Toy Story You: What were your favorite childhood activities?

[graceanne]

When I was little, like under six, I liked to play house. As I got older, I started reading constantly, and by the time I was 8 that's pretty much all I did to the point of it being dysfunctional and my teachers complaining that I read too much. lol I can't think of much else I did, cause I wasn't really allowed to leave the house for anything but girl scouts.

 

[notalwaysweak]

I'm jealous of BiBunny's gymnastics; I always wanted to do gymnastics but we couldn't afford lessons. When I was a bit older we could but then I was too tall for it so I did roller blading instead, but not in any official sense, just in a skating for six hours every Saturday sense.

When I was really young, though, if I wasn't reading I was playing outside. We lived on one and a bit acres of land and so there was a lot of space to run around and climb trees and so on. Despite being in prime snake territory I only ever saw two that I recall and both of them had just been run over by the lawnmower. We had neighbours with swimming pools, so summer was spent in those, mostly.

I was into Barbies - I had about seven Barbies to one Ken so I regularly crossdressed at least one Barbie to even out the gender ratio - and they often died horribly, or ended up tied up (hello, early manifestation of bondage fetish). I was also into lego and Matchbox cars and Slinkies and My Little Ponies.

I rode my bike a lot when I wasn't rollerblading; the back track behind the schools (it ran from the primary school to the high school) was the best place to ride because the boys had built BMX jumps down there and there were also natural dips and humps in the path that made it a good bike path. Nowadays it's been smoothed out and it's not nearly as interesting.

I'm sure I could remember more if I tried but that probably covers it!

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

Juice boxes for everyone, and a massive play date!

 

[Netzach]

It was either playing Star Wars, road hockey or playing around construction sites and wishing I could operate one of those big machines. The latter became a lifelong dream.

UNTIL...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNQstoyTYJw&feature=share



Apologies for extremely bad video quality.

Freaking awesome! I came by my bob the builder fantasies later in life. There's a place here where you can go play for like 1000 an hour, I'm not doing that, but I'm holding out hopes I get to someday.

 

[Keroin]

Freaking awesome! I came by my bob the builder fantasies later in life. There's a place here where you can go play for like 1000 an hour, I'm not doing that, but I'm holding out hopes I get to someday.

It is SO worth it. I could not stop laughing like a maniac. Seriously, I would consider this as an alternate career.

 

[graceanne]

I'm jealous of BiBunny's gymnastics; I always wanted to do gymnastics but we couldn't afford lessons.

When I was six my grandpa paid for ballet lessons for me, and I LOVED them. Plus, I was really good. In another world, I think I could have been a ballerina.

 

[BiBunny]

When I was six my grandpa paid for ballet lessons for me, and I LOVED them. Plus, I was really good. In another world, I think I could have been a ballerina.

I had dance, baton, and tumbling all in one. I was terrible at dance--ballet, tap, jazz--and so-so at tumbling and baton. But the tumbling is what got me into the gymnastics thing. I ended up taking gymnastics "lessons" later, though I never competed because we were too poor for that shit, LOL.

 

[knot_sweet]

I never played house, or with dolls, or mummies and daddies or any of those domestic or girly type games. My mum though there might have been a problem with me, so she took me to a child psych. When the question was raised why I didn't want to play those games, my response was "Why would I want to do that? I can do that for real when I grow up if I want".

On weekends, I loved playing with my brother's tonka trucks and matchbox cars. We used to build massive dirt tracks in the yard. When we weren't playing in the yard, we'd be down the beach. Sometimes I'd stay over at my best friend's house.

On holidays we'd go to my friend's house out in the country and get into everything from digging cubby houses in the abandoned sand mine to sliding down the dump heaps on old tin sheets.

During the school day, I'd read. Almost constantly. I loved books and the librarian was very understanding about my choice of material after she realised that I understood what I was reading. I mostly read classic fiction. I remember my grandad had one of the original prints of "Waterbabies, and I loved the pictures. Later on I moved to fantasy fiction, human biology books, science fiction and horror stories. I still read a lot even now.

I went through a real science nerd phase. To the point where my folks bought me a microscope and a basic chemistry kit. I looked at everything through that thing, including my burnt off wart and my grandad's blood. I still enjoy human biology. The human body fascinates me, and I've become extremely good at first aid. Emergency tracheotomy anyone??

After school hours I played sport of various kinds. Over the years I tried everything from karate to hockey. I found I was best at individual effort type sports. I wasn't a good team player. I'm still not.

For a few years I studied music. In primary school it was the recorder. The school music teacher used to give me free lessons. In high school I went over to the clarinet and saxophone. I've recently started trying to learn the violin.

It surprises me to learn after reading this, that I'm still more or less exactly the same type of person now as when I was a child. The only difference now is that I've learned to laugh at myself and the world. I'm not anywhere near as serious as I used to be.

 

[cherylashi26]

Reading, playing with Lego, space battles with my Star Trek models, etc.

 

[FurryFury]

Oh yeah. Chemistry set fun was great. Sadly they've mostly neutered those chemistry sets now.

