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Hi, I’m Bec from Out Of My Tree… currently sitting and giggling like a fool because I am here… Guest posting… It’s so… popular, and pretty… and people read it. There is a touch of fear here, so if I start to babble just give me a slap, okay?
When I began to think about what the hell I was going to write in this post it sent me into such a tizzy that I had me a little drink of something nice… Which either turns me into a giddy attention seeking whore who thinks she can dance or makes me all nostalgic.
Now, you’ll be delighted to know that there is currently no music around here so nostalgia it is!
England is going through another one of those ‘wait for it… sunny… no… rain… grey clouds of doom… bright and blue and cold… ooo… sunny’ summers again. The kids in our neighbourhood will be playing on their Wii’s and X-Boxes or being taken for days out to Camelot or (gawd ‘elp us) Blackpool Pleasure Beach instead of doing the things we used to in our youth.
It’s a shame that they don’t play tennis in the middle of the road and nearly hit every car with well practiced 2.5 miles an hour quite impressed that I hit the ball over head serves and then have the joy of running down the hill chasing the ball before it landed in the brook, or sneakingly jumping into ‘moody man’s’ garden to grab the ball before he kept it. (Oh, we know that you have hundreds of our tennis balls - we know!
It’s a shame that they don’t have mass water fights anymore, where you end up so soaked that all of your clothes stuck to your body and you dripped on the floor while Mum yelled about your ‘catching your death’. Ah, you didn’t care, as you knew that the same thing was going on in all the other houses. Well, you’d only gone back to reload! Then at the end of the fight you would lie on someone’s lawn, or on the so hot pavement and watch the water evaporate in the haze.
It’s a shame that the kids won’t be able to leave the house in the morning with a few hastily made sandwiches and wander off into the scary woods over the railway track just to see if you can still see your house from the top of the hill (yes, I could) and then come back just before tea… which would be eaten hurriedly before disappearing out again to go off somewhere else before the sun set.
(That’s me in the middle - last day of School Stylin’ and yes, that’s a thin white plastic belt I’m wearing.)
Summer holiday’s were always sunny - there wasn’t a cloud in the sky for the whole six weeks, and there would be dramas (A fancies B who is in love with C who hates A as D likes her) which would all devolve into a huge row and then be made up over a ‘99’ from the ice cream van which would always send the crowd of kids scattering only to come back a brief ‘Ice Creeeeeeaaaamm!!!!” filled moment with cash carrying Mums and Dad’s just happy that this would mean at least two more minutes of happy quiet as the munching replaced the sounds of playing.
Happy memories of sitting on the school field (after finding the gap in the fence at the bottom) watching the skateboarders jump off anything they could, or reading a book, or planning an end of summer show and rehearsing fervently without thinking of any of the logistics of doing it and having at least one more argument because SHE thinks she can sing better than anyone else (well I could!). I was that special kind of tragic where I had transcribed the entire of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and had parts for everyone - that particular production fell apart because Robin and Marian (who were ‘going out’ at the beginning of the summer) had a breaking up… It had nothing to do with the fact that an over zealous Little John put his staff (broom handle) through his own window during a practice fight. Nothing at all.
But it’s a real shame that all a lot of kids will remember about this summer is the rain, or that they got a really score on their computer games or got another 50 friends on their Bebo or MySpace accounts.
I, however, will never forget the look on my friends faces when I walked out of my house and declared that my Mum had given in and we could turn the garage into a den, complete with an old couch, a stereo, a fridge and lots of half pots of paint to cover the walls. I was a God that summer… especially on the one day it rained!
Nothing related. Huh, go figure. Filed under Guest Post |27 Responses to “Back In The Day”
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Good Deal, Bec!
blondefabulous - It really was! Luckily, Mum has covered every wall with shelves so the bad murals can no longer be seen!
True, true. And I love that photo!
Well, it appears there’s not so much difference between childhoods in Britain and America as we might have thought!
Thanks for sharing your lovely memories, Bec.
Ah, summertime- my kids go outside for an hour a day which is about 12 hours less than I did. Stupid TV.
Good post!
