Being a Kid

[Pearl]

My favourite memory is from 1976, the hottest summer I ever remember. Me and several others would meet up at after breakfast, mam and dad where at work all day we were on our summer holidays, we used go down to the canal (Cut) and climb over a large chain fence into a factory yard and raid the skips looking for large polystyrene sheets. The sheets were 6 foot long by about 4 foot wide and 8/10 inches thick fantastic for rafting. We'd nicked a pallet from another factory yard a week or so before and were taking the planks off two at a time to use has paddles.

We'd be floating up and down the cut avoiding the rats and lord knows what else from breakfast until I had to meet me mam out of work at 5. Except for an hours dinner time at 12, which was jam sandwiches and biscuits.

If I walked really slowly, because of the heat I'd be bone dry within 15 minutes and apart from the smell you'd never have known what I'd been up to all day. Mam, thank god, have no sense of smell so as long as I'd changed before dad got home they were non the wiser.

I think back and wonder how the hell I lived past 1976?? What with all the water and diseased vermin its a miracle I'm alive. I remember that year has the most carefree I ever had.

 

[brendalovescompo]

My best memories of being a kid was going to my "crazy" aunt Loretta's down at the lake. She taught us to drive the speed boat and pontoon at 14. She would take us out at night on her paddle boat. Mostly I remember my brother and I getting up at break of dawn, putting on our swimsuits, gulping down breakfast and running down the outside stairs and diving off the dock into the water. We didn't need to pack clothes; we just needed out swimsuit and pajamas.

At home in the winter I loved taking long walks on our property. We only had 6 acres but the property would lead to the town park and woods. I still remember listening to the wind going through the trees and thinking that they were snoring. It was such peaceful moments for me. I remember the neighborhood pig got loose and there was a call to catch it. It took one of us kids to catch it. We all laughed so hard watching my dad and several adults jumping and diving and missing the pig everytime. We all played baseball a lot, but I never got the hang of it. I played anyway. Then playing was just for fun, never any real agenda. No one cared who won and who was the worst player (which was me).

My grandfather in Kentucky owned 80 acres of land so I had a field day walking everywhere on his property. We would pass deer on the way, find arrowheads, find an underground creek, etc. My grandfather would take us for a treat at the local grocery where there was a drink called "Choc-ola" . There were always men playing checkers in the middle of the store. The nostalgia that I witnessed was not appreciated at the time. How I wish I knew how important those days were.

Sounds great Beth!! It really means something when thinking back to when we were younger. Sounds like your grandpa's 80 acres was beautiful, creek and all!!! I miss those days so much.

Thanks everyone for sharing, Gonna call my grandma 88 years young!

 

[dick]

1976 I remember that year as a time I tried to teach my brood some field craft as my dad had taught my brothers and I. It must have done something because they are still interested in nature ,conservation and plants etc. I showed them newts, frogspawn , sticklebacks and ""creepy- crawlies!" 2 were at junior school, one in infants and Richard junior was in his buggy(boy did I catch it for bringing it home muddy!!) I also showed them all kinds of wild fruits and nuts etc.(crab apples, sloes and logan berries. At that time I knew where to get proper wild strawberries .Small but very sweet! I once nipped out at work to get some hazelnuts off a bush in the factory yard, The guy I worked alongside did not know what they were and had ignored them for years! :hungry:

 

[Pearl]

1976 I remember that year as a time I tried to teach my brood some field craft as my dad had taught my brothers and I. It must have done something because they are still interested in nature ,conservation and plants etc. I showed them newts, frogspawn , sticklebacks and ""creepy- crawlies!" 2 were at junior school, one in infants and Richard junior was in his buggy(boy did I catch it for bringing it home muddy!!) I also showed them all kinds of wild fruits and nuts etc.(crab apples, sloes and logan berries. At that time I knew where to get proper wild strawberries .Small but very sweet! I once nipped out at work to get some hazelnuts off a bush in the factory yard, The guy I worked alongside did not know what they were and had ignored them for years! :hungry:

I knew the cut well because every blessed Sunday my dad would drag my brothers and my sorry a**es down there to go fishing and pick wild fruit and look at creepy crawlies and stuff. I was bored out of my brain but looking back I wish I hadn't been such a misery guts

My dad got what for too when the littlen fell in the water

 

[dick]

I knew the cut well because every blessed Sunday my dad would drag my brothers and my sorry a**es down there to go fishing and pick wild fruit and look at creepy crawlies and stuff. I was bored out of my brain but looking back I wish I hadn't been such a misery guts

My dad got what for too when the littlen fell in the water

Tell him I know the feeling!!

 

[Beth]

Sounds great Beth!! It really means something when thinking back to when we were younger. Sounds like your grandpa's 80 acres was beautiful, creek and all!!! I miss those days so much.

Thanks everyone for sharing, Gonna call my grandma 88 years young!

Yes, telling my story brings back a lot of good memories. The property was actually in the Daniel Boone National Forest. The government owns it now, but I still have my memories.

 

[Marina'sTwin]

Oh my gosh! Someone mentioned a boat! LOL That brought back a memory that I had all but forgotten! My best friend's dad use to take us out on the lake on his pontoon and one time, when we were 8, we convinced him to tie some inflatable floats to the back of it and my friend and I sat on the floats while he pulled them with the pontoon. (Not the safest thing ever) Well, we quickly realized why he had insisted that we wear life jackets. Everything went well for about five minutes, then my friend flipped over. And of course, I had to lean over and see if she was ok and I flipped over too. So we both ended up in the water. Luckily we were wearing life jackets and we both knew how to swim! LOL Her dad looked back and noticed we were in the water instead of on the floats, so he stopped the pontoon and we were able to swim up to the ladder and climb up. He gave us diet cokes and swore he'd never let us do that again! LOL

And while I'm thinking about that friend, I should tell ya'll that there was a time when the two of us hated each other. We started out as best friends, but then we became enemies when we turned 10 and here's why: She threw a dead squirrel at me because she claimed that I tried to kill her dad. Her parents were having a 4th of July party and the other kids and I were playing with firecrackers. We decided to throw the firecrackers into the fire pit. The fire wasn't lit, but her dad had poured gasoline on the wood because he was going to light a fire for us to roast marshmallows. So anyway, there was a pile of firecrackers in the fire pit and a lot of gasoline, so he goes to light the fire and all of a sudden, there's this big BOOM sound! And we look up and his hair is on fire! There were a lot of things that happened after that, but long story short, Katie got mad at me because it was my idea to throw the firecrackers in the fire pit and a squirrel had drowned in the pool that day, so she picked it up off the ground and threw it at me. So we hated each other until we turned 17 and we both hated this other girl, so we became friends again! We're still friends to this day. I've apologized for setting her dad on fire and she's apologized for throwing the dead squirrel at me, so we're cool now!