MitchStellin

1963 here, we were on the loose every day, we had a tree fort and stayed up all night and roamed the streets all night. We used to take our 9hp row boat, head up the river I lived on and cut ice burgs off the shore, get on it with 5 guys and the boat and head down the river, we used to hit docks with it and tear them out, we had no control over it so it wasn't our fault , we would run across the ice as it broke behind us, I fell thru many times but always found the hole and climbed out. My mom watched from the house as we were on an ice flow and when it hit the solid ice it went under and we all had to crawl on the ice flat so we did not go thru, she just laughed at us when we got in and took a cold shower that burned. And LOTO they are dirt CLODS I had one in the eye once, went to the river and dunked my head and opened my eye and washed out the dirt. I broke my arm on a bike really bad and set it myself in the woods, the bone did not break the skin but it was sticking out. We left in the AM and when the whistle blew we came home for dinner, no watch, no phone, we just knew it was close to time and made our way home. We would load the boat with friends, head down the river and camp. All in all we just made our own fun and we paid the price for our mistakes. I mowed 10 lawns for gas money for the boat and did other odd jobs to earn money. It was a great time to grow up and as it looks now those days are over. The biggest lesson was to be accountable for my actions..it was always my fault, no one else's, I paid the damages with money I earned, I paid 1000s over the years. I worked every day, played every sport, and still had ok grades. I even worked 50 hrs a week in college and still finished in 4 years.

boatfreak

Anyone ever throw lawn darts?
Now those will leave a mark!

Sydwayz

iTrader: (1)

Ah, lawn darts... the good old dangerous toy days. We used to visit relatives in the suburbs of Chicago and play lawn darts from the condo complex about 12 stories up. THAT was fun.

I do not even think you can get a Tonka in steel anymore.

Iggy

Born in 1955.
Used to play and climb trees that were about a mile away from the house when I was 5. We also had 4 sets of rail road tracks that belonged to the Pennsylvania RR that we played on. There were several freshwater streams and ponds we played in too.
Supervision? What supervision? We played by ourselves where ever we wanted. We came home when it got dark or we got hungry or, in the winter, cold. We never played indoors, except when it was raining.
We did have one older kid that chased us with a hatchet once, but he disappeared shortly afterward.
TV? Black and White, 6 channels. Didn't get my own radio till I was 8.

It's a shame we can't trust anyone any more. Todays kids have to supervised at all times. Not because they may hurt themselves or fight. It's to be sure some deranged pervert doesn't try anything.

Jan

I think they were called JARTS. Anyway they were fun.

1964 here. Had maps of the whole drainage system in our neighborhood. 3 story tree house (subdivision was new when I moved in, had lots of wood and nails available). Walked to the skating rink every Friday and Sat. Mom had a rule you could only come in and out of the house in summer time 3 times a day. Usually only home for lunch and dinner.


Jan

fund razor

1966.

Outside was freedom. Nobody played inside. Even in the winter.
TV was something that happened at night. You watched what was on. Only one channel came in "good" anyway. You didn't need a "clicker."
And on the weekend was Battle of the Network Stars.

Bicycles. Rode em for miles and miles. Didn't even care how far. We had forever.

We would jump anything with anything. Bikes, wagons, whatever. If Evel could jump all those buses...

Striped clothes... you know who you are. White belt, too.

Suburbs were new. Cars were old.

Catholic school. Nuns were nuns in 1972, and you didn't mess with nuns. (Or cops, or the neighbors, or your parents.)

When did something wrong, our parents knew about it before we got home.
It seems that the adult neighbors actually knew each other.

Tied bleach bottles to the bottom of anything we found to make a boat.
We'd go door to door for more and more bottles, for more and more bouyancy.
Hell, we'd go door to door for anything. And the people would give it to us.

Extreme sledding. With jumps.

Dirt bikes. With even more jumps. We would hurry up and get our yard work done so we could spend 12 hours a day grooming our berms on the empty lot. Remember EMPTY lots? Were you a Yz? a Kz? or an Rm? Suzuki RM80 here.

Night time neighborhood games like kick the can, and our neighborhood favorite "go to court." Plus, the ever provocative "truth or dare." Dare you to ding dong ditch the crazy old scary guy in the dark house!

Olympic "ding dong ditch" champions.

Walk onto the par three golf course with one set of clubs and six kids.

Slept outside in tents, and no crackheads came wandering by.

Actually had a lemonade stand once. And a paper route.
MDA Carnival.
Collected glass soda bottles for the deposit money. Serious cash.

Collected beer CANS. Who remembers "Old Frothinslosh"?

Dad drove Impalas exclusively. Broke his heart when he had to switch to a Buick Century.

Used to tie wagons to my bike. Practice for trailering later in life?

We dug holes too, some would qualify as mines these days. City would shut us down.

Boy was there some cool stuff out in the garage in 1970. Who said mercury? we loved mercury. And paint. Good paint. Oil paint. You got it, we'd paint it. Sometimes you didn't want it painted...oops.

Snuck into the movies through the exit. Or walked into the back of the drive in. We had no money.

Dressed in our disco finest and went to "Teen Town" hoping to score. (you know, get some hand holding or maybe even a slow dance)

Then Van Halen came along. We were ready. No more polyester.
And then Charlies Angels...

Stereos. Anything loud. Stereo on bike. Stereo in tree house, stereo in locker at school....

Snuck Hamms beer out of the fridge. Took it down to the raft, listened to Van halen.

Those precious Hamms, passed among friends, tasted better than the beers we drink these days at the 1,300 dollar dock on the five digit go fast.

Next weekend I'm going door to door for bleach bottles. You guys can bring some pallets. Somebody shoplift the new Van Halen. And score a nickle off your big brother.
He keeps it in the glove box of his primer colored Barracuda.
I'll grab some Hamm's.
My parents will be out of town at Marriage Encounter.

rich allen

How about Zarrex. (I think thats how it was spelled) . It was different flavored syrups that you could buy by the bottle. You crushed your own ice and made flavored snow cones with the stuff. Sometimes we tried to sell them in front of the house. Trouble is, most of the other kids in the neighborhood were just as poor as we were. Ah, but the mailman, he never let us down. Always had a quarter for us when we were open for business.
Never seen him eat one though. I think he tossed them in the trash when he got to his last stop right around the corner from us. The local pub. They sure must have gotten alot of mail, cuz it took him forever to leave once he got in there. God Bless Him.!! He even knew all our names...

R Addiction

Some great stories!!! If I wasn't so fat and tired from sitting in front of this PC I'd write a three pager about my childhood!! Ah the JARTS got hit right below the eye with one....luckily it was on the backswing of one of my sisters ugly friends!!

MitchStellin

Yup, life was so different, just think what it will be like when our kids compare their childhood to their kids' and see the same correlation When will it ever stop? You can almost feel the self destruction. Not of all kids, there are some great ones, it is the gimme gimme bunch who have had no upbringing due to two income parents too busy keeping up with the Jones. It is easier to pay them off than to pay attention, its called Mortgaging your kids future.

WILDTHING TAZ

1955 And Still Alive!!!!
what A Change From When I Was A Kid To My Kids Growing Up