Did you ever watch Rocky and Bullwinkle?

[Natasha]

Jenny, your right, it does sound like that's all we did, but I spent way more time outside than I did in the house and I'm willing to bet most of the people who have added a post to this thread did too...we weren't allowed to sit around or stay in the house...we played kickball, cops and robbers, stick ball, hide-n-seek, we went bowling, in the winter I skated before school and even hiked 5 miles in the snow to...blah blah blah Well, ok that last part is really stretching the truth a bit. I always brought my skates to school so I could ice skate after class, before I went home for dinner. Oh, and of course there were the roller skates that had to be adjusted with those "keys." We played paddle ball and tennis and I was always competing on a softball and/or basketball team. During the summer we were either at the park or in the pool. There were Brownies, Girl Scouts,the library and church activities.

It makes me sad when I compare our lives then, all the freedom and innocence we grew up with, and the world our children live in now. When I was 11 I was hopping the bus in East Orange, NJ to New York (don't tell my Mom!) Life was so different--it was a great time to be a child.

Yes, that was me too. Only I really did walk to school in the snow, and then back for lunch, and back to school, and back home again every day in Chicago in the winter. We did it, and we liked it. LOL No choice in the matter, really.
And I still tell the story that when I was 9 I was allowed to take the bus to buy my first 45 record. ('Can't take my eyes off of you')

 

[caymaniac]

Hi Natasha, Rocky and Bullwinkle was a great show, one of my favorites was the "Fractured Fairy tales".
On another note, are you going to be at the "Our World Underwater" again?

Caymaniac

 

[Kat]

I grew up in North Dakota. I remember deciding I was going to ride my bike from Fargo, N.D. to Moorhead, MN. I was 8, it turned out to be a really stupid idea, as I had to ride along a very busy road. ( shhh, mom still doesn't know)

On that same road there was an old farm that had a horse. After ice skating one afternoon, I decided I was going to ride that horse. By the time I got there I was frozen stiff & it was dark. I guess I thought the horse would be all saddled up for me. Of course, he wasn't. The horse was huge and there was no way for me to get up on him. After the horse adventure, mom decided TV might be a good thing. LOL

 

[Natasha]

Hi Natasha, Rocky and Bullwinkle was a great show, one of my favorites was the "Fractured Fairy tales".
On another note, are you going to be at the "Our World Underwater" again?

Caymaniac

Hi Caymaniac!
Good to see you join in.
'They' whoever 'they' are, has the same show as OWU in Houston called SeaSpace..or some Jetson sounding name..here in June this year. (Dee help)

Also, DEMA is here in Space City, Oct 13th to the 16th.
So I won't be coming home to Chicago for OWU. (4 other people have asked me, I'm so honored by this)
I do hope to go back for a Cubs game in July or August though!

 

[Marebythesea]

Was that you? I was hopping on that bus in Perth Amboy! And to think that I took that for granted.......

Lost in the Midwest......

LOL...Perth Amboy?! I passed by you Ken, every time I went to the shore! Now that is what I really miss. The greasy food on the boardwalk, our cages and crabbing...when I was older the parties in Belmar...Isn't it weird that we may have even met one another, or passed one another on the street, or a bus?!

So you were a wanderer too! My parents say I started taking off at the ripe old age of 3...yikes! Natasha your right, you either walked or you took the bus, sometimes the train. I did walk in the snow like you, it just wasn't five miles, it was only a mile.

Natasha, are any of the Four Season's still alive? How 'bout "Oh yes, I'm the great pretender, ohwhoaohwhoa..." or Tennessee Ernie Ford with "Sixteen tons what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt" ain't that the truth!

What was the first real movie you saw in a movie theater and how much did you pay for a popcorn and soda ...or did you bring a little brown bag with the penny candy you picked out from behind the glass case at the candy store?

 

[Natasha]

I think it was Frankie Vallie.. not sure about the 4 Seasons...
The first movie I remember seeing on the big screen, was Mary Poppins. Loved. Still do.
My 20 year old son Jordan (I have a 20 year old yikes!) bought the DVD for me for Christmas this year.
Mare what was your first one.. and everyone else?

 

[Dee]

'Tasha....Yes, it's SeaSpace held in June at the Reliant Center (old Astro hall)

I was a wanderer, too. I didn't walk or ride bikes that much, I had a horse. There was 4-5 of us kids, 9-12 years old, with horses and we sort of banded together. I live in the same house I grew up in, about 1 mile from 'town'. Back then we were in the 'country'! Now there are subdivisions where there were only cow pastures. Anyway.....On saturdays us kids would gather at my house around 8am and decide which direction to go. It was nothing unusual for us to roam 10-15 miles from home. We knew everyone and had free rein as far as crossing pastures, as long as you shut the gates! So we seldom stayed on the roads for very long. But even if we did, folks driving the roads gave us a wide berth for safeties sake. (No like now where they seem to try to hit anything on the road that isn't a gas guzzling vehichle.) Some of the things we'd get into! Looking back it's a miracle we all survived past 12-13 years old.. When we got hungry we knew the houses that would feed us, same for bathrooms. Oh the adventures we had! Swimming the horses across the San Jacinto river to the Houston side and following the train tressle home, praying you timed the train schedule right. Practicing our cowboy skills on the herds of cows we can across in pastures.

For all the freedom we had, we knew our limits. If any one of us did anything we shouldn't, you could bet our parents would know about it before we got home. Those old telephone party lines would smoke. Sometimes that last 100yds up the driveway was the hardest trip of the day. Of course the worst punishment was having my horse taken away for the weekend. I'm proud to say that seldom happened and when it did I deserved it!

 

[Snowbear]

It was nothing unusual for us to roam 10-15 miles from home. We knew everyone and had free rein as far as crossing pastures, as long as you shut the gates! So we seldom stayed on the roads for very long. But even if we did, folks driving the roads gave us a wide berth for safeties sake. (No like now where they seem to try to hit anything on the road that isn't a gas guzzling vehichle.)

I still do that - only now I sometimes stay out overnight. Ever ridden a horse on a glacier? If you're ever in AK - look me up and if you want, we can
We didn't have to worry so much about gates, but we had to stay on the maintenance roads rather than ride across the fields of crops.

 

[Dee]

Ever ridden a horse on a glacier? If you're ever in AK - look me up and if you want, we can

A glacier? Man, I've seldom seen wet snow, much less the fluffy stuff! A glacier is beyond comprehension. But if I ever get up there, I'll take you up on the offer!

 

[The Chairman]

I was called "Nature Boy" growing up... lived in the orange groves and swamps around Orlando. Caught snakes for Ross Allen, started working when I was 12. Still made time to watch the toons, though not as much.