34 Answers (1-30 Displayed)

I grew up in a small town in NH. There was nothing there. A one firetruck town, tiny post office, 2 churches, one general store that had food left over in it from the civil war. We got our milk from the farm a few miles up the street. We had my fathers old peddle bike with a huge metal basket in the front of it that 4 glass gallon jars fit into. Riding to get the milk was the worse part because of the huge hill you had to go up. You could peddle 1/2 way up but had to walk the rest of the way up pushing this heavy old fashioned bike. Once at the top of the hill, back to peddling. It was one heck of a workout. The ride back down the hill was like an amusement park ride, scary/thrilling. You went down the hill at what? guessing 20-25mph with 4 gallons of milk weighing down the front of the bike making it hard to steer it or control it. You just held your breathe, hung on and flew!! LOL Great ride :)

Entertainment in town was if 2 kids had a beef with each other. Then it was, "Meet you at the ball park 3:00 Saturday!" Really, that became the time to settle beefs. If you didn't show, you were a chicken. Everyone always showed. We took our licks as our friends cheered us on. First one down to even one knee lost and the fight was over. We handled our problems without it turning into a riot or a shooting.

We fished off the top of the dam and no one ever fell in and we swam without swimming aids. I personally climbed trees to almost the top. Would fall out of some, hit the ground and have the breath knocked out of me but as soon as I could breathe again, I'd get back up and climb that sucker again.

We were always outside. My mother allowed no hanging around in the house unless it was raining. We got 2 hours of TV on Friday night and 2 hours on Sunday night when we watched the Walt Disney movie of the week.

We were in bed at 7:30 pm on school nights and 9pm on Friday and Saturday nights.

Today, these kids have every hand held device made, computers, cellphones and personal TV's and still come to this forum saying they're bored....

13 years ago. Rating: 26
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It's like it was another life altogether.Things were so different & so much simpler.There were virtually no supermarkets here in Oz back then.I was sent to the corner shop for everything.It was 2 miles away & if my bike wasn't broken I didn't mind.Otherwise I walked.Tv wasn't allowed until 6pm.(Post 1960)& turned off at 9:30pm on the dot.But that was life & we didn't know any better.I still say it was a good life in semi-rural Qld,& sometimes long for it.

13 years ago. Rating: 24
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My God, I just had a flashback and I don't even do drugs!

13 years ago. Rating: 23
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Thank you Colleen for the insight into what it was like in the real world of your childhood.

Mine was similar, just throw in riding a horse bareback (without a saddle) when your skinny legs stuck straight out to the side as you were so small.
Three sometimes four kids on the one horse. you go to the dam to give the horse a drink, horse puts its` head down and four kids slide over the horses neck. I remember being so small I had to stand on a log to get on the horses back.Wouldn`t change it for quids.

13 years ago. Rating: 22
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My childhood was entirely different. It was interuppted by world war II. Thousands of us were shipped to Germany on cattle trains and we only had the clothes on our back. It is a very long story.

13 years ago. Rating: 21
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i feel sorry for the kids today. they are missing so much. we had time to make our own fun. seems like everybody is on a schedule.no time to just be a kid

13 years ago. Rating: 19
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We would play under the big mesquite tree for hours with those plastic soldiers, cowboys and indians. Then around 3:00pm everyday (during the summer) the snowcone truck would come by and we all would get one.Coconut/Banana is still my favorite today. But you have to get them from road side stands today and I miss the cone shaped cups.

13 years ago. Rating: 18
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I have really enjoyed all the comments that every one has put I was in Boarding School till I was 9 yrs then we moved to the country wow loved it went out in the morning and only came back around 5pm only by then I was hungry I use to ride my dads bike witch was far too big for me and my legs couldnt reach the pedles we use to make dens out of anything that was to hand and at Christmas in our stocking was always fruit and a inexspencive toy and I was over the moon I think I enjoyed the snow more out door girl and known as the tomboy I fought with all the boys and my Mother always said one day you will kiss one I thought she was mad. just goes to show you Mother knows best. on Saturday we had Saturday morning Pics and we use to screem and shout brilliant days I think the children are really missing out on adventure and I think they are wraped up in cotton wool too much I know we live in different era but there were still gang fights bad men" as we called them" I think the Media has alot to answer for

13 years ago. Rating: 15
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We all came from different backgrounds, all had different experiences. But one thing we all had in common was that being a child back then we certainly a whole lot different that it is now. The other thing is - it made us what we are today. Here we all are sharing a little bit of our lives with each other - that's a good thing.

13 years ago. Rating: 15
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You could get into fights with the neighborhood kids, and the dads would get together and tell you both to fight it out. Lawsuits weren't ever mentioned.

