What Do You You Miss From Childhood?
 

I was thinking last night about all the cool stuff I used to do as a kid...things kids don't do anymore, either because of the technology available to them today, or because it's just too dangerous...


For instance, I used to LOVE to go roller skating. Kids don't do that anymore. You're hard-pressed to even find a roller rink anywhere, at least where I live.


Trick-or-treating: Hallowe'en is my favorite holiday, and I remember when we used to go trick-or-treating every year. I remember when people used to set up their houses elaborately for the kids, and you didn't have to check your candy. You could eat it along the way. You could even eat things like popcorn balls and fruit. I also remember the first time my mother brought me to the hospital to have my candy X-rayed, because of that asshole who razor-bladed his own kid's treats.

Kids don't trick-or-treat anymore, except at the mall and in some subdivisions where everyone knows each other.....I haven't gotten a trick-or-treater in ten years....:(


Sidhe

We still have full-fledged Halloween in my area, and I'm in DC.

Putt putt.

We have kids on Halloween, but only a dozen or so. All kids from our street. We take our daughter out onour street too. It's pretty cool that it's still alive in our neighborhood. (Arlington, VA)

I miss packs of kids roaming around the neighborhood unsupervised. Now, kids have to set up play dates in advance, and parents are always there. When I was a kid, we had no fences in the back yards, and we had the run of the entire neighborhood.

Also, bikes. Kids today don't ride bikes like we did. We would just ride all over the place. A mile or two away from home, without telling our parents where we were going. You just had to be home for dinner.

I'm convinced that the world is just as safe today as it was when I was a kid in the 70s. You just hear about the bad stuff more. People over-react and over-protect their kids.

But I think there is something about youth that just makes life fun. Even though kids are doing different stuff today, I think they are having fun doing it. The only real harm I see today is that most kids have little or no free time. It's the free time that sparks curiosity and lets kids do crazy and inventive stuff to fight off the boredom. I can't imagine the current crop of over-scheduled kids producing someone like this: http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/

Oh yeah, I remember riding bikes, and being gone all day with no supervision....as long as you were home before the street lights came on, it was no biggie.

We used to play WAR in the woods near our house, me, my best friend, her brother, and his friends. We'd dig holes and cover them with pine needles to hide them (I'm surprised no one ever broke an ankle), we'd hide in trees and throw stuff at each other, and the slingshot was the weapon of choice....lol

It just seems as if there's so much technology nowadays that kids never leave the house. I was outside all day, every day, when I was a kid. We HATED being in the house, even if there WAS a TV there.

Speaking of which....Saturday morning cartoons! I miss those. The Cartoon Channel isn't the same. They don't have the good old-fashioned cartoons (old-fashioned, for me, anyway. I used to watch BlackStar, Dungeons and Dragons, Drac Pack, Laff-A-Lympics, stuff like that)....everything's Anime now, and I can't STAND anime. It's too melodramatic. I loved getting up on Saturday morning, sitting in front of the TV for hours, eating dry cereal and watching cartoons. Matter of fact, I bought Schoolhouse Rock on DVD for my daughter. She LOVES it.

Sidhe

We would bring the toaster into the living room and plug it in on the floor. We would often go through half a loaf of Wonder bread making toast as we watched cartoons on Saturday morning. Ate dry cereal too.

I think when I get home today, I’m going to build a fort out of an old refrigerator box and some blankets. Oh sure my b/f might try to have me committed, but they’ll never take me alive – never.

Many Things......
 

Playing football in the cold until you couldn't feel your hands or feet (I try that now and I'm in the doctor's office next day)

Riding my bike with abandon :rar:


Staying up late was a life challenge, not a job requirement :zzz:


gross jokes were funny :turd: not just gross



BUT adulthood DOES have some benefits:

:beer: :drunk: :joint: :doit:


Either way, I would take being 15 again any day.....I think if some kids would REALLY take this to heart, we wouldn't have so many messed up teens.....

Later :rattat:

You know, I was just telling a friend of mine last night that I was going to cut down all this damn bamboo we have surrounding our yard and make a teepee out of it! Hahahahaha!:D

Oh, YEAH! The Ice Cream Man! I'd forgotten all about that. *sigh*

And remember the little pompoms they had for your skates? I still have my skate case, too...geez...*grins*

I dunno...more people means more pervs, crazies, loonies, dysfunction, etc.

