Summer memories

Now that my boys are here for 2 weeks I'm reminded of my summers as a kid. As with most memories of the past I remember things in a dreamy haze. I know it wasn't all good and happy and I was certainly bored to insanity more than once. All in all it was a good childhood.

There were tons (25 or so) of kids to play with. There were all ages so my brothers and I all had someone our age. We usually played all together for a majority of the time but broke up into smaller groups. near dinner time we would be in a group game and kids would get called for dinner until there were none left. Games we would play are:

-red light green light

-red rover

-hide and seek

-reverse hide and seek

-baseball / kickball / football

-treasure hunt

-simon says

We lived near forest park so there were planned hikes both short and long. We also had a tribe game we played. We "lived in the woods" and lived off the land. It was a great game that would take days to play. The usual cops and robbers and cowboys and indians were mixed in here and there as well.

Probably the most fun of all for the neighborhood was the roller derby skates faze. We loved going to the roller rink but it was hard to coordinate so we all purchased skates. We would roll en mass all over the neighborhood. Since sidewalks just went on and on it was pretty easy. My street wasn't a culdesac but just one long street.

I know the parents were pushed to the limit since most of us never wanted to take our skates off. If we had to go to the bathroom or come in for a meal we kept our skates on and "walked". At first they fought it but they finally gave up. Great memories. I only hope my boys can look back and feel the same.