OT: Something you miss from summers you had when you were young

[Northbound]

Going down to the tire stores in Unionville and getting tire tubes for a Farmington River float. The stems on truck tires were the worst they were huge and could give you a good gash.

Beer balls

 

[Griffman]

Picking scabs off my knees.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Coventry Lake. Spent much of my youth in three houses (I think on Edgewater) owned by friends of the family. On big weekends there would be 5-6-7 families packed in those houses, kids in sleeping bags mostly. Waterskiing, tubing, swimming, volleyball, ping pong, Jarts, bocce, music playing all day and night. This was the mid to late 70s to early 80s. Parents often took boats to Lakeside to go dancing in the Disco era. It was kids of all ages and I was so envious of the older kids, they seemed so cool. It was an idyllic time, very care-free.

I think it's why certain music makes me nostalgic.

 

[Spaceman213J]

My friends and I would play wiffleball, basketball and would swim all day. My dad put up flood lights over our driveway so we would play basketball late into the night. We would also play ping pong in my friends basement because it stayed pretty cool down there.

 

[husky8273]

Nok hockey at the local public school VDC (vacation day camp)

 

[StllH8L8ner]

Pick up hoops until the lights went out. Unless it was at Seymour High School where the lights seemed to stay on forever.

 

[HooperScooper]

My youth

 

[Kitaman]

Being able to swim/wade in any lake/river without turning colors. Could also drink the water without fear, if thirsty enough.

 

[TheShot1990]

Jumping off the rocks into Roaring Brook in central CT. I have no idea if it's deep enough or clean enough anymore, but it was back then.

 

[husky99]

Skateboard for hours on the mean streets of Westport with a dime in my pocket to call home if needed. (Powell Peralta Ray Bones Skull and Sword Skateboard) delivered newspapers and cut grass to buy.

 

[dvegas]

 

[TRest]

Great thread!

• Riding your bikes behind the "Mosquito Man" as he went through the neighborhoods. What a great smell to that toxic, billowing smoke, it smelled like victory.
• Playing wiffle ball during the day then whacking lightning bugs with those same bats at night.
• Lil' Jimmy Italian Ice trucks.
• Skee Ball at the 18th Ave. arcade in Belmar. Where you got nothing but crap with all of your tickets but it was your crap.

The list could go on and on . . . . .

This reminded me of when some trees in the neighborhood would get sprayed (gypsy moths?) and we would all ride our bikes underneath smelling the fumes. I would like to say we were all lucky to survive but several kids I knew or their siblings died in various horrible ways.

 

[RuffRuff]

Grew up a bike ride away from the wiffle ball factory. We’d dumpster dive and bring home bats, stuff them with rags and play tennis ball bounce pitch in the front yard.

 

[Rocktheworld]

All the free time in the world.

Just freedom.

 

[Rich]

Hanging out with my cousins from the next town over and getting lunch a few times a week at places like BK (Burger Buddies!), D'Angelo's, various pizza parlors in North Haven and East Haven. Also lighting off illicit fireworks before and after the Fourth.

Also hunting for baseball cards at places like Caldor, Bradlee's, WaWa and various obscure local pharmacies, retail outlets and news stand stores that always low key stocked hard to find (then) brands like Fleer and Donruss.

Also reading whatever Stephen King had put out that year and catching up on his prior stuff published in the 70s and early 80s.

Playing video games on my Atari 2600, then Colecovision and Atari 5200 and finally NES and Coleco Adam and Atari 1040ST (Time Bandit was the sh you know what).

 

[Spaceman213J]

Grew up a bike ride away from the wiffle ball factory. We’d dumpster dive and bring home bats, stuff them with rags and play tennis ball bounce pitch in the front yard.

We would take black electrical tape and tape the bat up, but we would play normal wiffle ball. My dad took our lot to the side of our house and made a wiffle ball park complete with foul poles. I would also take some surgical/medical tape and wrap it tightly inside out at the handle so it had stick grip.
We had once used sawed off broom handles, but my brother swung as hard as he could. The bat slipped out of his hands and my neighbor who was pitching had to get a bunch of stitches in his leg. I could see his shin bone. The funny thing is that he had just borrowed a pair of my socks. I told him he could keep them and he told me not to make him laugh while he was laying on the ground.

 

[HCCForever]

As soon as my dad got four of us kids to the hotel in the station wagon (where sitting in the way back facing backwards was the best seat), he'd bolt out of OC for a couple of drinks. My mom handled it well knowing us kids drove him nuts on the ride to the shore.

We also had station wagons for the six kids in our family. Sitting facing backwards was the best until we changed to the County Squire. We used to have an assembly line in the morning making sandwiches for our daily adventures. The worst was when the spigot of the jug of juice that we had near our feet was accidentally opened resulting in a flood. My father was not too happy, but we soldiered on. Great memories as we would drive anywhere in a day since we didn't often stay overnight due to lack of money. I definitely got my love of driving from my father. He once drove to Canada from Hartford turned around and came home. Both of my parents (now gone) were saints dealing with our brood.

