As far as I can remember, I was first allowed/mandated to play outside by myself when I was 4 years old.  I lived in a garden apartment complex in a cross-street culdasach (4 dead ends in all), which made for a relatively safe traffic environment. The complex backed up to a hill with a small playground on the bottom, a large field, and beyond that a large wooded state park. In between the blocks there were large native trees (oak and maples mostly) because in those days, real estate developers didn't plow down all of the existing woods to speed development along.  Other kids in the neighborhood were also allowed free-range rights, so there was plenty of group exploration and discovery to be had.

Here are some of my earlier memories:

1. Discussing whether acorns were nuts, then tasting one after finally figuring out how to crack it open.

2. Experiencing the thrill of finding a sharp knife in the open storage area of a vacant ground apartment and showing it to the older kids (2nd or 3rd graders I believe) who took it away and hid it - I looked and looked but never saw the blade again.

3. Being a member of a "club" hosted by the older kids that met inside of a fenced backyard of a vacant townhouse. Older kids organized some kind of activities for the younger ones. I recall basking in the attention.

4. During a large blizzard when my parents were out shovelling with the community, taking a dare to climb on top of a car and jump headfirst into the drift. My mother came and pulled me out by the legs.

5.  Playing hide-and-seek, tag, etc. with a pack of 10-12 kids.

6. Being allowed to stay out after dark one evening to play monster when my best friend had out of town guests our age visiting.

7.  Seeing how deep we could dig a hole in the backyard.

8. Throwing rocks at a kid who stole my big wheel and ran up the hill after he lost a race to grab one of the two available swings... at the same time my father got home from work and was standing at the top witnessing the whole event.  Not a fun evening.

9. Discovering and tasting wild onions.

10.  Looking for four leaf clovers with Mom.

Some of the more exotic experiences:

1. Seeing a teenage boy with long hair for the first time in my life walk through the complex. Discussing with a couple of friends whether it was a boy or girl.  Yelling out "hey girl" to test the waters. Getting chased and experiencing sheer terror.

2. Being chased with a scream pack of kids around the complex by an adult who was probably one of the several homeless ex-veterans who lived in the woods nearby.

3.  Standing outside with a crowd of people (including my mother) and watching the nearby field of tall grass burn down and the fire department come after one of the first graders went out and played with his parent's lighter.

4. Trying to figure out who owned a picnic table in front of a vacant apartment in the back yard. After determining with a friend that it belonged to nobody, somehow disassembling the entire thing. A kid whose family owned the table caught us in the act and repeatedly told us his father was going to "skin us red" when he got home. My mother then accompanied me to the owner's apartment to oversee the apology.

Later, I'll write a separate thread about the even more bizarre stuff that happened in the early 80s.

I wish I could give my kids could have the same quality childhood as I had, but modern society won't allow it.  Paranoid parents prefer to liberate themselves from their kids with Ipads than to let them go out into the world and discover how to interact with others through their own experiences...

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-07-11-pastimes-childhood_x.htm

I lived in a wonderful neighborhood to be a kid. The neighborhood was built right after WWII for all the GIs coming home. Every house pretty much looked like the other-4 bedrooms, 1 bath. We had 6 kids so my parents put on addition so we had 6 bedrooms & 2 baths. Our house looked totally different from everyone elses.

This was the height of the Baby Boomers so most houses had a lot of kids. We didn't have the most kids in the neighborhood. One family had 7 and there might have been some with more. Everyone knew everyone else and everyone kept an eye on everyone. I remember when I was VERY young (don't know how old I was but I do remember that I was still in diapers), I wandered away from the house and ended up about 3 houses down. There were a bunch of "older" kids (they were probably something like 7 or 8 years old) and they started to play with me. I'm sure their mother called my mother to say that I was there. There was never panic.

The center of the neighborhood was a playground. In the summer we had councilors that taught arts & crafts & other activities including some sports. There were always different days (i.e. Hat Day, Costume Day, etc) and there would be contests. My favorite was the annual Scavenger Hunt. We would be given a list and go from door to door searching for these objects. They objects were just little things like a piece of cat food or a flower seed. Things like that. The entire neighborhood was involved. I can't remember if it was once or twice a week, the kids 8 years & up got on a bus to go to a local pool.

But Halloween was the best. It was ALWAYS on the Saturday adjacent to Halloween. The parade was led by the fire department followed by all the kids in costume. It would go to the playground for judging and then all the kids went trick-or-treating. By the time the sun went down, all the little ghosts & goblins were safely home. When I moved away, and I heard some kids say they were going to start trick-or-treating after the sun went down, I thought all the candy would be gone by then because I have never HEARD of trick-or-treating in the dark.

