were to own a bicycle and a pair of shoes that fit

I am not so sure I want to go back.

Jim

[Ken C.]

Yep, life was a lot simpler way back when. I remember being left on a buoy in the Hudson river in Upper NY state for a little while as Dad and his buddy fished nearby. It was a big adventure for me. I remember being on a sled pushed by him while ice skating on the same river, frozen to a great depth in the winter and the feel of the cold wind on my face.
Getting one toy for Christmas and being happy to receive it.
Some other things: Getting to ride on Uncle Johns John Deere tractor with him and being allowed to steer it.
Going into the "Ice House"in warm weather where they stored the blocks of ice cut from the Hudson. (Way before it was polluted)
Playing with sparklers on the Forth of July while the adults fired off the big stuff.
some memories from South Jersey:
Searching for bottles and getting paid for returning them.
Starting schoolwork after a prayer and salute to the Flag.
2 or 3 pieces of wood nailed together became a Tommy gun, and a large box was a fort.
A piece of 2x4 with a nail for an antenna became a Dick Tracy radio.
Movies cost a quarter and with a half dollar (real silver ones) you were King.
Later, walking 3 or 4 miles down the main road to town carrying a rifle openly with never a raised eyebrow or question asked.
We can never go back to those days, but we can remember how it was when life was simpler and try to keep it as uncomplicated as possible.
I think its better that way. Thanks for the post John.

[John Sukey]

More: Penny post cards, Red cents, ration books, Our milkman had a HORSE! (who probably knew the route better than he did) and the milk came in glass bottles. Fanner 50's with roll caps, No inch TV (radio) with a "magic eye" to tune it. AND the ONE article of clothing I HATED, knickers! Your parents put you in tennis shoes for the summer to save your "good shoes" Boy scout knives. Washing machines had wringers. and you hung the washed clothes on a clothes line to dry. much later, the video game PONG!
speaking of crystal radios, you needed a Quaker oats box to wind the tuning coil. Daisey BB guns, On the TV, a magnifying lens that you fitted in front of the screen for a bigger picture, AND they actualy had shops that could repair them. Lets not forget the cupon you got on the breakfast cereal box that you could send in with a quarter for a "Prize"

[JB White]

Man, stirring up all the old memories of bottle collecting for penny candy, paper routes (and we had to collect, make change, and write receipts) spending evenings at the bowling alley, pin setting for 10c a line.
Ten cent Cokes, but if you left the store you had to leave a deposit. No worries because the store had ceiling fans and the latest comic books so we drank it there. The drug store still had a soda fountain and if we collected enough bottles for deposit, the jerk would make us a banana split we could all share.

Homemade baseball bats with friction taped handles, soft balls made from rags and old socks, using sewer covers at the intersection as bases. Cars would stop to let us finish the play and the people would smile and wave when we called time out to let their car pass.
Going shopping meant actually going from shop to shop and that included groceries too. New shoes were Sunday shoes until you either needed school shoes or outgrew them..in which case they became hand-me-downs. Worn out school shoes became play shoes. Gym shoes never touched the pavement. If they did, you couldn't wear them for gym anymore.
Getting into mischief and having the beat cop take you home by your ear or your hair.

[phil441]

Early childhood trauma: Walking to the little Liberty Theater in Wetumka Ok for the Saturday matinee only to find that the price has gone from 11 to 12 cents.
The long dejected walk back home. One cent short.
Watching my toes wiggle in new shoes in the new-fangled X-Ray machine at the Red Wing shoe store.

[JohnMOhio]

I knew you guys would come up with more things from the past. My daughter and grandchildren will never know or experience these things in their life. When you truly think about them all, they shaped our lives for the betterment. Something the society of today most likely never will in such a positive manner. We were poor and didn't know it. And that was OK. We for the most part, were pretty happy, showed respect for our elders and kept out of serious trouble.

As for Marine A5 Sniper, so far it looks like you had the roughest childhood from those that posted so far. Had I known you at that time, I would have given you my one Christmas toy.

