We as Little Kids - WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Posts: 2913 · Posted: 09.09.2007, 19:12

CONTEST: We as Little Kids

Okay, my buddies, here's a contest for a random number of PC points that should really be a lot of fun, both to write and to read one another's!

Deadline is the end of the month and the only requirement is that you be a member in good standing.

Post here and tell us all about who you played with when you were a little kid and which games you played. Tell all, even your until-now secrets, so we can all have some good laughs in comparing experiences!

I will even start.

So here goes mine:

I played with all the kids in the neighborhood, which consisted of a little road with a forest on the other side from the row of about 10 houses, all with several kids. I was not the oldest of the group, although I was the firstborn in my family, but I was not far down the list in age.

My favorite game was Marbles. We played "for keeps" and I remember having a huge coffee can full of the beautiful shiney treasures. We had special "shooter" marbles and then regular marbles, that we tried to hit with the shooters and knock out of the circle marked off in the dirt with a stick in a spot we cleared to play. The shooters were a little bigger. If we knocked a marble out of the circle, we got to keep it, no matter whose it had been. Of course we all put an equal number of marbles in the circle and took turns shooting. As long as we kept knocking them out, we could continue before our turn ended.

Oh the hours by the hundreds I enjoyed playing Marbles! You know what? I would LOVE to do it TODAY, if only I could find someone to play with who wouldn't think I was completely nuts, or even if they did! How I wish I knew whatever happened to my marbles!

We had to keep our knuckles on the ground and on the circle line when we shot, by flipping the shooter at the other marbles. Someone was always yelling "Knuckles!" if they caught someone's knuckles raised off the ground. The guilty person lost his/her turn. Girls and boys both played in all the games we played, not just marbles.

Some of the kids in the neighborhood were pretty mean. After starting school in the first grade, I was known as "the smart kid", although I neither looked the part nor acted like it. I guess they just all found out I made straight A's. Actually, I liked giving off the "bad boy" image. That got me in lots of fights. Someone was always wanting to prove themselves to be "badder".

I fought fair and won my share and lost my share. But one family had a bunch of really mean boys who liked to hide and then throw rocks. I chased them when I found out where the rocks were coming from, but they always ran into the forest and I rarely caught them. Took too much time and I always had a lot "to do". LOL I was never bored. I didn't have as much time to play in the evenings as the others, because I always had a long list of evening chores to do. I never understood why the other kids didn't have to work at home. All they did was play. It made me and my siblings different. Today I am glad for that difference, although I did not like it at the time. I think it may have had something to do with why my siblings and I turned out to be the most successful as adults.

One time when I was chasing the rock-throwing boy into the forest, I was in for a bad surprise. He and his brothers had it all planned. The other brothers were already hidden in the woods when one started throwing rocks at me. When I chased him into the forest, they all ambushed me! One against five left me pretty well beaten up. But within a week it was all forgotten and we were friends again, playing marbles or hide and seek as usual.

Sometimes I played alone. In the house sometimes, especially as a toddler. My mother had a big round tin which was full of buttons of all sizes and colors. She always saved the buttons when clothes were worn out and torn into rags for washing cars, dusting furniture, etc. Father also had a container of pennies he saved, which were mine. I liked to play with both the buttons and the pennies.

I was concious of my looks even as a toddler. Sometimes Mother would barricade me on her bed while she ironed, facing me so she could keep an eye on me while she ironed with the ironing board on one side of the bed and the wall behind the bed. She would give me the buttons and/or pennies to play with. Once she set the iron down on the board to go to the kitchen for something. There was a proper way of positioning the iron that left the shiney bottom surface facing me. I caught a glance of myself in the iron's surface, like in a mirror. I moved closer and took a good look. Then my mother heard me say, "Pretty baby!" and next she heard a squall! I had leaned over and kissed the pretty baby in the iron. LMAO! Luckily, I was not badly burned.

Oh to be a kid again and have it all to do over again, knowing what we know now. But as the saying goes, "We get too soon old and too late smart"!

NOW, WHO WILL BE NEXT TO TELL US WHAT YOU PLAYED AND WITH WHOM AS A LITTLE KID? We may need another contest like this sometime because we cannot possibly tell it all in one post.

I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE CONTEST AS MUCH AS I AM SURE I WILL!

