Games you played as a child and childhood memories in general...
Childhood games and memories:
When I was 4 and 5 we played Tarzan, and underneath the wooden picnic table in the backyard was the 'treehouse'. One day I was playing at heating water in the sun to prepare a treehouse meal, using a small-mouthed oil can. I stuck my finger in to see if the water was hot yet, and it got stuck. Started to swell. They had to take me to emergency to get the can off. Still have the scar on my finger where the can started to cut the flesh.
When I was 8-10, my girlfriends and I played either house (with dolls) or cavalry. Both were equally fun. My friend Susie played the cavalry commanding officer (probably a colonel), her sister Shelley played the colonel's daughter, and I played the dashing young lieutenant. My brother, when we let him join in, played the Indian captive tied up in the tent. (haha) (kids are cruel
)
I liked playing army with the boys. I/we built a great bunker in the vacant lot next to my house. We dug a 2-3' deep circular pit in the ground, extended the wall-height with 18" of bricks on the surface; then put boards over the top. We dug a couple steps in the earth to make an entrance. I loved that bunker. But eventually some other kids came along and caved it in. Losers!
I liked playing house a lot. Even now as an adult with my own 'real' house, I still feel like I'm "playing house".
It's fun. heh.
Two of my friends' families had cattle ranches, so when I was 10, I spent weeks at a time riding horses all day long with my friends on those ranches out in the middle of nowhere. Dust, dirt, no electricity (except by generator). They had dead coyotes hung on every fence post (NOT near the ranch house) to keep predators away from the calves.
Also when I was ten, I could make the exact shrill call a ground squirrel makes. When I would do this, ground squirrels would come out of their holes and stand on their hind legs to answer me back (in the vacant lot across from our house). I thought it was kinda cool.
Hope some of you will share a few of your childhood memories.
Thanks.
Carol
When I was 4 and 5 we played Tarzan, and underneath the wooden picnic table in the backyard was the 'treehouse'. One day I was playing at heating water in the sun to prepare a treehouse meal, using a small-mouthed oil can. I stuck my finger in to see if the water was hot yet, and it got stuck. Started to swell. They had to take me to emergency to get the can off. Still have the scar on my finger where the can started to cut the flesh.
When I was 8-10, my girlfriends and I played either house (with dolls) or cavalry. Both were equally fun. My friend Susie played the cavalry commanding officer (probably a colonel), her sister Shelley played the colonel's daughter, and I played the dashing young lieutenant. My brother, when we let him join in, played the Indian captive tied up in the tent. (haha) (kids are cruel
) I liked playing army with the boys. I/we built a great bunker in the vacant lot next to my house. We dug a 2-3' deep circular pit in the ground, extended the wall-height with 18" of bricks on the surface; then put boards over the top. We dug a couple steps in the earth to make an entrance. I loved that bunker. But eventually some other kids came along and caved it in. Losers!
I liked playing house a lot. Even now as an adult with my own 'real' house, I still feel like I'm "playing house".
It's fun. heh.Two of my friends' families had cattle ranches, so when I was 10, I spent weeks at a time riding horses all day long with my friends on those ranches out in the middle of nowhere. Dust, dirt, no electricity (except by generator). They had dead coyotes hung on every fence post (NOT near the ranch house) to keep predators away from the calves.
Also when I was ten, I could make the exact shrill call a ground squirrel makes. When I would do this, ground squirrels would come out of their holes and stand on their hind legs to answer me back (in the vacant lot across from our house). I thought it was kinda cool.
Hope some of you will share a few of your childhood memories.
Thanks.
Carol
Comments
Lots of backyard soccer (even though I was never great), basketball, and then, everyone's favorite, Stratego. Yes, Stratego. I always pronouced it Struh-tee-go. (Hard G) Now I wonder if it's actually Strat-eh-jo. Oh well. There was also a period of time where some friends and I built up pretty big collections of air forces on paper. That is, we drew lots of planes, no real backstory. Of course, the better the plane looked, the better its combat ability. So I spent a LOT of time making sure I could draw circles around my friends.
My air force dominated. sheer and unrelenting air supremacy.
