How Was Growing Up?

[Moonface]

How was growing up for you as a kid? Was there activities you did back then you don't do anymore, or certain fond or not-so-fond memories you have from when you were a wee whipper snapper? What toys do you remember playing with, and were there ways you entertained yourself with things that were improvised to be toys? Are there things you got to do as a kid that aren't really done anymore, like going out unsupervised without a means of contact for hours at a time?

If I take out the bad parts of school (a.k.a. the bullying) then I can't recall anything really negative about growing up as a kid; overall it was pretty good. I rarely got in trouble with my parents, and I always had something to do or play with and having my brother made it easier to find stuff to do since I didn't need to have my parents available to have someone to play with. My mum could just be present doing whatever and just interject if needed for a minor thing and then go back to what she was doing. Like we'd enjoy having scavenger hunts around the house, and sometimes my mum would hide the things instead of one of us so we'd both have to try finding them and we'd make a contest out of it.

I think the bulk of my toys growing up were Lego sets (likely given how unexpectedly long this post ended up), so I spent a lot of time playing with those. I also had some of those tiny metal cars that were gifted to me and my brother by my grandparents, and since they were both the same sets we kept one in good condition and the other we used for demolition derbys and stuff so the paint would get chipped off and sometimes we'd bash them a little with a hammer to make them look more authentic. My parents house has a large bottom step on the stairs that's kinda like a square shape so we'd use that for our arena because it only had one open side, so we'd make it that if your car fell off then you were out. We took turns "whizzing" our cars at each other; in other words, I'd propel my car at his by pushing it with my finger and letting go, and then he'd do the same. Hoping I described that process well enough. XD

We also had a long wavy slide like this in our back garden:



I think ours was taller though, but I might be thinking it was because I was smaller.
That thing got me so much attention in primary school though when friends would come over and discover I had that. People were so jealous of me over it because I was the only one who had it.

My brother and I would often use that along with those tunnels kids can get and other stuff we'd find to make obstacle courses in the garden and pretend we were playing It's A Knockout (wicked show, if you live in the UK and didn't watch it, shame on you).

My parents often took us to a nearby park to play in, and we'd all play hide and seek or kick a football to each other. It's awesome to see that the park is still a popular place nowadays and that the local council have been pouring more resources into it to keep it updated and modern, unlike the pile of shit excuse for a park that exists in my hometown, which is basically just a load of fields, some dilapidated old swingsets and stuff, and no food or toilets so you can be certain taking any kids there requires a backpack of food and drink followed by the nightmare of them needing to use a non-existent bathroom. Only thing that place was good for was trialing how to put up a 6 person tent before we went on our first camping trip as a family because of the large open fields and no one ever being over there. It was so desolate and dull that I don't even recall seeing kids using the lack of people there as a way to have some privacy while smoking cigarettes underaged. They just did that shit in the street next to the secondary school in the middle of the town shopping center and no one ever seemed to make any attempt to crack down on it. I wonder if that still happens there or if it finally got dispersed?

There's more I can go on about, but I've been writing for a while now and I'm also not remembering everything else clearly enough yet.

[queenzelda]

My brother & I were allowed to take 1 toy with us when ever we went somewhere with our parents. What was funny is that I always took one barbie doll with me; while my brother would always take a tripple changer transformer with him & my mom would always tell me that he was cheating by bringing it along since even though it was one toy it could change into three different things. I always thought it was funny myself.

While growing up; we would always go as a family to this HUGE flea market that was way out of the way from where we lived. It moved out to a past Wal-mart lot after it was tore down & was moved again to who knows where.. But when I was younger it was always an all day affair, we'd go there & get a lot of our food from the flea market. I guess you could say it was our early farmer's market before it became a 2000's thing. But anyway, on one of the trips my brother bought a wooden snake that would move if you held it at it's tail & it wasn't mechanical or anything. It was just the way it was made that allowed it to be moved on it's own. I remember we went to school the next day & some one tried to steal it from him & I whacked them on their head when they refused to give it back. This person sure gave it back then.

I also remember that we used to play badminton together as a family too. We would play every weekend & it was always a lot of fun. We stopped playing together because there wasn't any place to play at anymore after the last move. We tended to move around a lot growing up.

Another early memory I had was sprawling out on the floor & coloring in a coloring book, or drawing something & coloring it while listening to music. One song that I can clearly remember listening to back when was a song by Cyndi Lauper;


I remember being made fun of because of my hair being curly; I didn't care because what was funny is that because of that I had the power of fear behind what people were calling me; so of course I learned to misuse it as I started to grow up in the neighbor hood we moved into when I was a wee' tyke. As a reference, by the time we moved into THIS neighborhood, my parents had moved us about 4 times prior (that I can recall or am aware of.) What's funny is when we FINALLY were going to move away from this place it was bitter sweet because I was happy to be moving I was laughing about it while crying because I knew I was going to miss my best friends.