Your ever-lovin' Guru

Posts: 484 · Posted: 10.09.2007, 01:01

I was born the 6th son and 9th child in a family of 11 children with 7 boys and 4 girls. My father was a Cape breton Coal miner/Fisherman/Jack of all trades. I lived on MacIsaac street which by coincidence is also my last name. This gave a young boy like myself misplaced dillusions grandeur with the mistaken impression that I must obviously own the street that bears my last name. This was corrected in short order with a well placed boot in the backside after I was discovered in my neighbors garden sampling his very delicious and plump ripe tomatoes.
My best friends and I all lived beside each other on the same street. There was Anna Lee, Debby,Myself, Dianie, Jimmy, Redmond, and Cathy. On Sunday mornings, Gerard(Jimmys oldest brother), would Jimmy, Redmond and myself to put on the boxing gloves, and the Sunday morning boxing matches would be under way. The churchgoers would stop and watch on their way home and the winner would get a shiny new dime and a kiss from Dianie or Cathy and the loser would usually just get a bloody nose. I won more than my share of those matches and poor Redmond never won a single one. I could never figure out why he kept showing up!
In the winter time, we would spend hours on end playing ball hockey. The hockey sticks we had were worn thinner than a toothpick and the goaltender usually used a broom that someones mother had decided was past its prime. The temperature outside could be 20 below zero and it wouldn't faze us a bit. We would run back and forth in the middle of the road, firing that frozen Indian rubber ball between two rocks in the road that were intended to represent our "net". Our feet would be like two blocks of ice and our mittens were frozen to our hockey sticks, but on we would press until one team scored 10 goals. I can't remember how many times an errant pass or shot would go soaring through Willie Joe Doucets porch window. That was the only event that would abruptly cancel our game, as Willie Joe would come running out of the house and chase us down to attempt to "Kick our arse up around our neck" I made sure he never caught me because I knew he would be true to his word as I had found out in the pathway of his prize vegetable garden.
I, like our everloving Guru, also had a pretty good career in the "Marbles Game". We would have the usual array of colored marbles, Cats Eye marbles and others. We treasured those marbles like a banker treasures gold. They were stored in a little cloth sack that had drawstrings to close it securely. When not in use that sack was tied tighter than a drum. Guru mentioned the larger "shooter marbles". What I and a few of my frieds used for shooters were what we called "Steelies". They were actually steel ball bearings that we about half the size of a golf ball, and let me tell you, when you made contact with the marbles in the circle they went flying!!
I could sit here all day and write about my adventure as a kid. I lived a real Huck Finn type childhood, but I guess I'll wait for the next contest to elaborate. Have a fantastic day my fellow PC'ers and great thinking to all!!
SPOOKTH

Posts: 151 · Posted: 10.09.2007, 21:18

Great competition idea ... Very Happy

Gosh ... there are so many memories - good, great, hilarious and ... not so funny, but ummm ...

I think one of the most hilarious one is ...

I was about 8 - 9 years old and had a friend called Miia.
One day we were playing at her's and jumped up and down on their sofa in living room.
We managed to create a small mess and while we put all pillows and stuff back where those did belong we ran into something bizarre - well to us anyway Laughing

- a magazine of naked women and men doing all kinds of weird things ... Embarassed

We knew we could somehow find the magazine "useful" and took it to our secret place in woods near by and hid it into a hollow oak tree.
The following day after our "dirty discovery" we were dying to have candy ...
We didn't have any money to buy some, but then all the sudden had a brilliant "business" idea Very Happy

We told to boys living at the same area about our "treasure".
They didn't believe we had such a magazine Rolling Eyes

...
Sooo ... we said we'll show it to them, BUT under one condition ...
Seeing it & looking the pics will cost â‚¬0,05 / page Laughing

The boys nearly dropped their eyes when they saw the magazine Very Happy

AND OMGGGG the money was flowing in like crazy Very Happy

We showed then 4 pages / day and that "dirty" magazine allowed us to buy candy for next couple weeks Very Happy

For some reason my friend's dad never asked what happened to his "precious" magazine ... nor did his wife - my friends mum - when batteries of her umm ... "toy" ran out.
We didn't know how to stop it vibrating thanks to laughing our a**es off.
Geeze that was another hilarious moment

...

Ahem ... I was such a good, sweet & innocent girl Rolling Eyes

I WAS, HONEST Very Happy

Posts: 654 · Posted: 11.09.2007, 20:27

Guess I will go next.

