MidSummer Tales: Summers of Your Youth

Krak,

I love your stories, and yes, it did cause some summer memories to bubble to the top for me.

I grew up in a semi-rural area where some neighbors had horses. A couple of neighbor girls and I would wander through the fields and woods, and sneak bareback rides on a horse now and then without the owner's knowledge of it. We were out of sight of home all day without our parents ever wondering or asking where we were going. Your story reminded me of the time I grabbed the barbed-wire fence to spread it apart enough to squeeze into the horse pasture. Bang, a charge of electricity knocked me right on my butt! The owner had never had the fence turned on before!

I have three older sisters, and all 4 of us played softball. We biked to the local field for practice and games with our gloves hanging on the handlebar, and again the parents had no involvement - they didn't even know when our games were. We spent hours and hours every day at that field. I remember the sky being so blue, and the grass so green, dotted with yellow dandelions...watch out for the bees!

When there was no softball to play and no horses to ride, one of our favorite activities was to climb up on a garage roof, sit there for a while with feet dangling over the edge, and then dare each other to jump. Eventually we would each jump, usually not doing too much damage beyond a twisted ankle or two, and then climb back up and see if we could do it again. How many of us would want our kids doing that these days, LOL? I remember spending a lot of time climbing trees too, and seeing who could get the highest up before branches became too close together, or too flimsy. Plenty of scratches from the branches, some sticky pine sap on the hands, arms, and in the hair, and a few falls, but that never stopped us from climbing. I do not remember watching any daytime TV during summer vacation - we were outdoors most of the day.

Julie

In the late 60's early 70's...we lived in a rather new subdivision in FLA...about 15 miles from Kennedy Space Center...the cool thing was there were back to back CORNER LOTS in our subdivision undeveloped. Probably about 1971 or 72, a bunch of us ruined our dad's mowers cutting the fields down and literally dug up basepaths for our own SANDLOT field to pass time away. Great times...and we challenged the neighboring subdivision for a game...just like in THE SANDLOT movie.

Being in Florida, it was all baseball during the spring and summer, then football all winter.

JT- we lived in Satellite Beach in 1965. What a great place to grow up. Intercoastal waterways with dolphins swimming in them(and alligators sometimes), a boat & dock in our back yard and the beach about 1/2 mile away. I would stay out all day in a little sail boat and explore. Bet Florida looks alot different now. Where did you live?

We lived in Rockledge...about 15 miles inland.

Ah, great memories. Late 70s early 80s in Central Illinois.

Constant baseball games...got nine kids, got a game. got three kids, got a game. just change the rules to fit the players.

Just like Sandlot, lose the ball and the game ends. Played with a few baseballs but a lot more tennis balls, wiffle balls and racquet balls.

Pitched endlessly to the duct tape strike zone on the chimney. Used a 2x4 for a pitching rubber.

Played a lot of "hot box" (kids call it pickle now). Neighbor's mom worked at a carpet store so we had those 1x2 samples for bases.

Annoyed my dad several times a week to get the ball out of the rain gutter.

Hours alone in the backyard mimicing the unique batting stances of Joe Morgan, Yaz and others. Announcing the game in my head, "3-2 count, 2 outs, bases loaded, down by 3..."

Wore my Toughskins and white spikes to practice. Didn't have Under Armor and Oakleys.

Rode my bike everywhere, including on and across busy highways. I won't let my kids ride around the corner today.

Rode to the pharmacy to buy packs of Topps (the one and only) baseball cards. Sat under a tree in the Dairy Queen lot to open the cards, trade doubles and eat that awful gum.

There's so much more. Thanks, Krak for bringing up the good old days!

My summers never involved baseball as that was a love that came much later in my life.

For three years of my childhood I lived in Alabama, but before and after that (and since then) I lived here in the Bluegrass state.

My most fond memories are spending time and that was a lot of my summer in a small Mayberry like town near Lexington where my grandmother and greatgrandparents lived. The daily ritual would involve walking to the story with my great grandmother, but then nothing but play all day! The street was tree lined with these huge old oak trees and a small dogwood in their yard. I would take my dolls and each tree would have it's significance. One would be where I lived and I'd put a blanket underneath the tree, one would be the grocery, one would be the drug store and so on. I'd ride my purple bike along with putting my baby doll in the basket and we'd make our way about my own little created town. I could play with dolls for hours on end.

