A Blast from the Past. To all those born between 1930 and 1979. (Levittown: how much, neighborhoods)

[nancy thereader]

Honestly. I don't remember doing much homework - I don't know if I just did't do it or there really wasn't much assigned in those days. So I guess that is why we had so much free time after school.

I never did homework ( which is probably why I never did understand long division until I was forced to teach a sixth grade) . We had tons of free time and that is how childhood should be. When we wanted to play baseball, we kids would join together (the big kids would help out the little kids ) & we would all just play . No adults were there to yell out insulting remarks about a kid who did not play correctly. We took care of things like that by ourselves.

[nbres]

Originally Posted by nancy thereader

Honestly. I don't remember doing much homework - I don't know if I just did't do it or there really wasn't much assigned in those days. So I guess that is why we had so much free time after school.

I never did homework ( which is probably why I never did understand long division until I was forced to teach a sixth grade) . We had tons of free time and that is how childhood should be. When we wanted to play baseball, we kids would join together (the big kids would help out the little kids ) & we would all just play . No adults were there to yell out insulting remarks about a kid who did not play correctly. We took care of things like that by ourselves.

Yup...I don't remember even having a backpack. I'd carry a brown paper bag with my lunch to school, my pockets were full of baseball cards and maybe a few nickels and dimes - thats it. On the way home I'd have either a few more or a few less baseball cards (flipping) and a couple of school papers which were to inform my parents of the next bake sale or school trip or some other school related stuff.

As far as baseball games - we all belonged to little leagues of course, but we also organized our own practices without the coaches or parents around and we organized our own games in the off season. Of course there was football, street hockey, and stick ball. The only game we really didn't play then was basketball. We even made up new games which were a hybrid of all the other games we liked. We were constantly improvising.

Here is another fun thing we kids did. We loved it when some one got a new refrigerator. The delivery men would leave the huge box in front of someones home. We would take the box and bring it to the nearest house with an inclined front yard. Then we'd lay the box on its side, crawl in and go tumbling down the hill inside the box, all the while flipping up and over.

[ClarkStreetKid]

I watch my middle schooler heading off each morning looking like a refugee. The standard 20 pound backpack, a viola (he's all-county) and either his football or wrestling gear. The younger son just has a 15 pound backpack. And the amount of homework they get makes my head spin. Thank God they're self motivated and get they're work done, and still manage to get plenty of play time in.

I showed my kids how to flip baseball cards and the rules for different games, none of their friends would play as their cards were too valuable. They're just freakin bits of cardboard with pictures of millionaires on them for crying out loud.

TV
On rainy days, the 4:30 Movie on channel 7. They had some great theme weeks but Gladiator week and Beach Party week were favorites with us. Anybody remember the Soupy Sales show?

[nbres]

Originally Posted by ClarkStreetKid

Speaking of sumps, ever go exploring the tunnels?

Only the short ones that came out on the other side of a road or something. I was always too chicken to go into some of the other deeper darker ones that the "bigger" kids were exploring.

We did accidently burn down half of a sump once. We were shooting off fireworks and I guess the brush was dry enough that it caught fire. The fire department came and put it out. I remember them questioning the older teenagers who hung out there smoking and drinking, but in fact it was us little 11, 12 and 13 yearolds who were responsible.

We loved it - fire and fire trucks - what a great day.

[ClarkStreetKid]

As kids we were exploring the tunnels when some older kids found out and started dropping firecrackers and cherry bombs down the sewer grates. No one got hurt, but when we were stuck between grates we were scared silly.

[nbres]

Originally Posted by ClarkStreetKid

As kids we were exploring the tunnels when some older kids found out and started dropping firecrackers and cherry bombs down the sewer grates. No one got hurt, but when we were stuck between grates we were scared silly.

Kids - that is what is missing today. Back then most of us came from what would be considered big families. I was one of four, many of my friends were from even bigger families. The neighborhood was full of kids.

Today most couples only have one or at most two kids. Everyone is worried about paying for college, cost-of-raising-children, etc.. I guess. I don't think our parents worried about paying for college back then. I think they thought their big families was a good thing - that couldn't be explained in any monetary sense.

[ClarkStreetKid]

I'm an only but most of my friends had younger and older siblings.

In regards to college my dad didn't give it any thought, his advice was get a good civil service job or at least get into a place with a pension. In my neighborhood very few of us went to college after HS, the week after my graduation party I was working at Equitable in Bethpage. My 14 year old is already getting ready for college by getting into the school for excellence in engineering. It's crazy these days.

