APPLES ON A STICK, MAKE ME SICK, MAKE MY STOMACH GO TWO-FORTY-SIX....

For some reason I'm on a kick about writing about when I was a kid, so here goes another one:

When I was a kid, I loved to be outdoors. I literally lived outdoors and don't remember playing in my house as much as I did outside. I loved to Jump Rope. We never had fancy jump ropes. We just used the cotton clothesline. You can jump rope by yourself, but that is really not that fun. You really need a mimimum of 3 people to jump rope. My friend Cindy and I used to tie one end of the jump rope to the handle of the stair railing and that sort of worked. It was more fun to have two people turning the rope and at least two people jumping. We loved to "run in" and jump and "run out". It was really challenging to get like 4 or 5 people jumping and running in and out. We thought we were so cool that we could do that. It was really something when someone learned a new jump rope song. I can remember we used to jump so much that at night when I went to bed my legs would hurt.

I also loved to play Hopscotch. We would draw a Hopscotch on the driveway and play everyday. I can remember we used to look around so we could find a "cool" Hopscotch rock. When we found one, we would find a special hiding place outside to put them so we could use them everyday. I don't know if anyone knows how to play Hopscotch, but here's how we did it: You draw a Hopscotch board on the driveway. It really doesn't matter what it looks like, as long as you have boxes or triangles with numbers on them from 1 to 10. You could have more numbers or less numbers. Then you start by putting your rock on #1. You're really supposed to toss it, but #1 is so close, it's like a "given". Then without stepping on #1, you hop on either one foot or two (depending on the pattern) all the way up, and doing a hop, turn around and go back. When you get to #2, you stand (either on one foot or two, depending on the pattern) and pick up your rock and then hop onto #1 and go off. Then it is the other person's turn and then when it is your turn again, you toss your rock on #2 and do it again. If you fall, or don't get your feet all the way into the box or triangle, or accidently hop into the one with your rock, you miss. Also if you toss your rock and you miss, it is the other person't turn. First one back through all the numbers wins. You may have played it different - that's how I played it.

The other thing I loved to do was ride my brother's bike. I know I've talked about this before in a couple of blogs. His bike was red and I thought it was way cooler than my bike, because it was red, more lightweight than my bike, and it was a boy's bike. I used to love to ride it about 3 blocks away to a cul-de-sac. As soon as I would turn into the cul-de-sac, I would let go of the handlebars and go completely around that cul-de-sac without using my hands. I know, it was awesome. And I thought I was so awesome that I could do it. Admit it, you're impressed. :0) (jk)I also used to love to ride it up at the Junior High School after school was out, or on a Saturday. The Junior High had big wide sidewalks and I loved riding it on their nice smooth walkways. Also in the back of the school there were big wide steps that you could actually ride your bike down. Then once you finished at the school, there was a loooong sidewalk all the way down the hill (the Junior High sat on a big hill) to the dead end that led to my street.

I loved to roller skate. We didn't have shoe skates, but we had these metal skates that clipped on to your shoes, and they weren't inline skates either. They came with a "skate key" that you wore around your neck on a chain or string. You used the skate key make the skates wider or narrower to fit to your shoes tight. You needed to keep the key around your neck in case they loosened up, or in case you needed to take off your skates. Once again, the best place to skate was the nice, smooth sidewalks at the Junior High.

When I started getting to old for skating, skateboards were invented. We never had any money to buy stuff, and we knew it didn't do any good to ask our parents to buy us stuff, because they didn't have money either, so we made our skate boards. We found a board and dug out those skates and Voila! A skateboard! Everyone wanted to use the skateboard, so that prompted us to find other things we could ride down the street. My mother had this cushion on wheels that she used to use to scrub the floor with. It makes my knees hurt to think people actually got on their hands and knees to scrub the floor. We used that scrub cushion until we literally wore the wheels off of it riding it on the rough cement. Another thing we found in the basement one day was an old office chair that my dad once used in his office. Not many people were brave enough to ride that office chair down the street. Once you got on it, there was no steering to be had, and you were at the mercy of the chair. For some reason I remember either Twist or Sticks riding it and it tipping over. We may not have used it that much, but the image of one of them riding it down the street makes me crack up to this day. It was a funny sight!

Kids today just don't know what they're missing.....