O.T. What did you do for fun as a kid? Pre Nintendo... - Page 1

 We would go into the woods and build forts and choose teams and have walnut fights. 

Totally, FORTS! The very word gets my heart pounding even now! We were in almond orchards though, and those aren't nearly as good for ammo as walnuts. I especially liked making camouflaged forts, such as a dugout in the side of a hill. 

I wonder how many female dog-people messed around with dolls. Not me. Which is probably why I didn't get married and have kids! I've been improperly enculturated, I guess.

I use to ride my bike out to where they kept a bunch of Rodeo stock horses and hang out with them and my dog. My dog went with me everywhere, if I spent the night at a friends, the dog slept on their porch until I came out in the morning. I raised rabbits, trained my dog in everything imaginable, she tracked, SAR for the neighborhood kids (you know I had an unfair advantage at hide and seek) that dog knew hand signals, and through no teaching of ours, the best protection dog a kid could ask for. She even kept the bunnies bunched so I could let them out to eat fresh grass.

We had some awesome kickball games in the middle of the street and we lived next to 2 schools, had swings and monkey bars to play on, huge fields for baseball, soccer, tennis courts. My favorite thing to do when by myself was walk to the cemetary and feed the swans at the ponds there. I never owned any game systems and spent 90% of my time outside in good weather.

Growing up, I played with dolls briefly before my brother destroyed my dollhouse, then I graduated to playing with trucks and building roads, and day dreaming about horses.  We lived in the city for most of my childhood, so I didn't play in orchards, but when I was ten, we moved to ten acres in the woods, and my brothers and I spent our days hiking and playing hide and seek in the trees.  Nothing to throw, but we had a lot of fun.  And then dogs came along...When we moved to the acreage, we had dogs.  I spent time grooming, playing, and working with dogs.

After my parents split, my childhood went out the window and I became a second mother to my four younger brothers...But I had my first GSD, Prince, and I worked with him, hiked with him, and loved him.

No Nintendo, no video games, no TV...Clean childhood!

Crys

Our game system was Monopoly!! hahaha

That's funny, I was never into dolls, either. We loved building forts, too! Except for the one summer when all the kids worked so hard cutting saplings and tying them together with the wild vines. We had lookout stations and a "nursing" station. We were so proud, we got one of the mom's to come and take a look at our industry. She took one look, and then came this horrific expression on her face.

Seems all that wild vine we loved using so much, was really poison ivy!   The whole block was a bath of calamine lotion for the next couple of weeks. LOL Thanks for reminding me!

My parents were huge fans of us "playing outside" when we were young. Therefore, you name it, we probably did it...forts, bike riding, swimming in the creek, bothering the horses/ animals, "exploring", catching bugs and frogs, playing with bb guns, etc. We always knew that the only thing not allowed (within reason) was to complain about being bored. Should we  have been stupid enough to gripe about being bored, my dad would always "find us something to do", and that was never a pleasant experience.  :)

Oh the good old days. :)

Tracie

Rode my pony, then my horse, all over the county.   To the store, to friends houses, to the lake, to the city.     Yes to the forts also.  Played Cowboys and Indians.   Seemed to always be going somewhere winter or summer.

I never played with dolls!  

I  lived on a dairy farm, with 5  brothers and 2 sisters.   We made forts in the straw or hay mow.  We used to also  jump from the barn beams.  Wouldn't catch me doing that now.  
I spent many hours on my pretend farm in the dirt, with my barn, and plasitic cows, horses, pigs and their babies.  I had tractors and cultivators, balers and all that was needed. 
I remember playing one day out on my farm, and my brothers were target shooting (* I did that too!) and a bullet whizzed past me and just missed me. 
I also had my own horse, dog, goat, two ducks (George and Rita) and a calf every year that I showed at the fair.  That kept me busy, between doing chores (which I always picked over doing the dishes), 4-H, and school.

I have fond memories of playing hide-and-seek or kick the can through the entire neighborhood with all of the kids.  There were a ton of us that lived along the same block, and we'd use everyone's backyards to play the game and put the can in the  middle of the street.  Or we'd ride our bikes down to the local pool or the library (the only building with air conditioning) in the summer. 

Opal