What did ya do as kids ?

pitdog

pitdog

Joined
Apr 13, 2007
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A couple of things recently got me thinking about the things I did as a kid.
My best mate Rob and me would spend all our free time in the various woods around our village not coming home till dark !
When we were off school we would wolf our breakfast down and head straight off down to the woods with a pen knife in one pocket, a catapult in another, some string and maybe a magnifying glass.
We'd often find a stream and follow it for hours to see where it went, we'd look for animal tracks, catch tadpoles and minnows and collect bird eggs( yeah I know it's wrong know but back then I was dumb ). We would have to watch our backs incase a local gang caught up with us as there was about 15 of them and they'd kick our butts but we knew the woods a lot better than them and could usually keep clear of them !!!!
We'd snack on black berries, crab apples and damsons and always looked forward to the arrival of chestnuts !!!!!
Sometimes I'd take my dads dogs out and we'd catch a rabbit or a pheasant which was cool.
We made tree dens and mapped out the local woods till we both new them like the back of our hands, to us they were our woods and anyone else was just a visitor !!!
What were your childhoood days like ?
 
Man, that is just too long a tale to even dip into. I will say one of my fondest memories is chasing a monster bullfrog for 2 hours down the stream back of my house. Never did catch that big sucker. Hell of a chase, though. That clever ol' SOB lived to jump another day. I was 7 years old, and I still remember that chase like it was yesterday...
 
Catching crawdads
Wrist rockets
BB gun wars (we all wore super thick ski jackets...no one got their eye shot out!)
Fishing
BMXing
Tree forts
Underground forts
Walkie Talkies
Wiffle ball
Good stuff.............
 
Trent Rock said:
Catching crawdads
Wrist rockets
BB gun wars (we all wore super thick ski jackets...no one got their eye shot out!)
Fishing
BMXing
Tree forts
Underground forts
Walkie Talkies
Wiffle ball
Good stuff.............
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Underground forts? Neat, how did you make them?
 
As a pre-teen growing up in Houston TX during the 50's I was lucky enough most of the time to to live near one of the Byous. I was the coolest bunch of woods with fish, turtles , snakes lots of squirrels and rabbits . My uncle gave me a machette when I was eight and I am sure that 50 years later there must stil be some scared and hacked up trees to mark my passing . I use to walk pass one of them on the way home from school and there was a train tressel acros the water and we would usualy stop and have a swim by jumping off the tressel. This area was desimated by poultion after I left but I understand it has be reclaimed quite well and is a god paddling spot. Thanks pit for raising those memories.
 
I did a lot of fishing and rooting around in the woods. My dad gave me an old Kabar USMC knife and I did everything with that knife. My grandad had a 100 acres in Mississippi, and I know every inch of that place. I was like you Pit. I was out in the woods until mom yelled for me at supper time.
 
Grew up on about 400 acres that is mostly wooded with a couple of streams, ponds, and some interesting history. Spent a lot of my time exploring the place with my dog. When I got a little older, myself and friends started getting into knives and survival stuff. We'd got camping, play "war games" and all that fun stuff. :)
 
My days were mostly all the same as a kid. Get up in the morning EVERY MORNING, Milk the cows, Feed the rest of the farm animals, Go to school which was a one room country school. Come home, Milk the cows, Feed the Farm animals, Gather the eggs bring in wood for the cook stove, Haul water to the house, go to bed to get ready for another day which would be just the same. In the summer the school work was replaced by farm work in the fields and gathering and cutting wood for the next winter. Many hours were spent playing with the dog and other pets.Thats how it was when you are raised on a farm in the Dakota's. We were dirt poor but didn't have time to notice it.

However there was always time for play which included lots of Hunting and fishing. Where some had woods, we had large shelter belts to work our wood crafts in. I also made sling shoots and make shift bows and arrows. Plenty of horse back riding as well. Lots of work with knives and even more with the ax as all the cooking and heating was done with wood. We had no electricity until I was about 15. The outhouse was the only bathroom we had and when it was 20 below zero, you did that chore very FAST!!.

My Mother baked all of our bread, canned all our food, made most of our cloths and helped with the milking and chores. She grew all the veggies and potatoes. Going to town was a one day a week event to go to church.There were no automatic washers and dryers. There was the ringer washer and the cloths line. There was no TV and of course no computers or other things like that. We sharpened everything on a old peddle grinder with a 24 in grinding wheel. Like everything else, it had a steel seat that you set on to peddle it.

Entertainment was barn dances and every little town had a dance hall. We listened to shows on the radio at night. The folks would read by the light of the kerosene lamps and the barn was lit with kerosene lanterns. Then of course there were the neighbor girls and the hay loft.