[Moonface]

But anyway, on one of the trips my brother bought a wooden snake that would move if you held it at it's tail & it wasn't mechanical or anything. It was just the way it was made that allowed it to be moved on it's own. I remember we went to school the next day & some one tried to steal it from him & I whacked them on their head when they refused to give it back. This person sure gave it back then.

I swear there must be something about snake toys being stolen in schools. Someone tried to steal another kids wooden snake in my class in primary school, and I know it also happened in my brothers school. I wonder if there are kids still trying to steal snakes at school today?

[queenzelda]

I think if anything more electronics are more likely to be stolen, more so since most kids have freaking iPhones. I can not understand owning a phone costing more then a friggen video game console, but that's me.

[ShiraNoMai]

I've never had any try to steal a snake at school, but I also didn't know anyone that had one

I've only ever lost my favorite toy at school, through some "magic" bullshit another kid tried to pull on me. I never did find it and was devastated for a while until my mom got me a real version of the toy (it was a stuffed cat), of which I had to obviously name after (Jelly, because the ears on the stuffed animal reminded me of the color of jarred jelly  )

[Moonface]

I've only ever lost my favorite toy at school, through some "magic" bullshit another kid tried to pull on me. I never did find it and was devastated for a while until my mom got me a real version of the toy (it was a stuffed cat), of which I had to obviously name after (Jelly, because the ears on the stuffed animal reminded me of the color of jarred jelly  )

If someone pulled this shit at my school on me my parents would've rained hellfire onto that school until the item was returned.

[WR91]

Growing up awesome. My Mom, Dad, sister and me would do everything together. Well not everything but you know what I mean.

The store, grocery shopping, playing catch, video games and watching TV shows each and every night. Man those were the days. Great great memories with a great great family.

[Moonface]

The store, grocery shopping, playing catch, video games and watching TV shows each and every night. Man those were the days. Great great memories with a great great family.

Reading this made me think of how there's some stuff I wouldn't do with my parents and brother again because we're all too old or at least my parents are, which is a little sad but at the same time there's things you can do together as adults that you can't do when you're still kids. XD

[Moonface]

I was going to make a new thread for this but since it falls into growing up it can live here.

What shows did everyone watch growing up? This should be interesting due to age and culture differences. XD

I remember as a really young kid watching the following: Tots TV, Words & Pictures, Go Outside, Oakie Doke, Wizadora, The Clangers, William's Wish Wellingtons, Playbox, Art Attack, Fun House, Postman Pat, Thomas the Tank Engine, Sooty and Co., Finders Keepers, Fireman Sam, Rainbow, and then various Hanna Barbera stuff.

Explaining them all is probably a bit much so I'll just let everyone ask me about which ones they're curious to hear about. XD

[queenzelda]

I grew up watching; He-Man, She-Ra Princess of Power, DiC's The Real Ghostbusters, Jem & the Holograms, Hanna-Barbara Wacky Races, The Popples (even though we weren't allowed to watch it, we did anyways), The Transformers animated series, (Original) Thundercats, & Voltron Defender of the Universe.

[Mr EliteL]

I remember as a really young kid watching the following: Tots TV, Words & Pictures, Go Outside, Oakie Doke, Wizadora, The Clangers, William's Wish Wellingtons, Playbox, Art Attack, Fun House, Postman Pat, Thomas the Tank Engine, Sooty and Co., Finders Keepers, Fireman Sam, Rainbow, and then various Hanna Barbera stuff.

Most of this apart from Finders Keepers, didn't know of this, and Wizadora, I may have disliked that show or something as I only remember the green thing from that. I regret to add Barney, Teletubbies and Tweenies to my list. More were Bear in the Big Blue House, Zzzap!, Chuckle Brothers, Brum, Noddy, Fimbles, Sesame Street. Then I would go on to watch more cartoon oriented shows with Hanna Barbera, Looney Tunes, Mona the Vampire, Arthur, Recess, Wild Thornberrys, Rugrats, The Simpsons, plus more. Blue Peter, Power Rangers, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Tracy Beaker, Dick & Dom in da Bungalow, My Parents are Aliens, Malcolm in the Middle and probably some others were live action oriented shows I liked during that time.

[WR91]

Growing up awesome. My Mom, Dad, sister and me would do everything together. Well not everything but you know what I mean.

The store, grocery shopping, playing catch, video games and watching TV shows each and every night. Man those were the days. Great great memories with a great great family.

The only thing I would want to be different would have been for my Dad not to pass away when I was still so young. But I truly believe everything happens for a reason and that I will see him again one day.