If you got in trouble with the police they would just take you home to face the wrath of your parents. You could drink and drive with an open container, the drinking age was 18 then 19 and finally 21. I could walk into a bar on the strip and buy a few beers when I was 15 or 16.

There was no such thing as zero tolerance. I know I brought up some different situations, yes I did get into some trouble. I also remember the good things, you mentioned many of them in your question. Good one thumbs up.

13 years ago. Rating: 14
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My kids are being raised with the can rules and in a supporting community. That is way I stay in this town... They do have thier play stations but they are only for when it is too hot to go out, or late night when Daddy is sleeping. We dug a whole a couple of years ago filled it with water and called it our pool for a few weeks.. We get dirty and sweaty.... Parents can help their kids have a real childhood it just takes work and an interest in your kids.

13 years ago. Rating: 14
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Yes it was so much simpler then, born in the UP of Michigan, raised in small town. Remember exploring the woods and seeing falls river... bringing home baby skunks to my mother, yikes. Lots of winter sports, ice skating, skiing, toboggoning. But then after leaving home, I had to grow up and went through my knocks... but as the song goes, "I will survive"

13 years ago. Rating: 14
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Chesapeake Bay was the playground of my childhood. The nature there gave me many glowing memories os sand, foam, boats and fun in and around the bay. I loved everything about the bay and wildlife there. By the time I was 7 it was all gone, my life had gone through traumatic changes and the world I knew as a child was stripped away from me by fear and unimaginable cruelty in an environment where death, intimidation and intrigue competed for my life and all I knew. What I lived through was so bizarre that no one could or would consider it anything but a child’s fantasy and lunacy to this day. I know what happened, there is no proof, not a shred of evidence and no one wants to know except the shrinks whose interests consist of how I am sleeping, eating and behaving. I don’t frighten anyone, no bad habits and I try to maintain myself as an uninteresting average person who doesn’t stand out in a crowd.
There is this place in your life where you realize that the only thing that really matters for you is the present. It is in the present, here and now that there is peace. Nothing else really matters because this is the only safe refuge there is in your life. I suppose it would be nice not having to learn that too early in your life by the weirdness I went through especially. It closes off a lot of options and can more easily lead to a fateful ending no one would seek to share, because its too frightening to consider.

13 years ago. Rating: 13
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Life was simple in the 50's and 60's what will the kids today talk about to their kids when their 60, can it get that much worst or will they say the same thing.

13 years ago. Rating: 13
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When I was young I could invent games from very little. We could go out to play morning till night and there was no need for anyone to worry. I watch kids these days and they have everything and still are looking for more. If they lost everything they would not have a clue how to have fun. I wonder what the children will be playing with in 10 or 20 years.

13 years ago. Rating: 13
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Sure does get you thinking don't it? I grew up during the 60's,like Colleen said every parent on the street was also your parent.Now you are lucky too know the people next door.Same thing with the streetlights,when they came on,it was time to head home.I sure do miss those days.WHAT HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!

13 years ago. Rating: 13
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My life wasn't as innocent as what I'm reading here. Had two deranged parents, and grew up in the city. Got my ass beat at least once a week by some thug on the block. Learned that people basically sucked. I reflect back today and am happy that the hate I was accustomed didn't follow me through life.

13 years ago. Rating: 12
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Based on today's protective lifestyles presented by those that are ruining our kids I have no idea how I could have possibly survived childhood. Somehow, I survived, I lived through a great time, I had sooo many friends in my neighborhood, we were together every day.. Many I am still friends with today.. We have this same discussion many times.. I can't tell you how many times i fell out of a tree.. LOL

13 years ago. Rating: 12
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Everybody here pretty much covered it so all, I can say "THOSE WERE THE DAYS", footloose and fancy free, HERE'S TO THE GOOD OL DAYS!!! THANK YOU EACH AND EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY YOU COLLEEN FOR THE QUESTION THAT BROUGHT SOME GREAT MEMORIES!!!

13 years ago. Rating: 12
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I understand very well. Sounds like my youth. Carefree, time to be creative (get into trouble),play Cowboys and Indians, soft ball in an empty lot, hop-scotch in the street.
I also remember the ice cream truck coming by on summer afternoons and all the kids in the neighborhood running after it.
Playing Kick the Can and other games that did not require batteries or internet hookups. I don't remember any kids being scared of strangers (we probably should have been) or being advised not to near the auto of a stranger. Life was good in lala land. Then we had to grow up. What a journey!