It was not a easy life but as my mother said in later years, " We were so poor and so very happy "
 
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Growing up in the 60`s was great. There was a large prairie behind my folk`s house, with a small wooded section, where we would build forts and treehouses, and shoot our bow and arrows, and pellet guns. Lots of wild strawberries to pick and eat, and rabbits and squirrels to hunt. There was a pond about a mile away where we would go for bluegills. There was also an abandoned shack where we would hang out, just had to make sure there were no hobos there, we lived near the tracks. I can still remember seeing them on the freight trains going by. My grandfather was the Chief of Police then, people always wanted the "vagrants" arrested. Usually grandpa would ask them if they needed to earn a little money, then he would give them some odd job,give them a meal and a few bucks, and send them on their way. Those were "the good old days."

John
 
I grew up in southwest Missouri just a stones throw from the James river in Stone county. I had alot of fun just roaming around in the woods and along the river. In the summers I went fishing with my Grandad at table rock lake and in the fall and winter I would go rabbit hunting with my uncle Blackie and listen to the dogs run. Good times.
 
udtjim said:
My days were mostly all the same as a kid. Get up in the morning EVERY MORNING, Milk the cows, Feed the rest of the farm animals, Go to school which was a one room country school. Come home, Milk the cows, Feed the Farm animals, Gather the eggs bring in wood for the cook stove, Haul water to the house, go to bed to get ready for another day which would be just the same. In the summer the school work was replaced by farm work in the fields and gathering and cutting wood for the next winter. Many hours were spent playing with the dog and other pets.Thats how it was when you are raised on a farm in the Dakota's. We were dirt poor but didn't have time to notice it.

However there was always time for play which included lots of Hunting and fishing. Where some had woods, we had large shelter belts to work our wood crafts in. I also made sling shoots and make shift bows and arrows. Plenty of horse back riding as well. Lots of work with knives and even more with the ax as all the cooking and heating was done with wood. We had no electricity until I was about 15. The outhouse was the only bathroom we had and when it was 20 below zero, you did that chore very FAST!!.

My Mother baked all of our bread, canned all our food, made most of our cloths and helped with the milking and chores. She grew all the veggies and potatoes. Going to town was a one day a week event to go to church.There were no automatic washers and dryers. There was the ringer washer and the cloths line. There was no TV and of course no computers or other things like that. We sharpened everything on a old peddle grinder with a 24 in grinding wheel. Like everything else, it had a steel seat that you set on to peddle it.

Entertainment was barn dances and every little town had a dance hall. We listened to shows on the radio at night. The folks would read by the light of the kerosene lamps and the barn was lit with kerosene lanterns. Then of course there were the neighbor girls and the hay loft.

It was not a easy life but as my mother said in later years, " We were so poor and so very happy "
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Udtjim, you belong over in Traditional Folders and Fixed Blades. They'd welcome you with open arms.
 
Across the road form us was farmland and a riding stable. We spent all our time out there in the woods building forts and tree houses. Chopping with dull axes and using borrowed hand tools form our fathers work shops. We shot carp in the creek with bows and shot at everything with our BB guns. Don't remember the my age when I got my first 22. Always had a boy scout type pocket knife on us. We slept outside in Army pup tents and all our gear was WWII surplus.
 
I lived in a heavily forested area that skirted a Navy shooting range that Marines trained at. I would sneak through the woods and watch them practice and during wargames. I built forts, carved any piece of wood I found interesting and tracked animals from the time I could walk. I truly miss those times now that I think about it.
 
Most of the places we used to hike and camp have malls and housing developments on them now. We ran a half-hearted non-violent guerilla campaign against the mall that went up in our favorite place, but knew that there was no stopping it.
 
mikeal said:
Most of the places we used to hike and camp have malls and housing developments on them now. We ran a half-hearted non-violent guerilla campaign against the mall that went up in our favorite place, but knew that there was no stopping it.
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I know what you mean. I`ve watched my town grow from 700 people to over 16,000, but surprisingly, the little prairie is still there.

John
 
We would spend all day in the woods & creeks in our neigborhood not come home until dark...one of the many stupid things I remember was "Horse Apple Wars" man I look back and think boy were sure could of seriously hurt some one... nothing but welps or bruises but a head shot could of done damage.....for those who are not familar it is the fruit from a bodark tree(Osage tree) and range in size from Golf balls to softballs and we would hurl them at each other in the name of fun..
 
texastonydobbs said:
We would spend all day in the woods & creeks in our neigborhood not come home until dark...one of the many stupid things I remember was "Horse Apple Wars" man I look back and think boy were sure could of seriously hurt some one... nothing but welps or bruises but a head shot could of done damage.....for those who are not familar it is the fruit from a bodark tree(Osage tree) and range in size from Golf balls to softballs and we would hurl them at each other in the name of fun..
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Yeah I guess some of the stuff we did was dumb eh ! I can remember firing a chestnut while it was still in it's spikey shell at some kid from the gang with my gaddy and it stuck straight in his thigh !!!!!:o
 
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