Play 20-a-side football at the cricket pitch
Rarely play cricket
Build a dam across the beck to make a pool deep enough to swim in
Hunt for birds nests
Go to Freds farm looking for owl pellets to break open
Clean up the mouse & vole skulls from the owls pellets and hide them at home
Go fishing without rods, or line, or hooks (just hands) at Pauls Pond
Riding bikes across the fields to the airport
Hiding in ditches by the road and throwing vegetables at passing cars, then hiding
Building tree houses from wood snaffled from a building site
Building dens anywhere
Lighting fires anywhere
Stealing fruit from trees in gardens
Suicidal bids to collect conkers from mountainous Horse Chestnut trees
Trying to get a Canada Goose egg from the island on Pauls Pond, every year
Hunting for badgers with the aid of Vaz’s Wayfarer shoes
Using an old army parachute as a tent and camping overnight in it
Playing a mates older brothers Beatles White Album and scratching it, running away
Learning to play Neil Youngs “Heart of Gold” on an old acoustic guitar
Spending school holidays at Carnegie College when all the students had gone home
Being taken to The Grand Theatre pantomime by our grandma – “her treat”
Being taken to the Co-op Amateur Dramatic Soc pantomime – absolute crap
Being taken to the Lyceum Cinema to watch “Help!” The Beatles film by our grandma
Ditto to watch “Hard Days Night” – another grandma’s “treat”
Saturday matinees at The Lyceum, entry by means of empty jam jars
Playing with melted tar from the cobbles in the road on hot summer days
Building huge things with Lego, dreaming of being an architect, a Lego architect
Ditto with Meccano, especially fairground Ferris Wheels
Using a huge step-down transformer from my dads work to drive the Meccano models
Being taken to see “Zulu” at The Lounge by our dad
Our dad taking us for test drives in cars when he “was in the doghouse” at home
Our dad being “in the doghouse” a lot – he liked playing snooker too much
To be continued as the memory allows
I understand these memories of yours. As a mom, my kid does these things. I let him enjoy it because they cannot enjoy these activities anymore when they grow up.
Gary
It sounds like an idyllic childhood!
Mairona – good for you, I always think that a child should have a smidgen of mischief in them somewhere and a little independence can only be good for them in later years.
Grannymar – it was idyllic, freedom to roam the countryside with no timescales and no bloody mobile phones to call us home for tea
In need of one more shortlisting (no outright win necessary): Boob Pencil, Dad Gone Mad, I Am Livid, It’s A Life, May Contain Notts, 123 I Love You, Random Acts Of Reality, This Is This.
In need of an outright win: Bitchy Jones Diary, Don’t Call Me Joe, Down In Me, JerryChicken, Mommy Has A Headache, Pandemian, Reluctant Nomad, Rockpool In The Kitchen, The QC Report, Woman Of Experience (who has requested no further nominations).
Gary, the best damn thing about your list is that it did not include video games… Most of your list was “kids being kids” – outside – getting into trouble like kids should do… Not bad trouble.. just “kid trouble”…
Helluva post my friend!
I remember collecting coke bottles (5 cents per) 10 to get the 50 cents needed to see a movie–I can relate to a lot on that list.
Ah memories….the things we did amaze me! We would be gone from sunup to sunset, and no one thought a thing of it! There was really no fear of letting kids just have fun on their own! No worries over idiots snatching them, or whether they were being “productive”…not at all like today. Now parents plan their kid’s lives down to the minute. It’s as if you’re negligent if they don’t have every musical, dance or sporting opportunity! My poor kids had to get by with piano lessons from our neighbor doon the street, and that was it! But I’ll tell you, their great! And they can do almost anything they set their minds too! I’m proud of that!!
Kate – I’m honoured
FoF – Too right, when I was a kid “kids TV” was one hour at 5pm and no-one had heard of the VCR yet, in fact I don’t recall TV being a huge part of my life at that time
Ed – Our cinema manager must have had a similar deal with jam jars, there would be a huge queue of mothers outside the cinema clutching five or ten (whatever the number was) empty jam jars for each child just to get rid of the kids for an hour or so !
Elise – I’ve spoiled my kids though, they weren’t allowed to play any further than the bit of the street that we could see despite us living in the same area that I was brought up in – they still don’t know how to get to the places that I used to play in
How many owl pellets did you break open before you worked out there were no little owls inside?