(Slinging dead cats like a boomerang?)
Kids walked or rode bikes everywhere, even from town to town. Played cops-&-robbers and cowboys-&-Indians.
In summer we an out after dark with our jars to catch lightning bugs (fireflies). Played fly-&-bounce alley until dark. Got called home after supper because Amos & Andy was on the radio.What a nostalgic list that is.
Young people nowadays have no idea how much fun it was to grow up back then.
I did all 25 things listed. I was 10 years old in 1969. I lived near Ojai, CA from 1968-1970 and in the summer we kids would grab out gear and head out to the river bottom near our house and camp out for days.
Next to the river bottom was a national forest. We’d explore like crazy. We took food and fished and made fires, etc.
Parent’s never worried. We’d show up back at home with cuts, bruises, needing tetanus shots, etc. And we’d catch snakes and sell them. Shot lizards with our Daisy BB guns to feed the snakes.
When I was in 7th grade, in social studies class we studied Mexico. One thing that fired my imagination was the Popocatépetl volcano near Mexico City.
I chose to make a model of that volcano for my class project. I used an old board for the base, and made the volcano out of clay. It was about 6 inches high, with a crater at the top.
About this time, I had discovered that if you ground up a sparkler and lit the powder, it produced an impressive flare. So, I brought this volcano to school with a little vial of ground up sparkler and a little candle to light it off.
The day of the demonstration, the principal was standing at the back of the room observing. It was a impressive display, and I got an easy A on the project.
But the weird thing was that not long after this happened, there was a fire in the school, and the only room that was involved was the one where my demonstration took place.
I know for a fact that I wasn’t the cause (I’m pretty sure I know who was), but I know my name was mentioned in the investigation.
I think I lucked out.
Monkey bars and asphalt/gravel/dirt playgrounds
Bring your .22 rifle to school,on the bus for Rifle Club
practice.And that’s in Mass.Oh,how times have changed.
How about?:
- bottle rocket fights
- lawn Jarts with no adult supervision (nobody died or got hurt)
- climbing the exterior of 2 story rear porches
- Jumping from garage roof to garage roof (Chicago)
Another cool trick -
We’d buy a carton of book matches and snip off all the heads. Then stuff empty pellet gun CO2 cartridges with the match heads. Light them off in a pipe and it was like a homemade bazooka.
Some guys had BB gun fights, until they shot at a younger girl riding by on her bicycle.