The balmy weather and golden afternoons we're having just now have put me in mind of childhood days-- when my friends and I would play outside till it was too dark to see.
I count myself lucky to have grown up in the late Forties and the Fifties -- before there were so many electronic distractions and -- at least till 1953 when my grandparents bought a television so we could watch The Coronation -- no TV.
What's more, I lived in a suburban neighborhood where we knew pretty much every family on the block and there were lots of kids to play with -- Marcella, just across the street, Louise next door, Nancy in the house behind ours. and farther down the street were Carla and Lee and DeHart, to name only a few.
(DeHart's mother was famous for calling him in stages. "Dee! Time to come home." And when he didn't, she upped the urgency. "DeHart!" Soon followed by "DeHart Ayala! Come home NOW!" But still he would linger, waiting for the inevitable, "WILLIAM DEHART AYALA!" that signified imminent peril and the dire necessity of scuttling home at once.)
Simple games like Mother, May I? or Red Light, Green Light or Swing the Statue kept us entertained for hours. And there was lots of pretending -- cowboys with cap guns and Indians and horses were favorites. (We had punk trees in the back yard with several low, almost horizontal branches that made good horses.) I don't recall any princesses.
The breezeway between our house and carport had a concrete floor, perfect for hopscotch or jacks. Eventually a sidewalk was added to our block and I was given a pair of skates -- those clamp-on metal ones -- but I was pretty hopeless at skating. Bikes, though, that was another matter. Oh, the joy of heading off, sometimes with a sandwich packed, to ride around the neighborhood and dine al fresco in a certain huge Banyan tree!
As I grew older, some of the best games were not on my block but in the neighborhood around my grandparents' house. Kick the Can at the Hall's (they had a large yard and lots of handy bushes for hiding and sneaking) and Capture the Flag at Jeep Connor's where a side yard divided by a line of trees and shrubs was the perfect setting for a game usually played in the twilight time between supper and black dark.
It was an idyllic childhood, in many ways -- there were still vacant lots to play in and still a feeling of safety. Parents could allow their children to roam, to climb trees, to be gone for hours.
All that changed eventually. Not twenty years later I was on a visit home -- a grown and married woman -- when I told my mother I was going to walk over to my grandparents' house -- a matter of maybe a quarter of a mile.
"Oh, no!" I was told. I must take the car. Someone had been mugged in his driveway nearby. The neighborhood wasn't safe anymore.
10 comments:
This brings back so many memories. I didn't grow up in a suburb. We moved around a lot (which is not the same thing as "traveling"). Lived in hotels, rooming houses and rented apartments. But the world was the same. Playing in empty lots. Making up games. My mother was theatrical and had lots of clothes that made it fun to play "dress up". Packing lunches and disappearing for the day. And yes, those clunky roller skates. And neighborhoods for the most part WERE safe. It's so sad the change in things. I don't see many kids playing outside these days.
I was enjoying the recount of those times, and then the end.
I too was a "play outside" kid and was one of the happiest times of my life. So nice to enjoy the memories of those very same games oh and my bike was pink! xx
I had an interruption of "play outside" for about 7 years when we lived in urban apartments in the city of St. Louis. But eventually we moved back to suburbia. Many of the games you played were part of my childhood as well. I even remember the fun of making dams and little paper boats to float in the gutter outside our apartment building, where there was no yard, and cars parked along the curb. It must have been the weekend, because there was a space without a car. Mother was aghast that I played in that dirty water.
Amen to that. I feel so sorry for the children of today who dare not go out to play for fear of being run over by cars or bikes
I love hearing these memories. I grew up the same way, in a country/suburban neighborhood. Two of my grandsons live in a neighborhood in Portland where they play outside with their friends from across and down the street - sometimes all day if the weather is nice. The moms keep an eye on them, though, and I guess there is safety in numbers. Anyway, I love to see them doing their free form kind of play. I asked them once what they were doing out there with a wheel barrow and a traffic cone and a squirt gun. They said they were playing "World War II!"
I loved this post! So many memories Vicki. I remember climbing trees in the "woods" below our house. We would make villages from small fallen trees and bring in fruit and veggies from the gardens to stock our grocery store. I think the "woods" have been bulldozed to make room for houses. My guess is I wouldn't venture into them in broad daylight in these days. Sad.
Oh, for those days when we packed a sandwich and water and took off to play all day long. Then home for dinner and back out until dark. Lots of different children of varying ages all managed to play together. No adult involvement at all. We learned a lot about solving problems.
I just thought of two more fun things we did at night. With a flash light we went nightcrawler hunting. We would also take glass jars and capture lighting bugs. We would get TV cardboard boxes and make tents out of them. We took string and attached empty tin cans and would walk off about fifty feet and talk to each other like it was real walkie talkies. Them were the days.
Oh yes to the tin can walkie talkie! We had bag swings too which involved climbing into the tree then launching off for a thrilling ride. We also would take empty heavy paper fertilizer bags and slide down the slopes surrounding the putting greens of a nearby golf course. (After hours and with an eye out for the grumpy fella who patrolled the course.)
Post a Comment