Memories of a Better Time by Robert in Ohio
As we negotiate the challenges of the modern age and are engulfed by the right-now aspects of our society and the ever increasing virtual reality that is replacing actual physical and personal interactions with each other and with the world, it is therapeutic and mentally refreshing to take a break from the E-World and reflect on simpler, happier times. Happier times has different meanings to different people, but when I am feeling down and overwhelmed by what life is throwing at me non-stop I like to take a break from reality and think back to my childhood, especially summers when having fun, getting dirty and playing were the only responsibilities and objectives of my life.
As Archie Bunker used to intone, Those Were the Days.
There were no electronics, no smart phones, no television (that came when we moved to town), and fancy playgrounds, pr Madison Avenue toys we relied on our imagination, our ingenuity and our ability to manufacture fun from basic supplies such as energy, necessity and desire. We walked in the woods, played kick ball, went swimming, had tug-of-wars and played war or cowboys and Indians (utterly politically incorrect, but we didnt know it at the time) and passed the hours of childhood totally unaware that we were poor, or working class or whatever we were at the time, keeping our focus on today, on fun and on friends.
We lived in the country and when we went to visit and play with friends we would often walk miles and be gone for hours, but no there was angst or worry at home, for when we arrived at a friends house that mom called our mom and let her know that lunch would be provided since her house was now the designated play area for the days. We were country kids boys, girls, black, white, poor, poorer generally well behaved, but hellions in our own way and when we got out of line, the adult in residence (parent or neighbor) was the disciplinarian and parents and children all knew and accepted that fact.
We made our own fun for the most part and were quite creative in the process. One of the key elements of our recreation activities was a local hill, quite steep and a little rocky, though we removed a lot of rocks to clear a sledding and cart path, which brings us to a look at our creative approach to having fun. We found and patched old inner tubes (truck tires were the best) for use in the creek and pond during the summer and on the sledding hill during the long winters. We also built go carts and they were really go karts since the brakes (if they existed at all) seldom worked very well. Scrap lumber, wheels from broken down farm carts or wheel barrows, ropes as a means of steering (marginally reliable) and blocks of wood to apply against the wheels as brakes (less reliable) were miraculously turned into vehicles as group projects and shared until too many crashes finally turned them into real scrap lumber. The bruises, scrapes and cuts as a result of these crashes sometimes broke tears initially, but were ultimately badges of honor and accomplishment worn proudly.
Ours were never this fancy but the toys of summer and winter were much as seen here
Inside games were simple as well; we played a lot of Hangman and Scrabble because momma saw them as educational, even though they could become contact sports in our house. We did not have a television when we lived in the country, but we had a huge (I say again huge) console radio with a soft hooked rug in front of it, where we spent hours listening to classic radio shows, the Grand Ole Opry and the evening news.
Well those are my memories of happier times and for me it has more to do with who was there, mom, dad, my grandparents, my brothers, sisters and friends than with the toys we had or what we were doing. I miss those days a lot and make mental excursions back quite often.
And I also remember, when we got our first
It was a party line (that could be a whole other story of funny events and conversations and we were the first of the neighbors to have one, so everyone came over to use it time to time. There were few calls and a sense of excitement whenever it rang as we waited for Mom or Dad to tell us who had called.
Well those were my happier times and the favorite toys of my childhood.
What about you folks, when you think of happier times or your childhood what are those memories? Care to share with the group? I hope so!
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John
We had them as well, I actually preferred the Lincoln Logs Grandpa got us one year and my older brother taught me to build towns for the soldiers to attack and defend
Thanks for the input
Green plastic soldiers - truly a classic toy.
The best feeling I had as a child was that I didn't have to worry about much, because the adults would take care of everything, it would be all right. Life was a lot simpler, and they were certainly better times!
Most of my best childhood memories involve my grandparents in one way or another. Helping Grandma get ready to host her bridge club, polishing the silver, setting up the tables, then getting all cleaned up to greet the ladies-- hugs and kisses and sweet little old ladies in those biting mink scarves and big hats. Grandpa and I ate our share of goodies in the kitchen, and Oh, what fun! Grandma, Grandpa, and I, driving The Dodge through the countryside on the search for the sweetest peaches, the sweetest cantaloupe, the crispest apples, that most beautiful pumpkin. They had a friend who owned a farm, and we often went there for eggs, butter, and other staples of life. Spending the night at their house, and sleeping in the big spool bed. Getting up to cartoons and oatmeal on Saturday morning. Working with my cousin Jane in her garden, and then we had a big piece of her fabulous chocolate cake, and a slice of a warm tomato from the garden, served on an ice cold plate. Walking the two blocks to Aunt Lois and Uncle Louie's house, and playing on all his wonderful musical instruments-- he had an organ, a xylophone, and all kinds of wonderful things... They were days of peace.
