Back in the day

C

captaincoot

Banned
I was driving home today and I was thinking When I was little I would fly a kite it was kind fun. don't see much of it anymore:( So heres my question:eek: What silly little activity did you do when you were little to pass the time? Can't be hunting or fishing that's to easy:)
 
My buddies and I would play baseball most of the time.
Then there were the Tree Forts, Soap box derby Ben Hur races we had.
 
I would run at night...the car lights were laser beams so I would dive over bushes and fences. I ran my butt off. Paid off I guess...state meet in HS and a few years of college football. Can't run out of sight now...
 
hey coot that brings back memories. we built a 2 story tree house.remember the apple wars we had when our cousins came over. the apple tree was in the pasture and randy would dip them in special sauce (cow pies) and throw them at us. those were fun times.
 
Baseball, basketball, touch & tackle football, hiking, and camping-out in backyards when we couldn't get out of town to do so. We also floated the creek on the north side of town once the weather warmed . . . truck tire innertubes were a rare treasure. Bike rides to our local lake every summer (20-mile trip). Hitched a ride to Gregson Hot Springs & swimming at every opportunity. Collected & recycled bottles & boxes to build a war chest with which we'd buy firecrackers (Mom & Pop grocery stores used to do a lot of home delivery back in the day & the town had a local soda pop bottling plant); unfortunately, our stash was usually gone before the 4th of July; it was too much fun blowing-up ant hills & launching soup cans. Seems like every boy worth his salt also had a morning & evening paper route. Played Hide & Seek, Kick the Can, Mother May I, etc. on summer evenings when we weren't roller skating or having water balloon fights; played board games in the neighbor's gazebo (we called it the "Bandstand") on rainy days. Snowball fights, hooking cars, and ice skating in the winter. Great times being a kid in a small Montana town in that era!
 
Ride bikes (build jumps/ramps), build wooden guns and play "war" games in the woods, light stuff on fire, build forts and especially bridges over creeks, catch snakes and keep them as short-term pets, walk around in the woods and fields and just plain LOOK at stuff!

There's an "app" for all that now! lol!
 
Skinny dipping in the river.

Building a raft for the river.

Forts primarily to hide girly magazines. (now I have a man cave :)

I had a quarter midget race car that I wish I still had.

Climbing to the top of the local elevators (3) different structures, each with differing degrees of difficulty. We never threw stuff off though... LOL..

Life was good back then,..
 
I was fortunate to grow up on a wheat/cattle farm in Western Nebraska back in the 70's-80's. My parents pretty much let me do whatever I wanted, as long as I was home when the supper bell rang.

I spent most of my time riding dirt bikes, exploring, building tree houses, shooting stuff with my BB-gun, and poking around the old barns on the farm. Plenty of imaginary battles were fought between the cowboys & indians who inhabited my fertile imagination. I could always find something to keep me entertained, despite the fact that we only had three snowy channels to choose from on the TV.

I learned to fix things by taking things apart, and to build things with stuff from the scrap pile & a can of old nails/bolts/screws. I learned to drive by taking the wheel while my dad threw hay bales to the cows on cold winter mornings.

Now I'm raising a little girl in the suburbs, and honestly I believe her most times when she says she is bored and can't find anything fun to do. I can't imagine growing up with so many rules, confined to a yard or the boundary of the cul-de-sac.

:cheers:
 
You know my kids and I go down to Taneycomo and trout fish every summer. They built some 4 story high wooden go cart racks 6 or 7 years ago they were great. The bomb though is the 4 sory high concrete one. It has about a 65 degree 4 story drop. My fat arse can out run the governers on the engines. Fun stuff my wife acts like she doesn't know me when we are there. I guess I embarrass her when I get yelled at by the high school attendants:D
 
Oh, and doing lots of stuff that would have scared our parents to death had they known. Also would have resulted in us limping when we sat down had they found out, lol. Patrick McManus & Crazy Eddie Muldoon had nothing over on us . . .
 
Nice thread coot,

I will not state what I did as a child. I don't want the cops showing up at my door. Don't worry I have grown out of this behavior. :D
 
I was, just like you guys outdoors always rain or shine. Hiking, exploring.

Dad asked what I'l like for my 14th birthday.
He dropped me off at the Crow Wing River, canoe and fishing gear, supplies for a week. Just me And JET my dog.
Dad picked me up a week later some 40 miles downstream. This was in early August.
I thought at the time, "this is how I want to live" MAN!!! was that a fun adventure.
 
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I lost my marbles . . . :D
 
BlackCloud should be able to confirm, but I think Coot lost his marbles and Virginity all in the same Day!
 
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Was it the day that the mail order bride arrived?
 
captaincoot said:
You find that go kart thing yet BC. I want a ride. I want to see if you are to old to drive fast and knock me of the back:)
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hey coot remember the time I built the ramp in the front lawn. we hooked up your little red wagon behind the three wheeler and threw you in it. then we took you for a ride. we probably should not have cracked the whip with the wagon over the ramp. that was how baby cootie learned to flyyyyy. his landing totally sucked.:cheers:
 
Grew up in a small town in Kansas, I too had very few rules as long as I was home for supper. Buddies and I would ride our bikes all over town playing bike tag and exploring things, always trying to get enough kids to get a tackle football game going on. When it wasn't football, we'd play wiffleball in the backyard, over the house was a homerun and there's was more than a window or two broke back in the day. Whatever we did, it was always outside. Couldn't stand being indoors.
I teach middle school boys PE and it's gross what things have become. There's very few "normal" kids anymore. Most sit inside and play video games, they come back to school in August and their skin is white. When we go outside to do things they complain that it's too hot. It's sad, it really is. I live in town, got a 5 year old boy and a 9 year old girl. My girl can't stand being outside, pretty much have to drag her out of the house. My boy, thank God is just like me and you have to drag him back inside. His knees are always dirty, loves to climb trees and make up games to play in the backyard. It was raining yesterday and he was mad that he had to stay in the garage with me. I told him "heck with that, take your shirt off and ride your bike in the rain", he loved every minute of it! I thank God I was raised in the generation I was raised. I had a good childhood and trying to do the same for my kids.
 
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