primitives discuss old-time play

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024588189

Oh my.

applegrove (62,641 posts)    Sat Mar 1, 2014, 11:17 PM

Old time play. What passtimes from your childhood will never be again?

Did anybody else make bracelets from trashed telephone wires.....the wire that was multicolored? They would come in a bundle of 30? You'd wrap the wire around itself and it would look like a beaded bracelets. I loved that.

It's a really big campfire, so I brought over only the PoP (primitives of prominence).

Pretzel_Warrior (7,750 posts)    Sat Mar 1, 2014, 11:19 PM

1. Lawn darts. With metal tips.

Especially when we played "catch" with them.

Pretzel_Warrior (7,750 posts)    Sat Mar 1, 2014, 11:29 PM

11. Oh yes, we didn't have a trampoline but my friend did

We found if one person timed their jump just after another person's, the subsequent force would launch the second person much higher into the air and often right off the trampoline.
 
After a while, that wasn't good enough so we dragged the 10 foot step ladder out next to the trampoline to create spectacular launches. We eventually dragged the trampoline over next to the house and that was almost too much.
 
We sat there on the edge of the roof contemplating. Finally, the phone rang and I threw caution to the wind & came off the roof, hit the trampoline, knees buckled, and I rolled off the edge into a heap on the ground.
 
I did catch the phone call. It was his mom checking in on us to make sure we were alright.
 
How did I survive into my 40's?

Fumesucker (36,239 posts)    Sat Mar 1, 2014, 11:21 PM

3. Saturday morning cartoons

Cleita (69,056 posts)    Sat Mar 1, 2014, 11:26 PM

9. Or being able to ride your bicycle, put it in the bike rack for the day,

and not have it stolen.

William769 (37,149 posts)    Sat Mar 1, 2014, 11:37 PM

19. Decent music!

MannyGoldstein (25,418 posts)    Sat Mar 1, 2014, 11:47 PM

24. 1. Playing with mercury from "accidentally" broken thermometers

2. Clacker balls (now damed and banned by the CPSB)

nadinbrzezinski (130,169 posts)    Sun Mar 2, 2014, 12:16 AM
in response to a PonP (primitive of no prominence) talking about playing with empty cardboard boxes

33. Yup

Jackpine Radical (39,647 posts)    Sun Mar 2, 2014, 04:44 PM

175. I remember Vietnamese kids with incredibly complex

Rube Goldberg devices made out of sticks & tin cans. You'd push them along the ground & the cans would rotate each other like gears & make noise.

Cleita (69,056 posts)    Sun Mar 2, 2014, 01:26 AM

51. They are mostly micromanaged today.

They have schedules of activities programmed for them all day down to play dates. They don't come home from school, hop on their bike or skateboard and go look for other kids in the neighborhood to play with until supper like they used to. I wondered too why I never saw kids out playing anymore so I started asking young mothers I knew why and this is what they told me in so many words.

Cleita (69,056 posts)    Sun Mar 2, 2014, 02:34 PM

150. I don't know why things changed so much.

One difference was probably a stay at home parent in each household who also acted as a neighborhood watch of sort keeping kids safe. Of course this was usually the mother and that bred a number of problems of its own for women who were left behind in the workplace.

grasswire (39,366 posts)    Sun Mar 2, 2014, 02:20 AM

63. yes, kick the can under the street lights

Also a game where you threw a ball over the house. Annie annie over? Something like that.

livetohike (15,450 posts)    Sun Mar 2, 2014, 06:29 AM

78. Swinging on vines. Spending the whole day in the woods, until our neighborhood built a swim club.

Then we spent all day at the pool, came home for dinner and then back to the pool until it closed. I can still spend all day in the woods, but vine swinging days are over. Can't be in the sun all day either, due to skin cancer issues (no doubt from all those childhood days in the sun).

babylonsister (146,489 posts)    Sun Mar 2, 2014, 10:47 AM

104. Hopscotch here, too...and kick ball.

Five kids in my family, enough for two uneven teams.

Catching fire flies was also a good memory.

MrScorpio (58,919 posts)    Sun Mar 2, 2014, 10:27 AM

94. Enjoying a Hostess fruit pie and Saturday morning cartoons.

Skidmore (30,721 posts)    Sun Mar 2, 2014, 02:38 PM

153. Jacks.

Played them so much. Couldn't wait to grow up so I wouldn't have to come in from recess for class and I could then play anytime and for as long as I wanted.

bettyellen (23,378 posts)    Sun Mar 2, 2014, 02:40 PM

156. Nunchucks!

And klic-klacs, used as nunchucks. Good times!

Jackpine Radical (39,647 posts)    Sun Mar 2, 2014, 04:38 PM

174. Runing around in the woods with a single shot .22

hunting squirrels.

Making & launching home made bombs & rockets. Any kid who did that today would be behind bars for life.
 
Catching leopard frogs to sell to the bait & tackle store as bass bait. It was perfectly legal in the 50's, but has been illegal for a long time now, and rightly so.
 
Skinny-dipping in the river.

Getting chased across the field by the neighbor's bull.

Sneaking back to a trout pond with a Prince Albert can full of worms, a fishing line, hooks, & a jack knife to cut a tag alder pole with.
 
For that matter, having a jack knife in my pocket every day when I went to my 1-room country school. Most of the boys carried one, AFAIK.

Someone--a PonP, primitive of no prominence--mentioned airplane glue, building models.

<<<never did that; didn't have the patience to.

[JohnnyReb]

Did some of all those things.....and built and flew model airplanes. Got high as a kite off the glue and dope but didn't think it was much fun. That was before I found out you were supposed to enjoy being high.....then I got some ventilation in my little shop, no more highs.

[Skul]

Pretzel_Warrior (7,750 posts)    Sat Mar 1, 2014, 11:19 PM

1. Lawn darts. With metal tips.

Especially when we played "catch" with them.

OK, that explains a lot. 

[98ZJUSMC]

150. I don't know why things changed so much

No.  You wouldn't.

[USA4ME]

Playing the game "smear the queer" (at least under that name) comes to mind.

.

[I_B_Perky]

Did some of all those things.....and built and flew model airplanes. Got high as a kite off the glue and dope but didn't think it was much fun. That was before I found out you were supposed to enjoy being high.....then I got some ventilation in my little shop, no more highs.

Yep JohnnyReb. I used to build model ships, planes and stuff. That model glue would send you to next year.  Only thing worse was Formica glue. Man what a headache the next day!!!!   

[GOBUCKS]

Going to the city dump to shoot rats.

Iron sights, .22 shorts.

 

[freedumb2003b]

All that kvetching about what was lost.  All of it freedom and all of it as result of the liberal Nanny State and its brethren.

They are too stupid to realize THEY took it away!

[Dori]

Blowing up ant hills with m-80's.

[Ralph Wiggum]

OK, that explains a lot. 

I'm pretty certain Pretzel Warrior took a few in the head over the years.  Probably the balls too, since he seems to have none.