We would sit on the front porch in the summer, when the sun went down, and watch the fireflies as they flitted through the front yard. The glider had a squeak, of course, but we loved it. We waved to the neighbors up and down the street, and all of us drank sweet iced tea and sat quietly, peacefully, enjoying the ending of busy days... Playing with Grandma's cats, playing with my own dear cat, Faybian.
There weren't many kids in my neighborhood, and none in Grandma's neighborhood, except other visiting grandchildren-- but my friends Ruthie and Jane Anne were so special! Every moment of every day that I spent at their house was the absolute haven from the rest of the world. It was "The Land that Time Forgot", and being jerked back to the reality of my own home was often quite a shock.
Grandpa had all kinds of scrap wood, and we built beds for my collection of teddy bears. Grandma had wonderful bits of things-- so we made covers for the beds, made from a piece of a towel, and added lace. We had so much fun together! Grandpa and I roofed his house, painted wooden valances, shoveled coal into the basement, and "fed the baby"-- put coal in the electric hopper he built that fed the furnace. Every 4 hours, no matter what, the "baby" had to be fed. Grandma and I made pies, cooked supper, and all the time, we laughed and had so much fun!
Life was simpler back then. There weren't any terrorists, no riots in the streets of my small city, and the possibility of being hit by an atomic bomb were pretty slim... I had lived in St. Louis and Kansas City during the Cuban Missile Crisis, so atomic bombs hitting those cities were a real possibility. To get back to the small town peace of Owensboro was like lifting a load from my shoulders. We didn't have to crawl under our desks in air-raid drills in Owensboro...
I miss those days and know there is no going back, but I wish my son could spend a month back in time with me, where he would be safe.
My family was poor and I was a creative kind of kid... so
I made the best mud pies to throw at my friends. Carefully baked hard for better impact.
I had a bicycle made of spare parts that I built myself
I had a great tree house.
Summer's lasted forever. Went to Jones Beach a lot.
I had only a few board games, Easy Money (kind of like Monopoly, but cheaper to buy, LOL), Scrabble, Trouble and checkers.
Duncan Yoyos. Jacks, a jump rope, and a footsie. Lots of books.
There was firefly catching, and going to the town pool. Some fishing at the local lake.
My mom owned a little children's clothing shop in town. My sister and I worked there.
I found online these pictures of my town, when I grew up there, from the 1960's. If you click on the small picture below each big one, you can see the town now and how much it has changed. We moved to Wantagh from Amityville (yes that one). Here is the link:
Damn! Forgot about that Carvel. Best day of the week was Monday... two for one and mom usually took us.
I'm with ya', RIO.
What wonderful rocket-shaped ice cream cones on top of the ice cream shop! I love these old pictures! Love the cars, too!
What fun, John!
Growing up 45-50 years ago I remember spending most of it outdoors with very little TV and obviously no computer/video games. We spent summers playing baseball from 8am until dinnertime, playing tackle football in the fall after school without equipment, and shoveling the snow off courts in the winter to play basketball, along with sledding and skating. Heavy rain was about the only thing keeping us indoors and then we played Risk and Monopoly with other boys and Doctor with the girls (if we were lucky).
It sounds like a blast!
Dowser
That was certainly true for us as well a safe haven even we crossed mom and dad was at grandma's feet on the porch.
It certainly was, we retired to a country village where my wife grew up for that very reason, population less than 2500 and a calmer,slower, simpler life than in the cities where we spent out adult lives
We always want what is good and safe for our children, and that is what makes us good parents.
Thanks for the feedback and great stories my friend
Thank you for allowing me to share my memories of such wonderful people! How I MISS them!
We were also poor in the way most people measure wealth, but in the important things I come from a family of great riches - love, understanding, sharing, faith and laughter.
Your childhood sounds like it included a lot of self-made fun and joy 0 the best kind.
Great pictures!
And I agree about Carvel ice cream - nothing like it!
Thanks for sharing a great story!
A family trip for ice cream was usually Dad's responsibility when Mom wanted to be left along to do the weekly shopping and much as we loved going to the stores in town, we never turned down ice cream when offered.
Beautiful picture thanks for sharing
jennilee
Sounds like you lived in the same type of small town that I did.
I even remember visiting my mother's mom in Ft Lauderdale and walking 10 blocks each way across town to the beach and no one gave a thought to it not being safe
Those were the days for sure - now we don't even let out the dog without frequent looks to make sure he is alright.
pokermike
Sounds like a great childhood to me, filled with great memories.