Oh boy, I miss:

Riding my Big Wheel (and being jealous that the other kids had Green Machines...lol).
Roller Skaking at Painters Mill Skateland
Swimming
Playing with friends outside until dark (summertime)
Cook outs at my Aunt Helen's house (although she still has one every so often, but it's not the same).
Trick or treating
The Good Humour man

and just being a kid again: no bills, no worries about work, health, and other dumb adult stuff...:D

At least in my neighborhood, there's a pretty full-fledged Halloween trick-or-treating experience.

And I have fond memories of roller skating too (complete with disco music I'd rather not remember). There actually is a rink here, in Villanova, that's not too different from the one I went to as a kid. (Well except of course they now rent inline skates in addition to the old-school ones.)

Hippity Hops

Metal Roller Skates that clamped to your shoes that you needed a key to tighten

Bozo the Clown and Captain Kangaroo

(This seems a popular one) Going out to play without leaving a schedule.

Lady Sidhe's list of cartoons are the ones that I watched in College. Wacky Racers, Yankee Doodle Pigeon, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, The Monkees ... That was a classic Saturday morning. (I may be wrong about the Flintstones ... weren't they in prime time? I know childhood repeats were sometimes on Saturdays),

Original Star Trek.

Batman, with Adam West and Burt Ward

Silly Putty and Superballs

Banana seats and coaster brakes. I would probably do myself a serious injury if I tried to ride a modern bicycle. I never had gears to contend with, and never had hand brakes

Getting your plaster cast signed by all your friends after you fell off playground equipment and your parents didn't sue whoever built it

Cans with pull tabs that you could make stuff out of

I miss my Gran's home made burfi and Kulfi......I miss a lot... But mainly I prefer being a grownup......I would rather be a younger grownup *grin* like say 22 or something.....

Funny thing. The stuff i really miss most is indefinable. A few smells....like the smell of the hickory smoke that the beekeepers use to knock the bees out ( my Da kept bees) ......oh yah..theres another one, eating honeycomb straight from the hive !

Me and my Bro ganging up on Mum to persuade her to buy the latest gizmo( like VHS!)

And my Dad. I miss the way he was, the way we were before the walls grew. I see him and I am closer to him than many but.....He's a bit of a recluse.....and he hates when anybody visits his house because he filled it to the ceiling with junk....

Cheers! now there was a show!.....and the muppets.....that used to come on on a sunday in the UK, just before or just after Heart to Heart.....

ahhh that takes me back. Mum would have made a bunch of sandwiches and baked a cheese and onion pie, maybe some scones. Bath, Pyjamas and Muppet show with sarnies and pie mmmmm Me, Mum my big Bro....Dad if he wasnt workin..

ok....gonna stop now before i cry.
Oh wait....no there was one more, yah someone mentioned skating! I used to love that....Up and down up and down the street.....and playing with a tennis ball and racket against next door's garage...

God I used to go through bowls....wait...i still do...hmm..

I miss not having to watch every word I say.
Not being aware of how I look.
Not spending every spare minute thinking, planning, worrying.


That one's the wierdest. I remember the first time I looked in a mirror and it registered that that was...me.

Horse riding camps, endless school holidays full of mucking about that always dissipeared before you knew it. Entire weeks spent building lego worlds, I'm talking turning entire rooms into gigantic spaceports or pirate bases. Building bases, tree forts, various ingenious pieces of weaponary, day-long waterpistol fights. I miss my supersoaker50.

All bought back to me recently by visiting my best friend from my first few years of school who left when we were 7 or so, moved to Oman then England, tailing his dad's job in the Oil biz.

Roadtrips to Florida for vacation. Piling into the car, the family would somehow make the trek the hundreds and hundreds of miles to get deep into the center of the state or visit the beach. The smell of the air conditioner in the hotel was intoxicating (literally -- it might have been leaking) and that scent still reminds me of summers now gone. The beach, Disney, hotel swimming pools... and people call me crazy for moving to FL.