I want to say I have REALLY enjoyed the previous entries! Also know I will get enjoyment from reading the ones to follow. What a group we make up!!!!

Most of my kidhood was spent in a little 4-room house on a dirt road at the bottom of a mountain and with a creek running past on the other side of the road. The road had a "real" name, but we didn't learn that until we were much older. To us the name of our road was "Mud Holler". I can remember walking along the road and actually having my boots (I always wore cowgirl boots) getting stuck in the mud so deeply that my feet pulled right out of them and I had to proceed bootless or back up and retrieve them.

During my first few years, we had no running water in the house. We got our water from three different sources -- depending on what it was to be used for.

Of course there was the creek, and we hauled big tubs of water from it for the laundry and other household uses. Hauled them in a horse-pulled wagon, which was loads of fun. (We did have a car, or usually a truck, but the wagon and horses were a lot more fun!)

For our drinking and cooking water, we either pumped it from a well next door at my grandmother's house or got it by catching it in buckets from a fresh, clean, clear, cold mountain spring coming out of the side of the hill behind our house. I loved that water and also that spring! One of my uncles, who was not much older than I was, and I used to shoot frogs with BB guns at that spring, then take them across the creek to a hideout in the woods, where we built a campfire and had fried frog legs for a treat. A beautiful memory!

We were really kinda poor, but we kids, all 5 of us, didn't know that. My Dad was always a hard-working man and we actually
thought we were rich, because we were better off than the other families in the holler. I know that because my parents were so charitable to all the other families.

After working hard all day (seven days a week) at the local golf course, starting out as a greenskeeper, my Dad would come home and spend all evening, until too dark to see, working in the large vegetable gardens we always had. We kids had to work in the gardens, too, and didn't really have much time to play, like the other kids did.

When it got too dark to work in the gardens, my Dad then lit his lantern and went on working, feeding and watering the livestock and milking the cows. Mom and we kids did the churning of the milk, and made buttermilk and butter and cottage cheese, as well as whipped cream and regular milk drinks.

We had far more dairy products and eggs than we could use, so all the extra went to all the surrounding families.

But my parents never let those families think for a minute that it was charity. Oh no! Pride was far too great in those mountains. So what my parents did was to put ridiculously low prices on all our extra products and we oldest of the kids made the rounds, "selling" to everybody, so they could think they were helping US out by buying our homemade butter for 5 cents a pound and a gallon of milk for a dime, etc.

Looking back now, I know that the extra little income really did come in handy for us.

We didn't find out that we were not rich until we were old enough to start school and saw the clothes and other things the kids in the world outside the holler had. We were always the cleanest kids in school, thanks to our mother, but most of our clothes were home made from feed sack material, and all the extra toys and mechanical pencils and other things our classmates had were considered "foolishness" by my Dad.

We were taught never to waste anything. Never would we waste lined notebook paper by drawing on it. If we wanted to draw, we had to use brown paper bags. They were free because our groceries came in them.

I guess what I am telling you in all this space is that I don't have many memories of playing, because our time was always put to good use by our parents. Work ethics was instilled in us from a very early age. Our parents talked to us a lot, but it was always instructional talk, teaching us how to do whatever we were old enough to do. ALL that we were old enough to do!

So the work that was not very hard and was kind of fun was my games. And they were played mostly with my sisters and one brother.

And now that I see how much I have written, I guess I had better stop and then write some more in the next contest. Because there WERE some play times, but it would take this much space again to tell you about them. So I will close for now by adding that I would not change a single thing about my childhood, except that I would make life a lot easier for my parents, if I could. My parents who never let us know how much they worried and did without so that we would think we were well off.

AND WE WERE!

royalblush

Posts: 510 · Posted: 11.09.2007, 23:45

I am so jealous of all your stories ... they are such a nice memories you all have . I was trying to find some story to tell in my memory,but its kind of hard for me.Not that I didn`t have the normal childhood,but since my father was in the Army we moved from one city to another all the time and I never got a chance to make friends for time to have the fun with them. In some years I start school year in one city and moved to another and another so, I finished one school year in four different schools. I had to learn to make friends very fast,but those were not long relations.I guess my fannies memories were with my parents and my brothers, because they were my friends all the time. My parents are very energetic and outgoing people, we always have good time together.My brothers ( one younger and one older then me ),even we are far away from each other, we always have contact and having such a good time when we can meet.I love my family very much , they are the best friends I can imagine to have .I remember that on every trip we went , my parents always force us to sing with them, so they road was getting shorter and we didn't complain we had to move again :-) I think because of our life style, we always had so much happening I would need to write a long book in order to tell you about it :-)
Guru, that was fantastic idea for contest, I would fallow all entries to read about those sweet memories you all have.