 

[Dianthus]

long summer days, leaving out the back door with a peanut butter sammich and koolaid in Tupperware, to play in the woods. Building forts, climbing trees, fording streams, picking berries, putting pennies on the railroad tracks

running down the street after a swim in the neighbour's pool, towel tied like a cape, to the Batman sound

making up games involving a soccer ball, bases and five antsy girl children

making snowmen and forts and having snowball fights across the driveway

playing in the construction sites, getting into fights with boys who made my friends cry, riding my bike with no hands, picking gravel out of my knees

tire swings and monkey bars

playing dress up in my friend's basement and dancing to her older sisters Osmond records

brownies, guides, lunch-time ballet lessons at school and reading, reading, reading. There was no such thing as YA lit when I was growing up. I went from Dr. Seuss to whatever I could find. By nine, I'd worked my way through some fairly inappropriate books, like Costain's The Silver Chalice.

 

[BonBon1976]

I was a big reader - I was reading biographies and non fiction stories about horses etc when other kids were reading comics and children's books.
I was also a voracious draw and sketcher. I used to get so desperate for paper to draw on I would cut out and use the blank pages at the start of books as my sketch papers.
I played with barbie and Gi Joe's - my barbies jumped out of copters with the GI's


BB

 

[TarevaChine]

I was a baton twirler during my childhood. My favorite part of it was twirling fire. It was not only beautiful, but it was a hell of an adrenaline rush.

 

[ripeandproper]

I played dress-up a lot with my younger sister. We lived in a remote area so we made up our own world. My mother still has the box of clothes

 

[knot_sweet]

Oh yeah. Chemistry set fun was great. Sadly they've mostly neutered those chemistry sets now.

Yes they have, but it's amazing the chemicals you can play with around the house...if you're a none too cautious and plenty curious child anyways.

 

[culloden]

Reading, a lot. Outside, we played football (full-on tackle with no gear), kill-the-guy-with-the-ball (in those less enlightened times we called it smear-the-queer), army, wiffleball, stickball, basketball. In the summer, we swam and fished in the pond up the road, rode our bikes all over creation, and built forts in the woods.

In the winter, it was board games and sledding and erector sets. I built lots of projects in the basement. I shot guns from when I was old enough to hold one, and once I was old enough, I spent many hours hunting.

I liked growing up in the sticks.

 

[Curious_in_Cali]

I spent lot of time with my grandparents, so I played a lot of card games, board games, and read through some classics my grandmother thought were important. I alsoremember devouring The Little House on the Prairie series, Anne of Green Gables, Babysitter Club series, and anything by Shel Silverstein. I think if I had to pick a favorite from my earliest memories of reading it would have to be The Secret Garden as I still have a soft spot for it.

 

[Redkate]

The Anne of Green Gables series was also one of my favourites. Being a redhead made it so I think. It could also explain my childhood obsession with wanting to be Molly Ringwald and being in love with Judd Nelson!

 

[graceanne]

The Anne of Green Gables series was also one of my favourites. Being a redhead made it so I think. It could also explain my childhood obsession with wanting to be Molly Ringwald and being in love with Judd Nelson!

I LOVED the Anne of Green Gables series.

 

[Chiara_searches]

Juice boxes for everyone, and a massive play date!

But what were your favorite childhood activities, DGE...I don't recall seeing your answer.

 

[knot_sweet]

I spent lot of time with my grandparents, so I played a lot of card games, board games, .

Thankyou. You reminded me of the endless rainy weekends my parents would play Monopoly, Talisman or Canasta with us kids. Once a Monopoly game between my dad and I lasted over two weeks because neither of us were willing to concede defeat. Grandad taught us Blackjack. He was once a professional gambler and to this day I remember his lesson about not gambling what you can't afford to lose. If there weren't stakes, he'd teach us to play. The second we put a stake up, whether it was matchsticks or money, he'd play to win and usually take us for everything.

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

But what were your favorite childhood activities, DGE...I don't recall seeing your answer.

I keep meaning to post, Chiara, and return to this thread, but work keeps getting in the way. One thing I didn't do as a kid, was go to long meetings. Except meetings of small nazi tanks attacking cowboy fortifications.

And, btw, it's good to see you.

 

[Chiara_searches]

I keep meaning to post, Chiara, and return to this thread, but work keeps getting in the way. One thing I didn't do as a kid, was go to long meetings. Except meetings of small nazi tanks attacking cowboy fortifications.

And, btw, it's good to see you.

*waves* I miss Lit and the witty questions posed by some Damn work keeps getting in my way, too. Don't work yourself to death!

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

Damn work keeps getting in my way, too. Don't work yourself to death!

Workworkworkworkworkwork---

ACK!!!



Thump.

 

[knot_sweet]

Workworkworkworkworkwork---

ACK!!!



Thump.

can i volunteer the cpr??


(usually the threat of that is enough to get even a semi dead guy recovered enough to run a marathon in the opposite direction)