And yes, even as the first born child, I still had hand me downs. In fact, I recall getting some hand me down clothes while I was a freshman in high school.

[John Sukey]

ah yess, the Xray machine at the shoe store.
"I'm Buster Brown, I live in a shoe, this is my dog Tige, he lives there too"
Remember U control model airplanes? Green stamps?
Cars; Packard, De Soto, Kaiser Frazer, Hudson Hornets, Henry J's, Isettas, Nash Ramblers, The Pacer, (pregnant egg), a friend still has his DeLorean.

[Marine A5 Sniper]

I knew you guys would come up with more things from the past. My daughter and grandchildren will never know or experience these things in their life. When you truly think about them all, they shaped our lives for the betterment. Something the society of today most likely never will in such a positive manner. We were poor and didn't know it. And that was OK. We for the most part, were pretty happy, showed respect for our elders and kept out of serious trouble.

As for Marine A5 Sniper, so far it looks like you had the roughest childhood from those that posted so far. Had I known you at that time, I would have given you my one Christmas toy.

And yes, even as the first born child, I still had hand me downs. In fact, I recall getting some hand me down clothes while I was a freshman in high school.

John,
Believe it or not, I think of my childhood in glowing terms. I had something kids don't have today - total freedom. I was allowed to have a 22 rifle and a 22 pistol (Colt Woodsman), one of which I carried to school each day to go shooting with my friends after school. All the kids around the farm lived as I did. I had my dog (Old Joe), and he and I could roam the woods at will. As poor as we were, I always considered us as being rich. Many of our neighbors had it much more rough. I used to ride on top of my grandfather's truck where ever we went. I wandered around town until dark on many days. I did get my bicycle, and those shoes. I learned to drive a truck when I was 12. Best of all, I got an excellent education with the encouragement of everyone in my family. My mother taught me to read and write before 1st grade, and my library card(s) were always filled in record time. At one point I read a book a day, and I lived in a make-believe world at times, which made things much easier.

Farm life is a bit tougher than any other of which I am familiar. If you wanted chicken for dinner, you killed and cleaned a chicken. Farm kids see life and death differently than most. I added the bit about the stray dogs (true) in my effort to inform the public that farmers do not cotten to stray animals. It isn't like the movies. Stray animals are dispatched with haste. If you dump your unwanted pet in the countryside, you just sealed its fate.

Our lives all have varying forms, and many may not sound very amicable to us, but in actuality, may have been joyous to the person who lived it. I cannot imagine, nor would I have wanted to grow up in a city, yet many relish their young lives in the cities. When I look back on my life, it was my time in the forests, which was huge, that I enjoyed most and made the greatest contribution to my life. I learned that wildlife isn't like the Discovery Channel version. Wildlife feed off each other, and demonstrate the give and take of daily existence from which most of our kids today are shielded. I see the results of that shielding in the persistent attempts of tourist to get close to bears. The bear, like all carnivors, eat some pretty cute little forest animals in a really disgusting manner (disembowelment, ripping of limbs, etc.). One only has to be attacked once by a wild animal to appreciate the total viciousness that can be displayed by a seemingly cute creature. A cute little raccoon can tear your butt up in seconds, as wild animals only have one focus - to survive. I learned at an early age to appreciate, observe, and avoid.

It has been an interesting ride, and I have tried to pay attention through it all.

Jim

[JohnMOhio]

Mr. Sukey, I also remember all of those cars you listed. Interesting that so many have been lost to history but remain in our minds as if only yesterday. Including the Edsel and Studebaker of not so distant past.

Sniper, I remember taking a bath in a large washtub. Water was heated on the kitchen stove that used wood as fuel. And yes, the experience of a youth on the farm was in my mind, although harsher in many ways, was also more rewarding as you have so clearly stated. I guess many things like this are in the eyes of the beholder, one sees it as being underprivledged, another as seeing life as it really is, accepts it and thinks nothing unusual about it.

