Something from your childhood that you miss

Vito said:

Yep, done that too!

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Yeah, but you're still dressing up as Batman, so consider your childhood revisited.

J.S.F. said:

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Yeah, but you're still dressing up as Batman, so consider your childhood revisited.

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Oh yeah, my Batman cape!

I miss sitting my tiny heinie on my couch while watching rugrats on the wknd.

Roller skating on bumpy sidewalks and large front porches. The roller skates were the kind with a key you kept on a string around your neck. They expanded as your foot grew.

Watching my neighborhood friend put on magic shows in his garage. He was only four years older than me, in his early teens, but was already a pretty impressive amateur magician. Best trick: The Amazing Floating Ping-Pong Ball.

On a beautiful mild summer day like this, I miss my attic bedroom in the old Sears Roebuck kit house with the two huge maple trees outside the front window. Nothing to do all day. Watching the horse and buggies and tractors go down the road. Walking to "the store" (there was only one) to rent a movie. Making teepees in the backyard with my sister. Eating Schwan's ice cream sundae cones without a single passing moment of guilt.

Lots of great summer memories. It's wonderful to read about everyone else's.

Shucking corn with my grandma :3 It smelled so good...

I was walking my dog-nephew yesterday and we passed the display window of one of those shabby chic antique stores. There was an electric fan set in a wire cage--not a plastic box fan but an oscillating table model GE fan straight from Montgomery Ward. It was a giant of a fan, just like the one Dad set on a stepstool before every summer evening meal. there was not one thing chic about that fan!

The fan required an extension cord that was long enough to jump rope with, reaching clear back into the kitchen. Of course Dad was not going to pay for a new cord. He used an old one someone gave him when he got back from the war. I remember well the clang and racket when someone going into the kitchen for something tripped over the cord and tumbled the fan in a shower of sparks. This crisis stopped the whole meal cold. Mom and Dad hollered "Stand back kids!" because the cord was frayed in a couple of places. The cat ran and the dog barked. Grandma would not eat with the fan in the room. She knew of an entire family that was electrocuted at their own dining table, during Sunday dinner, because someone sloshed iced tea on a bare fan wire!

Even when it was on its proper stool, oscillating away, it made enough noise to stymie all table talk. I still remember the sound of "Please pass the roastin' ears" garbling through its blades.

Besides the shock factor, the fan had wicked, guillotine sharp metal blades that could whack a kid's finger off to a bloody stump, according to the adults. It did a convincing job on celery sticks, crayons and french fries when the adults weren't around, so no one ever tried a finger in it.

I did not have my glasses but I swear that the price tag on that fan in the window read 110$! Who, in this day and age would pay that kind of money for a finger chopping , conversation stopping, unstable contraption that sparked like a roman candle when pissed off and only blew cool air your way once in two minutes?

I don't miss that fan. I do miss the one blast of coolish air that the fan sent my way, five or six times during a meal, but not 110$ worth--s6

Anyone ever let Silly Putty melt into a brand new wall to wall Bigelow carpet and receive the beating of her young life? Just asking.--s6

And back then, Silly Putty was truly sticky.

I miss raking up fall leaves, jumping into the pile, then doing it all over again.
Now all I can think of is that I'd have to rake them up.

I miss walking to the city library even though it was two miles away. I'd carry back an armload of books, reading the whole way.

I miss being able to knock on any peer's door in the neighborhood and expecting to be invited in to hang out.

Water balloon fights!

Vito said:

Water balloon fights!

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You mean--you mean we can't have those anymore?!

Summer vacation and winter vacation together with my cousins.

Trixie Belden. Babysitting Bobby, dusting the living room and an occasional jewel thief to apprehend were her only problems--s6

Being a kid.

shakeysix said:

Trixie Belden. Babysitting Bobby, dusting the living room and an occasional jewel thief to apprehend were her only problems--s6

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I LOVED Trixie Belden - I wanted to be her so badly it wasn't funny... Every so often, when I'm sick, I dig out one of those old mysteries and escape...

Eating Froot Loops out of my official Woody Woodypecker cereal bowl. The cereal bowl was shaped like a hollow log, and came with a matching mug. My official Woody Woodpecker spoon sure came in handy, too.

Almost forgot: Reading the Froot Loops box while I ate.

And about cereals: What was the cereal that came with a picture book on the back? Twinkles?

Something I could still do, but haven't in close to 40 years: Dunking vanilla wafers in cold whole milk, then drinking down to the crumb sludge at the bottom. *Puts on bucket list*

I also miss making gocarts to ride down the hill. I'm sure my parents had a fit, us taking apart all the purchased wagons and tricycles to use the wheels on homemade toys. Shoot, if I'd been them, I'd have just kept us well stocked with wheels and old lumber and pocketed the difference.

Go Carts-- Wow. Forgot all about them--s6

Pretending that the floating bar of Ivory Soap in the bathtub was my dad's U.S. Navy ship.

Remember those Navy Frogmen that came in a box of cereal? They had a little pocket in their foot that you filled with baking soda. When the soda melted the frogman rose to the top of the ocean (bathtub). Can't remember the cereal--maybe we sent away for them. Oh, remember saving boxtops and candy labels for toys that took all summer to get to you and promptly fell apart? The frogmen were cooler that.--s6