I also built stuff in my garage. If I wanted something my parents wouldn't buy me, I made it. That was fine with my parents until I showed them my home-made weed wacker built out of wood, a drill and a wicked-sick blade I sharpened myself. Surprisingly, I got a weedwacker next christmas.8) I also completely rebuilt/restored a broken 5HP gas engine my dad bought for $5. It still works! It is on a minibike right now and let me tell you- THOSE were some fun memories when I wasn't crashing, burning, or falling off!
Originally posted by alcimedes
doctor. now there's a game.
Yup. I think that most young kids do.
-Neø
Originally posted by alcimedes
doctor. now there's a game.
When I was 6, my friend Mark came running down to my house, and told me he would "show me his" if I would show him "mine". I said okay. We went into my walk-in closet, but after thinking about it, I asked him would it be okay if I showed him my teddy bear's instead. He said yeah.
So he showed me "his", and I showed him my teddy bear (who was always naked, as teddy bears generally are - hahaha). I think my friend Mark was a few bricks short of a load.
Originally posted by Ebby
I didn't have many friends growing up, just 5-6 good ones. I spent hours catching crayfish in the creek in my backyard with my bare hands. That took some skill to grab them in the right place but I learned fast.
I also built stuff in my garage. If I wanted something my parents wouldn't buy me, I made it. That was fine with my parents until I showed them my home-made weed wacker built out of wood, a drill and a wicked-sick blade I sharpened myself. Surprisingly, I got a weedwacker next christmas.8) I also completely rebuilt/restored a broken 5HP gas engine my dad bought for $5. It still works! It is on a minibike right now and let me tell you- THOSE were some fun memories when I wasn't crashing, burning, or falling off!
I remember when I was 7, it rained really hard one day and turned a park into a lake. I took as many jars and containers as I could carry on my bike, rode a few miles to the 'lake', and caught lots of tadpoles. Took them home and separated them into jars according to gold bellies or silver bellies. Went into the house for a while, and came out to discover that my brother had buried all my tadpoles in the alley.
I like your weedwacker and engine stories. How wonderful to invent and fix things so that they actually work.
Originally posted by Carol A
When I was 6, my friend Mark came running down to my house, and told me he would "show me his" if I would show him "mine". I said okay. We went into my walk-in closet, but after thinking about it, I asked him would it be okay if I showed him my teddy bear's instead. He said yeah.
So he showed me "his", and I showed him my teddy bear (who was always naked, as teddy bears generally are - hahaha). I think my friend Mark was a few bricks short of a load.
When I was young lad, the girls showed a little bit more than that! Of course, that was in the freewheeling '60s and '70s.
As for the rest of the games - i.e., other than 'doctor'- I could write a book - there were so many of them. Those were great days. We had so much more freedom than kids do today. Parents these days are overprotective (me included). Back then, once I turned 6 years old, I pretty much has the run of the neighbourhood with my friends. These days, kids stay inside or are driven around by their parents to suprevised/organized activities. Is this good?
Originally posted by Carol A
I'd love to be able to take an engine apart and put it back together. Sigh.
There are plenty of 1st & 2nd gen 7's out there with engines that could use some care. With three moving parts, there's much less to screw up.
Originally posted by Chinney
When I was young lad, the girls showed a little bit more than that! Of course, that was in the freewheeling '60s and '70s.
As for the rest of the games - i.e., other than 'doctor'- I could write a book - there were so many of them. Those were great days. We had so much more freedom than kids do today. Parents these days are overprotective (me included). Back then, once I turned 6 years old, I pretty much has the run of the neighbourhood with my friends. These days, kids stay inside or are driven around by their parents to suprevised/organized activities. Is this good?
So what 'were' some of your favorite games, then?
Originally posted by Splinemodel
Role playing is so girly.
Yeah, maybe. But since I AM a girl, it wasn't a problem.
There was also a period of time where some friends and I built up pretty big collections of air forces on paper. That is, we drew lots of planes, no real backstory. Of course, the better the plane looked, the better its combat ability. So I spent a LOT of time making sure I could draw circles around my friends.
My air force dominated. sheer and unrelenting air supremacy.
So did you only draw American planes, or did you draw German, British, Japanese, Russian planes too?
