Originally Posted by Nucky (Post 1801273)

Sounds like a typical day in our neighborhood. We had the dream neighborhood as far as people getting along. We were there for one another as the years passed and then real-life kicked in and we were supportive for anyone needed anything on any issue it was a given that it was taken care of. The early years and Baseball all day and Basketball under the driveway lights and the Lawnmowers we picked out of the junk and made a good one out of many still sticks in my mind. We would take the same engine apart time after time just to learn. I can still smell all the oil, grease & when you mentioned the TV you brought to mind the smell of the tubes and the noises the set made when it turned off.

If I could buy a current model Console TV like the old days I'd do it in a second. Best of all I remember being The Remote Control before they were invented. Sometimes I would fake going to sleep so I wouldn't have to move and nowadays it's unusual that I can find my remote.

I would say that the best accomplishment for our little gang was the year we finally collected a couple of bucks over a thousand dollars for the Jerry Lewis Telethon. We were in amazement that Mr. Lewis could stay up for 24 hours and can remember crying with everyone else when he sang the song at the end and announced if they hot a Million Dollars in the collection. YouTube. What a great childhood. I never knew that we weren't rich. I had it all. Other than my Bike and Go-Cart and Minibike my most favorite and protected thing was my beautiful Bowling Ball. I was so happy. God Bless my parents.

Thank You for starting this thread. Along with the Ice Cream, and other thread like that it makes me so happy considering the way things are nowadays. Chitown #1 :bigbow::bigbow::mademyday:

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 1802175)

Fudgesicles WERE good. American bicycles were heavy, single-speed, had fenders, and other trappings. Kids put balloons in the spokes to become a motorcycle. Sears was a big thing. We cut our own bows from trees and used them in VERY dangerous manners. Those were the days, my friend!

Originally Posted by alwann (Post 1802171)

I remember summers growing up in Baltimore City (it was safe then) when old men in horse-drawn wagons would drive around the neighborhood selling fresh melons and corn. They'd cut out a plug from a watermelon for you if you wanted to check the ripeness.

Originally Posted by manaboutown (Post 1802193)

My mother, born in 1905, grew up in Baltimore, way, way before your time I am sure, but she told me about the horse drawn wagons and block ice being delivered for their "ice box" as she also referred to our electric refrigerator.

We moved from New Jersey to Albuquerque, NM in 1945 where an old local farmer drove a Model T Ford truck with the bed loaded with locally grown vegetables and fruit. He would stop and park it on our block. She always bought some fresh picked vegetables and fruit from him. One day he did not show up as usual. Turned out when he was seated in his outhouse a black widow spider had bitten him on his privates. He did not show until the next year but he did recover.

My mother cooked almost everything from scratch as she was a stay at home mother, a rarity these days. She had been a high school teacher of Mathematics and French but gave it up to raise her children. My father managed a small Safeway store so we always had good meat and other groceries. We rarely if ever ate out as we could not afford to do so.

My brother and I rode our bikes all over as they were our transportation to school, the movies, the swimming pool and friends' homes. There was no need to lock them at that time, either.

We played cowboys and Indians with cap guns and hand made bows and arrows. We made sling shots using inner tube rubber for power. I made a sling and learned to use it to throw rocks pretty accurately a very long way. I had a pump action Daisy BB gun I loved until its spring finally broke. I built model airplanes from scratch using balsa wood. Gliders, rubber band powered and finally glow plug motors. Those were the days!

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 1802175)

Fudgesicles WERE good. American bicycles were heavy, single-speed, had fenders, and other trappings. Kids put balloons in the spokes to become a motorcycle. Sears was a big thing. We cut our own bows from trees and used them in VERY dangerous manners. Those were the days, my friend!

Originally Posted by Bay Kid (Post 1801385)

Fishing with a string on a stick, dip netting crabs, swimming on the bay, playing baseball, riding bikes, selling Grit newspapers, growing up in my Grandfather's country store and friends.
Clean, family tv with NO cursing.
Life was great!

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 1802207)

Good memories. I made an Australian Bola and would TRY ? to hunt rabbits with it, usually unsuccessfully, but it took skill and was fun. After the nest apocalypse, I may have to practice again.

Originally Posted by fdpaq0580 (Post 1802110)

Almost forgot the school play ground, with METAL jungle gym, METAL slide that burned your butt in summer and froze it in winter. Don't forget tether ball, 4 square and the merry go round. And swings that when you got real high you would jump out. Now that was fun!

Originally Posted by Nipper (Post 1802214)

I was an editorial assistant in the mid-60's at Grit. I wrote the Doris Lee advice column. I have a lot of Grit memorabilia, including a bag the boys used to carry the paper. I plan to sell it all one of these days.