So tell me.

[big b]

My mom told me about her child hood a while back and it got me interested a bit in the past. Most of yall are older then me, so here is my question. Will you tell me a little about your past? Like your child hood? I want to know more about hot it was to grow up in the past. I could google this but I want real experiences.

[Ron Sower]

If you ever get to see reruns of Leave It To Beaver on TV, that is very similar to my childhood. I would expand, but time is of the essence and leaving soon for the weekend, but maybe this will get this thread kick-started. If the thread takes off, I'll get more detailed later.

However, BB, some people may not want to participate because of unpleasant childhood memories. I found that out when I inquired of some of my employees why they didn't like the Christmas season. They didn't grow up in Leave it to Beaver families....their parents were drunks and the kids caught the brunt of it especially during that time of year. They'd run and hide when they saw their drunken parent coming home. I learned a lot by starting and owning a company, and it wasn't always all about the business itself.

[GraphicGr8s]

If you ever watched Leave it to Beaver that was NOT my past. We did some stupid shit. Mostly with cars and motorcycles and a bunch of horsepower. Well as a teen anyway. We lived on a street that led to a park, a large park, so as kids we played and rode bikes there a bunch. Sledding down the hill by the baseball field. Then hitting the cage around home every once in a while. We walked the mile to elementary. And we were pretty much latchkey kids. When we got home we went to the next door neighbor's house to get our house key then we went home. And fought.

As a teen I use to go to that park in the winter for the photography. It has a bunch of woods around it and a lake and it was pretty. Even in black and white.
BTW One of my friend's kids tried the stuff we used to do with cars. Cops are a lot less tolerant of that stuff.

I used to spend hours in my darkroom developing images and creating the stuff today we call "Photoshopped".

At 16 I started an auto repair shop. Not all legal stuff though. It was at the time smog stuff first came about. And leaded gas was prevalent still.

[LizStreithorst]

My childhood was OK but not great.  I spent a lot of time alone because I was a reject.  Thank God I had a dog and we always lived close to woods where I could roam and imagine.  I lived up to nobody's expectations.  I was terrible at school.  The only reason I graduated high school is because back then they pushed us out.  I swear I'd still be in high school today if they had the standards they have now.  I'm dyslexic but back then they didn't know what it was.  They just thought I was stupid.

Adulthood is much better.  I learned to have confidence in myself.  I found my way.  Don't know how much I'm looking forward to the physical problems that will come with old age but I wouldn't trade old age to be able to go back to my childhood.

[Barb]

Well, I had a strange childhood, some very good and some very bad.  My parents, brother and I all had a nice life, traveled a lot, ate good foods, I had plenty of what I needed to be happy.  I did well in school, was healthy and happy.  Until I got to be about 15, then everything changed.  My father, now deceased, couldn't deal with teenage children.  He did everything wrong.  My mom went along with what he said and did, she had no choice.  So my brother and I suffered.  I left home the day after I graduated from High School, joined the Air Force, and got married a year later.  Have been happily married almost 45 yrs. with two grown children, boy and girl, who have their own spouses now.  But there will be no grandchildren for Bill and I.  That is a sadness I will always have.  BUT  I enjoy my adult years a whole lot more than those teenage years.  They can be hard.  And my last 15 years have been the best of my life.  But now I have an ill husband who is older than I and I have to face the fact he may not be with me for many more years.  He is 14 yrs. older than I.  So, there you have it Brian.
Barb

[BallAquatics]

I had a great childhood (14 and under).  Both of my parents were very supportive in most of my endevors.  Back in the 60's they used to test us all the time at school.  Some how the state decided I was smarter than the average bear, so I think that had something to do with my up bringing.

My sister is a good bit older than I, I had another sister that died shortly after being born, hence the many years between my sister and I.  At any rate, sis was married to a local farm boy.  When I wasn't doing nerdy things, I'd tag along on the farm.  They rasied hogs (1200 on average), but they also raised grain to feed them.  Many wonderful hours.  Every time I hear Billy Joy Royal do Down in the Boondocks, I thing of riding in a big old truck hauling grain to the Landmark in South Charleston.....  It even sounded like this coming from a dusty old speaker in the truck  LOL

https://youtu.be/1BZTASZKQv8

Dennis

[Mugwump]

   My very early days( til about 5) were spent in a very small town. Only paved street was the main drag, everything else was dirt streets. My brother and I, ran around the local farm fields with all the town's kids. By four years old I had climbed atop the old windmill and sat on the platform with the other guys....been chased by old Mort's pigs..and fired my Mom's 4-10..and walked for kerosene one night with my brother after a tornado went thru just outside town....Jeff, me and Shep, our German Shepard....no harm could happen to me with Shep by my side....
  We moved a few miles to a little bigger town in1950, but within a year moved up to Western NY....there I enjoyed the rolling hills, and many creeks and ponds, running, swimming, hiking, swinging on ropes over the ponds/creeks to drop in and swim...learned to hunt/fish/trap/shoot trap/ and crew Lightening class sailboats, and generally have a great boyhood...in the late 50's we moved to California...a whole new life....huge schools, the Pacific ocean, mountains, desert and more adventure...I learned to scuba dive, was a counselor at a camp on Catalina Island, swam competitively during Jr high/HS/ and college..,,surfed and snorkeled too..climbed a bunch of the mountains with friends, and hiked the John Muir Trail for two weeks one summer....sang choir, Madrigals, and was a roadie with 'Gary Lewis and the Playboys' for a bit....got drafted, spent my 14 mos in the infantry in SE Asia..came back to Ft Carson in Colorado...then went home, which was now near Chicago...I met my lovely bride there...we were married in 1970......raised three wonderful young men, that have given us nine grandkids....
  Now in our later years we're again looking for more adventure....with the right opportunity, we'll bail this area for somewhere else...

My Mom always bragged that me, my brother, and (3) sisters, could go to any airport and within minutes see someone we knew walk by....We'd lived in Indiana(2 places, Illinois, 4 places, California 2 places, and Zug, Switzerland 1 place.....my Dad/Mom/sisters moved to Europe when my Dad took a Corp position there...my brother and I, were both in College........myself, add Texas, Kentucky, Colorado to places where I was stationed in the Army....plus we drove both northern/southern old 66...been around...seen and done a lot....but there's still more out there ;-)

[big b]

Thanks everyone for sharing .

[LizStreithorst]

Did you get what you were looking for, Brian?  I bet I will get more out of this thread than you will.

[big b]

Yes I did. I learned more about the past that you can't get out of a history book. No, you can get this sort of stuff straight from the source.

[GraphicGr8s]

If you ever get to see reruns of Leave It To Beaver on TV, that is very similar to my childhood. I would expand, but time is of the essence and leaving soon for the weekend, but maybe this will get this thread kick-started. If the thread takes off, I'll get more detailed later.

However, BB, some people may not want to participate because of unpleasant childhood memories. I found that out when I inquired of some of my employees why they didn't like the Christmas season. They didn't grow up in Leave it to Beaver families....their parents were drunks and the kids caught the brunt of it especially during that time of year. They'd run and hide when they saw their drunken parent coming home. I learned a lot by starting and owning a company, and it wasn't always all about the business itself.

Some just don't talk about that part of it. They get introverted and start reading. A lot. They bury themselves in hobbies that don't require anyone else. They become loners yet they really aren't lonely. And there is a difference. I'm pretty much a loner. Takes effort everyday to make sure I include Little G in everything I do.