when I was a kid...

When -I- was a kid, we played outside. If we were sitting in front of the tv on a beautiful day, mom shooed us outside. And we actually played. We always had a big backyard, and were fortunate enough to have kids on our street to play with.

When we lived in the trailer, we'd jump rope, play hopscotch (yes, we actually did play hopscotch), and dig holes in our dirt yard that never seemed to grow grass. We'd pick blackberries off of the bush that grew wild behind it, straight off the vine with grubby unwashed hands. We'd catch lizards and pull each other in the red wagon up and down the street. I remember one Christmas me and Ash got bikes. Mine was pink and hers was purple, with baskets and matching handlebar streamers. It was awesome. We'd play follow-the-leader in the park across the street, which is where Ash sliced open her foot on the broken wine bottle and had to go to the emergency room for stitches. Sixteen, was it?

Once we moved to the rental house and the one my parents bought, we'd ride our bikes all over the neighborhood and play Power Rangers. There was a tetherball, a merry-go-round and monkeybars on the school playground. Tetherball was awesome. Summers were a free-for-all. We'd leave in the morning and had to be home by the time the street lights came on. If you were old enough and could tread water for 2 minutes and swim the length of the pool, you could come without a parent. We didn't have cell phones so our parents could check in- you had to call when you got to your friend's house. We'd rollerblade all over the place, and devised a game of street hockey where you used tennis rackets and a tennis ball instead of hockey sticks. The game ended when the ball accidentally went down the gutter.

We climbed trees- and one time the neighbor kid fell out of one right on top of my leg. That is the worst pain I've ever been in... I'm surprised neither of us had broken bones.

We did a lot of stuff that we shouldn't have, and our parents either overlooked it or didn't know about it.

I think I'm one of the last generations that actually played outside as kids. We didn't sit in front of the tv or the computer. We entertained ourselves. We listened to the radio and tapes. I saved up my money from my 12th birthday to buy a cd player and it was super cool, heavy and huge. We got our first computer that connected to the internet when I was a freshman in high school. I remember you had to wait for the computer to dial up, and you couldn't stay online for long because it tied up the phone.

I didn't get my first cell phone until I was 18. Until then I used the house phone. I fought with my siblings about who got to use it and there was always the threat of someone listening on the other line, which, we sometimes did, haha.

Ahh, how times have changed. I feel like an old person!