What did you used to do for fun as a kid? As teens we used to go to the sand pitts and swim. Was

[applegrove]

a swiming hole not for from downtown Ottawa. All sorts of characters there and all of us kids, from various neighbourhoods and income backgrounds. Of course we all had to tresspass. Told my dad about it and he also used to swim there as a kid, only it was pretty close to being a working sand mine at the time and there was a wire that used to go across the whole pond they used to jump off from, kind of like a zip line. Now of course they have built swanky homes around it. Don't know if the public gets to swim there anymore.

[alphafemale]

1. Well one of the things...

Was climbing to the tippytop of a tree. Get it swinging and launch to another tree.

I never died so that was obviously a safe endeavor.

[applegrove]

2. That is nuts! I imagine it hurt a great deal when you got launched into that second tree.

[alphafemale]

4. No. It hurt when you missed.

lol

[bluesbassman]

3. There were large grass covered hills behind our house...

In the summer the grass would dry out and we'd "sled" down the slopes on big pieces of cardboard. By the end of summer the grass would be worn to nothing where the best runs were. You could get moving pretty fast and of course there were bumps an such so getting airborne was common. Wonder nobody ever broke their necks. We always cleared all the debris, so the cattle rancher who owned the land never had a problem. Most of those hills ar covered with houses now, but I can't imagine being allowed to do it these days even if they weren't.

[trof]

7. Damn. I used to do the same thing.

Birmingham, Alabama...1940s and 50s.

[bluesbassman]

13. The best was when somebody got a new washer or dryer.

Those cartons were big AND strong, made great sleds. You could get two or three kids on one and really fly!

[pipi_k]

8. I did that when I was a young teen....

My two girl friends and I would walk up to the railroad tracks near their homes, follow the tracks down to a place we called "The Trestle", and slide down the grassy hill on cardboard, just missing sliding onto the tracks themselves. Which wasn't nearly as scary as it sounds because the train passed by very slowly.

Also, we would walk to the local park/recreation area (a rather large park) and go to what was known as "Hippie Hill" which had an amphitheater at the bottom. We would start at the top and roll down the hill to the bottom to see how close we could get to the frog ponds without going in.

When it rained, we would take the bus downtown and ride the elevators and escalators for hours and flirt with boys.


Oh, and then there were the crabapple fights in the street...

[bluesbassman]

12. We had buckeye wars...

Things would sting if they hit a bare arm or leg.

[Arugula Latte]

10. Wow, I was just going to post the same thing.

We did that in California, on the long golden grass. Fun!

On edit, I see you're in the Bay Area. I was an East Bay girl myself.

[bluesbassman]

15. Cool, you know just the kind of grass I'm talking about.

I grew up in Dublin, about 2500 people when we moved there in '65. The hills on the west side going in to Castro Valley was our playground. Spent many weekends camping and raoming around those hills. Pretty sad now that they're mostly covered with houses.

[Arugula Latte]

17. Yep. I lived in the suburb that is now the retail hub of the area.

We watched the orchards and fields of mustard flowers get mowed down one by one and replaced with housing. The giant McMansions were the hardest to swallow -- taking up so much space and resources for usually no more than four or five people (and often two people). Of course, we were contributing to the population growth when we moved there in the early 70s, so it's not like we could get up on a high horse.

Luckily they preserved most of Mt. Diablo, though.

[bluedigger]

5. Normal skiing, sledding, tobogganing in the winter.

We also used to jump off our back porch into snow drifts. Boots got pulled off a lot doing that when we tried to get out.

One winter we gained access to a barn on the side of the hill. We took our flying saucers up to the second floor and launched out a window across a shed roof. Then we flew off the roof, across a gravel road and down the slope while trying to avoid the blackberry brambles, and then landing in the neighbor's back yard.

You know, normal stuff.

[MichiganVote]

6. My husband swam in a gravel pit. Mom had told him she would beat his behind

within an inch of his life if he did. So one day he came home with gravel in his shorts...you get the idea of what happened next.

Public swimming in the summer for free--before the huge tax breaks for the wealthy. Now its $2 and kids can't afford it.

Ice skating at the local park with a real fire in the building shed monitored by a fella who took care of the ice pond, shoveled the snow and kept the shed warm for the scores of kids who came. That was before the huge tax breaks for the wealthy too. Now its not operational.

Trick or Treating until 11pm or so. Lots of fun and safe for all. That too was before the huge tax breaks for the wealthy. So now the streets are not safe for the kids and they visit retail malls instead with mall cops. Go figure.

Visits to state and national parks, many enjoyable summers spent camping. But the huge tax breaks for the wealthy and the cost of supporting the oil companies have ruined that pastime. Now if the parks are open, the facilities are poor, the costs are high and the seasonal camping is shortened.

[trof]

9. We swam in an old quarry too.

We always tried to dive to the bottom off a high cliff, but could never reach it.
Who know how deep that thing was.

We played kick-the-can a lot.
Hide-and-go-seek, all the standard stuff.
Backyard baseball, football.

Shot marbles, but ONLY in season.
Spring was marbles season.

[Major Nikon]

11. We had a big canyon area that we used to ride bikes down

It was kind of like the concrete bike parks they have now, except this one was made of packed dirt from years of kids riding their bikes up and down it. There were steep drop offs, ramps, and all sorts of other obstacles to negotiate. Every kid was guaranteed to bust his ass from time to time. Naturally we didn't have helmets or padding of any sort. Even though some kids got broken bones and stitches from time to time, nobody ever tried to shut it down. Eventually they did fill it in and develop the property.

[lunatica]

14. We used to live down a very steep winding street which went to the bottom of a canyon

on the outskirts of Mexico City close to the highway to Toluca. We'd climb all over the canyon, always with our dogs happily coming along, and we created zig-zag paths because the sides were too steep to climb straight up. We'd explore along the creeks at the bottom for miles going from one creek to another as they converged, or we'd climb to the top where there were flat meadows which were sometimes covered with flowers.

Our parents really didn't know where or how far we went, but my mother said she never worried about us because we'd always come home when we got hungry. It was the greatest part of my childhood. The freedom was great! The house we lived in was always our favorite and the entire family was really happy during those years.

On weekends we had open house and we always had lots of people who just came over and all the kids would go climbing all over that canyon. We were the place to be. Weekends were always party time and the house was full of guests.

[blaze]

18. This post made me smile

I was zig-zagging with you!

[GreydeeThos]

16. I use to stir up ant's nests with a stick

Loads of fun in the hot August sun in Dallas, at least until the ants found your ankles.