Again I say, being poor or nearly poor and not knowing it is a blessing. I am reminded of a line in a move, where Tony Curtiss says something like this: Those that say Money isn't everything are the ones with all the money. It makes me think of those that have gotten all that money through family and not hard work on their own are usually the same one that say Money isn't everything. I feel sorry for them as they usually do not have "real" friends, don't know what real life is about. Will never have the great experinces that you have had Sniper. They miss out on more than that gained by having such vast fortunes. Could I use that fortune now, no doubt I could but I wouldn't trade it for my past.

Like you Sniper, out in the woods was a real pleasure if I were hunting or out just for that walk. A time to enjoy the sounds and smell of the woods. The peacefulness of it all, no phones, no sounds of cars or motorcycles screaming down the highway, large trucks rumbling near by or the high pitch noise of their tires. Enjoying the solitude of mother nature and what she offers to all that will take the time to observe and listen to her daily songs of life, the colors so brilliant or faded, always changing. After winters peaceful sleep, comes renewed life for us to enjoy again and again as each year passes.

[John Sukey]

JohnMOhio Money is the root of all evil, and I am one of it's biggest rooters.:icon_lol:

Aside from the Kumpewter, I just haven't kept up with modern times.
All of my phones are plugged into the wall
I own a 1925 Victor Talking machine and the records to go with it.
I do not own a "black rifle"
Blackberries are something you put on your cereal

Oh, got a suprise this morning when I opened the front door to let the dog out. BIG TARANTULA right on the door sill. slammed the door, got a broom and sent him somewhere else. I know they are supposed to be harmless, but I DO NOT want one in the house!!!!!!!!!

[JohnMOhio]

Mr. Sukey, I had resisted purchasing my first computer until Oct 2002. I also do not have a black rifle, but have considered it on more than one occassion. Have seen their advantages when I went to a 40 round pop up shoot at Perry and I took my Garand. Big difference. Also in that 9 years I have seen the capacity of the computer increase to the point my is far outdated.

However, when it comes to Blackberries, I found that a several generous handfuls in a bowel of milk with some added surger were great. Loved that color and sweetness of that milk. Not bad as a Milk Shake either.

As for that Tarantula, had a similar experience while stationed in New Mexico, that bugger was as large as my hand. Very docile in my opinion. At least this one was.

I bought a rather good Stereo System and had many years of fun with it, editing video, cassette tapes and all. Now with the market going to the new digital HD TV and the new surround sound systems, mine is as much a relic as your Talking Machine. However the new systems do make it appear more life like. I thought about purchasing the newer system and it is a toss up between that and being selfish and getting another rifle which I probably don't need. Or do I?

I don't have nor do I want a cell phone. Have one for the wife if the car should breakdown but it is unlikely as she drives the newer car. It does give her a better sense of security. Also if she gets lost, she will phone and ask directions on how to get where she thought she knew how to get there in the first place. But that is OK with me. It is usually a matter of making a wrong turn at a intersection. No big deal.

I agree with you Mr Sukey on rooting for the root of all evil. I buy a couple of lottery tickets each week just to have the opportunity to see if there is any truth to the saying Money isn't everything. I would like to find this out for myself. Should I win the lottery, I will do my best to inform everyone of my findings.

[Darreld Walton]

One of my boys lives in Pocatello, with a large empty lot between his house and the Union Pacific switching yard. At one point, his home was invaded by Hobo spiders. They got a tarantula, and the hobos started moving out, even with it in an open top aquarium. It got out, and wandered around the house for about four months before they found it, fat and happy, and not a single Hobo in the house, so they left it to run free. Personally, I can't stay in a room with a spider, I got a spankin' new sleeping bag when I turned 10 for Christmas. That night, I had to sleep in it, rolled it out on the bedroom floor, and zipped 'er shut, clear to my neck. Laying there waiting for my little brothers to settle in, I caught a movement out of my eye, and sure as hell, there was a great big Hobo looking at me. I jammed the zipper trying to get out, and in wrestling around, the thing ended up on my neck, just below my adam's apple. Didn't get bit, but to this day, I can't stand to be around 'em, and I don't zip my bag clear shut anymore.......