Back in the day, we played shin-aa-biidaago...All you needed were 4 tin cans or glass bottles, a couple of sticks/bats and a ball of sorts.Than you were set.
Kavika
Sounds interesting - I can figure out the stick and the ball, but what pray tell was the function of the four tine cans or bottles?
Inquiring minds want to know!
I never realized how wise my father was and how much I needed him until he had passed and I was trying to figure out how to be a father
Sheesh it was hard and he made it look so easy
RIO, we would set up 2 can/bottles at each end of a ''court''. Actually just dirt in a pasture. One person would throw the ball from one end and try to knock over the cans/bottles at the other end. Each end would have a defender, that would have a stick/bat and try to hit the thrown ball back past the thrower not letting the ball hit the cans/bottles. Than you would run to the other end and start all over again.
Points were scored by the number of times you ran back and forth. If the cans/bottles were knocked over by the thrower, than that side was out.
Old Indian game, and a variation of Native stickball.
Wow, I wish I would have know about that one when I was a kid!
Sounds like fun
I also may have found a use for the beer bottles and a way to occupy people at the next family reunion.
Thanks for sharing that memory it is a great one
Playing a game of football with the neighborhood kids was the favorite past time. In the wonter sledding and fort building was "it". When there weren't enough kids for that we were usually blowing things up with firecrackers. Army men, toy cars, ect...I always saved firecrackers for just such an emergency. Another of our favorite things was the "baking soda rocket" .
96SW6
Baking soda rockets - I remember them well!
Volcano science projects, paper mache construction and baking soda mixture for the lava production
Snow forts and snow ball wars with the neighbor kids - ah those were great victories (it helped to have the most brothers)
That sounds like fun, Kavika!
You are certainly right about that!
Hot Wheels onawell useddirt-track in the backyard.
Blackberries warm off the tree, and purple hands and mouths.
A special treatwas a lunch of franks and beans under a tent made from sheets over the clothesline, with my sisters and cousins.
Grandma and Granpa's house smelling of coffee and baking bunsand pipe tobacco.
Running through the sprinkler with neighbor kids, hooting and hollering.
Waking up on a hot summer morning wanting to do nothing but jump on my bicycle.
....ah....yeah, those were the days...
:~)
Larry
There are a lot of great memories in that list
Sounds like you had a great time as a kid
Thanks for sharing
They had a 50 foot pine tree and the biggest yard on the block. We found a couple old pulleys in their garage, so we saved our money and bought a bunch of steel cable, a couple sacks of concrete, and the fixtures required to build a zip line that went from 30 feet up in the tree down to a steel post set in concrete in the lawn. With one pulley attached to the tree, one guy would pull another guy up the zip line on a seat hanging from another pulley on the zip line. Once let go, you hurled towards the earth at a terrifying speed and had to jump and run your ass off to not hit the pole. It was pretty awesome.
We also were crazy about BMX bikes, and built big take off and landing ramps out of wood. We would pour gasoline on the edge of the ramp, light it and jump big gaps between the two ramps like Evil Knievel. One of the dumbest things I ever did was make a make shift ramp next to the edge of a swollen river, and jump into the river on my bike. I had no idea how dangerous that was, but it was just fun at the time.
I also remember climbing up to my garage roof, running down to the gutter and jumping to see how far I could get. I have never even broken a bone. I did dislocate a hip, and tear an ACL in half, but my bones were strong.
It's amazing I'm still alive. Now days I'm leary of even climbing a ladder.
Hal
The nutcracker makes me think about how we all thought we were invincible when we were young and looked to have fun and didn't think about the dangers or consequences until after the fact.
The BMX ramps and skate board ramps were a phase for my three sons that required many bandaids, bandages and a couple of trips to the emergency room
Sounds like you had a lot of fun growing up
Good for you!
Thanks for sharing
I think I'll have to post the childhood story of my two brothers and I, when we borrowed ''Big Sid's'' 1941 Chevrolet Super Deluxe.
To this day, it's still talked about on the rez.
Well so long as you only "borrowed" it - then no harm no foul
Well RIO, you had to be there.
I can't wait to hear about it.
After reading the stories from a bunch of folks about how it was back when, I remembered something our son sent to us after complaining about of how easy his son had things and how tough and boring htings were when he was a kid
Enjoy
Wow that is quite a story
I am glad that there were some good times that you remember from a challenging childhood.
