I was sitting on the garden love seat last night fending off wifey's advances and I got to thinking, as you do in times of crisis, about being young again. I remembered things we did as youngsters like scrumping apples and flattening pennies on the railway lines. Kissing the girls. (Yes, just kissing). Can you lot remember that far back? What did you do in the long hot summers?
Young again: I was sitting on the... - Lung Conditions C...
Young again
Written by
phillips1
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35 Replies
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I always remember fishing in the duck pond in the local park,a stick,cotton, a matchstick as a float and a worm tied on the end catching sticklebacks,sitting in dads wheelbarrow on the way home from the allotment,and swimming in the river on hot summer days.Bliss,so many memories 
phillips1• in reply to
Me too John. Fishing in the river Ouse at Bedford. Sometimes falling in and getting shouted at by mum. They closed the open air pool in Bedford during the polio scare because it was fed directly from the river. No immunisation for polio then. But still happy days.
Bobby
• in reply tophillips1
Isn't it funny how only the men have answered this post !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Peta
phillips1• in reply to
That's because the girls weren't proud of what they got up to Peta. lol
Bobby xxx
• in reply to
Interesting point Peta, I hadn't noticed - theories anyone
Chris
• in reply to
I daren't say Chris, we would all be in trouble just for thinking it lol
KingoftheCocktails• in reply to
Please take note Peta, KOTC has not answered this post !
with or without parents permission?
Without:swimming in the Thames at Runnymede (when it was so filthy no other living thing to be found in the water).
Playing chicken on the Piccadillly Line in West London. Tube drivers stoping their trains to yell
Making bonfires on Hounslow Heath to cook stolen bacon ( a wonder we didn't start a bush fire).
Running away to a better life (several times being brought back by police, twice from Heathrow).
Those were amongst the exciting things (dont want to remember most of my childhood) escape & freedom are what I remember best 
We used to scrump gooseberries from the doctor's garden - scary! and apples from the posh house in the village. My earliest memory is riding home from the fields with my sister on either Punch or Judy the cart horses with my father leading them, and feeling Oh so safe. Happy, idyllic, sunny days.
It seems disloyal not to remember my childhood as a happy time but it was not my choice to be sent to boarding school at six or for my father to die at seven. To go 'home', a new address I'd never seen, to be introduced to my new 'dad', - I don't think so at eleven. My older brother and I were always in the way. I do not have a memory of my mothers arms around me in affection. Yes I can remember, and it's my choice where I begin.
Chris
phillips1• in reply to
I am so sorry you missed out Chris. When I met my current wife she had three youngish children. Their father didn't want to know so I tried to treat them exactly the same as my first three kids. Modesty aside I think I managed to do a good job. They all love me to bits anyway.
Bobby
• in reply to
Hugs, homebreeze. If sad things happen when you are a child, never forgotten. I know.
• in reply to
I'm in your corner Homebreeze. My dad taking my mum to hospital and coming home with a little sister but no mum. I didn't think it was much of a swap at the time. I do love her to bits now. my grandparents brought us up. They were very kind but old fashioned so not a lot of freedom.
Oh Chris childhood memories, can't imagine what it would be like to have unhappy memories. I always made sure my own children's days were always sunny and happy for them to remember. I also went to boarding school but when I was 10, that wasn't so happy.
Lib x
Did Scrumping too Bobby, and used to play run-outs over the fields, and climb trees. We had old cars we used to drive around the gardens of friends houses and up and down a private road. An old Wolseley is the one I remember most. And on the hot days we used to get the bucket of water out and wash them, used to get soaked. Used to take my friends goat for a walk on a lead. Used to gamble our pennies away playing penny up the wall. Never went to school if the weather was good, and old Bone the truancy officer used to chase us across the fields, but we were quick. LOL
Anna xxx
Playing in a local river where we were told NOT to go. Roller skating almost everywhere except at school and bedtime! Train spotting at the top of our street where the railway station was..(.influenced I think by having two older brothers). Making ice slides in the winter. Cherry knocking and scrumping.
And definately something that wouldn't happen now - asking young parents if they would like us to mind their babies or take them out in their prams for a walk. Seemed back then that if you lived in a small community in the 60's and you were a young girl you were trusted with this and given pocket money as well !! How simple life was
Lovelight xxx
• in reply to
Yes with the babies, I used to take a baby called Adam out in his pram for a walk while his mum got on with the housework or laundry, I must have been about 9, I had forgotten that - gosh he'd be in his 40's now. Started babysitting when I was 12 in the evenings for people who did not really know me.
anna xxx
phillips1• in reply to
You really were a bad girl Lovelight. And you were right about the girls walking babies. Could you trust today's girls to do the same? I don't think so.
Bobby xxxx
Yeh but Bobby we had some fun !
Bobby, are you having a crisis? Can we help? PeeG
Having adventures in the local woods - climbing trees, picking the wild strawberries and just lying in the long grass, chewing the stalks. Being a kid really and never staying indoors if I could help it. Sitting in the pub garden with a glass of coke and a straw, cucumber butties and an after eight mint on the side (that's when the chocolate addiction kicked in then and then on the swings. Loved it and it seems like yesterday - oh hang on .................... xxx
Thinking back, total freedom from a young age. There was a vast expanse of open, wooded countryside, woods, derelict buildings, wood barns, all of which had to be explored. Health and security wouldn't have come into it. f there was a trespassers etc. sign, we were in and trespassing. Our mothers didn't know where we disappeared.
Old haunts have long since disappeared to be replaced by Asda and housing estates.
There was a lake with an island in the middle. One winter, it froze over, and I was dared to cross over to the island. The ice started to crack and I flew!! Happy memories! Sigh!
5 of us girls all the same age in the street, each with a young bratling sister or brother. Jam sandwiches, orange squash, bag of crisps and an apple then the 2 mile walk to the unheated outdoor swimming pool. Get there for 10 had to be home for 5. 6d for hot soup or the busfare home. Would you allow your 9 year old to take little one swimming all day now? Tina
phillips1• in reply to
Kids are over protected today Tina. I sometimes woner if we are doing them a service or not.
Bobby
Tickling trout in a stream that fed a local river, running wild all day down in the vally, exploring the "wedding caves" standing under the water fall on hot days, babysitting, for little brothers & a sister! Listening to pop songs, practicing dance moves with my friend Jackie, reading doing the house work, cooking meals for Dad when he was on shifts, picking Whimberries, making four layer chocolate cakes filled with fresh cream & covered in chocolate mmmmm, babysitting for neighbours, helping out at the local Darby & Joan club
loved every bit of my childhood till I was 13, after that, not so much, still been & gone, & it makes us who we are!
Thanks Bobby, lovely blog
The Witch
xxxxx
I have to ask this. What on earth is a Whimberry?
Love from Bobby xxxx
I remember most playing on a building site when I about 7. We weren't officially allowed on it but being kids we all ignored it. We would chase the workman who would chase us in return. I remember the older kids climbing onto the workmans hut and jumping off into sand. I was taunted for not doing it and one day did climb to the top. I was too scared to jump until a workman turned up and all the kids suddenly scattered. I leapt down so fast you wouldn't believe it. But onto gravel - all the sand had gone!
There was also a big hole which filled up with water and we kids used it like a swimming pool. I found a frog and took it home to mum who put it in a bucket of water. One or two of the workman liked kids and I remember sitting with loads of other kids in the hut with my legs swinging off a table listening to stories and feeling totally happy. Aaaah the innocence of childhood! Sigh....
Bev x
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