Do You Remember When

I went to my Weight Watchers Meeting this morning, no this blog entry is NOT about weight loss for goodness sakes. And we are not going to discuss did I lose, how much, did I gain, bummer nothing like that ok. Ok I lost but not very darn much, hey I just like eating, drinking, all that jazz... Anyway back to the point, we discussed how very different life is now to what is was when we were kids. What we did for fun, what we ate, how often we ate during the day etc., and it made me remember when.

So can you remember what the weekend was like when you were 10 say. We lived in a street where we knew nearly all the kids, love em or hate em, we all played together, fought together and made up together. We had gangs, but not like the gangs of today. We just had the kids across the street vs. the kids down the street. We would all head off to the creek behind our house and we built forts and cubby houses and there was enough turf for everyone. We had races on our bikes, well I didn't race I was the flag girl and the boss of the sports teams. We fished for tadpoles and put out tiny bits of meat tied to string to try and catch the penny turtles in the creek. Never did catch one you know. But every weekend we got the trap out and hoped for the best. We had a rule that if you fell off the log into the creek we would pull you out by the hair. For some reason my mum had told me that was the best way to get someone out of muddy water. I guess her reasoning was we would be slimy and slippery and by our hair would be the safest way to get us out. Well I had every one drummed up to to the hair pulling rescue tactic, unitl of course one day I fell in and all the kids were grabbing for my hair and I am screaming out "Don't pull my hair, Stop it don't pull my hair" I laugh now thinking of it, I was such a drama queen.

Me in my school uniform heading off for my 1st day in year 8

We had slingshots and we would hide under my dad's big work truck which he parked on the footpath and we'd aim at the wheels of cars going by. Well, once again I didn't aim, I never could work out how to use a sling shot. But hey I was under the truck with the rest of them and I was picking out the cars to aim at. By the way we lived in a quiet neighbourhood so the number of cars zooming by was like maybe one an hour. Yep it was a long day when we played this, but of course we got caught. Some old lady down the street worked out what we were doing and went right on in and told my parents. Boy did we get it!! And I got it just as bad as the other kids who coud use the darn sling shot, guilt by association was a big one with my folks.

We were never home for lunch, who had time to eat when we were so busy creating havoc. If we did get peckish, we'd race in grab a couple slices of bread, slap on the peanut paste and that was it. We'd be gone in a flash. No obese kids back then, too much to do and just not enough time to do it. I miss the good old days. We knew our neighbours really well and they disciplined us just like our parents did. You never gave cheek to them or watch it. I remember one day the girl across the street Nita running in screaming that her mum's tongue was stuck to the freezer. My mum and dad raced over and here was Mrs. Simpson with her tongue stuck fast to the frozen up wall of the inside of the freezer. She must have decided for some reason to lick the ice or something and she got stuck. My dad was racing around getting hot water, not too hot though and pouring it over her tongue to melt it off the ice. Can you imagine now, knowing your neighbour well enough to call them to rescue you from that. Hysterical. And that lady came to my dad's funeral 5 years ago and she still lives across the road from where I grew up 48 years ago. I don't think I've lived in a house with my husband for more that 7 years and that was a biggy for us. We must have some Gypsy blood in us. Times have changed, some for the good and some not so. But the memories are wonderful.