<p>momof3 - Thanks for the description of SPUD - it sounds about right. It’s a sad state of affairs when I can’t even remember how to play a childhood game! Of course, I now wonder how the ball thrower gets chosen - one potato, two potato?</p>
<p>We played outside all year round - TV was for Sunday night Disney show only. My H, on the other hand, grew up in Seattle and remembers watching Dark Shadows on TV after school in the winter. It was dark by 4. My dad had a piercing whistle and we knew to come running.
I was great at Chinese jump-rope but terrible at tetherball. Mostly I rollerskated on my metal-wheeled “ball-bearing” skates that clamped onto my saddle shoes and left gray marks on the leather. You wore the skate key on a long shoe-string around your neck.
After we moved to Seattle my little brother and his friends spent all summer “racing hydros”. You took a foot or so of 2x6 board, sawed the front into a point and nailed the resulting triangles upright on the back, attached it to your bike with a sturdy string, and you had a hydroplane to pull up and down the street. You had to paint a name on it - they were all the Miss Somethingoranother. Strangely enough, we had never heard of this game in Albuquerque!</p>
<p>Aren’t there any others who were shy/quiet/introverted as kids - and actually preferred indoor activities? (non-TV of course - reading, dolls, lots of board games with my disabled mother…all the other sibs spent as much time outside as possible) But since I came from a large family, and a neighborhood with lots of kids, I did spend quite a bit of time outdoors as well (enough to come down with melanoma in my adulthood!! sigh). One of our favorite neighborhood games was Kick the Can, and the kids on our block formed our own softball team that for a few years played weekly games with kids from a neighboring block (co-ed and a minimum number of girls were required on each side, so even I got to play, klutz that I am! The older boys who ran our team were actually very patient with us younger and less athletic kids, although they sure made us practice a lot! :))</p>
<p>I think one of the take-home messages from this thread is that our generation spent much more time outdoors than our kids’ generation did.</p>
<p>This may be relevant to the parents on this board whose kids are medical or premedical students. They may want to think twice about dermatology as a specialty; the rate of sun-induced skin ailments is likely to decrease in the coming decades, leading to less need for the services of dermatologists.</p>
<p>Remember playing in the rain? If it rained hard enough you could make “boats” out of sticks and stuff and watch them float down the gutter at the curb.</p>
<p>Running through the water the sprinkler gizmo threw out. And, the ice cream trucks coming down the street every afternoon in the summer.</p>
<p>Capturing fireflies and playing hide and go seek. Since I grew up in the early 1950s EVERYBODY seemed to have kids. There was always someone outside on the block.</p>
<p>Every minute of daylight. We also ran through the woods and never worried about ticks and swam in the creek and came home with leeches on various parts of our bodies</p>
<p>We also rode our bikes behind the mosquito truck weaving in and out of the white cloud of smoke</p>
<p>We still play SPUD. :)</p>
<p>How about making dandelion necklaces? Or putting a dandelion under someone’s chin to see if they liked butter? (if there was a yellow shadow on their chin, they liked butter)</p>
<p>The other thing I remember is that in the evening all the moms in the neighborhood would come out after dinner and they would all gather on someones porch. The dinner dishes would be done and they would sit out there often with a cup of coffee. (I have NO idea where all the dads were hiding!)</p>
<p>Along with cigarette and tv tag - how about freeze tag or statue? Or FLASHLIGHT tag in the dark!!!</p>
<p>Oh yes, especially the three years we lived in Somalia. We played “mud roads” in the back yard, had three horses and a camel, and a vegetable garden. The hills were covered with goat and cattle bones and we used to collect them. I’d get on a horse and ride off by myself. The last year when we lived in Mogadishu we went to the beach all the time as well. Unfortunately one side effect is that I’ve already had two skin cancers removed (one melanoma). Played lots of four square.</p>
<p>We also spent a lot of time reading. No TV though until I was 12.</p>
<p>Also loved playing cards, cribbage, dolls, army men, leggo, paperdolls, barbie, house, school, keep away, freeze tag, all sorts of things! One of the most common things we did was play “war,” our family against the rest of the neighborhood (parents wanted us to all mix with the other kids, but it was hard to keep track of who was on whose team that way). We did play some indoor games but did tons of outdoor activities & games–swam a great deal!</p>
<p>I remember in the summer when it would rain, our moms (they must have been DESPERATE to get us out of the house!) would tell us to put our bathing suits on and we would all go out with brooms and dishsoap and wash the black top driveway! She always told us it would help there to be less dirt tracked inside, but I think she just wanted us OUT!</p>
<p>Of course we played outside.</p>
<p>Do you remember when we had school clothes and play clothes? You came home from school, you changed clothes, had a snack and did your homework. When you finished your homework, you could go out and play but you had to be home when the streets lights came on (in the fall/winter it was ~5:00-5:30 and in the spring you had to be home before your father got home from work so that you could all have dinner together). I knew some kids who we never saw because it would take them forever to finish their homework.</p>
<p>In the summer time, you went to vacation bible school or the free summer camp. You had to come home for dinner. After dinner you could play on the block (red rover, hot peas and butter, skelly, double dutch, giant step, tag and freeze tag). When the street lights came on, you had to be in front of your house. If you were lucky, your parents were sitting out in front of the house talking with the neighbors and you got to stay out until you all went in the house together.</p>
