Thinking WAY Back

[pdub]

Unit and I are having a great conversation. The way things used to be. Back then, her experiences growing up in Pittsburgh and mine in South Carolina.

As kids we played different games from one another, different rules, different names.

But one thing we found in common, you made a skateboard out of a two-by-four and used strips of an old car inner tube to lash the halves of a roller skate to it. You had to use the roller skate key to take it apart beforehand.

You could nearly almost steer it, by leaning all the way to one side, but you could not quite steer it. You could aim it, sort of. It sure wouldn't go around a curve.

The metal skate wheels left white marks on the sidewalk that would stay there for weeks. For sure there was never anything even invented like a helmet for us to use while we were doing all of that.

[Barry Donovan]

must have been the origin, like hot rods no one remembers.
I had a skinny skateboard called a "nash". Very expensive when it came out, my cousin outgrew it.
it even looked like a shaved down 2x4...roller skate wheels.

things got fancy since then. Santa Cruz was a name I remember. light and wider boards.
found an old nash on ebay.
That old sticker sure looks like $599, I guess it is $5.99

[phitter67]

Back in the 60's I had a "Scat Car". Looked like a slingshot dragster to a 6 or 7 yearold. I ran that thing around the side walks til it broke. Then dad would fix it and it started all over again. Figured out that if I put my feet down and pulled on the steering wheel, It would stay up resting on the seat bar. Then I could pedal while riding a wheelie! I rode it like that until it rubbed a hole in the seat bar. I finally outgrew it, now I can't find one like it. Of course the only place left in my garage is the roof.

[Beagle]

Back in the 60's I had a "Scat Car". Looked like a slingshot dragster to a 6 or 7 yearold. I ran that thing around the side walks til it broke. Then dad would fix it and it started all over again. Figured out that if I put my feet down and pulled on the steering wheel, It would stay up resting on the seat bar. Then I could pedal while riding a wheelie! I rode it like that until it rubbed a hole in the seat bar. I finally outgrew it, now I can't find one like it. Of course the only place left in my garage is the roof.

on or under? My pedal car is still in the garage rafters at dad's house.

[phitter67]

On. I have been hanging stuff from the rafters for years.

[Deaf Bob]

Ever play the game where the kid yells " Come on over" and throws a ball over the roof..
2 teams on oposite sides of the house.. Everybody runs around the house..one kid catches and runs with, tagging the other team..

Best played on houses with windows hard to reach and no gates.. Like old farm houses..

[pdub]

The little green plastic army men. They came in a few different poses, a whole bag full of them for, I dunno, maybe 99 cents.

There was one pose crawling on the ground with a rifle, one with a flame thrower, one throwing a hand grenade, just little green army men.

It was fun to set them up all around in a scene and shoot them with a BB gun. Like being a part of the battle. It didn't even occur to us that we were killing our own guys, American soldiers. They were pieces of plastic and we were kids.

And marbles. Draw a circle in the dirt and shoot marbles. Gambling for keeps, even at that young age.

[phitter67]

How about setting your old model cars on the fence post, and shooting them with BB guns? One kid lived at the back of the neighborhood, and his parent's house overlooked the river. His dad owned a trash truck and would bring home all the golf and tennis balls he found. We would take them and try to hit them over the river with baseball bats.

[pdub]

His dad owned a trash truck and would bring home all the golf and tennis balls he found. We would take them and try to hit them over the river with baseball bats.

Oh yeah, or tossing rocks into he air and hitting them with a wooden baseball bat, the bat you begged Dad for a year to buy you, your very own baseball bat? Oh yeah, that went over well, when the bat was all chewed up from hitting rocks with it and then you told Dad you needed a new one? Oh yeah, that was a very awkward moment in parent/kidding history....

[DanStokes]

Hell, when I was a kid.......

The army guys all carried clubs. They were carved out of rock.

And baseball bat. Hell no, sonny. Go out in the forest (or forrest, a little PW humor right there), avoid the saber-tooth tigers, and find yer own damn club. Hit all the rocks you want.

And nothin' to eat but dirt - and we were glad to have it. It was rough back then.

Dan

[JOES66FURY]

Old age is relative. I am the oldest guy in the building of 60 young Airmen....not even 38 yet..But I digress

The word of the day in my youth was "Big Wheel"

We played a few games, the best of which was "SPOTLIGHT" It was played at night with as many neighborhood kids as we could muster. Once we had all the players we would as the neighbors if we could play in their yards, there were no fences, just bushes and trees to show property lines. Once the boundries were established we would determine who was "IT" by doing a really long and complicated "eenie-meenie-miney-moe". The person that ended up "IT" for a flashlight and would sit at the base and cout to 100...always 100. The rest of the kids would scatter like roaches when the lgihts were flicked on. Once "IT" got to 100 he announced to everyone that he was coming by shouting "ready or not, here I come" that would give the kids ample warning that if you had not found a hiding spot you better get to it. IT would look everywhere for the other kids and if he found them he would shine the flashlight on them. That kid was then frozen and could not move from the spot. If he fell in the process he had to stay in whatever position he was in at the time. That was often a source of great amusment. He could be unfrozen by being touched by another player but often times "IT" would sit nearby the newly frozen kid and snipe the would be rescuers. The last player frozen was always the new "IT" but often times the game would go on for hours or until front poarch lights came on signaling the kids who resided there it was time to come home. We played this game with as few as 5 and as many as 20 kids on what I assume to be about 4 acres of property and about 16 houses on the block.

Good times, good times indeed.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Ever play the game where the kid yells " Come on over" and throws a ball over the roof..
2 teams on oposite sides of the house.. Everybody runs around the house..one kid catches and runs with, tagging the other team..

Best played on houses with windows hard to reach and no gates.. Like old farm houses..

no, but I can tell you that a blanket does not work as a parachute when you're jumping from a roof

[Deaf Bob]

no, but I can tell you that a blanket does not work as a parachute when you're jumping from a roof

Ooohhh.. Break your ankle or leg?

We had an old dairy barn on the farm.. Part of it collapsed.. Part that didnt was where the loft was.. Hay was pulleyed to the loft then pitched to the big area below.. Maybe pullied too.. But anyway we used to jump from there to the hay below.. Great fun!