It Was a Wonderful Life

March 13, 2015 by dorannrule

Photo from Vintage 1950’s http://www.redlinevintage.com

One night we dined with “old” friends. Our friendship is old and our ages are (barely verging on) old too. And although we often talk of current events and joke over funny things we have lately seen or heard, this time we kept returning to childhood.

Bill played Kick the Can in the Bronx, New York. He played Stick Ball too, with cut off broom sticks and a little pink ball. The ball would disappear into a rain gutter collector and had to be retrieved with a tin can on a rope.
Our friend and his pals found a secret culvert and followed it from one opening to the other. He and his cohorts could then disappear and mysteriously reappear to confuse adversarial teams of other kids.
His wife loved roller skating (with wooden wheels) at the roller rink.
Dor loved roller skating too, (with metal wheels) on neighborhood sidewalks.
Bill would find roller skates in the neighborhood garbage and would attach them to an old board to make a scooter!
Dor twirled a baton and dressed paper dolls with clothes fashioned from wall paper sample books and played Jacks for hours.
We all recalled the big Sears catalogs. “Do you remember those and how exciting it was to thumb through new arrivals?
People actually bought houses or barns from the Sears catalog but what about the great toys?”

It was an amazing evening of remembering that brought us all the way back to a wonderful life. We entered a time machine and were suddenly those kids again – the tom boy, the girl with a baton, the West Side Story live-a-like, and the country boy looking for action. And there we all were, once more in our own memory made wonderlands.

Remember THAT?

Remember when we used to hang our feet out the car window to feel the air blow through our toes?
Remember bike rides to the public pool – and bikes with brakes in the pedals instead of the handlebars?
I rode my bike to school.
Wasn’t it fun to play hide and seek until dinner time?
Climbing trees! I spent a lot of time in trees.
Remember Woolworth’s Five and Dime? I loved Woolworth’s. Mom took me to there for breakfast!

Oh, the night was simply not long enough to recapture our very full quartet of memories.

But we all agreed it was a wonderful life.

Who said you can’t go home?

You certainly can,

on such a night

in the company of old friends.

Posted in Country People, Country Thoughts, Friends, Humor, Memories, On Aging, The Good Old Days | Tagged Aging, children's games, Friends, Good Old Days, humor, Kick the Can, memories, Old time games, Roller skating, Stick Ball, Time travel | 36 Comments

36 Responses

on March 13, 2015 at 8:45 am beeblu

It’s wonderful to talk about such memories. I think we were so fortunate to grow up in a period where technology did not intrude into childhood. In my pre-school years, we lived in a rectangle of houses with a large field in the middle, and my best friend and I used to love talking to each other through the drains on either side – it totally fascinated us that we could hear each other over such a distance. 😀

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on March 13, 2015 at 8:59 am Silver in the Barn

Yes! I’m so glad I got to experience a childhood of complete abandon and freedom too. We would get on our bikes and ride as far as our little bodies could take us – for hours and hours. Now wonder we were all so skinny. A “wonderful” post, Dor.

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on March 13, 2015 at 10:05 am cindy knoke

What delightful memories and friends~

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on March 13, 2015 at 10:11 am Eliza Waters

Fun trip down your Memory Lane! I, too, loved Woolworth’s. The wooden floor creaked as you walked through the store. I was fascinated by all the small items that were neatly separated by glass partitions and I loved the budgies, which I was never allowed to take home. I did get a small turtle there once, however. 🙂

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on March 13, 2015 at 10:34 am Jill Weatherholt

As long as we have our memories, we can always go home. Loved this, Dor! xo

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on March 13, 2015 at 11:17 am dorannrule

How little it took to amaze and enchant us in that other world, huh?

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on March 13, 2015 at 11:19 am dorannrule

Stationery bikes simply don’t do the trick do they Barbara? And how free we were on those real bikes that went to real places. I’m so happy you also shared such a childhood. We were a privileged lot. 🙂

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on March 13, 2015 at 11:20 am dorannrule

Good times – now- and then!:) Thanks Cindy.

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on March 13, 2015 at 11:21 am dorannrule

The little turtles never lived but we had our high hopes each time.

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on March 13, 2015 at 11:22 am dorannrule

Thanks Jill. It’s a wonderful thing to know you can return home in your mind’s eye with a simple memory. 🙂

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on March 13, 2015 at 11:29 am Mike

I spend a fair amount of time thinking about childhood. It helps me fall asleep, although it can also prevent me from sleeping, depending.
I too played stickball and it was a source of deep joy for me. Nice post. I hear you, Dor.

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on March 13, 2015 at 11:42 am dorannrule

I never thought of childhood memories as a sleep aid, but you may have something there. I often hear you too, Mike.

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on March 13, 2015 at 11:49 am Kate Crimmins

Sometimes I really miss those times. The simplicity and the safety was wonderful in it’s own way.

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on March 13, 2015 at 12:11 pm Eliza Waters

Yes, I managed to kill mine as well, sigh. I was just a little kid so didn’t know what I was doing – I put him in the rain barrel with nothing to rest on and he drowned. I still feel badly about that little guy!

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on March 13, 2015 at 12:33 pm Mike

The ones that work for sleep are things like stickball, girls, and the good stuff involving play and energy. The bad stuff can trap me, if I’m not careful, so as a sleep aid i have to tread very carefully there, or I’ll step on a nail.

