When I was a kid I...
By SomeCowgirl
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
United States
July 28, 2012 9:52pm CST
I've been saying that more here lately so I thought I'd start a little discussion on it and hope you guys chip in and let me know what you did as a kid. Generations are so different, though I guess they always have been...
I was born in 87 and grew up in the late 80's and 90's..
When i was a kid I...
Learn to swim with the help of my brother, sister and cousins. I remember it fondly. I put my hands on the side of the pool, gripping it and they would be near me and I'd move my legs. To do my arms I"d lay my legs on the pool side and lay my back in the water, and move my arms. Then they'd hold me by the stomach. My mom would be floating out in the middle of the pool, and I remember thinking "I can't wait to learn to do that." She and my other family taught me how to do that..
I remember going outside barefoot. I loved it, and I could go outside by myself and be out there for hours.
I remember helping cook, fighting with my sister over who was eating the batter from the beaters and who was eating it from the bowl...
I remember family get togethers and playing with cousins...
I remember putting down the game controller to go outside and play with friends.
I remember..
What do you remember?
It's so different now! I try to bring a little piece of my childhood into the lives of my niece and nephew and let them enjoy what it was like as well...
3 people like this
11 responses
@lynboobsy11 (11343)
• Philippines
29 Jul 12
I have a boring childhood, I don't have siblings my mom give birth to me when she is already 45 too old for being a jolly mom because they lived in a old fashion way. I remember paying candies to some of my neighbors to be my playmate just to be with me. Only if my parents are not home because they will not also allowed me to join them outside the house. That's why when I started to study I spent most of the time in the school gym and be happy to join most of the activities like dancing and gymnastics in that way I can be more productive.
1 person likes this
@lynboobsy11 (11343)
• Philippines
29 Jul 12
Thanks, I always learn mistakes from the past, I don't like to be like my parents to my own kids now. Life is short we have to live to the fullest.
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
29 Jul 12
I am sorry to hear that! Though it sounds like from what I've read about you and from you here, you are a very active and jolly adult now! Sometimes our childhood isn't as good as we wish it could have been, but it helps us grow...
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160879)
• United States
29 Jul 12
We did not have electronic games when I was a kid, in the 1950's. Counting public TV we had four stations to watch, and one TV. It was black and white. The parents chose the shows at my house. We were outside all of the time, and had no air conditioning or central heat. We did put in a swamp cooler in the summer. We had a floor furnace in the winter. My first husband had wall furnaces in his house. One phone, and it had a dial. Phone numbers began with letters PE1-7645, and mom hung our clothes on the line, never had a dryer. Some of our clothes were starched and ironed. Life is easier now, but you would not know it.
1 person likes this
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
29 Jul 12
I've heard somewhere that phone numbers used to start with letters. My grandmother was born in 39 but she's talked a lot about life as a child and when she married. She never mentioned the phone numbers though...
I honestly love reading about how life was from decade to decade, it sure has changed. Some things that were lost, I wish we could find again..
@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
29 Jul 12
I remember my dad taking us out on Saturdays so my mom could sleep. Sometimes we had pizza or ice cream or something. And he would buy records and things and say "don't tell your mom"...
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
29 Jul 12
ahh fun times! You know he probably went home and told her himself, right? lol.
2 people like this
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
29 Jul 12
I am actually a few years older than you, but not that much older than you that many of my memories are not similar to the memories that you had.
First of all, I remember that we were allowed to go outside and play in the neighborhood and we would be gone for hours and my mother never worried that someone had kidnapped us. These days, I make my children check in with me at least once an hour unless they have told me that they are going to a specific friend's house.
When we learned to swim, it was the old throw the kids into the deep end of the pool and tell them to sink or swim. My dad was the one that usually did this and it wasn't just my siblings and myself, it was all of my cousins as well (there was a swimming pool in my grandma's backyard and I believe that is where all of us learned to swim).
When we were riding our bikes, we could just walk outside and get on our bikes, we didn't have to bother with a helmet and all kinds of different protective padding.
1 person likes this
@LovingMyBabies (85288)
• Valdosta, Georgia
29 Jul 12
My parents were a bit on the over protective side even though things were no where near what they are now. I was born in 1984, not too much difference.
We would go play next door and ride our bikes in the street. We had to let them know if we went past a certain neighbors house.
I would walk around the block to my friends house and call my parents when I got there. We would go swimming in her pool or watch movies.
We had a Go kart, not one with an engine though. Lol. My uncle made us one out of wood for one of the Holidays. We had a cool hill in our backyard so we would go to the top and push each other down! Lol. That was fun!
A lot of times my brother and I would play Baseball in the backyard or Running Bases, both super fun times! =)
Also, we would go sledding a lot. There was a middle school that was on a BIG hill. We would bring our sleds and go down the hill. So much fun!
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
17 Jan 16
Childhood memories. Each one I read triggers memories of my own. I was born in 56.
@ElicBxn (63638)
• United States
13 Aug 12
Lets see... not video games when I was a kid, if there was nothing on TV (and most of the time there wasn't) you either had to read or play outside.
My mom took us to the pool in the summer, but we also for a few years had a little pool out back. We got swimming lessons and played with the neighborhood kids.
I remember we signed up for swimming lessons at the University of Texas and I failed the height test (couple of inches short) but when I said I could already swim, they let me jump in and prove it (I swam across the pool) and then let me take the class.
I can't say I'm real fond of swimming now, but when I tell people I "don't swim" they often think that means I can't swim. I then tell them that I'm actually a pretty good swimmer, I just don't like to swim that much.
I quit going barefoot after I stepped on a nail at 6. Like the one time I went out barefoot after than I stepped on a tack!
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
29 Jul 12
I remember playing with Barbies through the fence with the neighbor twins..a brother and sister that looked nothing alike. When we were old enough to get a little more freedom we would play together from sun up until sundown. Riding bikes with no hands, which caused a wipe out or two..I still have a little scar on my knee from one of those. Climbing trees..once I got up so high, I got scared and couldn't get back down. My grandfather had to climb up and ease me down
I still liked to climb but I didn't get quite that high anymore. Holding a limb and trying to teach myself how to tight rope walk on the clothes line in the back...oh my..I was a hand full.
I also had reunions and me and my cousin, who was the same age except for a couple of months, were very close. You never saw one if us without the other after my grandmother passed.
I still liked to climb but I didn't get quite that high anymore. Holding a limb and trying to teach myself how to tight rope walk on the clothes line in the back...oh my..I was a hand full.
I also had reunions and me and my cousin, who was the same age except for a couple of months, were very close. You never saw one if us without the other after my grandmother passed. @sender621 (14893)
• United States
30 Jul 12
A great time for reminiscing. When i was a kid i spent a lot of my time playing outdoors with my friends. We played games that did not take the technology of today. It was endless fun that ended when the day did. Lots of hide n seek and hopscotch and tag and dodge ball . there was always fun to be had that did not cost a dime to participate in. I think that a lot of vhildren are missing out on te fun we once had.
@JosephP (1116)
• Jamaica
30 Jul 12
I was born in 1991. I remember going over my cousin's house with my sister and playing video games. Then we would go outside and ride our bicycles in the yard and race. I remember a swing that was tied to a tree the we would take turns swinging on. I especially remember Christmas time when the whole family would come together and have a big feast and afterwards we the kids would go outside and just play. Those were really beautiful times.
@512771751 (1096)
• China
30 Jul 12
It is interesting to think of our childhood. When we are young, we always dream the future, dream the unpossible thing..... When we grow up, these things have become unfortable things in our minds.
