I usually hate forwards, and I’m not asking anyone to actually forward this on. Just take a bit of time to remember how childhood and freedom felt, and add a bit of it in your day. I just found myself playing shadow puppets with two hairclips as a result of spending the day thinking of how wonderful childhood is.
Just for a minute, forget everything stressful and read this
Close your eyes and go back in time…
Before the Internet or the Apple Mac.
Before semi-automatics, joyriders 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.
Fingerbob.
Beano, Dandy, Buster, Twinkle and Dennis the Menace.
Panini Sticker Books.
Pretending to be Gazza and John Barnes in the Playground.
Getting your haircut like Chris Waddle.
Roly Poly.
Hula Hoops,
Paper that you could eat.
Penny sweets that actually cost 1p.
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
Watching Saturday morning cartoons….short commercials,
The Double Deckers, Road Runner, He-Man, Zebedee, Rainbow,
Tiswas or Swapshop?, and ‘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, Doctors and Nurses and Zorro.
Climbing trees.
Walking to school, no matter what the weather.
Running till you were out of breath and getting a stitch,
Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt.
Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights.
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.
Being tired from playing….remember that?
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon
Playing 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.
You knew everyone in your street – and so did your parents.
It wasn’t odd to have two or three “best” friends.
You didn’t sleep a wink on Christmas Eve.
How exciting was it to use a Vending Machine at big school.
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.
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents.
When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry shopping 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!!
Remember when….
Decisions were made by going ” Ip Dip Dog Sh*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 ‘Runouts’ 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.
Sunday night bath time.
Cerbsy and rebounds.
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED.
Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their “grown up” life…
I DOUBLE-DARE YOU
Sure, some of these have a British twist to them but childhood is the same everywhere…
Some of my fondest memories…
Getting our allowance after being good in Church on Sunday and spending half an hour choosing a dollar’s worth of 5 cents candy with our little brown baggie. Sour gum balls.
Going skating at the local indoor ice rink just because we wanted a blue Slush Puppy or a small poutine at the end. Using chairs to push friends around on the ice. Trying to skate backwards like the boys who played hockey did.
Visiting my best friend to play Nintendo, always the 100 games cartridge, getting told to go play outside, whining that we don’t want to go outside, getting pushed out the door, spending the entire afternoon having a GREAT time scheming a water guns war with the boys, using garbage can lids to protect ourselves, getting called indoors at sunset for dinner and refusing to go back in because we’re having too much fun outside.
Playing double-dutch in the school yard with an orange and a pink skipping rope.
Writing “Do you want to go out with me, tick the box, yes or no” to boys and getting your friends to deliver it to the boy in question.
Les Mystérieuses Cités d’Or, Les Trois Mousquetaires, Rahan… and those weird shows in English… “rasha-sha-ra-ra”, I speak English too!
Making bunnies out of two cotton gloves while waiting for the school bus in winter.
Making the first snowman of the winter… and making the last snowman of the winter with the leftover brown snow.
Exchanging dinosaur and gasoline marbles. Pogs collections.
Building forts with the cushions from the sofa and blankets.
What are your fondest memories?
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that canadian girl 