Have you ever been to the blimp hangar in Tillamook, Oregon? It has nice WWII planes of every kind. I went for a plane ride over the coast in a 1942 biplane. The name escapes me at the moment (
Originally posted by Carol A
So what 'were' some of your favorite games, then?
OK.
There were lots of war games. I grew up on military bases. These games could get pretty involved, and pretty heated. One of the bases I lived on was an American base during the Vietnam War. I remember kids saying their dads were in Thailand (some U.S.A.F. personnel were stationed there). I remember thinking that this must be like Disneyland, and how lucky their dads were. Some dads never came back, but I only found that out many years later when my own father told me that. At the time, we were just kids having fun.
There was plenty of Cowboys and Indians - we did not know what "politically incorrect" was. I have pretty dark skin (I am part Ukranian-Canadian on my dad's side - and we can be a bit dark) so I was always an Indian. We even had pretty good costumes. We always had toy revolvers and toy rifles.
We played an amazing amount of Hide 'n Seek. We crawled around all of that neighbourhood. I remember hiding next to some ground horse meat that the weird neighbours kept in plastic bags in a chilled room to feed raw to their vicious dogs. Yuck.
We were always on the hunt to catch frogs and toads. We always put them in jars. They always died.
Back in Canada, I spent years playing road hockey. "Car, car" you called, and you moved the nets - if you had them - to let a car go by. Most of the Canadians online here would know what I am talking about. Kids still do this, but I don't think that they did it as much as we did. It was practically a career for me. Sometimes I really thought that I was Bobby Orr as I ran around in my winter boots.
At a cottage I stayed at we really ran wild. I remember being about 8 years old with a group of kids playing on a very steep dirt road hill with an old baby carriage. We would stuff ourselves in the carriage and the oldest kid, who was about 10, would give us all absolutely crazy rides down that hill, letting go of the carriage when it started going too fast for him to keep up. I remember that especially because that older kid had no hair - he was undergoing treatment for leukemia - and also he had to pee at the bottom of each run (something to do with the medication he was taking). I don't know how he had the energy to run with that carriage, with his disease, but he did. He died, though, when he was only twelve. He was a great guy.
I could go on and on....
Originally posted by Chinney
OK.
There were lots of war games. I grew up on military bases. These games could get pretty involved, and pretty heated. One of the bases I lived on was an American base during the Vietnam War. I remember kids saying their dads were in Thailand (some U.S.A.F. personnel were stationed there). I remember thinking that this must be like Disneyland, and how lucky their dads were. Some dads never came back, but I only found that out many years later when my own father told me that. At the time, we were just kids having fun.
There was plenty of Cowboys and Indians - we did not know what "politically incorrect" was. I have pretty dark skin (I am part Ukranian-Canadian on my dad's side - and we can be a bit dark) so I was always an Indian. We even had pretty good costumes. We always had toy revolvers and toy rifles.
We played an amazing amount of Hide 'n Seek. We crawled around all of that neighbourhood. I remember hiding next to some ground horse meat that the weird neighbours kept in plastic bags in a chilled room to feed raw to their vicious dogs. Yuck.
We were always on the hunt to catch frogs and toads. We always put them in jars. They always died.
Back in Canada, I spent years playing road hockey. "Car, car" you called, and you moved the nets - if you had them - to let a car go by. Most of the Canadians online here would know what I am talking about. Kids still do this, but I don't think that they did it as much as we did. It was practically a career for me. Sometimes I really thought that I was Bobby Orr as I ran around in my winter boots.
At a cottage I stayed at we really ran wild. I remember being about 8 years old with a group of kids playing on a very steep dirt road hill with an old baby carriage. We would stuff ourselves in the carriage and the oldest kid, who was about 10, would give us all absolutely crazy rides down that hill, letting go of the carriage when it started going too fast for him to keep up. I remember that especially because that older kid had no hair - he was undergoing treatment for leukemia - and also he had to pee at the bottom of each run (something to do with the medication he was taking). I don't know how he had the energy to run with that carriage, with his disease, but he did. He died, though, when he was only twelve. He was a great guy.
I could go on and on....
