The Over 40s Club meeting

[Miss Chicken]

Here we are again - a meeting of the Old Farts Club.

The subject of discussion today is

ROAMING THE NEIGHBOURHOOD AS A CHILD.

We had a lot of freedom as children, far more than I think children of today are allowed to have. We would leave home after breakfast and came home when we were hungry.

Some of the things we used to do without our parents

1) Build cubby houses on a nearby vacant lot
2) Go tadpole hunting
3) Play along the creek

 

[ITL]

Here is the village I'm from. When I was a kid, I would generally be anywhere in the red area when playing outside. The green dot is the first place we lived. So the roaming area changed a few years later when we moved.

Bigger picture: [click]

 

[JonathonWally]

Pleasant reminder to all those members of over 40 club to remember to take your Geritol.

 

[Jan]

4) Climb trees as high as we could go.
5) Catch bugs in jars - even bees and wasps
6) Go to the neighborhood park/playground all by ourselves and play on the metal equipment.

Jan

 

[ITL]

Pleasant reminder to all those members of over 40 club to remember to take your Geritol.

 

[JonathonWally]

Pleasant reminder to all those members of over 40 club to remember to take your Geritol.

 

[John Picard]

Three TV channels, plus it was never too hot or too cold to be told to go outside and play.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

Yeah, seriously. Go out after breakfast and not come home until dinner. Walk everywhere! We never asked for rides. Play with Barbies and use our imagination. A tissue box was a bed, a car, a stage. At night we laid on the grass and looked up at the stars. Cripes childhood was fun!

 

[TheKeeper]

I roamed the neighborhood with friends every chance I got, except when there was something good on TV. Remember building your social life around the TV schedule because it was the only way to see certain shows or movies? Home video has really changed everything.

And was anyone else afraid to go home in the early evening, because your parents would tell you to stay in for the night?

 

[1001001]

Barefeet, as often as possible.

Riding skateboards.

Launching water balloons.

Flag football.

Walking to the store for a candy bar (they were 25 cents back then, don't you know.)

Fear/danger never entered the picture.

 

[the Dagman]

Lawn darts!

 

[TrekkieMonster]

Lawn darts!

Seriously. We had them. The pointy ones.

This is a great thread.

And yeah, in the summertime especially, it was off on our own all day. Climbing trees, fishing, swimming in the local pond with no lifeguard or adult supervision, building tree houses, riding the city bus all alone to the library (hey, I was still a geek.)

My favorite memory inspired by this thread is the summer some friends and I built this enormous, multi-level tree fort in a huge old walnut tree. We just added and added and added all summer long, as high as we could go. The highest platforms were, of course, the most coveted. Our parents would have crapped if they'd ever seen it. Man, was that a great summer ....

I feel sorry for kids now. They have all kinds of electronic gadgets, but so few of them know the fun of stuff like everyone's talked about here.

God, that made me sound like a true old fart, didn't it?

 

[John Picard]

Lawn darts!

Seriously. We had them. The pointy ones.

This is a great thread.

And yeah, in the summertime especially, it was off on our own all day. Climbing trees, fishing, swimming in the local pond with no lifeguard or adult supervision, building tree houses, riding the city bus all alone to the library (hey, I was still a geek.)

My favorite memory inspired by this thread is the summer some friends and I built this enormous, multi-level tree fort in a huge old walnut tree. We just added and added and added all summer long, as high as we could go. The highest platforms were, of course, the most coveted. Our parents would have crapped if they'd ever seen it. Man, was that a great summer ....

I feel sorry for kids now. They have all kinds of electronic gadgets, but so few of them know the fun of stuff like everyone's talked about here.

God, that made me sound like a true old fart, didn't it?

That's because (most) parents today are overprotective. When my son is home due to a day off, he'll spend hours outside playing near the pond, going to the neighbor's to work in the machine shop, explore the woods, or even plunk squirrels with his BB gun.

I couldn't be more proud

 

[sojourner]

Did anyone else start hearing "Stand By Me" by Ben Kingsley when they entered this thread?

going to the neighbor's to work in the machine shop

You have a sweat shop next door?

Yeah, as a kid, me and my friends could ride our bikes for literally miles from home. Our street was a dead end and had woods behind the houses on 2 sides. We used to call them the back woods and the big woods depending on where you went. There was lake 1, lake 2 and "the big lake". Yes, we were kids, the names we made were pretty basic. We roamed far and wide.

 

[WillsBabe]

Did anyone else start hearing "Stand By Me" by Ben Kingsley when they entered this thread?

Ben E King?

 

[Kirby]

We used to be outside all the time as a kid. The only exception was in the winter we would have to stay in when it got below say, 20 degrees, and then we were relegated to the basement where we wouldn't bother our parents.
We also used to ride our bikes everywhere. It wasn't uncommon to see a gang of kids riding their bikes down the street. The only time I see someone on a bike now is when they're exercising. My nephews (21 and 19) don't even know how to ride a bike that isn't in a health club.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

We spent most of our time outdoors when I was a kid, but then we had no kind of "climate control" to make the indoors preferable - just heat when it was real cold out.

When I was a kid, if a retail store had any form of air conditioning they'd put up a sign to indicate that - it was guaranteed to draw foot traffic during the hot months. Kool cigarettes used to give away these window stickers to stores that sold their product, featuring their penquin mascot and the logo "Come on in - it's KOOL inside."

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

How ironic. Until yesterday I wasn't a memeber of this club.

 

[John Picard]

Having to wait until 6am for the broadcast day to begin. Televisions with both Vertical and Horizontal Hold.

 

[Captain Ice]

When YOU were the remote control...