We used to play badminton in the middle of the street, have water fights, play basketball in the backyard with the neighborhood kids (sometimes with my parents joining in). One summer my dad found several thick rubber mats and covered our backyard with them. We put blankets on top so we could tumble, or have picnics, or just lay in the sun.
180/360 - That photo is just one in a whole series of embarrassing ones from the ancient past. Most are just too awful for public consumption - that one sneaks under the wire!
SJ - Not so much - it just is guaranteed more sunshine, and looking better on TV, with an American accent!
whit - TV - it’s so good during the summer for kids now whereas before? Hopeless. I can’t remember staying in to watch anything. Now kids scatter for the most ridiculous things and I know their parents have Tivo-equivalents!
penny - I’ll bet the rubber mats put your house a few points up in the ‘whee to hang out’ stakes. I remember one kid having a basketball hoop - every time you missed the ball hit the metal garage door making a huge clanging sound - apparently it got quite annoying!
Wait - there’s really a Camelot?
It’s so cool when everyone loves you for your fort… or den in this case!
Thanks for sharing your memories. I remember playing Ghosts in the Graveyard in the evenings as it started to get dark.
wow……all those images just sent me into flashback mode (especially the water fights;the phrase “i only came back in to reload” got me the most. I think (perhaps hope is a better word)that kids do still do all those things but unfortunately they stop doing them a lot earlier than we did. its now cooler too be seen to be more grown up, quicker..
Yeah, those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end. Used to play a lot of Justice League. I was always Superman. Go figure.
Great guest post, Becs! I totally love your story telling abilities :).
“Blackpool Pleasure Beach”
Do a lot of the attractions in GB have porn-movie titles for names?
Avitable - Oh yes - http://www.camelotthemepark.co.uk/ and it is not in any way cheesy. Not at all.
Winter - It’s pretty much the closest you get to being king (or queen) of the castle. It’s ruler of the world practice!
Employee No.3699 - Yes! I’d forgotten about that! Wigging each other out was ridiculous levels of fun!
Neil - If only we could stop kids growing up as fast. They really don’t know what they’re missing!
Secondhand Karl - You? Superman? I was always Wonder Woman but hated the fact she didn’t have a cape! We were less about the Superheroes and more dragons and maidens in distress. I always liked slaying the dragon though. Action hero through and through… with a cape.
Hilly - Thanks babe. The nightmare of rewriting gets a good post out… If only I took this much care and attention on my own posts!
delmer - Just that one I think. It’s just down the beach from the very phallic Blackpool Tower and the park itself contains a ride called the Big One… but then it’s all back to tally ho and cheesy Benny Hill type nonsense!
Those are fabulous memories, and I have plenty of my own. Thanks for the reminder, and great post!
Sybil Law - thank you! It was insane digging through all the stories from way back when… loved every second of it though!
Love the plastic belt! Oh, and this post too.
[...] to my RSS feed. That’s what all the cool kids do. Thanks for visiting!Thanks to Bec for her delish post yesterday. In the spirit of reliving my boyhood, I immediately went and smashed three six-year-olds in the [...]
Nat - See? I was a major style icon back then. Not so much now. I peaked early in the fashion stakes!
Brilliant post. I remember playing hopscotch and leapfrog and skipping in the middle of the road. And ringing Granny Madge’s doorbell then hiding behind her hedge before she could answer. And eating sherbet and gobstoppers and ice-cream with raspberry topping. It really was a different time, wasn’t it? Excellent job on your guest post!
Selma- Knock-a-door-run! Oh, I’d forgotten about the sheer joy! The evil ball stealing ‘moody man’ got a good bout of that! And sherbet! Lovely!
[...] at the Edge Headspace Add comments Doing the post at Karl’s yesterday was like hanging out of a 50 storey window while tied to a really good bungey rope - [...]
Kids do what with their Wiis and other kids’ X-boxes??? Woah, if ever there was a twisted euphemism for underage sex, that’s it!
As a kid, growing up in Southern California in the early 70’s, we used to leave in the day, ride bikes and then come home just before dark. All without cell phones. It was great to experience that.
kapgar - heh, I’d never thought about it like that before but that’s all I’m going to hear now. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart.
martymankins - Good times and it breaks my heart that today’s youth can’t have these memories too!
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