There is nothing that can quite compare to enjoying a good solid three months of summer vacation. Screw school, screw responsibilities -- just riding the bike for no damn reason until you nearly collapsed, water gun fights into the night that was illuminated by lightning bugs, and the ability to willingly get up early on Saturday to stare at bad animation for several hours.

I miss washing the car with Dad, who was pleased to have my help even if I did scratch the paint a couple times or "accidentally" sprayed him with the hose.

Without a doubt, I still live a lot of these experiences because I choose to. How boring is it, I mean, to be an adult and act as one? Fuck that -- give me the remote so I can put on cartoons and pass me that box of Coco Puffs. There are two things that I simply cannot relive because, well, you just can't: the amazing feeling of awe on discovering something for the first time (all the way from Dad giving me my first pocket knife to the glorious moment of getting my learner's permit to drive) and the time spent as a child with my parents who were surprisingly tolerant of my nagging questions, injuries, and screw-ups that resulted in property damage. If I could have anything back, it'd be the ability to rewind and experience those events all over again.

That one's the wierdest. I remember the first time I looked in a mirror and it registered that that was...me.

It was even worse for me, today -- when I woke up I was a year older when I looked in the mirror. I realized that not only is that person in the mirror me, but I'm going to continue on an unstoppable ride into old age and eventually die.

Shit. I'll be in my pillow-fort if you need me.

You're older than you've ever been.
And now you're even older.
And now you're even older.
And now you're even older.

You're older than you've ever been.
And now you're even older.
And now you're older still.

TIME! Is marching on.
And time.. is still marching on.
This day will soon be at an end and now it's even sooner.
And now it's even sooner.
And now it's even sooner.
This day will soon be at an end and now it's even sooner.
And now it's even sooner.
And now it's sooner still.

You're older than you've ever been.
And now you're even older.
And now you're even older.
And now you're even older.

You're older than you've ever been.
And now you're even older.
And now you're older still.
- They Might Be Giants

Jebus you just described my perrenial insomniac nightmare!

funny lyrics.

Is the song funny? I've never heard it.

I envy you. I cannot recall ever not being conscious of how I looked. I had a very very severe and disfiguring skin condition throughout my childhood....and also (less severely)a largish chunk of my adulthood. ...*grins* consequently I feel wholly justified in my newfound vanity. I consider that this duckling grew into a swan:P

That description of being a bike ridin kid with no schedule except food and play made me smile OC , I recognise much of that . It also reminded me of somethin else I loved....Judy Blume's books

I had a very very severe and disfiguring skin condition throughout my childhood

Noting the above, I think its important we put this whole "missing one's childhood" into perspective. I mean, what about all the things you don't miss about childhood? What about forced, crappy education? What about bullies, that "tasty" school lunch you had to eat everyday, and the lack of freedom to go places? And who can forget the demands placed on you in your early teenage years to look and act a certain way? Oh, the joys of forced conformity and exclusion from certain social groups! Bleh.

Not much different than adulthood, admittedly.

OOoh ... cross country car trips before car seats were mandatory, and seat belts were in cars but you never used them ... laying in the "wayback" part of the station wagon, with a coloring book, a blanket, a box of 64 Crayolas and a bag of Cheetos.

That was the life.

wow... thanks folks I was feeling somewhat chipper 'til I read all of this..

My friends and I would spend the entire day in the woods down by the river... just running around.. playing 'army' (bb guns, low pumps no headshots) riding bikes.. whatever.. and never ever did it cross our minds to be afraid (except for when it was getting dark out :) .. stay off the Moors...that movie still kinda freaks me out) the thing that I was wondering though.. are there really more psychos/perverts etc. now than there were then or does it just get more press? (scaring people sells papers..)

ah. saturday morning cartoons.. everynow and again I lament the lack of decent cartoons, I mean some of the newer ones (samuri jack, powerpuff girls, animaniacs etc.) are good.. they just don't hold a cande to the old hannah-barbera (sp?) looney toons cartoons.. or the original 'land of the lost' (eek! sleestax!) and sigmund the seamonster.. H.R.Puffinstuff (yeah, not cartoons.. but surealistic enough they might as well have been).


mmmm.. dry cereal... boo-berry...

Memories...