Posts: 484 · Posted: 14.09.2007, 07:13

C,mon guys...get those typing fingers going....these are great and fun reads!!!!!

Posts: 2913 · Posted: 17.09.2007, 15:27

PLEASE, PCers, make your entries here.

You do NOT have to type novels, as we did above.

Just a line or two would be just fine!

BUT ENTER THE CONTEST, I ask you fervently!

Your Guru

Posts: 1192 · Posted: 18.09.2007, 09:47

I grew up in a small town this was when California stilled had small towns it was a valley surrounded by mountains and had streets lined with orange trees and in the summer time everyone would gather either at the bowling ally or the public pool/park/sports center/community hall. I mean entire families of all your neighbors gather to enjoy the day. Neighbors aren't neighbors like they used to be. People move in and out there is no welcoming committe or goodbye party I miss those time when kids and parents alike are playing block hide and seek. My dad would be the biggest child there screaming and yelling scaring the crepe out of us. If it was a hot summer evening all us kids ( my brother the oldest me and my liyyle sister along with 17 other children that lived on our street) could count on my father to start what can only be descibed as The Annual Alexander street Water Fight mini-Marathon", mini-marathon cause dad would have everyone of us soaked in less than 5 minutes. I barely know my neighbors names today, not for the lack of trying they just don't come out often pretty much to get into their car and go. Communty with in our communities is gone and thats some thing I would love to change about today.
Thanks for reminding me of such a lovely memory of my dad. I sure do miss him. As he passed away a little over a year ago, anyways thanks again I enjoyed reading all your stories truely some very fascinating members here at PC I'm new here and can't wait to get to know you all better.

Posts: 379 · Posted: 18.09.2007, 12:04

ok, as a child we had different eras, times of age if you like.

the young marbles scene, they were common

but as we grew in age, we had an older group and a younger group.

the older group were older brothers and mates who had cars.

we, as the younger group were on feet, and every friday night we (each group) would stock up with raw eggs and play cat and mouse all over the streets of our town, pounding whoever popped their heads out or cars for that matter.

there are many more stories of adventure but im in a drunken manner......*hiccup*

Posts: 379 · Posted: 18.09.2007, 12:09

saturday nights were trots night

we would play frogger on the tullamarine freeway near victoria street then proceed to walk the racecource for gallopers and jump a fence which would lead us into the trots area.

then we would proceed to play cat ad mouse with security up and down escalaters ans lifts.............we drove them mad,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

google moonee valley racecource and you can visually see the course we made every saturday night

*hiccup*

Posts: 1740 · Posted: 22.09.2007, 20:10

When I was a child I was raised with not only 7 of us children my parents borned but through my childhood I had over 100 both mentally and physically handicapped foster brothers and sisters and yes that was how we all looked at them as just another bro and sister some being with us over 15 yrs at a time.My parents had so many patiencents and love to give.We all played penny anne poker growing up on fri or saturday nights and basically lived a wonderful childhood.My father passed away 13 years ago and last month at the age of 73 my mom was remarried.And poker Guru the marble thing got my hubby excited as he played for years and now has the granddaughters playing marbles and he has been a collector of them for 15 yrs.He even has a 1910 marbleskin but he wont let the girls plat with that or the clay marbles.Anyways yes my childhood was wonderful Very Happy

Posts: 1825 · Posted: 22.09.2007, 21:28

Well my childhood was both good and bad. In the early years when I was about 5 or 6 my brother and I were in an orphange because our mother was sick. It was really hard because they wouldn't allow my brother and I to associate because it was very segregated. It was hard because I could see him playing with the boys on the otherside of the fence. Sometimes we would "casually" walk by the fence at the same time just to see each other and say hi. I used to sleep in a second story dormitory and was lucky enough to be by a window where I could look out and see main street. The bad part of this is that once in awhile I would see my mother drive by late at night and had terrible loney feelings those times. I remember she visited us when she could but once when she came to visit I was so excited I forgot to wash my hands and face first. I ran out to see her and was immediately called back to wash up and then was not allowed back out to see her. Many times I felt that I was punished because I had a parent when most of the others didn't. But I won't go into all those. Some of them were very unjust. We were there for about 3 years when she was finally able to bring us back home. From then on we were inseperable my brother and I.

