I am going to talk about my childhood a bit. I started elementary school (first grade) at five. We didn't have kindergarten like they do now to prepare children to start school. I still clearly remember walking to school on my very first day with my brother and some of the other neighborhood kids. I was so excited! My school was a big old brick building surrounded by big shady oak trees. I loved school!
We didn't have video games or computers back then. We didn't even have televisions for part of my childhood and when we did get one, there were a few programs we watched together as a family in the evenings but it was not on during the day. The only time we watched TV in the daytime was on Saturday mornings. We would watch Sky King, Fury, The Lone Ranger and cartoons for a few hours, and then it was outside to play. During the summer months we would be out all day playing tag, hide and seek, or swinging on our burlap sack rope swing. When we got older, we got a bicycle and would ride all over the place in search of adventure. We would go to our neighbor's cement pond and monitor the tadpoles becomming frogs and feed the goldfish.
My best friend at the time, Benita, had a huge Japanese Plum (also known as a Loquat)tree in her yard. We were always so impatient for those plums to ripen! We used to climb up in that tree and sit and eat half ripened plums until we were scolded by her Mom and told to come down or those plums were going to give us a stomach ache. Here is a picture of what the plums look like.
Growing up in Florida was great because most days were sunny and the skies so blue! On the few days it did rain I would play on my porch with this big doll house I had that had individual rooms (the front of the doll house looked like a regular house but the back was all open) with furniture that I could rearrange to my liking. The furniture was made out of plastic but the doll house itself was painted metal. I have always had a vivid imagination, so I could sit and play with that house and my dolls for hours.
Talking about blue skies...here is a picture I took through the sunroof of my car yesterday on my way home from work.
I was at a red light and just happened to look up. That is an oak tree to the side.
Signing off for the day. Have a good evening. xxx
I wonder if today's kids will remember all the TV and computer games. I hope that they too will have memories like these.
ReplyDeleteMy vote is with Florida weather Joy x I hope you are enjoyung the challenge and getting to know everyone x
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely blue sky. Your memories brought back many childhood memories of mine.
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely memories of your childhood, we definitely had a better time then than now, such a shame that today's children cannot experience the growing up outside and the use of their imagination that we had. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story about the plums! I used to do the same with apples in my friend's garden. I never did get stomach ache though. We were the same not watching much TV because there wasnt anything to watch! Thanks for sharing your memories
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely story, Joy. I also used to play outside with friends when I was a kid and honestly, it was much better than computers !
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