[senior citizen]

Think back to when you were 8 years old, or thereabouts.....

How did you call on your friends to come out and play on a Saturday morning?

All of our grandchildren today have "play dates" and are invited back and forth to each other's homes...........as were our own children. Our home was always open to our kids' friends. However, ours also played outdoors as back in the 1970's and 1980's it was still perceived as "safe" to play outdoors and in the woods, etc.

But, at the expense of sounding like Rocky Balboa in Philadelphia......I still recall in New Jersey.........standing in front of a friend's home (all of our friends did the same thing and if one didn't answer you went on to the next house)........and yelling "YO CAROL" or "YO BARBARA".....

Have no clue what that YO meant.......but that's what we did.

WE NEVER RANG THE DOORBELL..........as we got older we did go inside our closest friends homes and they came into ours.........but still have the memories of "calling" for our friends on a Saturday morning or during summer school vacation when days were endless............

Must be a city thing..........

[asianthree]

we just played outside all day where ever you were someone made you lunch and you were dragged in for dinner than outside for flashlight tag

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by asianthree

we just played outside all day where ever you were someone made you lunch and you were dragged in for dinner than outside for flashlight tag

Yup........and catching fireflies at night in the summertime............

[rubicon]

usually met outside to play handball sandlot baseball/football and yes we did yell out Carl were going to have a game so meet us down at the park
We were so lucky to have mostly boys in our neigborhood so we could form at least two teams. No girls allowed...at least until we hit 12

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by rubicon

usually met outside to play handball sandlot baseball/football and yes we did yell out Carl were going to have a game so meet us down at the park
We were so lucky to have mostly boys in our neigborhood so we could form at least two teams. No girls allowed...at least until we hit 12

Yucky girls. Now, we girls let the little boys, like our brothers, play with us when we played "school" or "house" and they'd be the husbands.....
Very innocent "house" by the way.....

The boys also played all types of sports as you mention above.....
We all roller skated together on the sidewalks........slate ones were the best.

It was also the Davy Crocket era so we all ran around with Davy Crocket hats..........singing his song.........swinging on our swing sets.......or at the park.

From the very youngest age..........I'd say we used our "imaginations" for outdoor play.........and the entire outdoors was ours....

Our kids, born in late '60s and early '70s still played out.........but we noticed a big change in the kids born in the 1980's........they seemed to be more on the computers indoors or else a bit more sheltered by their parents.

[ugotme]

It was kind of "known" that as soon as you were up you went out to play stickball. If you were not there someone would yell up to you.
Played a game then went for egg creams at Pete's.

Out all day - Iron tag, King, Skullsy, punch ball, stick ball, hide and seek - I could go on and on. . .

Ahh well - the times - they are a changing!

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

It was 1959 so I would text my friends and ask which video game they would like to play online.

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by ugotme

It was kind of "known" that as soon as you were up you went out to play stickball. If you were not there someone would yell up to you.
Played a game then went for egg creams at Pete's.

Out all day - Iron tag, King, Skullsy, punch ball, stick ball, hide and seek - I could go on and on. . .

Ahh well - the times - they are a changing!

Sounds familiar all right...........so we all "called" or "shouted out" if our friends weren't all out there at a certain time? No one does that anymore..........but we sure did it.

Those were the days.......especially summers off from school.........when a day seemed like an eternity...........

[Phanatic Luvr]

How times have changed !!!!! I wonder what it will be like in another 50 or so years?

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

It was 1959 so I would text my friends and ask which video game they would like to play online.

Is that a typo? How can that be????

1959 was the year Hawaii and Alaska became states.....
We were Freshmen in high school in 1959.....

There was no texting and no video games.

We got our son his first computer and Atari games, pac man, etc. and he was born in 1971.

[ugotme]

Originally Posted by Phanatic Luvr

How times have changed !!!!! I wonder what it will be like in another 50 or so years?

I WILL LET YOU KNOW !

[Cantwaittoarrive]

Originally Posted by asianthree

we just played outside all day where ever you were someone made you lunch and you were dragged in for dinner than outside for flashlight tag

Same here or sometimes I would just yell out the back door to Johnny's house to see if he wanted to play

[redwitch]

For me, it depended on the country -- was in USA, Germany and Japan in 1958. In the US, we were just all outside after homework and chores (usually an hour after school). In Germany, it was a polite knock on the door, a few minutes with the mother and then off to play in a backyard (never, ever out front). In Japan, playtimes were arranged well in advance. It was considered rude to just drop in or yelling for a friend was never, ever acceptable. (BTW -- The Middle East was most like the USA with kids always being outside playing, yelling for friends if they weren't out.)

[BarryRX]

1957....home from school, change out of school clothes, do homework, then outside to play stickball, basketball, stoop ball, Johnny on the pony, playing with our hula hoops, roller skating, yo-yo's, box baseball, off the wall, touch football, etc. Most times we all just sort of met outside, but often we would go to someone's window and yell for them to come out and play. On Saturdays, we would be out playing early, but everyone would head inside at 10am to watch Howdie Doody.

[Serenoa]

I grew up on a farm, and our closest neighbor that had kids was about a mile or so away. I'd ride my bike down to Charlie's house, or he'd come to mine. Otherwise if there was no one to play with, I'd entertain myself by shooting baskets, riding my bike, shooting my BB gun, or play with my collie dog. Never felt lonely, there was always something to do on the farm.