Quote:
Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric:
Great Post, LadyZekke. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]
Let me see what I can add.
Being an only child with two working parents, I had to "invent" ways to entertain myself during summer vacation. For a couple of years, we lived in a house right next to a busy highway with no other houses around....so I was on my own during the summer. I was by myself and unsupervised all day. I would take my Daisy BB gun and go "hunting" in the woods behind our house (never shot anything other than an occasional bird, though). I played with firecrackers - a LOT! I learned to "light and throw" or bundle them together. I would make "dynamite bundles" of 6 at a time.
It was a special treat to go visit my cousin's house, because they lived in a neighborhood with lots of kids and their house was the local "gathering place". We would sit in yard on the lawn furniture, drinking cokes and eating candy (after supper, of course). We would play tag, hide-n-seek, Red Rover and even went Snipe Hunting once or twice.
I had favorite TV shows, but there were no VCR's...so if you missed your show - you just missed it. No way to see it again unless you happen to watch it on the right night during re-runs. Some of my favorite shows were Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, The Wonderful World of Disney Sunday Night Movie, & Batman!.
I remember when "damn" and "hell" were NEVER heard on TV (unless you stayed up late enough to listen to Johnny Carson. I remember when Carol Burnette had the best "variety" show on TV. I remember when the Jackson 5 and Osmonds had their own TV shows...and other "TV groups" like the Monkees, Partridge Family, and even the Archies crossed over to produce musical albums.
I remember when the really cool kids had those snazzy 8-track players with the "dynamite plunger" handle. Then there was the CB fad, mood rings, pet rocks, and that most accursed device ever invented by man...the RUBIK'S CUBE!.
I remember going to town on Saturday afternoon, and my mom dropping me off at the department store (where I would head straight for the toy section) while she went to a DIFFERENT store to look at clothes. Same thing on our next stop at the first ever "strip mall" in our little town. I would stay in Sky City, looking at more toys, while she bought the groceries at Ingle's.
I remember how ecstatic I was when we finally moved to the SAME neighborhood where my cousins lived. Our house was on a quiet little cul-de-sac with a big field right across from it. The neighborhood kids would play softball and football until it was too dark to see the ball anymore. Big kids and little kids played together and nobody got seriously hurt. Yeah, we all got our share of cuts and bruises, but that was just part of growing up.
I remember thumbing through the Sears Wishbook every year before Christmas, until the pages were almost worn out. Our parents could take the kids to the local movie theater on Friday night and "drop us off" without having to worry for our safety.
I never "hitchiked" to town, but I knew lots of kids that rode their bikes to town. I also remember going to the Skating Rink on Saturday night and skating for hours at a time.
Ahhh...SO many more things I could include...but I'm sure the "younger crowd" is already bored stiff with my reminiscent rambling....so I better stop while I can. 
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Thanks for posting that Cerek [img]smile.gif[/img] I, like you, grew up as an only child too, so had to entertain myself. We also always lived out in the boonies with no neighbors (except for three years when I was 8-11 where we actually lived in a neighborhood!). I spent a lot of time riding my bike (by myself) all over, down back roads, trails in the woods, etc. I did a lot of TV watching too although we only got five channels. Man I hated the weekends, only Planet of the Apes or Tarzan on!!
I also spent a good seven years going to our local skating rink (was all there was in my small home town). I'd go Friday nights (6:00pm - 1:00am), Saturday nights (same times, but sometimes the rink would be open all day and until 1:00am, I loved those times!), and Sundays (noon - 5:00pm). There wasn't a day that the rink was open that I wasn't there LOL. My mom would always drive me there, and I'd get a ride home by different friends whose parents didn't mind the late hour like mine did LOL. I miss that place (moved away when I was 16). It was a great place for kids to go back then, you could skate, they had an arcade room with Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Centipede, Donkey Kong, all the classics
They had a food area where you could get a soda or a snow cone, a piece of pizza or a hotdog, booths surrounding a wide area where you could eat, people skating by LOL. Lots of cool looking lights in the skating area (HUGE disco balls that refleced lights and left little multicolored moving circles on the floor, sometimes the room would be lit with nothing but red lights, sometimes nothing but black lights) with boogie music blasting. I remember many a night where I'd be going home, take my skates off, but still had that "movement" feeling in my feet and had trouble walking for five or ten minutes LOL. Was great. I heard since then the rink has gone downhill, lot of gang activity and crime there now, what a bummer
, we never had a single fight during the seven years I was going there.
I had an 8-track player (boast boast
) my dad was a DJ for a local radio show so I lucked out LOL, but I never had that dynamite plunger LOL, what was that?? I also had a PONG machine for my TV in my bedroom, oh joy!!
[ 11-08-2002, 06:21 PM: Message edited by: ladyzekke ]