Before we moved "in town", I'd spend my days off visiting friends or riding around with them on my Welsh pony... Cowboys and Indians is a lot more fun from horseback :)

After we moved, it was going to the lbrary to check out a grocery sack full of books (25 or 30) dumping them into the basket on the bike, and then riding home. Spend all day every day reading them and return them all a week later and get the next batch. {sigh} I never have time to read now.

I have to agree with BryanD about the horseback riding. When I was young we lived on a little farm about an hour out of town by horseback. Every once and while, my mother, my sister, and I would take the horses (well two ponies and a horse) and head into town via the back trails, or just decide to wander for a bit.

I used to love those rides.

going on family road trips to all of the national parks.

Both my parents were teachers for a while, so we would have three months off in the summer. we'd spend at least one on the road to somewhere.

-sm

The lack of bills...oh do I miss those days.

Land of the Lost and Heart to Heart....I used to LOVE those shows! Actually, our video store rents Land of the Lost Videos....

Marshall, Will and Holly
On a routine expedition
Met the greeeeeatest earthquake
ever known

High on the rapids
It struck their tiny raft
and plunged them down a thousand feet below

to the laaaaaaaand of the looooooooooost....!


Damn....I can't believe I remember that...lol

what do i miss the most?

i miss waking early on a saturday morning to mom's homemade pancakes and watching bugs bunny.

that and just sitting and leaning back on an oak tree on a early fall evening in the yard of the house i grew up in.

I miss sitting in my granddaddy's lap on the farm at Larrison Prairie at 5 in the morning drinking "coff" when I was about 4. It was mostly sugar and milk, but by God it was coff to me. I still remember the cup I drank out of, the feel of the table on my arms, the feel of grandaddy's lap..I wish I had that particular cup, but an uncle got it when g-daddy died...

Anyway, we'd drink our coff and go out to milk. Old-school, with a little stool (wasn't really a stool, kind of a worn out spool of some kind turned over) It was baaaarely light outside, and under the trees in the milkin shed it was still dark as night. hard to step when there's craters in cow poop made by hooves the night before. You might fall, you might break something, you might just get wet. Take your pick. Puttin the hay into the trough in front, putting hobbles on her if she was a kicker. Standing in front of Granddaddy while he showed me how to get the milk out, then started doin it myself. Turned around to show him but he was gone. I felt like a real cowboy then, lemme tell you. I told about milking the cow myself for the rest of the week.

I only got maybe a cup out before I tired out, but that's still "Milking The Cow" as far as I'm concerned.

I miss my grandaddy and nana tonight.

I miss my sega and how naive I was to the fact I was a loser.

mrnoodle....That was lovely.

I miss endless hours of free time to explore, discover, think, feel. I miss the anticipation of growing up to be tall enough for my feet to reach the floor when seated in a chair. I miss the lack of cynicism and angst in my soul.

Most of all, I miss my mom.

Buying a pack of baseball cards for a quarter, and putting the duplicates that nobody wanted to trade for in my bike spokes to make a 'motorcycle' noise when I rode.

Reading superhero comics that were always complete in one issue - no 6-issue 'story arcs' or incredibly complex back-stories...just Superman or the Avengers or Spiderman beating up on the bad guys.

Coming home on weekday afternoons and watching a black & white episode of The Adventures of Superman, or the Lone Ranger, or Robin Hood (with Richard Greene)...a different show every day of the week.

Riding down to the Pruitt theatre with my sister every Saturday afternoon for the matinee, parking our bikes out front (no locks), seeing the movie for 35 cents, and popcorn was a dime a bag.

Now we all need to sit down to the Food Network nostalgia hour and cry. I watched the specials on advertising last night and remembered nearly ALL of it from my childhood.

I never realized that I was living in the "good old days". Huh. Whadda ya think about that?

Brian

I watched a Food Network Unwrapped on breakfast cereal.

Fruity Freakies. :sniff:

Quisp. :bawl:

Dude, I know exactly what you mean.

I just miss the innocence of it all..

the world may have been an ugly place 30+ years ago, but I didn't know much about it.

