BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: Chip2447
Date: 05 Oct 01 - 02:59 PM

Snow forts, and the perfect tree to climb. Flying a kite you made, and walking along the top of a fence. Playing Tarzan and swinging over the swimming hole, GERONIMO...KERSPLOOOOSH. Walking through the woods with your dad. Mom, the puppy followed me home, can I keep him? Passing notes to the cute little girl in the next row.
I like to believe that things haven't changed much for me in the last 30 years or so...
Chip2447, a kid at heart

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: gnu
Date: 05 Oct 01 - 06:59 AM

Gee... thanks, but, again, all I did was copy it. The additions are great... there's where the true thanks should go.

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: Bert
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 10:14 PM

Dammit, now you've got me started...

Hiding under the desk at school when there was an air raid and it was the real thing, not a drill. Being evacuated, That long train journey into the unknown.

The wet concrete smell of an air raid shelter. Ours always used to fill with water and Dad used to soak his dartboard in it. So during an air raid we played under the dining table.
Ration books and sweet coupons. Buying cigarettes for the German prisoners of war. The German prisoners giving me my first taste of sweet black coffee when the guard let us sneak into the camp.
Queueing for groceries. Whale meat, dried milk, dried eggs. When you bought butter or cheese it was cut from a large block. Broken biscuits, Blue paper sugar bags. British Restaurants, Air Raid Wardens, Dad was one. We used his great coat as a blanket for years.

Home made toys, a wooden tommy gun and a wooden "Liberator". I remember this battleship my Granddad made it was all in pieces and had to be assembled. There was a button on the side that triggered a mousetrap. You'd fire marbles at it and if you hit the button the whole thing would explode and you'd put it all back together again.
Dad gave away all our toys to less fortunate kids.

Gramophones, Vera Lynn (When I was three I was going to marry her) and Gracie Fields. "Monday Night at Eight", I don't remember what it was about but I loved the name.

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 08:58 PM

I remember 1958 too...lots of neat stuff to be nostalgic about. At the same time there have been many improvements in far too many things to list here.

But I wouldn't want to go back. I envision a better world than either 1958 OR what we have now. Much better.

And I'm still looking forward to it. This life or the next or the next. However long it takes.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 06:37 PM

We had bread delivered everyday by Bond Bakeries. Sometimes, they made tiny loaves and wrapped them in tiny wrappers just for us kids. Free!

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 06:35 PM

Miss Frances and Ding Dong School. She died last week in her nineties and I shed a tear.

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: CarolC
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 05:48 PM

And also the sound of gunfire. I remember when kids said "Bang! Bang!" when they shot each other. After Star Wars, the sound changed to "Bszhew! Bszhew!"

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: mousethief
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 05:43 PM

On another tack:

In addition to these shared memories, I think you can separate people into younger-than and older-than by their reaction to artificially colored blue food. People about my age and older find it weird and a little repulsive; people some amount younger find it a normal part of the junk food panoply.

Not to hijack the thread or anything.

Alex

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: mousethief
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 05:37 PM

I remember there being kids in the neighborhood who liked to use me for a punching bag. My kids have online friends across the world. Life's life.

alex

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 05:17 PM

1958? I wasn't born for another 6 years... I remember chopper bikes, space hoppers, jacks (or Gobs as Bert calls 'em), the Bay City Rollers, granfer's grey Morris Minor van with the smiley radiator grill... bouncing on the front seat of a Ford Zephyr put out in the back garden.... fishing for tiddlers in the river.... sherbert dabs.... riding out to the allotments on dad's wheelbarrow or the crossbow of his bike, coming back with pounds of beans or peas, shelling them and having them for lunch an hour later.... making ice lollies with paper sticks.... watching the Monkees on TV, with Ask Aspel and the Double Deckers.....

Ah, nostalgia isn't what it used to be....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: Jim Krause
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 03:26 PM

Well, I remember most of that stuff. And collecting pop (what you easterners call "soda") bottles and taking them after they got rinsed off, sorta, under the garden hose spigot to the grocery store, where we traded them in for a nickel a piece, then proceeded to blow all our loot on candy; a nickel for Butterfingers, or a dime for a package of 2 Butterfingers, 2 cent bubblegum, and typewriters that had that cent symbol on 'em.

I also remember the bad stuff, too. But I have to go now, so I won't dwell on it.
Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: GUEST,Melani
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 02:15 PM

I used to collect butterflies and moths off the front grill of my dad's car when he drove home in the evening. There used to be hundreds of them. Now cars don't have front grills, and there are very few butterflies and moths to get in the way.

