So anyone remember the game Lawn Darts? They came out when I was a kid, and then disappeared practically overnight. Turns out they were insanely dangerous and probably resulted in many an unfortunate accident which probably got the company sued into oblivion.
There used to be so many trends like that... heck, there was a time when you could ride in the back of pickup trucks and people didn't care.
Don't you kinda miss the days when you could live dangerously?
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
I remember playing Iron Man at night when it was late at night. We and some neighbor kids would go hide in the dark in the neighborhood and one person was "it" and would go looking for us. Somehow while the "Iron man" was looking you had to sneak back to "base" before he would find you. If he did find you then you would help him search for the remaining people hiding.
Of course we limited the hide and search perameters, but it was still pretty dark sometimes when we played. You can't do that these days. Who knows what "real" iron man could be lurking?
We had lawn darts... except they were tipped with a weighted bean bag like end instead of actual pointey things that could stick in your little sister...
Ours looked like little Apollo space capsules, so I and my little sisters would often take them and attach them to the end of a round oatmeal box and pretend they were space ships for our little people...
I remember one summer when an aunt and uncle came back east to visit us for a couple weeks. One night, my older brother, sister, me and cousins played Bloody Murder in the backyard at night. It was kind of like a reverse form of hide and seek. The one who was it had to go hide, and then after counting, everyone went out looking for them in the yard. When someone found them, they had to yell "BLOODY MURDER!" and everyone would run back to base. If the one who was it tagged you before you got back after "BLOODY MURDER!" was screamed, you were the next one to be it. If you were tagged before anyone screamed "BLOODY MURDER!" at the top of their lungs, you were out and couldn't say anything and had to hide with the one who was it.
That was a fun night for us. Probably not so much for the neighbors as the game started exanding into their front and back yards and this was before many had air conditioning and they were probably sick of hearing the screaming of "BLOODY MURDER!"
And then there was the crunching on wintergreen Lifesavers in the darkened bathroom in front of the mirror. If the Lifesaver is dry enough, keep your mouth open and you will get a kind of spark as your teeth crunch down on the wintergreen goodness!
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
we played that game, Bloody Murder, though we called it "Ghost in the Graveyard" and one person was the ghost, and you had to run back and shout "Ghost in the Graveyard!" ... and you'd count to 12 o'clock twice, and then shout, "Midnight, star light, No ghosts are out tonight! Daddy killed them all last night!" Then we'd go hunt for the one who was a ghost.
If he caught anyone, then they'd turn into ghosts and would go hide in a different place.
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
When I was 2years and 8months and my sister was barely 12, my folks left us at our cabin while they went to the Temple. We were on vacation in Utah (from Seattle) and our cabin was about 1 and 1/2 miles to the gate. Gate was another mile or so to the paved road. Paved road was 4-5ish miles from the town. Town was around 1,000 people back then. We're hanging out and all of a sudden, my sis decides we're gonna go get the horses ready and ride down to "meet them at the gate" which was where BLM ended and our property began. So we did. She led my horse (although this was the vacation where I first rode all by myself ). Lo, and behold, if they aren't pulling up just as we were getting to the gate ourselves. They were a bit surprised, but everything was fine and dandy. I was drinking my bottle and holding the saddle horn. (We've got slides.)
Just a few years ago the craziness dawned on me. There's coyotes, cats, lots of rattlesnakes, tarantulas and who knows what else on that Ranch. I confronted them, "WHAT were you THINKING?!?" I guess they thought everything would be fine since they were at the Temple - prob. and hour and a half one way. yikes.
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
favorite moment of dangerous nostalgia is when I was not much higher than daddy's boot tops and we were all at the farm sitting on the fenceline petting the horses.
Little Miss 'Bama Adventure' decided that one particular horse looked really lonely and I decided to take "Blackjack" for a ride.
He was the meanest horse in the pasture, but I climbed up on the fence posts and hopped aboard fully convinced my 6 year old self could tame him.
nothing happened for, oh, 2 or 3 NANO SECONDS.
when I came to rest in the creek where he threw me, ego and posterior bruised but otherwise unhurt, Daddy and my uncle were looking down at me with knowing smiles on their faces.
they didn't have to tell me the rest of that trip to leave Blackjack alone.