<p>Gosh, do you remember when the water truck would come down the street and pray water to clean the street and you would get your feet wet? I remember my older brother teaching me how to take a can, opened on both ends and shoot water from the johnny pump (before we called them fire hydrants 
).</p>
<p>Some summers you took that pilgrimage down south; you got there 4th of July weekend and you came home Labor Day weekend. I tell my D all of the time, that they really don’t know what it is to have fun.</p>
<p>We had three seasons—football which turned into basketball which turned into baseball. Practically every day, outside. Red rover, and red light/green light too.</p>
<p>We smoked “punks” in the summer, out on the porch.</p>
<p>And followed the spray truck on our bikes. We’d open the windows to let the fog waft right through the house. </p>
<p>Also we made our own skateboards. I don’t know if you could buy them at the time. We took apart roller skates, cut and sanded the wood, and…a skateboard. </p>
<p>We blew into acorns till our cheeks hurt. Then bombarded (a 60’s word) each other in neighborhood acorn fights. Invariably someone would get hurt and go home crying.</p>
<p>Do you remember making scooters using wooden milk crates, planks and roller skates?</p>
<p>Do you remember sun showers? It would rain and the sun would be out. After the rain you would see the greatest rainbows.</p>
<p>It seems as if we don’t have many of them anymore (or maybe I am just getting too old to notice).</p>
<p>Sybbie, I work outside year round, and yes sunshowers and rainbows still exist!</p>
<p>In my childhood neighborhood most kids spent all summertime daylight hours, from sunrise to streetlights-on, outdoors except the 6pm-7pm supper and dishwashing hour and Sunday ‘after church time’. There were a few kids that were fed lunch inside, but most of us would find our noontime sandwich (wrapped in waxed paper), an apple and maybe a cookie in a paper sack by their kitchen door. We all knew what houses had mom’s that would sometimes bring out a platter of cookies, and on real hot days, a jug of koolaid or a watermelon! We also knew the best porches for rainy days. Seems like the only reason you were allowed inside was uncontrolled bleeding. The big kids would decide if they should bring you all the way home or to the closest house. Other than the few times I was being bandaged and once because of some kind of a wedding I never saw the inside of any other kid’s house. </p>
<p>During schooldays it was straight home for the change to ‘play clothes’ and maybe that cookie, then right back outside until streetlights on.</p>
<p>Anyone remember dirt clod battles: pull up wild oats with the roots covered in thick mud and fling 'em at the opposing battle group whose fort may have been an enormous downed tree. I grew up in CA and I remember mud. All winter long, mud everywhere. I had horses, cleaned barns and lived and played mud.</p>
<p>So, my question is, if we all grew up like little ruffians (and I love these stories!), why did we grow up to be such worrywart parents?</p>
<p>Because we know how lucky we were and how close we came to serious injury on a regular basis - at least I did.</p>
<p>That is a good question. My parents provided me with a good life, took care of me but I wasn’t their focus. They went through the depression, WW II, and enjoyed life to the end. I don’t think they focused on what I did out riding around in the woods and I am glad they didn’t. I was expected back by dark. I always made it and I cherish my independence to this day. But if they focused just a little more on me some things may have been a bit easier. With that knowledge, I raised my son in a different way. I made sure he had opportunity like I had, but I also let him know that he had all my attention during his growing up. It can work. He is on his own now and my focus has spread out. We do what we have to do, mistakes and all.</p>
<p>What a laugh! With six girls in the family we were ALWAYS outside. Loved TV tag, Stoop tag, red rover, kick ball, wiffle ball and being home when the street lights came on! The best thing was telling ghost stories under the street lights! I lost my two front teeth playing Whip and being on the tail end. We played in the woods building “houses” and fished in the creeks. Always had kickball games going. Now I am sad my kids never experienced it!!!</p>
<p>missypie - we have the reverse experience. I grew up in Texas, and raised my kids in Illinois. I’ll tell you what it was like in the summer… HOT! If we spent time outside during the day in the summertime, it almost always involved water. There was the local public pool, or for a few years we belonged to a country club that was within walking distance. Also remember spending lots of times on 'slip ‘n slides’. I remember going to day camp a couple of years, and just being absolutely miserable outside during the middle part of the day. </p>
<p>I attended a Catholic grade school, and we did have girls’ sports; I played all of them… volleyball, basketball, track, and softball. A couple of times we even managed to participate in some swim meets and tennis games with other schools. It was an area I definitely excelled in. Then I went to an all girls high school, and played tennis for a couple of years. But they had many sports for girls to participate in. </p>
<p>And I was also one of those who used baby oil, as opposed to sun screen. I also twice-a-year appointments with the dermatologist now to monitor my skin, since my dad had melanoma. I also remember going to the beach several times a summer… to go ‘crabbing’ with my mom… chicken necks and backs attached to these big hooks and the lines tied to a post on a pier. When the line went taut, you slowly pulled it up, and swung a big net underneath the hook/chicken contraption to catch the crab.</p>