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: annamill
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 02:00 PM

HEY GNU!!! Did you grow up in MY neighborhood???

I love these "old remembering" threads!

I'm sending this off to a few friends. I hope you don't mind.

Love, Annamill

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: Morticia
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 01:58 PM

Kendall here. I remember all those things plus building a raft that was so heavy, we never did get it into the water. Who, besides doug and I remember when we got the news that FDR had died ? I was 11 at the time, and, I remember thinking, Does this mean the end of our Democratic form of government? It was scary.

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: iamjohnne
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 01:38 PM

I remember all that stuff. And life was simpler then I guess. But I wouldn't want to really go back. I would lose too much of what I love now. My kids etc. Sure I remember fire flies in a jar, and I remember the bad stuff too. Like hearing planes fly over and always wondering if one held the bomb they told us about. Not the A bomb that we used but the H-bomb that was supposed to be much bigger and badder. No, I don't want to go back. I want to keep on going like I have been.

Johnne

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: Amos
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 01:32 PM

Gnu,

That was ONE HELLACIOUS LIST!!! Ya left out Cecil and Beanie, Rootie Kazootie, Captain Video, making forts out of autumn leaves, king of the hill, making Snow Ice Cream, chomping on icicles, Bonomo's Turkish Taffy (one bar could serve eleven kids if you hit it right)and one or two other things, but otherwise it was a Doozie.

Thanks for the fast loop back into 1958! And for those of you who are too young to recall, that was back when our sheltered minds had nopt yet been exposed to the tribulations and upheavals of the '60s. We were blissfully unaware of the storm we were sailing into.

Thanks again, Gnu.

Regards,

A.

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 01:12 PM

KEE-RICED ON THE PROVERBIAL CRUTCH!!!!

As long as I've known Bert (too long) the guy has been carping about that damn game!!!!! Okay...I just refreshed a thread about it to try again!!!

PLEASE!!!!!!

I can't take it anymore....

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 01:11 PM

This is why I sing in the shower and dance whenever the mood takes me, even if it's in the supermarket. I also buy crayons and coloring books. And stuffed animals. I still buy stuffed animals. And Disney movies. Lady and the Tramp is my favorite.

Do I worry? Oh yeah. Especially these last three weeks. Seems like anything will make me cry. I just put on a Disney movie and let my dog lick me on the face. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 12:54 PM

Gnu, If you had all of those things all of the time, you were truly blessed.

My childhood had a lot of blessings too, but I remember being 5 and telling my mom that Kennedy had been killed. I remember the protests, the war Viet Nam. I remember most of my toys being guns ships planes and other weapons of war. I remember bloody noses cuts and bruises form fights with the other kids. I remember corporal punishment from teachers and other parents for things I did and sometimes for things I didn't do. I remember worrying about H-Bombs. And I grew up in Canada.

All of those things you spoke of were lovely, but I'd gladly throw those memories away if I could also remove the memories of my parents arguements. I wouldn't go back to that for any price. I prefer beer to koolade and a real restaurant to MacDonalds. I like making my own decisions. So it looks like I'll have to respectfully decline your dare. But I did love skating on the pond pretending I was Bobby Orr. The feeling of earning a new sled, skates or Bike were unbelieveable. I guess that is why I have so many guitars.

Cheers

Rob

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: Bert
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 09:45 AM

I went back home and found out they'd pulled it down.

All these fond memories and no one can remember how to play gobs!

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 08:06 AM

Like T. Wolfe said, "You can't go home again"...........much as I'd like to.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: CarolC
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 07:24 AM

It's taking every ounce of self control I posess to not list all of the things I remember from the "good old days" that were neither simpler nor better. Is it just that I lost my innocence earlier than other people?

I'm remembering things like segregation and the civil rights movement, JFK getting shot, "duck and cover drills", sputnik, and a whole lot of other things that loomed large over my very small self when I was a child (including the gremlins that lived in the crawl space). I have no desire to go back to those days. Better for me to try to find the best parts of right now.

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: GUEST,karen
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 05:49 AM

Hrm....fancy research work on your part but I knew you was just faking the minute I read where you put 'hide n seek' in the time slot we all know was reserved for catching fireflies and putting them in mason jars with holes punched in the lids and a bit of plant life in the bottom of the jar. And you forgot to mention stained fingers from picking wild berries or that the tv, besides being warmed up also required that you go turn knobs and dials to switch channels....and do you remember when 'converter boxes' were all the rage so you could get that new (all the rage) movie channel? Milk delivered to your front door and one quarter of it was cream on the top that was skimmed off to make butter and ice-cream or for coffee. Dragon flies as big as small birds and those enormous bright green grass hoppers? Ever ridden in a rumble seat? No? Whipper-snapper! :) How about flavor straws for your milk? Summers lasted about three years after school let out and all meals, even school lunches, were served on real dishes and the only disposable eating utensils you used were the little wooden spoons that came with cups of ice-cream.

