What Do You You Miss From Childhood?
 

I was thinking last night about all the cool stuff I used to do as a kid...things kids don't do anymore, either because of the technology available to them today, or because it's just too dangerous...


For instance, I used to LOVE to go roller skating. Kids don't do that anymore. You're hard-pressed to even find a roller rink anywhere, at least where I live.


Trick-or-treating: Hallowe'en is my favorite holiday, and I remember when we used to go trick-or-treating every year. I remember when people used to set up their houses elaborately for the kids, and you didn't have to check your candy. You could eat it along the way. You could even eat things like popcorn balls and fruit. I also remember the first time my mother brought me to the hospital to have my candy X-rayed, because of that asshole who razor-bladed his own kid's treats.

Kids don't trick-or-treat anymore, except at the mall and in some subdivisions where everyone knows each other.....I haven't gotten a trick-or-treater in ten years....:(


Sidhe

We still have full-fledged Halloween in my area, and I'm in DC.

Putt putt.

We have kids on Halloween, but only a dozen or so. All kids from our street. We take our daughter out onour street too. It's pretty cool that it's still alive in our neighborhood. (Arlington, VA)

I miss packs of kids roaming around the neighborhood unsupervised. Now, kids have to set up play dates in advance, and parents are always there. When I was a kid, we had no fences in the back yards, and we had the run of the entire neighborhood.

Also, bikes. Kids today don't ride bikes like we did. We would just ride all over the place. A mile or two away from home, without telling our parents where we were going. You just had to be home for dinner.

I'm convinced that the world is just as safe today as it was when I was a kid in the 70s. You just hear about the bad stuff more. People over-react and over-protect their kids.

But I think there is something about youth that just makes life fun. Even though kids are doing different stuff today, I think they are having fun doing it. The only real harm I see today is that most kids have little or no free time. It's the free time that sparks curiosity and lets kids do crazy and inventive stuff to fight off the boredom. I can't imagine the current crop of over-scheduled kids producing someone like this: http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/

Oh yeah, I remember riding bikes, and being gone all day with no supervision....as long as you were home before the street lights came on, it was no biggie.

We used to play WAR in the woods near our house, me, my best friend, her brother, and his friends. We'd dig holes and cover them with pine needles to hide them (I'm surprised no one ever broke an ankle), we'd hide in trees and throw stuff at each other, and the slingshot was the weapon of choice....lol

It just seems as if there's so much technology nowadays that kids never leave the house. I was outside all day, every day, when I was a kid. We HATED being in the house, even if there WAS a TV there.

Speaking of which....Saturday morning cartoons! I miss those. The Cartoon Channel isn't the same. They don't have the good old-fashioned cartoons (old-fashioned, for me, anyway. I used to watch BlackStar, Dungeons and Dragons, Drac Pack, Laff-A-Lympics, stuff like that)....everything's Anime now, and I can't STAND anime. It's too melodramatic. I loved getting up on Saturday morning, sitting in front of the TV for hours, eating dry cereal and watching cartoons. Matter of fact, I bought Schoolhouse Rock on DVD for my daughter. She LOVES it.

Sidhe

We would bring the toaster into the living room and plug it in on the floor. We would often go through half a loaf of Wonder bread making toast as we watched cartoons on Saturday morning. Ate dry cereal too.

I think when I get home today, I’m going to build a fort out of an old refrigerator box and some blankets. Oh sure my b/f might try to have me committed, but they’ll never take me alive – never.

Many Things......
 

Playing football in the cold until you couldn't feel your hands or feet (I try that now and I'm in the doctor's office next day)

Riding my bike with abandon :rar:


Staying up late was a life challenge, not a job requirement :zzz:


gross jokes were funny :turd: not just gross



BUT adulthood DOES have some benefits:

:beer: :drunk: :joint: :doit:


Either way, I would take being 15 again any day.....I think if some kids would REALLY take this to heart, we wouldn't have so many messed up teens.....

Later :rattat:

You know, I was just telling a friend of mine last night that I was going to cut down all this damn bamboo we have surrounding our yard and make a teepee out of it! Hahahahaha!:D

Oh, YEAH! The Ice Cream Man! I'd forgotten all about that. *sigh*

And remember the little pompoms they had for your skates? I still have my skate case, too...geez...*grins*

I dunno...more people means more pervs, crazies, loonies, dysfunction, etc.

Oh boy, I miss:

Riding my Big Wheel (and being jealous that the other kids had Green Machines...lol).
Roller Skaking at Painters Mill Skateland
Swimming
Playing with friends outside until dark (summertime)
Cook outs at my Aunt Helen's house (although she still has one every so often, but it's not the same).
Trick or treating
The Good Humour man

and just being a kid again: no bills, no worries about work, health, and other dumb adult stuff...:D

At least in my neighborhood, there's a pretty full-fledged Halloween trick-or-treating experience.

And I have fond memories of roller skating too (complete with disco music I'd rather not remember). There actually is a rink here, in Villanova, that's not too different from the one I went to as a kid. (Well except of course they now rent inline skates in addition to the old-school ones.)

Hippity Hops

Metal Roller Skates that clamped to your shoes that you needed a key to tighten

Bozo the Clown and Captain Kangaroo

(This seems a popular one) Going out to play without leaving a schedule.

Lady Sidhe's list of cartoons are the ones that I watched in College. Wacky Racers, Yankee Doodle Pigeon, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, The Monkees ... That was a classic Saturday morning. (I may be wrong about the Flintstones ... weren't they in prime time? I know childhood repeats were sometimes on Saturdays),

Original Star Trek.

Batman, with Adam West and Burt Ward

Silly Putty and Superballs

Banana seats and coaster brakes. I would probably do myself a serious injury if I tried to ride a modern bicycle. I never had gears to contend with, and never had hand brakes

Getting your plaster cast signed by all your friends after you fell off playground equipment and your parents didn't sue whoever built it

Cans with pull tabs that you could make stuff out of

I miss my Gran's home made burfi and Kulfi......I miss a lot... But mainly I prefer being a grownup......I would rather be a younger grownup *grin* like say 22 or something.....

Funny thing. The stuff i really miss most is indefinable. A few smells....like the smell of the hickory smoke that the beekeepers use to knock the bees out ( my Da kept bees) ......oh yah..theres another one, eating honeycomb straight from the hive !

Me and my Bro ganging up on Mum to persuade her to buy the latest gizmo( like VHS!)

And my Dad. I miss the way he was, the way we were before the walls grew. I see him and I am closer to him than many but.....He's a bit of a recluse.....and he hates when anybody visits his house because he filled it to the ceiling with junk....

Cheers! now there was a show!.....and the muppets.....that used to come on on a sunday in the UK, just before or just after Heart to Heart.....

ahhh that takes me back. Mum would have made a bunch of sandwiches and baked a cheese and onion pie, maybe some scones. Bath, Pyjamas and Muppet show with sarnies and pie mmmmm Me, Mum my big Bro....Dad if he wasnt workin..

ok....gonna stop now before i cry.
Oh wait....no there was one more, yah someone mentioned skating! I used to love that....Up and down up and down the street.....and playing with a tennis ball and racket against next door's garage...