Then and now...

[sumi]

I was reading some threads on another forum I visit and talking with a friend this morning about her internet going down yesterday and thinking back on my childhood. Before technology took over...

Watching kids' programmes on our black and white TV. It had bunny ears. We had a "fancy" model, a combination TV and radio in one…

I also listened to stories and sometimes music on records. Tapes came a bit later. Recording music and songs we loved off the radio.

Reading books, lots and lots of books. If I wanted to know something, I had to go to the library and find a book about it.

Going to school barefoot until I was 12. Except in winter when we had to wear shoes (school uniform rules)

Playing outside in the evenings, trying to catch bats.

When I was VERY young, one night, lying in bed in a spare bedroom in my grandparents' old farm house. My brother in another bed. My grandfather walked in, holding something that TALKED… with a HUMAN voice!!!! Yep, a radio… The broadcaster at the time having no idea how completely fascinated and at the same time freaked out we were, hearing him speak through that mysterious object. I can't remember why my grandfather did that, but I'll probably never forget it.

I resisted the internet and technology as long as I could, I guess I wanted to hang onto that simpler way of life for as long as possible. I'm still the strange person in the waiting room looking at life instead of my "smart phone" which I refuse to use for internet..

What are you all's favourite childhood memories?

 

[MoonShadows]

The beginnings of a great thread!
I have a million memories (don't we all?), but I'd be typing for hours on end, so here's one.

We NEVER played in the house unless it was raining, and it had to be raining hard.
We "lived" outside....baseball, football, dodgeball and wiffleball out in the street...cops & robbers...cowboys...army men...astronauts in our space ship made from a refrigerator box...hide and go seek...tag...running bases...catching fires flies...old roller skates that fit on your shoe (remember skate keys?)...hop scotch...climbing trees....tree swings...sandboxes...riding bikes, scooters, go carts or whatever had wheels...we even organized a neighborhood "carnival" with carnival games....sleigh riding on my flexible flyer down the big hill....snowball fights...snowmen....snow angels....and, this is just a few that come to mind right now.

This is me with my army helmet, cowboy gloves and rifle, Daniel Boone shirt,
and flannel lined pants I got for Christmas...some outfit, huh?

 

[sumi]

Aww, look at you!

The memories are flooding back now… Rotary phones!! We had one and finally swapping it for one with buttons…

 

[MoonShadows]

Oh, I am probably going to take a lot of kidding over that picture!

We had one rotary phone in the kitchen (and it was a party line) with a cord that might stretch 10-12 feet if you pulled real hard (and my father didn't see you doing that and yell, "You're going to break that!"), forget about any real privacy in a house with 7 people.

My grandparents in Virginia had a party line phone that had distinctive rings so you knew if the call was for them or someone else sharing the line.

Another pic...me out for a walk in front of our house with one of my sisters. circa 1957.
I was chubby from day 1, and still am today.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Great idea, Sumi!

We must be siblings @MoonShadows , lol. We had the same old rotary phone...a black desk model. And, yep - party line! Same story... kids left the house in the morning...came home for a quick peanut butter sammich at lunch, back outside and not back inside until dinner. We drank out of the water hose or hoped that somebody's mama made some purple Kool-Aid! Summers were for catching fireflies, playing 'kick-the-can' and hide and go seek with all the neighborhood kids. Oh...and our neighborhood wasn't the typical neighborhood. We lived way down at the end of a long dead-end road in the middle of the woods, next to the plant that all our dads worked at. It was 'company housing' and it was a great place to grow up. Lots of trails and forts and tree houses. We had a neighborhood base ball field and a volleyball court. We even had a small private lake. All the kids had go carts, mini bikes, and horses. We played tag on the horses and made up our own rules. You had to ride 'double' on the horse....the object of the game was to pull all the backseat riders off of the horse. Last horse to still have two riders was the team that won. We were brutal, lol! Only one broken arm and one concussion that summer before the grown folks nixed that game!

We didn't have a neighborhood 'carnival' we had a circus! Oh man, those were the good ol' days!

 

[sumi]

@frustratedearthmother that sounds idyllic…

I'm really enjoying hearing your memories and you are making me remember more of my own!

@Mini Horses @Britesea @Denim Deb @Hinotori @baymule @tortoise @waretrop @lcertuche @NH Homesteader @rodeogirl @Annabellam @hqueen13 @chefsdreams Come join us, we're tripping down memory lane a bit here

 

[sumi]

On a related note, have any of you seen the movie "Now and Then"? I must've watched it 50 times back in the years following its release, I loved it.

 

[MoonShadows]

On a related note, have any of you seen the movie "Now and Then"? I must've watched it 50 times back in the years following its release, I loved it.

Looks like one of those girlie movies. In any event, I don't think I could watch it; it has one of my all-time disliked people...Rosie O'Donnell.

@frustratedearthmother ... sounds like my childhood!

We had a couple of movie theatres in town. I remember going to watch the old, old batman series. I loved going to the movies by myself when I was a kid on a hot summer afternoon; made me feel grown up! Never bought movie theatre candy; it was too expensive; always smuggled in candy from my grandmother's store. I also saw, and fell in love with, The Greatest Show on Earth...the old movie about the circus. After, a movie, I would stop at Grant's Variety Store on the way home and get a hot dog or Woolworths to get some ice cream. That was livin'!

This picture predates me, but this is still how the local
Lowes Theatre looked when I was a kid.

The RKO Theatre right across the street from Lowes

Grant Variety Store

Woolworths

 

[lcertuche]

One of my "Now and Then Memories" is how we would smoke when going to visit people in the hospital. My kids can't believe people would smoke while in the hospital, grocery store, laundry, etc. What a different world it is today. I won't even let anyone smoke in my house these days! This isn't really a good memory, just a memory.

Speaking of "Now and Then" every time my kids see something from a show like Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman or Little House ofn the Prairie, they ask me "Is that how you really..." lol.

 

[sumi]

Moonshadows just dislodged another memory…. drive-in movies! Gosh, those were great days. I remember my parents taking us when we were very small, to watch movies there.