Subject: RE: BS: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 05:33 AM

Thanks gnu. Here's something a good friend sent me some time ago. Brings me to tears, when I realise how close it is to the truth, and I think of my kids... I make no apologies for reposting it, I just wish somebody would listen:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of a 6 year old again.

I want to go to McDonald's and think that it's a four star restaurant.

I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make ripples with rocks.

I want to think M&Ms are better than money, because you can eat them.

I want to play kickball during recess and paint with watercolors in art.

I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summers day.

I want to return to a time when life was simple.When all you knew were colors, addition tables and simple nursery rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care.

When all you knew was to be happy because you didn't know all the things that should make you worried and upset.

I want to think that the world is fair. That everyone in it is honest and good.

I want to believe that anything is possible.

Somewhere in my youth...I matured and I learned too much.

I learned of nuclear weapons, war, prejudice, starvation and abused children.

I learned of lies, unhappy marriages, suffering, illness, pain and death.

I learned of a world where men left their families to go and fight for our country, and returned only to end up living on the streets...begging for their next meal.

I learned of a world where children knew how to kill...and did!!

What happened to the time when we thought that everyone would live forever, because we didn't grasp the concept of death?

When we thought the worst thing in the world was if someone took the jump rope from you or picked you last for kickball.

I want to be oblivious to the complexity of life and be overly excited by little things once again.

I want to return to the days when reading was fun and music was clean.When television was used to report the news or for family entertainment and not to promote sex, violence and deceit.

I remember being naive and thinking that everyone was happy because I was.

I would walk on the beach and only think of the sand between my toes and the prettiest seashell I could find.

I would spend my afternoons climbing trees and riding my bike. I didn't worry about time, bills or where I was going to find the money to fix my car.

I used to wonder what I was going to do or be when I grew up, not worry about what I'll do if this doesn't work out.

I want to live simple again.

I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness and loss of loved ones.

I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth,justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind and making angels in the snow. I want to be 6 again.

Subject: Double-dog Dare... a little break
From: gnu
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 05:21 AM

Don't know the author.... hope this copies okay....

The DOUBLE DOG DARE... Close your eyes.....And go back in time.... Before the Internet or the MAC, Before semi automatics and crack Before SEGA or Super Nintendo... Way back........ I'm talking about hide and seek at dusk. The Good Humor man, Red light, green light. The corner store. Hopscotch, butterscotch, doubledutch, jacks, kickball, dodge ball. Mother May I? Red Rover and Roly Poly Hula Hoops Running through the sprinkler The smell of the sun and licking salty lips.... Wax lips and mustaches An ice cream cone on a warm summer night Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe butter pecan. A cherry coke from the fountain at the corner drug store Wait...... Watching Saturday Morning cartoons... short commercials Fat Albert, Road Runner, He-Man, The Three Stooges, and Bugs, Or staying up for Gunsmoke Or back further, listening to Superman on the radio When around the corner seemed far away, And going downtown seemed like going somewhere. A million mosquito bites. Sticky fingers. Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Zorro. Climbing trees, Building igloos out of snow banks Walking to school, no matter what the weather. Running till you were out of breath Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles. Being tired from playing.... Remember that? The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team. War was a card game. Water balloons were the ultimate weapon. Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle. I'm not finished just yet... eating Kool-aid powder Remember when... there were two types of sneakers for girls and boys (Keds & PF Flyers) and the only time you wore them at school, was for "gym." It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends. When nobody owned a purebred dog. When a quarter was a decent allowance, and another quarter a miracle. When milk went up one cent and everyone talked about it for weeks? When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny. When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, for free, every time. And, you didn't pay for air. And, you got trading stamps to boot! When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box. When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got there. When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up, if you even had one. When your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces. It was magic when dad would "remove" his thumb. When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents. When girls neither dated nor kissed until late high school, if then. When all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done. When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it. When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed, and did! When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive -by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! And some of us are still afraid of them!!! Didn't that feel good.. just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that! Remember when............ Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo." Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!" "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly." The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties. It was unbelievable that dodge ball wasn't an Olympic event. Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a slingshot. Nobody was prettier than Mom. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better. Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin. Ice cream was considered a basic food group. Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true. Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare." Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors. If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!! Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life... I Double Dog dare ya!