In the winter, we did have ice skating at the playground and behind what we called "The Little Store" were Big Dynamite & Little Dynamite-the best place to go sledding. Don't let the names fool you. Big Dynamite was the tamer of the two. 

We had woods that we played in, our big back yards (or a neighbor's big back yard), trees to climb, etc. And we ALWAYS knew that we had to be home when the street lights came on.

I have since reconnected with some people from that neighborhood and everyone says the same thing-it was the BEST place to be a kid. I really hated that we moved away.



Cat 

Sounds nice Cat. Too bad there isn't a way to roll back at least some of the isolating technology that has shattered these kinds of community experiences.

I was born in the mid 1970's, playing outside as a kid growing up was great. It was my exercise as a boy, playing with my friends half the day and going in when the sun went down.I got to play on my small bike and ride the neighborhood. Didn't have any technology to worry about and that was a good thing for the neighborhood.

It was natural to play outside in the 70's, as long as the weather held up.  The outdoors wasn't considered as dangerous as today (I think this shifted somewhere between mid 80s and mid 90s).  Plus until console video games became popular, there was less allure for kids to remain inside for long stretches after school.

As a pre-teen and then teen during the 70's, I spent as much time as feasible outside.  I lived on a farm for a bulk of that time, making it even more fun to be outside.  Although that's where I got into most of my trouble...  ::)

We lived on a cul-de-sac too and were one of the last houses at the bottom of a hill. There were 6 houses in our little cul-de-sac and we were great childhood friends with two of the other houses. We had a club, climbed trees, did performances for our parents, made up dance routines, cycled with our BMXs (early 80s) etc. I remember we all found a dead bird being eaten by ants and we all buried it. We also built a "treehouse" in our friend's garden - though in this case it was above a 4-person swing, so it had a good base. I have loads of photos of this period thankfully. :)

Plus until console video games became popular, there was less allure for kids to remain inside for long stretches after school.

That's what I did after school, I came home and played video games for a few hours before doing my homework.

Not the 1970's but more like the mid 1980's.

After I moved away from the neighborhood that I wrote about above, we still played outside. I remember one time we were in the kitchen. Someone splashed someone with a handful of water. The person who got splashed could just let that go so they had to get the first person back. It escalated from water in the hands, to a cup, a pitcher, and it was finally moved outside so the hose could be used. A trip to the local store was involved to get some balloons. When it was over, it had rained over our house and our house alone-inside & out. And of course we were all wet.

I also remember the bench to our picnic table was my balance beam for the Olympics (1972). I was so afraid of falling off the bench while doing a cartwheel (which I could do quite well actually) and scraping up my leg that I would purposely do the cartwheel off the bench and my legs would be well away from the bench so I never scraped them up.

I also had my little bicycle that I would ride all over the place (without a helmet). For some reason that bike kept shrinking. It was the strangest thing.  ;) :D ;D ;D


Cat

I enjoyed playing with my friends almost all the time until it was time to go inside for dinner when the sun went down.

I tell The Boy this all the time. It something you will never see again but as a kid in the 70's it was a
daily thing. It didn't matter what sport, a single kid would be at the park with a ball tossing it or kicking
it by themselves. In mere minutes another kid would show up and it would be a catch and not long after
that there would be enough kids to field two teams and then some. The basketball court was a block away
from where I lived. I can't tell you how many times it was that by the time I got to the court there kids
following behind to play a game. It was a great time to be a kid.

After dinner brought kick the can, jail break, break the gate. There was wall ball, step ball, half ball, wire ball
hose ball, stick ball, deadbox, tops and marbles. From early to mid 70's I wouldn't leave the house without my
bag of marbles, two tops and my returnable Piels bottle cap.

... played video games...
Not the 1970's but more like the mid 1980's.


True - the technology didn't mature until mid- or late-80s.  Video game consoles revolutionized at-home entertainment in a major way.  8)

I tell The Boy this all the time. It something you will never see again but as a kid in the 70's it was a
daily thing. It didn't matter what sport, a single kid would be at the park with a ball tossing it or kicking
it by themselves. In mere minutes another kid would show up and it would be a catch and not long after
that there would be enough kids to field two teams and then some. The basketball court was a block away
from where I lived. I can't tell you how many times it was that by the time I got to the court there kids
following behind to play a game. It was a great time to be a kid.

After dinner brought kick the can, jail break, break the gate. There was wall ball, step ball, half ball, wire ball
hose ball, stick ball, deadbox, tops and marbles. From early to mid 70's I wouldn't leave the house without my
bag of marbles, two tops and my returnable Piels bottle cap.


You probably got so much exercise and that was a good thing, no technology to distract anyone, nobody staring at their iPhone all the time and nobody playing their music so loud.