13 years ago. Rating: 12
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Yes indeed i do remember those days and just to tell you something I find funny now but not at the time I was a skinny little kid growing up, very picky eater, my Mom came up in the depression, you did not waste and you ate what was put before you. Well I love home cooking and vegetables now but as a small kid did not care for them much then. My Mom in trying to get me to eat would tell me of all the starving children in China. Well finally one day I piped up and told her well then pack mine up and mail it to them. Hmmmmm one of the many worst whippings I got LOL.....

13 years ago. Rating: 10
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good our generation decided to become fiends with their kids, to a friend i can talk about my fillings my worries to a parent wich think the kid is belong to him i can not

13 years ago. Rating: 9
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My childhood was spent "in the country", where we had dirt under our feet when we went outside, not sidewalk.  We had a huge yard to ride our bikes (my dad had a trucking company), a vineyard of small proportion, and a corral with sheep, a cow, and a horse.  We had toys and games inside, and a swing set and small swimming pool during the summer.  The neighbors were a "home run" away, and we had an assortment of imaginative, sometimes competitive games to play. If we lacked anything, it was contact with more kids.  

Our town was known as the raisin capital of the world, and there were, and still are, churches of nearly every denomination and faith.  We had "mom and pop" stores and restaurants. My favorite restaurant, "Bruce's Lodge" had an airplane sticking out of the roof, and the "Cornet" store was my favorite store. Patterson's Drug had a soda fountain, just like Woolworth's used to have.  

10 years ago. Rating: 8
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I can just hear the kids of today telling their grandchildren about some video game they mastered and was so proud of........... sad.

13 years ago. Rating: 7
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Don't forget we didn't have seatbelts or car seats either. Dad drove the car at 60 mph and I stood up in the back seat!!!!!! OH yea, two parent( male and female) family!!

13 years ago. Rating: 7
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to sum up your statement in a whole, it has alot to do with the laziness of the parents. when babies have babies after they still lack the quality,skills,knowledge,and respect that we were brought up to respect and uphold. they are raised and babysat by the internet,t.v.,and the overall break down in our social webbings. today your neighbor would rather rip you off and stab you in the back than to offer a helping hand. we had no cell phones, no internet.and didnt idolize dolls and action figures that are a close second to being escorts and hookers. eventhough abuse of a child is never a good thing or a welcome thing, our parents and grandparents used to have us pick out our own switches when need be,without being able to threaten them with calling the cops or child protective services.. and to this day my siblings and i use please and thank you and no and yes ma'am or sir.

13 years ago. Rating: 6
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sadly.. it is the kids of yesterday that allow the kids of today to be what they are..and they have done the kids of today no favours..>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<

10 years ago. Rating: 5
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I miss them, except that my parents told me to "go play in traffic."

6 years ago. Rating: 5
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Worse, simpler than this and I am here healthier, saner than average :)

12 years ago. Rating: 4
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HI I GROWED UP IN THAI LAND AND CAMED HERE SCINCE I WAS 3 OR 4 IN 2000 MY FIRST FOOD I AUSTRALIA IS BEEF PIES AND LAMIGTONS WHAT A BUTTIEY FULL THING I CONVERDED TO ISLAMIC I BELEVED IN BUDDHA I HAD I STARNGE DREAM I HERD GODS VOICE OR GABRILE THE ANGEL TEALLING ME  SOME YHING TO CHANGE MY RELIGEON SO I TOKE IT AS A SIGHN FROM THE HEAVENS.MY FIRST PRIMERY SCHOOL SINGH DARN BORING BUT FREANDS MAKES IT FUN WHEAN I WAS IN KINDIE I WHOULD LOOK UP IN THE SKY AND I WISH I WAS FREE ,THEEN DAYS AND YEARS GONE BY I WHEANT TO HIGH SCHOOL I HAD OLD FREANDS AND NEW ONES I MEENT A FREAND WHOMS NAME SAYID EL-SAYID MY FIRST MUSLIM BROTHER FROM AND OTHER MOTHER HE TELLD ME A BOUT ISLAM .SCHOOL WAS CHOTIC TERD FACE AT SCHOOL FAR OUT SOORRY FOR SAYING THAT JUST MY EXPRASION.WHEAN I GROW UP I SHALL GO TO TAFE TO BE A PLICE MEN OR A FARMER IN AUSTRALIA GROWNIG AVACADOS AUSIE MADE AND A NICE FAMILLY TELL I DIE AND MY LAST BREATH I WILL SAY GOD THANK YOU SO MUSCH AND TEARS COME OUT OF MY EYES GOD I LOVE YOU.IAM 15 YEARS OLD ICANT TELL YOU WHAT YEAR IAM SHY TO TELL SO ASK GOD IN JUDEMENT DAY PEACE AND BLESSINGS BE WITH YOU TELL THE VEARY END FROM WALTHER P38

12 years ago. Rating: 4
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