Best answer by far Dagney. ;)

Doing wheelies on my stingray.

http://www.toyadz.com/toyadz/bikes/66stingray.jpg

Of course, there are some advantages to living in a new millenium, like the new Stingray

http://www.schwinnstingray.com/press...rome_HiRes.jpg

That damned bike was $70 in 1966? Goddamn, that's a lot of money!

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

$179.00 AT TOYS R US

Ooooh. Do they make that in a grown-up frame size?

I miss rideing down to Frost tops , a little root beer joint . My mom would give me like $3 , that would buy a large lotta-burger fires and an endless frosty mug of root beer , some change for the juke-box , then a trip to the 10 cent store for candy .

Rideing my bike for HOURS going no were , but in a hurry to get there .

Playing army with bb guns . My mom got me a whole case of these smoke gernades that you could light by scratching the head like a match( don't be hideing in no tree houses!!! ) , bottle rockets were for the fast movers ( kids on bikes ) , cherry bombs and sling-shots were artty . we used to have full scale wars !!!!!

And you made it out of childhood with both eyes and all your fingers? Impressive. Shame your face stuck that way, though. ;)

Snuggling up to grandma for a story, she smelled of clean laundry.

Playing cricket in the lane for hours with the gatepost as wicket, no cars to spoil the game. Fielding for my brothers, my idols.

Christmas at the US base, best one in my life ever. Ever. Ever.

End of sugar rationing and we were allowed a chocolate bar each instead of one to share, my downfall sadly.

Saturday morning pictures (movies) ALWAYS cowboys & injuns and we always re-enacted them on the beach for days, I was a cowgirl!

Hiding down the air-raid shelter at bed-time, drove mum mad.

I do miss my mum.

We used to have a Frost Top in Baton Rouge. My mom and I would go there a few times a week, and get cheese dogs and root beer, and a root beer float for dessert. They closed down that Frost Top a few years ago. I was VERY upset....nobody has root beer like they do. *sigh*


Sidhe

Going to the drive in movies in jammies with a big paper sack of popcorn made at home. Then swinging on the swings in the dark with the movie going on, muffled in front of you.

If I could find a drive in, I would do this still. I think the outdoor movie is on the comeback.

I miss being able to play with my lego without getting wierd looks. I used to build entire worlds, both around the room and in my head. I get the stuff out (I have a tiny portion of my once massive collection left) and I still do - within 30 minutes I've got a rocket base on top of the lamp and an exploration team making their way across my external hardrives looks for rebel supply stashes.

I get a lot of wierd looks.

We used to have a Frost Top in Baton Rouge

The Frost Tops i went to got turned into a Ti restraunt ,, wierd but they still had the root beer .
Then a few years ago they closed and it got bulldozed . I almost cryed when i saw them dozing that place :(

I can still hear Charley Daniels singing "Un Easy Rider " :)

I miss being able to play with my lego without getting wierd looks. I used to build entire worlds, both around the room and in my head. I get the stuff out (I have a tiny portion of my once massive collection left) and I still do - within 30 minutes I've got a rocket base on top of the lamp and an exploration team making their way across my external hardrives looks for rebel supply stashes.

I get a lot of wierd looks

Just look at them very seriously , and say " don't you have any imagenation left ??"

I have seen seniour plant enginers with a bog box of leggos in their office , they use them to visualize how new production lines are going to fit togather . Funny to hear older guys saying " NO the green blocks are the punch press production area !!!!!!"

There are a couple rinks near me but I wouldnt goto one now!!

CRAPPY GARBAGE VIDEO GAMES
CRAPPY MUSIC!!!!!

If I found a retro 80s roller rink I may go... One that had 80s arcade games.......


I miss alot of stuff from when I was little.....

Good tasting food
Good analogue music/video


The world is crap now and I think thats why so many people are mean and hostile now.... They see the world as crap and take it out on others....... I try not to do that,I try to loving and kind to people even though I am not happy......

Dude, I’m sorry to hear that you are not happy.

Ahh thank you my friend,I miss how beautiful the world used to be....

Nice arcades,etc..................Wendys had a buffet and I loved it!!!

:(

Real cherry bombs and M80s.Stoopid.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Silver coins.

Youth.

That nice hispanic girl down the street, we weren't really good friends but if we would have had more time who knows