I want to comment on your post more fully, but have to go to bed in five minutes; for now I'll just say that your steep hill story reminded me of when I lived in Alaska. I wasn't a kid though. I was 18. haha. But we did have fun. One fun thing we did was to climb to the top of the steepest tundra hill with big pieces of cardboard flattened out. Then we each sat on our own piece of cardboard, held it by the front edges, and slid down the hill on the cardboard - incredibly fast. Some of the friends who did this with me were Navy officers! We had a great time. Part of me will always be a kid at heart.
Originally posted by Carol A
So did you only draw American planes, or did you draw German, British, Japanese, Russian planes too?
All of the planes I drew were of my own design. That was the point of the "game." But with that said, most of the inspiration came from American planes, mostly because they were, and still are, the most advanced. I had a LOT of variations on the YF-23. . . coolest plane ever. Even so, there are some Sukhoi's that look interesting, though the untrained eye probably can't tell the difference between an F-14, F-15, Su-27, MiG-25/31, and a MiG-29 anyway.
Have you ever been to the blimp hangar in Tillamook, Oregon? It has nice WWII planes of every kind. I went for a plane ride over the coast in a 1942 biplane. The name escapes me at the moment (
No I haven't. But growing up in DC I have gone to the Air & Space museum many times, been to "Silver Hill" (which was supersized a few months ago), and saw the SR-71 at Dulles. I've also been to airshows. I wanted to go into aerospace for years, but eventually gave that up around 18/19 when I was told repeatedly by many sources that the aerospace industry isn't fun anymore. (projects are too big, companies are too big)
Originally posted by bunge
Kick the can.
Heck yeah, that game is awesome. Lots of summer nights were spent playing that one. Probably my all time favorite.
Originally posted by Carol A
I want to comment on your post more fully, but have to go to bed in five minutes; for now I'll just say that your steep hill story reminded me of when I lived in Alaska. I wasn't a kid though. I was 18. haha. But we did have fun. One fun thing we did was to climb to the top of the steepest tundra hill with big pieces of cardboard flattened out. Then we each sat on our own piece of cardboard, held it by the front edges, and slid down the hill on the cardboard - incredibly fast. Some of the friends who did this with me were Navy officers! We had a great time. Part of me will always be a kid at heart.
Inspired silliness keeps a person happy. I have seen people who still keep this quality into their 90s. I hope that I am that way.
Originally posted by Splinemodel
No I haven't. But growing up in DC I have gone to the Air & Space museum many times, been to "Silver Hill" (which was supersized a few months ago), and saw the SR-71 at Dulles. I've also been to airshows. I wanted to go into aerospace for years, but eventually gave that up around 18/19 when I was told repeatedly by many sources that the aerospace industry isn't fun anymore. (projects are too big, companies are too big)
I would love to see the SR-71! At an Air Force "open house" I saw a B-1 Bomber and a Stealth fighter. The B-1 had beautiful, wasp-like lines. The fighter was surrounded by armed soldiers who didn't look into the distance but looked each visitor right in the eye, as if daring you to try anything wrt this fighter. Pretty intimidating actually.
Got to sit in a Marine CH-53 troop transport helicopter (Sea Stallion?), walk through a gigantic C-5A transport (WOW!), a C-130 (Starlifter?) medical transport, and talk to the crew while sitting inside a P-3 Orion submarine reconnaissance plane. At Miramar, home of Top Gun, I sat in a Tom Cat, and got to talk to some of the fighter pilots. They were insufferably smug!!! GEEZ!
Damn. gotta get ready for work.
FWIR, they were both basically the same game. When someone says something totally stupid you chop them in the neck or smack them on the back of the hand as hard as possible.
We also played war games a lot. We would have a whole block or two be the battlefield and seek one another out.
I also almost always had a 'girlfriend' from the time I was ~4.
Originally posted by giant
We used to play chop and hand.
FWIR, they were both basically the same game. When someone says something totally stupid you chop them in the neck or smack them on the back of the hand as hard as possible.
We also played war games a lot. We would have a whole block or two be the battlefield and seek one another out.
I also almost always had a 'girlfriend' from the time I was ~4.
I'm not surprised you always had a girlfriend, giant. I DO remember some of your pertinent posts along those lines. heh.
Did your girlfriends ever get to play in the war games, or were the games strictly for boys?