What was life like when you were a kid?

[TouchDown]

Grew up on a farm, closest neighbor was about a mile away. Went to a small rural school, most years our class size was between 8 and 10. I was an awkward kid, but since our school was so small, there really weren't many cliques.

My most vivid memories were:

Going to my grandparents place where they milked cows, and in wintertime, when the potbelly stove was almost red - it was blistering hot in the milk barn... we'd crack open walnuts by smacking them with a hammer on the concrete floor, then dip them in rock salt that grandpa had for the cows.

We had a ton of work dogs, my responsibility was to feed them and keep them in water. In one barn the roof leaked and it was near the bag of food. One time, I assumed that after a rain, the water must have dripped in and made a "clump" of food in the bag, so I took an old coffee can that I used for a scoop and tried to bust up the clump. After banging the clump with the can 5 or 6 times, I realized it was hissing back at me. I had just been banging this can on the head of a opossum and he was pissed.

At about 11 or 12, I was allowed to drive the tractor (could reach the petals if I stood up) and began raking hay. I got the tractor that didn't have a cab, so blistering heat, bumble bees, and the smell of diesel fumes is still fresh in my head.

Since my grandparent's farm was about 2 miles North, and my Uncle's was about 4 miles East, we all helped each other, we'd have Sunday Dinner (or lunch for you city folk) where we all got together and had a big meal every week. Played with my older cousins which were horrible influences.

I got glasses in the 5th grade and let out my inner nerd. I was good at basic school, but didn't really start "learning" until I got into college. I got contacts in 10th grade, just in time to really get interested in girls and get a car. My first car was a 1976 Mercury Monarch. That POS went through a starter about every 4 months.

My older brother moved to Colorado, so that's where we did summer vacations about every other year. I remember looking up to him and hoping I could be that "cool" someday. Still do.

We weren't near a pool, but I'd run through the sprinkler in the yard in the summer, or go jump in the pond every once in a while. I didn't learn to swim until I was a teenager, and my future ex BIL threw me in and told me to swim. I hate that bastard for doing that, I barely made it back (in my mind).

We got 3 channels on the TV, and I watched a lot of TV when I could. Saturday mornings, i was pretty stuck there until mid morning most of the time. Never had a video game, except for a hand me down pong unit that plugged into the UHF/VHF connector. Although I did have a hand held football game (it was a green plastic thing about 6" wide, by 6" long and about 1" thick) where it had red dots that bleeped at you as you tried to "run" past defenders. I went though many 9V batteries on that thing when we would go on vacations.

I had a few comics, like Spiderman and Daredevil.

I had a pretty decent childhood, other than being awkward and self conscious like I think most people go through, I was glad to get away and go to college.

I look back now at some of the stuff we did when I was growing up and I wonder how I survived...

 

[goodal]

A child of the 80's, my "old times" aren't that old. We (myself, brother and sister) grew up 30 minutes from anything. We had a small convenience store and a gas station 5 minutes away but "town" was at least 30 miles away in any direction my whole life. When we weren't bouncing on the trampoline, we explored the woods every second of every day during the summer until i got to be about 11-12. Found half a fox once. We thought that was really something. We loved basketball and nintendo (the original).

We were blessed to be able to go to private schools for all but 3 years (when my mom homeschooled us). So my classes were never very large. My HS graduating class consisted of 4 (including me). I graduated with 3 of the people that were in my kindergarten graduation. Did I mention we liked baskletball. Although we never got very good, we played all the time and thought about it more than that. I played on every team that would have me through HS. We collected basketball cards, during the worst era for that, during the 90's. I recently looked up the nicer ones and the are still worth about $0.02. Rode motorcycles and ATV's pretty heavy during 13-16yr range.

My first car as a 1980 V6 Buick Regal that I thought was the bomb (it wasn't). Second car was a 1991 Toyota Celica that I would love to have back for old times sake.

Dad always worked odd hours so time with him was special when it happened. We took a 2 week trip out west one summer and saw some of the cool stuff (grand canyon, petrifide forest, continental divide, etc.). We had a 6 month stint in Germany, that ive written about here before, that was incredible. Since I was 4-5, I have lived within 2 miles of the place I first called home. I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[NCcarguy]

I love those stories!!! I hope more people participate on this. I'm just trying to imagine what my girlfriends kids would be able to say, and sadly enough I don't think they have that much good to talk about.