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on March 13, 2015 at 12:46 pm georgettesullins

I remember a nickel or a dime would buy a cherry coke in a classic coke glass with a straw wrapped in paper that begged us to blow it off. 🙂 Then we would spin round and round on the red vinyl and stainless steel stool seats. And the waitress who served us was always nice.

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on March 13, 2015 at 4:20 pm dorannrule

Ditto Kate! I miss the energy we had to accomplish nothing really – just being young and alive. 🙂

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on March 13, 2015 at 4:21 pm dorannrule

Awwww! Ours were in the bathtub -probably died for the same reason. 😦

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on March 13, 2015 at 4:22 pm dorannrule

There should be no nails to threaten slumber. Think only about that good stuff Mike.

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on March 13, 2015 at 4:24 pm dorannrule

Yep, those spinning stools were mini rides for us kids. It didn’t take much to entertain us, and nickels and dimes were big money.

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on March 13, 2015 at 9:42 pm ritaroberts

Yes its wonderful to reminis Dora. My childhood memories entail such games as Hopscotch for one, which, if I tried it now would probably lose my balance. I noticed one of your blogger friends mentioned talking between two drains to her friend . which was similar to my friend and I who both had a tin can each, me in my bedroom and her in her bedroom on the opposite side of the road. Of course we had to punch a hole in the cans in order to thread string through. My friend took hers across the road to her bedroom. We chatted for ages through these tin cans. Thanks for stirring up these memories Dora. Brilliant post !!

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on March 14, 2015 at 2:39 am emjayandthem

A pop bottle return would net us $.05 and that $.05 would net us a little brown bag of penny candy 🙂 We played many hours of Kick the Can under the barnyard light, cats watching, cattle lowing, and occasionally the border collie farm dog would trip one of us up! 🙂 MJ

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on March 14, 2015 at 2:47 am dorannrule

And I always thought Kick the Can was only a game played in the streets of New York! What wonderful memories you have.

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on March 14, 2015 at 2:48 am Mary

It sounds like a memorable time with special friends Dorann – mine are all so far away. When we do get together it’s just like we were together the day before.

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on March 14, 2015 at 2:48 am dorannrule

Oh yes! I remember Hopscotch too – an endless pastime. Never talked through cans and string but if they would stretch to Crete, I would try now. 🙂

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on March 14, 2015 at 7:25 am judithhb

On a different continent – 3 little girls growing up in a war torn world but still the memories of the games we played are strong all these many years later. Thanks Dor for taking us back to those times and reviving our memories.

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on March 15, 2015 at 7:08 am Kathy

Great memories! I remember playing some game where we threw a ball over the house and yelled ALLY ALLY OVER! and then ran around the house to the other side. There had to be more to it than that. Have you heard of that?

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on March 15, 2015 at 7:16 am ritaroberts

Hi Dora, well we have Skype now. so if you are not on it, think about doing so because its FREE. My Linear B teacher Skypes from Canada. so I have lessons online. .

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on March 16, 2015 at 2:37 am emjayandthem

Kick the Can was a family favorite – with all those cousins we easily had 2 teams 🙂 Our winter favorite was “fox and geese” – did you ever play that?

To play this game, you make paths through the snow like a wagon wheel. Stamp down a big circle in the center of the wagon wheel. This is home — a safe zone for the geese. Select one person to be the fox (it). The rest of the players are the geese.

The fox chases the geese along the trails in the snow. All players must stay on the trails at all times. Players cannot jump from one trail to a different one. Geese may run into ‘home’ for a momentary rest where they will be safe. The fox cannot tag them if the geese are in the ‘home’ circle. However, the geese cannot stay there very long. After a minute or two, they must leave the home circle. The fox cannot enter the home circle nor can he tag any geese that are in the ‘safe’ home circle. He may run through the circle in pursuit of a goose if the goose keeps running through the circle and doesn’t stop inside it.

When the fox tags a goose, their rolls are reversed. The goose now becomes the fox and the fox becomes a goose. The new fox begins chasing the geese trying to tag one of them. Play continues until a). everybody gets too tired b). everybody gets soggy, wet, and cold c). the fox gets frustrated because he can’t tag anybody and he is it all of the time d). all of the above!
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Good times! MJ

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on March 16, 2015 at 7:17 am dorannrule

Sounds like great fun! Having grown up in Fla with now snow I missed out on that. 🙂

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on March 16, 2015 at 7:18 am dorannrule

Stepping back in time via childhood games is a wonderful way to go.

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on March 16, 2015 at 7:20 am dorannrule

Will have to work on that. Bill has SKype but I do not.

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on March 19, 2015 at 12:47 am Mama's Empty Nest

Loved this nostalgic blast from the past, Dor. Ah, yes…it was a wonderful life back then. I truly do wonder what today’s kids will lovingly remember about their childhoods?? I can’t imagine thinking about playing video games in the same way we think about our childhood past-times.

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on March 19, 2015 at 2:08 am pegoleg

I know part of it is nostalgia, but it really WAS a simpler and slower time. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

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on March 20, 2015 at 3:31 pm apronheadlilly

I spent a lot of time in trees, too.

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on September 30, 2015 at 2:09 pm What’s Your Passion? – Not Dead Yet Style

[…] Do you remember? Source. […]

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