Thanks for sharing the story
The best times of youth were during the summer :
A pair of new posters that I believe fit the discussion
A. Mac/A.G.
When Confucius speaks it is a good idea to absorb what is said ... and to think upon it .
I had a great childhood!
My best memories were from having moved to a university town, with my father teaching engineering. On Saturdays before football or basketball games, I would go with him to his laboratory so he could grade papers. Once in the building, I got to be around the experiments that his and other grad students were working on. There were at lease a dozen labs, and all of the profs were more than happy to tell me what was going on in theirs once they knew who I was. As such I understood and could use an oscilloscope, or bomb calorimeter long before I could spell them.
Ours was one of 15-20 fledgling homes in a new development being carved out of what use to be farmland. There was a small creek that ran through the area, and we kids would build clay and brick dams across it to make shallow swimming holes that we could cool off in from the Kansas summer heat. All the kids in the neighborhood were roughly the same age so we pretty much hung out with each other all the time. The girls played football and basketball with us boys. At night we all hung out in the back of a guys rusted and barely running 1954 International pickup truck that he parked out in front of his house. We would sit in the bed and talk for hours till late at night. The parents didn't mind as they knew where, and what we were doing.
Petey
You are right that summers were where great memories and gret friendships were found and maintained
A Mac
I remember 28 cent per gallon gas, I guess that makes me old.
With $10 on a Friday night, I could get gas, take my girlfriend to the movies and stop at Bog Boy for a burger and fries after the show and sill have money in my pocket.
Those indeed were the days
FLY
Sounds like a great childhood to me
A little too much academia and not enough outdoors, but it seems to have served you well in life in developing your inquiring mind and thirst for learning.
Thanks for sharing
Dad is the "gold standard" against which I test my ideas for advice to the kids (even to this day when they have kids of their own).
I doubted a lot of things he said over the years, resisted some of the advice (usually to my detriment) and did not realize his wisdom until he was gone.
M M
I take comfort in the fact that in some ways he is still helping me and since I remember him he will never really be gone.
Lots of outdoors Robert....
I started swinging a hammer during the summer as a rough-in carpenter at the age of 12 there in the development. I would watch the guys build the house, and learned to understand the process. One day they said I was there so much, that they ought to put me to work. The next day I showed up with my father's 9oz. finishing hammer and a cheap nail apron. They laughed at my father's hammer, let me borrow a 16oz hammer and put me to work driving 16d nails.
That exposure got me around plumbers, electricians, roofers. That all served me well as a plant engineer later on in life. My life for the most part has been one good thing after another. Carpentry is very rewarding BTW as at the end of the day, you can see what you have accomplished!
I was not blessed with the love of building that you have, but since I retired I have taken up furniture refinishing as a hobby.
Lots of estate sales, yard sales and people simply cleaning out the barn and basement provides a lot of antiques that folks look on as simply old stuff that they do not want any longer.
I have restored some cool stuff and given as gifts to friends and family
My dad could build or fix anything once he looked at the plans and one of my older brothers is an engineer and must have gotten all that mojo from dad.
We had gas wars in my hometown, so I remember gas at $.21/gallon. That was about 1972.
I was in the service and went overseas in 1973 when the embargo sent prices skyrocketing
.09/Gallon in Philly 1948 or 1949. I was a little kid (still am) then on my way to my aunt's house in West Philly.
I heard Dad talk about prices like that but never saw them myself.
What you could get for a nickel back then was amazing! Shoot, I once got 100 pieces of candy for a dime...
Robert, I well remember that, too. But I could still fill up my car for $5.00.
Well I can remember when penny candy meant more than one piece for a penny
That's it!
The feedback and stories that my article has received have been great and have led me to think more about family memories from years gone by.
I saw this on line last night and realized not much has changed in some ways - this is how my grandchildren view the world, it is how my children view the world and thinking about I thought the same thing when I was a kid.
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Jumping off the roof of the house, climbing trees, chasing black angus cows, an the absolute best? Going up under the house (it was about 3 ft. off the ground). We would find Rocks and make roads to wherever our imaginations led us. Mine was nearly always NY.
Then, when I was in my 20's, oh my heavens.......I had a wonderful time. I was on my own, but that didn't stop me, cause I was a HIPPIE! The pot flowed freely and streaking was an every day thing. My mind still wants to go back there, but my old wrinkled body would do nothing but cause ridicule.
Leotie
Sounds to me like you had a great childhood and early adulthood
I too make trips to the gold old days mentally, because though the mind is certainly eager and willing to do those fun things again, the old body is no longer up to the challenge of some of the fun of my childhood.
Thanks for your feedback and perspective - much appreciated