 

[FLBuff PE]

I'm a city kid. Grew up within walking distance of a lake and a river. The lake had a sandbar that I discovered, and would often times swim out to and hang out. I was also an avid tree climber. There's a small park across the street from my childhood home (where my parents still live), and there was an awesome tree for climbing. I was devastated when they tore it down. My house was also about 30 minutes from anything, including the beach. I think I spent at least one day a week during my senior year in high school at the beach. Some of my fondest memories with my dad involve going deep-sea fishing, flying remote control airplanes that we (read: he) built, and him teaching me to drive. I would also take out a rubber dingy in the lake I mentioned, getting at least as close as DK has to some gators. Exciting times!

 

[maryannette]

Grew up in a family with 8 children. Moved from Delaware to North Carolina when I was 6. Every summer for many years after that, we put everybody in the car and rode 8 hours to visit family for a week or two. In the beginning, we just got stuffed into whatever full-size car we had. Later, we had station wagons. There was only one stop - about halfway to get gas and use restrooms. Anything else had to be taken care of mobile.

In a large family, there were times when money was tight. I don't remember ever thinking that we were poor, but I'm sure that we were at "poverty" level at times. I guess we had a different image of "poor".

Doctors still made house calls. REALLY!

We had a drug store soda shop that would add cherry flavor to your Coke. (That was before Cherry Coke came in a can.)

We used to walk to the town park and play on the playground swings and slide.

There were summers when the local movie theater had Saturday matinees for kids. You could get in free with tickets from local merchants. We got free tickets and took snacks and drinks in hidden in a big purse.

 

[NCcarguy]

Mary.....can you even IMAGINE putting all those kids in a car and traveling that far now? I'll also bet NO ONE was wearing a seat belt? For a while when I was a kid my parents had a business that delivered TV's and Appliances, and the delivery van was a ford van with a 302 engine and a 3 speed manual transmission on the column and NO AC!! the back was just an empty shell...metal floors. We would sometimes all pile in that and go places. The kids would just be rolling all over the back of that thing. lol

 

[chaosiscash]

When I was about 11 or 12 (early 90's), my family of 5 loaded up in a Ford Tempo and drove from SC to Bar Harbor, ME and back, with several stops in the northeast along the way (Boston, NYC, Providence, etc). While not the same as a huge family taking long trips in a wagon, it still felt like a pretty tight fit (for me especially, as I was the youngest, and therefore, stuck in the middle most of the time). Now, when my sister and her family of 4 go to the beach for a week, they need a full size SUV and enclosed trailer. :true:

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

^I went to Bar Harbor and Acadia last year and was fairly underwhelmed. The town itself is basically any New England touristy port town, and Acadia is nice, but a glorified state park. How that place is a national park compared to some of the others is mind boggling.

 

[snickerd3]

^I went to Bar Harbor and Acadia last year and was fairly underwhelmed. The town itself is basically any New England touristy port town, and Acadia is nice, but a glorified state park. How that place is a national park compared to some of the others is mind boggling.

it had a better PR person on the committee naming national parks

 

[MA_PE]

When we were kids, the kids all piled onto the back of the family wagon. It was a special treat when the wagon actually had a third seat back there.

seat belts??? what were they?

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I used to lie Snoopy style on the back of the front seat. Also used to lie in the back window shelf or sit on the fold down armrest. We used to fight ocer who sat on the armrest, because we pretended it was a throne.

We could fit two of us in the backety-back (behind the rear seats) of our Bug.

I remember my child seat. It looked like a porrly put together lawn chair with a thin layer of quilted fabric on it. Today's child seats look like g-seats from the Apollo progra,

 

[FLBuff PE]

As an only child, I didn't have to fight over where to sit, what I got to eat, etc. My mom and dad were big on going to a part of the country, renting a car and driving. We did this for Sedona, AZ up through Flagstaff and into the Grand Canyon, Portland up to Seattle, and Yellowstone and Teton. In Teton, you can rent little outboard motor boats. We (my parents and I) did that when I was about 12 or 13. I got a huge thrill out of it when my dad let me control the motor; he showed me how to get the boat up on a plane, then he and my mom would get in the bow to redudce the air resistance...we really got that thing flying! I took my wife there for our first anniversary. We stayed at Jackson Hole (found a great deal), did a drive through one day at Yellowstone (we had both been there before), and then another day at Teton, basically doing what my parents and I did. I am looking forward to doing that with mini-Buff when she gets older.