After a hard day of playing, it was often typical that we'd take a nap on the floor on a "pallet". You didn't lay back down on the beds that were already made! LOL

Such sweet times and memories!

Lived in 7 states in 10 years, then spent most of my time in Miami, FL and sometime in rural GA.

Like many of you, gone all day without a who, what, where, etc...that's the stuff we shared around the table when we ate dinner together every night. Had to be home when the street lights came on.

Lot's of fishing at the canal which was part of the intercoastal waterway. Would catch brim with bread and dig up worms when we could find them. Once in a while I'd get lucky and find a fancy fishing lure left on the bank of the canal usually or "in a garage" and attach that to my flimsy rod w/ 6lb test and a huge Tarpin would roll up and about take me for a ride but the line would always break We also had what we kids called a "Sea Cow" a/k/a Manatee that we fed lettuce to. One summer day my cousin Lisa was riding in a boat on the canal with friends, she decided to standup to take their picture...just as the boat was about to go under a bridge. Her head struck the concrete bridge and knocked her into the waterway, thank God she was wearing a lifejacket. She was out cold with a massive head injury. After several days in a coma she survived and had to relearn how to read, speak, etc.. which thankfully she did.

We lived near a huge grassy field that surrounded a TV tower. I was always warned to "Never go into that Field" It was a very Loooong walk around that field, so naturally one day I decided to take a short cut and go through the field. I began running (didn't want to get caught) across the knee high grass diagonally towards the other side. As I reached the center of the field the grass became taller and taller, it was now about up to my shoulders, how deceptive, it didn't seem that tall ! I stop to catch my breath, as I'm huff'in and puff'in, a SNAKE slithers around my leg and between my feet! I scream and set a PR running out of that field. Needless to say I never took that "short cut" again and until today I never told any adults about what had happened either

I would also collect soda bottles and turn them in for money to buy candy at the local 7-11. One day I collected bottles and turned them in and kept the money. I took the coins to a new place that had just opened, "Taco Viva." anyone remember?(when you say "Taco" say "Viva") I went in, I had never heard about or seen mexican food before. So I ordered the only thing on the menu I had enough money for. That is my first experience with a Taco and I enjoyed every unique bite. Once in a while on Saturday mornings my Dad would give me money to ride my bike to Dunkin Donuts to buy a Dozen for the family. As long as I got him what he liked in the box, I could pick the rest! Ahhh, I rode my stingray bike with banana seat and sissy bar every where!! Look Ma, no hands...got to hold onto the donuts you know. No helmet or shoes either.

In rural Ga played ball in a pasture with dried cow patties as "bases" no kidding! Rode a huge, black stallion that one day got PO'd that the chickens were in his feed and decided he'd go over and trample them with me on him. He reared up and down on them, then he thought he'd knock me off by riding through a grove of pecan trees with low branches, stopping quick and short and throwing me into a barbedwire fence. The branches ripped up the back of my shirt, I still have a scar on the back of my hand from the barbedwire. The rest of the family still talks about the "wild" ride, they were all sitting outside for a family BBQ at the time.

Life's a beach when you're a teen living in Miami. Before we were old enough to drive, we rode the bus to the beach everyday. We covered ourselves in baby oil and "fried" in the sun all day! Johnson beach in Hollywood where you could buy a slice of great pizza for $1 or Haulover beach in Miami near the pier.

One TV in the house, in the family room and Dad picked what we watched together each night, no TV during the day.

Thanks for sharing the memories everyone!

This is the BEST thread,..... ever!

When we were home it was non-stop baseball, whiffle ball, basketball and Strat-O-Matic baseball. At night we played Search. It was a hide and seek game where once you were caught you were on the search team. It forced the hunted to keep moving. At night this is where the bumps, bruises and stitches came from. We'd get banged up hopping fences, falling off garage tops, jumping out up trees, etc..

We also had a lake house forty-five minutes away. That was whiffle ball in the clearing or swimming, water skiing and fishing all day long. King of the Float (thirty feet off shore) was a great game for drawing blood and bruises. Stat-O-Matic traveled wherever I traveled.

And you haven't lived until you slow down the skiboat on a friend until he sinks above his ankles and then floor the boat, Or turn right after he cuts wide right. There were times when the skier could almost jump in the boat. He would start pulling up slack and then get whiplashed when the driver cut the other way. It as rodeo on waterskis.