Before the Internet or the Apple Mac. Before semi-automatics, joy-riders and crack. Before SEGA or Super Nintendo. Way back...


I'm talking about Hide and Seek in the park. The corner shop. Hopscotch. Butterscotch. Skipping. Handstands. Football with an old can. Fingerbobs. Beano, Dandy, Buster, Twinkle and Dennis the menace. Roly Poly.


Hula Hoops, jumping the stream, building dams. The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass. Bazooka Joe bubble gum. An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune - Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe Neapolitan or perhaps a screwball


Wait...Watching Saturday morning cartoons...short commercials, The Double Deckers, Road Runner, He-Man, Zeebedee, Tiswas or Swapshop?, Why Don't You? - or staying up for Doctor Who.


When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere. Earwigs, wasps, stinging nettles and bee stings. Sticky fingers. Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and Zorro.


Climbing trees. Building igloos out of snow banks. Walking to school, no matter what the weather. Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights. Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles. The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.


Water balloons were the ultimate weapon Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle. Choppers and Grifters. I'm not finished just yet...Eating raw jelly. Orange squash ice-pops.


Remember when... There were two types of trainers - girls and boys, and Dunlop Green Flash - and the only time you wore them at school was for P.E. It wasn't odd to have two or three ‘best’ friends. You didn't sleep a wink on Christmas Eve.


When nobody owned a pure-bred dog. When 25p was decent pocket money. When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny. When nearly everyone's mum was at home when the kids got there. It was magic when dad would ‘remove’ his thumb.


When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents. You knew everyone in your street – and so did your parents. When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.


When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc. Parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! - and some of us are still afraid of them!


Didn't that feel good? Just to go back and say, “Yeah, I remember that! “


Remember when…Decisions were made by going “Ip Dip Dog S**t “, ‘Race issue’ meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in Monopoly. The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs. And the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to one.


It was unbelievable that 'British Bulldog 123' wasn't an Olympic event. Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a catapult. Nobody was prettier than Mum. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better. Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin. Ice cream was considered a basic food group.


Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors…


If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED.

that worked brilliantly. I'm watching Love Actually and they were playing some rather Regal music as the American President arrived at Downing Street as I read through it

seen it before, but great everytime

Indeed... life is a gift!

Amen brother.

:'(

I remember most of them, what pleasant times they were. Some were a little bit before my time though, like TisWas!

Ian

I used to get Screwballs

I remember a lot of that too many to mention

Thanks for the memories

The brought back some good memories! Thanks for sharing that.

Sometimes I wish I could go back to the times when girls had "cooties"

no I can't o.O

I can remember them. I have seen this before though.

Oh.......strolling down memory lane :-"

How sweet it is.........those were the days

All summer long I've wished I could experience something like that, but where I live, I really can't. The only place you can swim is indoors, with three lifeguards watching your every move. The lake is too polluted. I would do anything to trade in my parents' Prius for a scooter, and zoom around the city. But then there's the city! It's so organized. If you want to experience nature, you walk along a path set out for you. If you want to fly a kite, you have to do it on a pesticide-ridden hill with a hundred other people. There's nothing really cool you can do. Unless you want to go shopping or watch a movie. But I've had enough of that. I want to be outside, to fly into a pond on a hanging vine... that sort of crazy stuff. But it's so hard to do when you live in a concrete jungle, and when everyone else is plugged into their X-BOX. And I want to appreciate the taste of butterscotch. But I can't do that, because there's money growing on trees and those little luxuries just don't mean that much anymore.

I may sound spoiled, but I really do wish for a simpler life, without all these electronics. I wish it was the 1950s again, except... without all the racism. lol

aww, I feel old now.

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine was housesitting, and had some frineds over for a barbecue. She and I found a skipping rope in the kids toybox and tried to remember skipping rhymes but couldn't at all. And neither of us could double dutch anymore :'(

thanks for sharing

If you remember all those things, you might say you "have lived".

My street made a communal igloo once.

Great post, i really enjoyed reading that and remembering how things used to be...

Cheers!

Hey... I am a Eskimo so I'll be the judge of that!!!

widescreen brother, thanx for giving this to me

although i also feel sad now

Wicked stuff !


Had a few Raleigh Choppers as well. Brilliant but dangerous and slow, but what the heck.

And not forgetting The Six Million Dollar Man, Dukes of Hazzard, The A Team, Wonder Woman. And all those repeats of White Horses, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Zorro and Flash Gordon that used to be shown in the easter holidays.

Yes, things seemed better back in the day.

I had a great childhood.

...When people didn't revive 9 month old topics

Nothing wrong with reviving an old topic

These were good memories.....and it was nice to read them.

Thank you for sharing, Widescreen - even though it was months ago.

How to ruin a thread: Part I.

Anyway, thanks for sharing, regardless of its date.

I remember being outside.

So do I
Is it the moment to say :"ow old times" ?

We're getting older but evry day when I see my son playong football with a very old ball, I can see mylself years ago