I remember playing outside nearly every day in my g'mas back yard. Me and all the children she babysat over the years, and the summers were the best. During summer, shortly after breakfast we would all go out the back door and spend time in that yard until close to noon and we stayed active while were were out there.  She did not purchase many toys, she had a simple metal swingset  and some rubber balls and such, but the 'toys' we wanted, were her old pots and pans, and old kitchen tools-once one lost it's usefulness in the kitchen she would give them up to outdoor play. She would allow us to make a tiny mud pit with the garden hose in the corner of the yard and we would have the most fun making mud pies and just generally making messes with it. :)  We would run around that yard and be superheroes, or adventurers, many imagination-type games. In the winter we could go outdoors for a shorter time but we would have fun pulling each other round on an old sled, or sometimes trashcan lids. Making snow forts when it snowed. And I don't recall once being worried about whether one of us were going to be snatched or harmed.It probably seems very simplistic, but it was so much fun for us. I have ran into now-grown people that had been children at my g'mas that talk about the fun we had with those pots and pans and games. I think I loved it so much because outdoors I did not have to be the proper little girl, and could run and have fun.

Speaking of playing outside, does anyone else remember doing this?

Speaking of playing outside, does anyone else remember doing this?


Oh Yeah, I remember playing "pug nose".  ;D

Speaking of playing outside, does anyone else remember doing this?



Yup!  :)



Cat

Speaking of playing outside, does anyone else remember doing this?


What were those things anyway? ???

What were those things anyway? ???


Seed pods from maple trees. Silver maples are abundant around here and those freakin' helicopters
are everywhere. I loved them as a kid but hate them now...hmmm....just like snow.

What were those things anyway? ???



They are maple tree seed pods.



Seed pods from maple trees. Silver maples are abundant around here and those freakin' helicopters
are everywhere. I loved them as a kid but hate them now...hmmm....just like snow.


I see someone beat me to the punch.  ;)



Cat

They are maple tree seed pods.


I see someone beat me to the punch.  ;)



Cat


Sorry Cat, I was just reading and thinking of the flora of my childhood and figure I'd just answer it.

Aside from putting helicopters on our noses, Honeysuckle bushes were open season. A late summer day wouldn't
pass by without tasting the sweet nectar of the honeysuckle. There were two common things in our neighborhood
in the 70's, chestnut trees and aluminum awnings. Not saying that I partook in the activity....wink,wink...but a big
chestnut bouncing off an aluminum awning at night makes a mighty racket. An older lady across town would wonder
what happened to all her figs, I wonder too.  ::)

Another lady let us pick her cherries as well as the pussy willows so we could take them to our moms for flower
arrangements. Thinking back, she was using us to prune her tree, man do I feel cheap...

Sorry Cat, I was just reading and thinking of the flora of my childhood and figure I'd just answer it.

Aside from putting helicopters on our noses, Honeysuckle bushes were open season. A late summer day wouldn't
pass by without tasting the sweet nectar of the honeysuckle. There were two common things in our neighborhood
in the 70's, chestnut trees and aluminum awnings. Not saying that I partook in the activity....wink,wink...but a big
chestnut bouncing off an aluminum awning at night makes a mighty racket. An older lady across town would wonder
what happened to all her figs, I wonder too.  ::)

Another lady let us pick her cherries as well as the pussy willows so we could take them to our moms for flower
arrangements. Thinking back, she was using us to prune her tree, man do I feel cheap...



There was someone in the neighborhood that had a mulberry tree. They had a log fence that was prefect to climb and sit upon while picking the mulberries. I don't recall ever asking them if we could climb their fence and pick their mulberries and I don't recall ever being yelled at not to. A few times we TRIED to bring some mulberries home with us but the bucket we put them in always seemed to have a hole in it because by the time we got home, the bucket was empty.  ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D


To this day, I can't eat a mulberry without thinking of that tree. And I'm thinking of planting a mulberry tree because I love them so much.



Cat

I never thought to stick a 'helicopter' to my nose, but we did used to stick thorns off rose bushes on and pretend to be rhinoceroses!

I never thought to stick a 'helicopter' to my nose, but we did used to stick thorns off rose bushes on and pretend to be rhinoceroses!


Didn't that hurt? :o

I never thought to stick a 'helicopter' to my nose, but we did used to stick thorns off rose bushes on and pretend to be rhinoceroses!

Didn't that hurt? :o
The pointed end of the thorn is on the other end of the thorn from the nose.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MU99MMJ9xOM/TPNsaczsw2I/AAAAAAAAAT4/YmYe-iV4N2I/s1600/IMG_1143.JPG

The pointed end of the thorn is on the other end of the thorn from the nose.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MU99MMJ9xOM/TPNsaczsw2I/AAAAAAAAAT4/YmYe-iV4N2I/s1600/IMG_1143.JPG


So I'm guessing it looks safe?