We lived by a park that had a very large fish pond that froze over in the winter and became the neighborhood skating rink. I LOVED skating there and they had these big poles with speakers on them that played music we skated to. But it was cooooooold!! I remember plenty of frozen fingers and toes. It was really nice skating at night when they had the big lights on.

In grade school I was the tetherball champion and the ball and jacks champion. I remember I was a very fast runner in races but I was not into those much. I was also very good in the spelling bees but again I didn't involve myself with that much.

A family affair was going to the outdoor Drive-Ins. Those were a blast because we got to dress up in our pajama's and watch movies in the car.

My grandfather was a big part of our childhood. He was the hunter and fisherman. He used to take my brother and I hunting and fishing which we loved but he was kind of partial to my brother. I guess he didn't think much of a girl doing those things though he taught me well. I remember hiking in the mountains with him and he could outwalk and outpace my brother and I. We would be panting and he didn't even break a sweat or breath hard. LOL

One of the FUNNIEST things I have ever seen was when he took us out to show us how to shoot a rifle. I think my brother was about 10. He showed him how to press the gun against his shoulder. He had a hard time holding it up because it was almost as big as he was in length. When he told him to pull the trigger my mouth fell open when he spun around 3 times on his heels very fast literally from the recoil and when he stopped he was at complete attention with the gun at his side soldier like. I never laughed so hard in my life. To this day I wish I had a video of that. The scariest time was when my brother and grandfather took off after a grizzly bear while I sat in the car. The bear was HUGE as I could see him above the grass which was like 5 feet high. I was scared because I knew how cunning those grizzlies were. They took off after him up a mountain and I heard the worst screaming I ever heard in my life. I was panicked because I just knew the bear got my brother and I didn't know how to drive or what to do. What seemed like hours I finally saw them come down the mountain and was told the bear had killed a sheep. I never wanted to look for grizzlies for a long time after that!

I had many many wonderful experiences with wildlife some downright hysterical... and on looking back some downright stupid on my part lol.
And for some reason during these years animals always always found me. I remember sitting on a haystack once and a sparrow came and flew into my hand and wouldn't leave. I petted it and talked to it and finally had to throw it into the air for it to fly away. Cats and dogs came out of nowhere miles from anyplace close and found me. I hand-fed a wild weasel and a mink (not so smart there). To this day I have an affinity with all animals. It has made me a better and more compassionate person. I am thankful for all the childhood nature experiences. I could write a book on those animal experience.

I remember rollerskating with those old iron skates that you used a key with to tighten to your shoes. I remember every Saturday I was allowed to go to the Saturday Matinee at the theater for 25 cent double feature . and if I really loved the movie I could sit through it twice. I saw South Pacific 15 times LOL Or my brother and I would walk down to Bailey's Ice Cream parlor for the most delicious ice cream.

When we visited the farm I pitched hay, churned butter with a hand churn that about broke my arms off.

dang I better stop I just realized how I am rambling on. There is a ton more but I will stop now and give someone else a chance ROFL

Posts: 718 · Posted: 23.09.2007, 01:41

Hi,

When I was a kid I used to love catching snakes, salimander, tadpoles and frogs...I was a real tom-boy Rolling Eyes

Gee it would have been nice if one of those frogs turned into Prince Charming Laughing

I have alot of fond memories but the above is just one of them...

Thanks for the contest,

sisters Very Happy

Posts: 2913 · Posted: 07.10.2007, 14:50

Hello again, PCers,

Several members requested some contests for PC points so they could redeem them when they win cash prizes. So.......... since your wishes are my commands, I put a few out there for Sepember.

The "We as Little Kids" contest sure gave us some interesting reading ..... touching stories both funny and sad. This kind of thing contributes to our closeness by allowing us to get to know quite a lot about one another.

These are the winners for this one:

..........1500 PC points.......... spookth .................................

..........1500 PC points.......... valeria ...................................

..........1500 PC points.......... char1984................................

CONGRATULATIONS! You very interesting Winners!

Your Guru

P.S. *Royalblush was a winner, but declined the prize. Said it wouldn't be "right" since she is employed at Casino-Crush.

Posts: 505 · Posted: 07.10.2007, 14:55

WTG Spook,,Valeria and Charla!!!!