Lawn darts were a blast. I seem to even recall throwing them over the house at each other. You just had to pay attention and watch where they were going so you weren't there as well.
I also played night games with friends in the neighborhood. And they were best played when you were wearing all black or at least all dark clothes.
What else did I do? Try playing on the railroad tracks, I lived just a block away from the Union Pacific Main Line, okay so we were smart enough to move well away from the tracks when a train was coming, but we still played on the tracks.
Poor kids today, can't even climb a tree without people freaking out. Is it any wonder they are so sedentary, maybe the Nintendo Wii can help a little with that.
Hahaha... I so relate to your childhood, DaKnife. Ever seen Malcolm in the Middle and all the crazy crap they did in that show? I was like, "Finally! Someone captured my kid years!"
I still remember the time I jumped off the roof onto the trampoline, only to realize too late that I was supposed to collapse my legs once I hit the trampoline...
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
I let my kids do things that make my wife cringe, like climb trees, play in the dirt, shoot BB guns, ride bikes and roller skate without helmets, roast marshmellos over open flames, go fishing, and go with me hunting.
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Jason (Formerly salesortonscom)
As I walk through this earth, nothing can stop, the Duke of Mirth!
Except for for helmets and hunting... hubby too... Helmets are essential in our opinion (based on a RL experience from hubby's childhood... lost a good friend to a head injury on a bike...) He's not into hunting but we encourage the other "kid-stuff". Yep, even trees...
I'm not going to name the few things that hubby taught my kids to do that make me cringe a bit... They aren't "bad", just "very messy". The neat-freak in me struggles with anything "messy".
DaKnife... Our kids were given a Wii, and they play it some... they like group racing, that Mario Party thing... those kinds of games... Daughter likes boxing... she says it's good exercise... but mostly it sits collecting dust. Course my kids aren't exactly little kids any more... With the exception of being voracious readers (all,) and computer "gurus" like their dad (some,) they are not sedentary. They have always preferred games and activities that needed multiple people and participation...
I look forward to not having so much "sports and scouting equipment"... taking up space that I need in order to get my food "storage" out of the living and family room. Son1's recently vacated room is going to be my food storage room, and we are also going to put the exercise equipment in there... I am so excited. We have a small house...
The longer I live the less "I" personally need... oh... sorry about the derail...
This isn't fun and dangerous, but I bet most parents wouldn't allow it now. I used to walk everywhere. The library was over three miles away along a busy road past several shopping centers, and I walked to it alone at least once a week during the summer when I was 13 and 14. I also walked about two miles home from high school most days, frequently after dark if I had extra-curricular stuff to do.
I've struggled with this issue, because I make my kids walk to school. It's what I did, and I think it's good for them. But at times I've second-guessed myself when every one else is driving their children.
And that's not even touching on the irony of teenagers who aren't allowed to walk places but are having sex.
Have things really become that much worse? Or have we become an over-protective culture? Kids never go to the playground by themselves anymore, instead we have playdates. It makes me sad.
It was weird to move to the small town I'm in now. Some of the members of my ward look askance because my boys walk to the church for YM's activities. For crying out loud, it's three blocks from my house.
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They might not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves.
Great contributions, Janey and Dianoia. I lament that I don't feel as willing to let my kids do stuff...Though when we go to the store, or to the church, I often let them just go off and use the restrooms on their own, or look around.
But... I used to walk everywhere too. I would walk or ride my Schwinn miles to play D&D at the public library. We lived near a creek that flooded every spring, and other than when it was flooding, we played in that area pretty much all the time. We would walk miles up and down the creek. I also walked to school from First grade until 6th and then 7-8th I rode a bike ever further to Middle school... until High School when I rode the bus, unless I missed it due to some after school deal, then I was usually walking 10 miles though farmer fields and backroads.
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
). Lo, and behold, if they aren't pulling up just as we were getting to the gate ourselves. They were a bit surprised, but everything was fine and dandy. I was drinking my bottle and holding the saddle horn. (We've got slides.)
Let's hope he can resist that... He's getting married this week.
