Things Children Could Get Away With In The Past.

When I was a small boy, maybe about 9, I would sometimes go to stores in my pajamas if I was very sick. And it wasn't uncommon for small boys that age to go into the women's room with their mothers for security reasons. I saw both of those with other boys too. But I don't know what people do today.

 

I have come across all those things that you mentioned, but less so in the cities.
What I do remember that would not be allowed today, was going to the shop to buy beer and cigarettes for my late father. (A bottle of Watney's brown ale and 10 senior service). I was about 7 at the time.

 

Sit in bars with my dad and uncle at 6 and older while they drank. The 40s

 

A drink called a Shirley Temple. And it was good!

 

Is that you and your sister in the pic buddy??

 

Yes indeed!

 

Do you remember Watney's Red Barrel.

 

Some friends and I did an experiment at a local liquor store that had a reputation for selling beer to minors. The oldest-looking friend
went first and easily bought a 6-pack. The next oldest-looking went in there 10 minutes later and bought a 12-pack. The third-oldest
looking bought a Bottle of Boone's Farm. Then it was me who looked about 15 to 16. I figured the owner would not sell to me as I
was obviously too young. I picked the smallest bottle of Tequila that they had, took it to the counter and bought it.

Later, one of the parents found out and called the police. Within a week or two that store was 'stung' by the state beverage control.
I didn't drink any of it nor did my friends. I gave the tequila to my uncle.

 

I used to fold newspapers early in the morning in a bowling alley right next to a cigarette machine like that. I don't remember the
price, but was probably 50 cents. Would be 20 to 35 cents at a regular store.

 

Just going out to play or hike in the woods for the entire afternoon....mom had no idea where we were or how to reach us.. "bye mom, we're going to go play down by that quicksand spot near by the river, you know - right near the substation with the short fence where we found our kite" 'ok but you better take your brother with you...' That was good, since he always had matches. Nobody had a watch...we were to be home when the streetlights came on.

Oh, and we would usually have a fire, too.....once we caught the side of the hill on fire....on the news, firemen and everything..."not us..."

 

while paying for shampoo at Walgreens last week, I noticed that the Marlboro Reds Hardpack, legendary cigarettes of Cowboys who smoke, costs, in California, a whopping $22 PER PACK

 

Just think....a two pack a day habit at $22 a pop would cost $1320 a month....now if that wouldn't make you quit, that is one strong damn addiction.

 

Eat breakfast and go play all day with my friend Richard at 6 years and above on weekends. Had to be home by 6 PM for dinner or got the grape switch on the back. If I was home by 6pm and had dinner, I could go back out 'till 8 or 9. People don't tolerate little kids running around like we did back then.

 

Sure, in the summer, we'd go back out until after dark...hide and seek in the dark was great... I don't think we ever found Timmy....he's probably still behind someone's trash cans....mummified.

 

I would go out from our apartment house in Brooklyn and wander around the neighborhood until I would get in trouble or hurt. This was ages 4 to 6.

I remember watching black girls jumping rope, playing hopscotch, Simon says, hide and seek. I was too young to participate in some of the games but it was fun to watch them, learn the games. They would usually be singing either pop songs or some rhyme that went with the game.

But most of my injuries were doing things my mom would never let me do. But I learned some valuable lessons.

Funny thing is those are like the only memories I have of that period, or rather the ones that come to mind easily.

Those days when I had the freedom to do as I pleased from a young age were exciting and apparently more dangerous than I realized.

 

We were out all day. Mostly in the countryside climbing trees, climbing exposed rock faces, mucking about in the pond, playing cowboys and Indians, making bows and arrows etc etc.
No one knew exactly where we were but everyone knew we would turn up at meal times. Biggest memory was when we had been lighting and sitting round fires at the local authority dump and came home to a "have you been at a fire?" and the answer would be no when we clearly stunk to high heaven of smoke.
Happy days indeed!

 

Your bike was your life, really. We used to ride so much, we'd wear tires out. Of course nobody had a good bike, ours were usually pieced together...I remember painting the frame on my bike school bus yellow and used tape to paint black stripes evenly on the tubes..

"get out of the house" was a common phrase from mom. Poor woman, with the 8 of us, I wondered why she didn't lock her self in the closet and drink...I'm sure we were perfect little angels..