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"Sometimes we'd take our 22's with us."

"Watch it kid--you'll shoot yer eye out!"

Playing stickball in the schoolyard.

Softball at the nearest intersection. Taking a collection to pay for Mr. So and So's resulting broken window.

Playing until dark.

Knowing your father's whistle to come in for dinner. Hey Johnny, yer dad's whistlin' for ya!

Can Billy come out to play?

Playing hide and seek until you couldn't see through the darkness.

Hurrying to eat lunch or dinner, cause you didn't want to miss what was happen' outside with your buddies.

Playing war for hours--in the woods--with realistic looking plastic tommy guns and rifles. Americans won--every time.

Playing with a Johnny Reb cannon.

Making a raft out of a piece of plywood and poling along in the local pond--with no lifejackets or handrails,even.

Ice skating on same pond in the cold winter afternoons and evenings.

Playing dodgeball--for keeps!

My, how did we survive.

"Playing war for hours--in the woods--with realistic looking plastic tommy guns and rifles."

Boy, you sure were lucky ... having realistic-looking plastic guns.

We used that good all-around multi-purpose tool ... the baseball bat.

Tucked under your arm, it was a submachine gun.
Held at the shoulder, it was a sniper's rifle.
Placed on top of the shoulder, it was a bazooka.

In the heat of action, it was sometimes hard to keep track of what was what ... it went from being a tommygun to being a rifle to being a bazooka during the same firefight.