 

[NCcarguy]

^^ That's pretty cool. I really don't remember anything from growing up that I would be able to do with kids today....

I HAVE eaten at a Char-grill restaurant in Raleigh, and an Amedios, both are places my parents went to either when they were dating, or shortly after I was born, and both are still open today.

 

[Flyer_PE]

I used to lie Snoopy style on the back of the front seat. Also used to lie in the back window shelf or sit on the fold down armrest. We used to fight ocer who sat on the armrest, because we pretended it was a throne.
We could fit two of us in the backety-back (behind the rear seats) of our Bug.

I remember my child seat. It looked like a porrly put together lawn chair with a thin layer of quilted fabric on it. Today's child seats look like g-seats from the Apollo progra,

We had an old style Chevy van. My dad bolted my car seat to the top of the engine cover (Right between the two front seats). I think he would be arrested in most states for doing something like that these days.

Anybody else have memories of riding down the highway sitting in the back of a pick-up truck?

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Anybody else have memories of riding down the highway sitting in the back of a pick-up truck?

Yep. Even sat atop the wheelwells on numerous occasions.

That was so commonplace when I grew up (out in the country and everyone had farms/pickups) that I was completely surprised when my nephew told me he wasn't allowed to ride in the back of my truck. In fact, it was against the law.

Thank you mommy government.

 

[OSUguy98]

we used to drive somewhere each summer... I think I've been to just about every state east of the Mississippi and have never flown.... the vehicle of choice '83-'92 was a brown Chevy Cavalier wagon... we'd load that thing up with so much crap that it looked like a airplane with a tail wheel rolling down the runway without wings... even with all 4 of us pile in, I'd bet the rear bumper was no more than 6 inches off the ground... The earliest trip I can remember is going to Disney World when I was 8, well, maybe Niagara Falls when I was 7...

As for home life, it was pretty fun... I grew up in a town of about 1200 (still live there, population is around 950-1000 now)... we lived on a dead end street, which was next to another dead end street, concrete road, on the side of a side... we'd sled ride down the road in the winter and ride our big wheels (and later our bikes) down them... basketball, baseball, swimming in one of the 3 or 4 pools in the neighborhood, and riding our bikes in the woods were the normal daily routines... at night, we'd play spotlight until someone yelled at us to stop chasing each other through their yard... always fun... we'd camp out in each others yards and stay up until 5 or 6 AM telling ghost stories and sneaking to the houses of the girls in the neighborhood and tossing pebbles at the window to get them to sneak out.... never worked... we'd always end up waking up the parents....

 

[XOXOXO]

Life sucked as a kid. I'm much happier as a grumpy old woman with access to lots of booze.

And I can say all the curse words I want to...

 

[Exengineer]

Kids of the 1960s had it so much better than today's kids. Summer baseball leagues, school recreation programs, bicycling and a lot more physical activity than you see now. Add to that a better standard of living then with just one income earner and it's no wonder so many kids now are on Ritalin and other behavior modification drugs. Expectations were higher then and were more achievable. Back then an education actually meant something and led to a better life. Now, not so much. My dad is 84 and says the U.S. is almost unrecognizable from what it used to be, and not in a good way. That's at least one thing we can agree on.

 

[MA_PE]

Life sucked as a kid. I'm much happier as a grumpy old woman with access to lots of booze. And I can say all the curse words I want to...

So you were always POed, it did not just happen when you became a Mommy? :dunno:

 

[Master slacker]

We had an old style Chevy van. My dad bolted my car seat to the top of the engine cover (Right between the two front seats). I think he would be arrested in most states for doing something like that these days.
Anybody else have memories of riding down the highway sitting in the back of a pick-up truck?

That totally reminds me of the van we had when I was a young'un. Mom and dad bought the van the day before I was born. It was a cargo van (two front seats, nothing behind that) with a black, orange, silver paint job (from the bottom up). Dad customized the entire interior with shag-like carpet, two bench seats against the walls, and a table between them.All that could be converted into a bed, too. Between that and the front seat was a counter and a camper port-o-can (behind drapes and walls. Wood paneling lined the walls. On the counter we had a small sink and the old 13'ish inch B&W TV and... get this... the Atari!

I used to kneel down in the front, basically on top of the engine cover. I can still remember kneeling there for so long on trips that my knees had the carpet impressions for a looooooong time after getting up. I miss that van.