[scammed1]

TV
On rainy days, the 4:30 Movie on channel 7. They had some great theme weeks but Gladiator week and Beach Party week were favorites with us. Anybody remember the Soupy Sales show?[/quote]

Never missed Soupy with White Fang and (I think) Black Tooth.
.
As far as homework was loaded with it. Had my dark blue briefcase handy to carry the books. We didn't have backpacks then.. We had those rubber straps to hold the books together and I remember my favorite blue fountain pen and always had extra cartridges in case I ran out of ink.

[exNHPer]

Kids...no doubt. I grew up in NHP. There were at least 26 kids right around my own age on a street with about 24 houses...and that didn´t include the big kids. Growing up there was great. Now when I visit, the block has aged badly and not a kid in sight is playing wiffleball or ringalevio or any other street game. Man has the Island changed. We also had BLOCK PARTIES...families got together, everyone knew everybody, people had normal jobs and could live off the salery, there were trees around, cicadas everywhere, plenty of birds and squirrels and you could even find toads easy and once and a while a garter snake...

...and yeah, sumps were made for exploration. We would stomp down to the local sump not far from the end of the block and check it out all the time. When the water was low, we would check out the tunnels packed with slime and snails. Slime didn´t mean jack to us. Mallard ducks were always around as well as Canadian Geese. The sump nearest to us actually had an island in it, and it was connected to shore by a mud like pathway. If you didn´t boogie across fast enough, you´d have your sneaker sucked off your foot. That was also were you could get some punks that was growing in the reeds. Almost every sump had reeds with punks growing. We used to soak them in gas and use them for torches. Sumps were skated on during winter and nobody fell through...but the ice sure did crack!

We lucked out because at the end of the block there was an elementary school with a huge field that had two baseball fields and two soccer fields. Some idiot school janitor always smeared the dam goal posts with axel grease to keep the kids off of them. Fourth of July was always a major event. We always scammed "works" and somehow there was always the "chinatown connection" for the exotic stuff. Matts of firecrackers and grosses of bottlerockets and other pyrotechnic goodies like silver jets and m-80s were traded and sold en masse. "Narc" cars were always identifyable, and everyone knew escape routes. And yes, we had dirt bikes and tore through the back streets on them raising hell. Halloween was always outta hand. If you didn´t pull in four bags of absolute pure junk, you weren´t doing a good job. And shaving cream with the dispenser caps melted down was mandatory. If your can wasn´t shooting shaving cream at least 5 feet, then you were not halloween qualified.

Pool hopping was mandatory as well.

PS: Remember the ultra loud fire horns that would go off all the time? We had one about 5 blocks away and I swear that thing generated sound louder than jet engines up close. Some were long screaming whines and others were just deep roaring blasts like the sound a high noted tuba would make times a million. The dogs always went nuts. Seems like each fire district had it´s own unique version. Whenever I see the new version of War of the Worlds and the aliens hit the horn when they tear up the city, it always reminds me of those fire horns.

[Chinolala]

Isn't this fun and nostalgic? Here's some of my memories from the 70's:
playing "fort", "kick the can" and "Cops and Robbers" in the street
wearing "earth" shoes, navy blue Adidas gym shoes with white stripes, Dr. Schools and Candy's
wearing knitted ponchos, parkas with sided hoods that came 6" past our faces, headbands, roachclips in our hair, Jordache and Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, Levis' jean jackets
Having 1 or maybe 2 phones in the house, 1 television, no central air, no microwave and a jetted tub was that whirlpool contraption you hung over the edge of your bathtub
Putting "things" on the railroad tracks and watching freight trains run over them
Hanging on the metal bumpers of cars and skitching on the snow laden streets
Sledding down a snow covered mountain of municipal garbage lovingly called "Mount Trashmore"
Take the public bus to the lake to sit on the rock along Lake Michigan for hours with friends
Being grounded and banished to our rooms to read. No TV, no phone, no music
Swinging on the parellel bars in the school playlot without any protective padding underneath
Riding our bikes "hands free", or hopping a ride on our friends handlebars and not wearing any helmets or protective gear
Thinking that 8 tracks were the coolest thing ever invented
Writing our papers for school long hand with perfect grammar
Hanging out at the convenience store parking lot drinking Slurpees with friends
Driving over 1000 miles on family trips and playing "car games" in the car
Melting black eyeliner with a lighter for that really black effect
Eating leaves from bushes to mask the smell of cigarette smoke from our parents
Calling our friends' parents Mr. and Mrs. X not Bob and Carol like they do now
Being horrified when seeing someone who wasn't in the military with a tatoo
Thinking any guy with an earring was either a homosexual or maybe a rock star..period
Girls never wearing red clothes on Friday. If you did, you were a s*ut
Asking friends for gas money when we went cruising

I could go on and on so I'll stop myself here.