Things that were better as a kid

[flamesfever]

I go a long long way back to the 40s, growing up in the north end of Toronto. It was when all the kids in my area used to attend a Saturday afternoon matinee. I can still hear the hoot and hollering of 100+ kids, jumping up and down, with popcorn and assorted stuff flying through the air. The cost was all of twelve cents, and if you were lucky you had a dime for a few extras.

In those days, no one really had any money to speak of. There was no real middle class as we know it. The kids played games like cops and robbers, tag, hid'n go seek. As we got older, the kids organized their our own baseball and hockey tournaments. The equipment usually came as a Christmas or Birthday present. There were about 8 of us that hung around together growing up.

In the winter we would toboggan and play hockey on a local pond, etc. In Spring we would get our rubber boots to wade through pools of water, and collect pollywogs in jars. In summer we would build our own gocarts and race down a local hill, build a raft to float through a local swamp, or go on a hike through fields and over to a large wooded area called Parsons Bush. In the Fall we would get a new pair of breeches, and would play in the falling leaves. I recall everyone used to rake up their leaves from their lawn into large piles and would light them on fire. The scent of burning leaves reminded us that the cold weather and snow was soon to come.

After our Sunday dinner, our famly would gather around the radio to listen to Lux Family Theatre, Boston Blackie or The Shadow. Our family had the first tv on the street...I think it was an 18 inch. All the kids on the street used to come to our house to watch programs like Howdie Doodie or the Lone Ranger.

I am truly grateful for my childhood years.

[topfiverecords]

Oreos

[MoneyGuy]

Oilers

[SportsJunky]

Originally Posted by transplant99

We will prepare taco meat and just mix it all up...so good.

Jesus, no.

Reminds me of my older sister. She would make us eat the Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper. Vile stuff.

[Zevo]

Chocolate easter bunnies. Always got a good sized solid one, sometimes two or three if the grand parents sent one. Now it seems most are hollow...kids get screwed big time.

[Wormius]

Friendships.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Nothing.

[Calgary14]

Pizza pops. Those shamrock shakes McDs has for St Patricks Day (I googled the ingredient list and that ruined it for me). Slurpees

[Swift]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Life.

Pretty much everything is better as a kid.

Was gonna say exactly this. A life without stress, anxiety, responsibility, work and the seemingly faster pace of every facet of 21st Century existence? Yes please!

Originally Posted by Locke

Whatever you say....Calvin....hows your pet tiger?

:P If you're familiar with the Nanaimo Parkway, before that was built, it was just trees, swamp and trails. Actually the swamp that I used to play in is now a park! Northfield Marsh Park.

[Dion]

Taking a pocket full of quarters to play pinball at the local arcade.

[Cheese]

Movies for a quarter.. And that was a double header with cartoons before the show. Saturday afternoons were great.

Playing outside until it got dark and noone ever worried. Great times.

No cell phones. Hell using a regular phone was a PITA, we just rode our bikes over to a friend's and knocked on the door. Our one speed bikes with banana seats and high handlebars.

No computers. We had to go to the library or look things up in encyclopedias.

No calculators in school. Had to do it the long way.

TV only had three boring channels.. Saturday cartoons and HNIC were the mainstays.

[mivdo]

Drive-in theatres and watching planes take off and land right by the airport.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Cheese

Movies for a quarter.. And that was a double header with cartoons before the show. Saturday afternoons were great.

Playing outside until it got dark and noone ever worried. Great times.

No cell phones. Hell using a regular phone was a PITA, we just rode our bikes over to a friend's and knocked on the door. Our one speed bikes with banana seats and high handlebars.

No computers. We had to go to the library or look things up in encyclopedias.

No calculators in school. Had to do it the long way.

TV only had three boring channels.. Saturday cartoons and HNIC were the mainstays.

One of my favorite things i ever owned. 1974 CCM Mustang

Almost identical to this one.

[OutOfTheCube]

Christmas. And Halloween. Basically all holidays in general are better when you’re a child.

[calgarybornnraised]

Originally Posted by Puxlut

Non-existence of parental supervision.
My parents would just kick me out for the day. If I was hungry for lunch, come home. If not, make sure you're home for supper... or at least listen for my dad's whistle which you could hear from 10 blocks away. My friends and I would go into the forest behind my house and we'd build the most kick ass forts and rafts to go float around in the swamp (surprising none of us drowned). I just measured out that we'd ride our bikes through trails 3km's away from home where there was caves, cliffs and chasms that at 10 years old was magical. No idea how we didn't get lost or seriously hurt! But now all kids have an alarm that goes off if they go 10 feet from a parent. Has the world changed that much? I'd like to trust my daughter, but she's almost been run over twice in the past 6 months because she can't figure out that cars drive on roads. And now all the kids get to play in are concrete jungles

I grew up in Wildwood and had Edworthy Park as mine, Good Times.

[driveway]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Life.

Pretty much everything is better as a kid.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by transplant99

One of my favorite things i ever owned. 1974 CCM Mustang

Almost identical to this one.

That's my bike!

And then we would extend the front forks until it was almost unrideable.

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by Jbo

I miss Calvin & Hobbes. What an amazing comic strip...Do newspaper comics even exist anymore?

I remember my dad getting the Sunday paper in pieces because I dug out the comic section before he got there

Obviously a huge Calvin and Hobbes fan too. I bought a bunch of collections of them and far side for my kids to enjoy when they get older.

Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side are great examples of how much comics suck now... or maybe how amazing they used to be.

Spoiler!

[Dion]

Going to Saturday afternoon matinees @ Studio 82. A dollar got you in with money left over for candy and pop.

A quarter would get you a bottle of Orange Crush or Hires Root Beer from the pop machine. Everything was in glass bottles and you would have to fight the bees and wasps that were swarming the empty bottles stacked next to the machine.

Street hockey games almost every night in the winter and challenges with other streets in the neighbourhood for our own version of the Stanley Cup. Having dad make hockey nets out of 2x4's, painting it red and using white fish net for netting. Or buying the Cooper plastic hockey blades and heating them over the stove to make Bobby Hull banana curves.

Tobogganing on the hills of the Maple Ridge golf course. Everyone brought their shovels and helped to carve a bobsled run in the snow. Then there were the massive jumps we made at the bottom of the hill where we went flying off of on our inflated tractor tubes. There was the usual bumps and bruises and in some cases, broken bones but we all survived.

Houses that had Block Watch signs in the window that gave you a safe haven if you were threatened or needed help.

Getting the Sears or Woodwards wish book each fall and thumbing through the toy section looking for ideas for Christmas.