Outside of those trips, our summers were spent outside from early morning golfing to late night playing baseball with swimming in the afternoon.

 

[Ewekon]

I grew up in a family that was very loving and though we didn't have a ton of money, summers were always a blast.

One thing I miss a lot was playing Jarts or lawn darts. I remember having to wait until I was old enough and then loved it. I would play with my parents, brother, uncles and cousins.

I know they are banned in the U.S. now. I wish they would unban them. Is there anyone who can explain to my why they are banned, but I can drive 20 minutes and go to a place and drink and throw axes in a public venue?

College girls

 

[metsfan2323]

I miss playing baseball. The anticipation and adrenaline of a big game. Warming up with the catcher prior to taking the mound. Seeing my parents in the stands.

Strike one!!

 

[Monte]

--playing baseball in my Grandmother's back yard
--swimming in a nearby river
--roaming through fields picking blue berries
--riding my bicycle to the ice cream store
--eating hamburgers and swimming at a State Park
--playing Little League baseball
--riding in the back of an elderly friend's pickup truck

 

[husky429]

Basketball in the park. Basically all I did.

I used to walk around with a basletball covered with a plastic grocery bag constantly. I think the dribbling glove industry lobbied the state hard to get rid of plastic grocery bags

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Being able to swim/wade in any lake/river without turning colors. Could also drink the water without fear, if thirsty enough.

Depending on how old you are, rivers and some lakes were much more polluted back then than they are now.

 

[RichZ]

Summer when I was a kid.
Pretty much every day in the summer from 10 years old on, it was hop on the bike and head out to Pleasure Beach Island to go fishing. One year, I went out almost every day with an old man who ran trot lines through "the gut" for eels. He'd work his trotlines and I'd fish for the occasional flounder off the back of the boat. Learned a lot about how fish relate to weather and water conditions that summer.
That ended the summer that I was 15, and the opposite sex and basketball became much, much more important than fishing. Not coincidentally, I'd grown from 5-8 to over 6 feet in a little less than a year preceding that summer.
And the next summer I started work on my first hot rod. (SB Chevy in a '52 Henry J)

 

[Excalibur]

2 weeks every summer at my uncle’s house in Montauk. He and his sons built it themselves in the early 80’s. We wouldn’t have been able to afford a yearly vacation otherwise.

Sadly, they sold in 2002 while I was in law school. None of their kids were interested in buying it. Had it been 2 years later I would have borrowed the money to keep it, and it would have been the best investment I ever made.

 

[Mr. French]

Basically everything?

 

[Griggs]

Swimming at the Recreation Camp (a.k.a. The Rec} in Derby in the morning then playing baseball across the street at Lakeview Terrace in the afternoon.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

The common theme in most of these that I miss the most is just coming up with ways to have fun with nothing but your friends and your imagination. My kids' generation really missed out on that. They are mystified by the idea of pre-internet life.

We used to go to Nantucket every summer back when my middle class parents could still rent a place for a week or two. Those are some of my best memories, staking out a spot for the ferry in Hyannis, playing wiffle ball on the beach and body surfing all day, then steaming some lobsters and eating them outside after an outdoor shower. I remember I was fascinated by the idea of a "corked bat" so I tried to cork a wiffle ball bat and then covered it with an entire roll of some fancy electrical tape my dad had in the garage. I still joke with him about how he flipped out when he got home that I had used up all the tape. Bat was a weapon though. Murdered a tennis ball.

My grandfather was a carpenter and built a cottage down in Old Saybrook - Cornfield Point I guess? - that's long been torn down. But I remember getting up early to ride my bike with my pops to get Egg McMuffins and then go crabbing all morning, then hitting the beach and waiting for the Vecchittos truck to roll up. I was a watermelon fan back then but now I'm strictly almond.

Being a kid back then was great.

 

[gtcam]

I feel sorry for kids these days - we had so much freedom in the 60s and early 70s
The cell phone has played a huge part - kids cannot stay off it long enough to do what we did.
But then again, I 'm sure I wouldn't want them to do some of the things we used to do.
I was driving around my old childhood neighborhood in Vernon the other day and all our hardball fields are now peoples homes, our special soccer field is now a Walgreens parking lot, the streams have dried up due to suburban sprawl, the small gas stations and convenient shops are gone......................................

 

[Deepster]

One of the things I have done with my teams for years is ask them "What was your favorite thing to do as a kid?" We then go around the table much like this thread has gone so far.

Then I tie it up at the end to say "Most of what everyone said they loved doing as a kid? You can still do it today. So why don't you?" Riding bikes, hiking, swimming at the beach, fishing, not being tied to a phone, leaving the house in the morning and not coming back until dark.

The key to happiness is to really identify what makes you happy.....then go and do it.

 

[Spaceman213J]

The common theme in most of these that I miss the most is just coming up with ways to have fun with nothing but your friends and your imagination. My kids' generation really missed out on that. They are mystified by the idea of pre-internet life.

It's funny you mention the lack of imagination in today's youth. I run a Lego Club at the school I work at and all of the kids are incredibly intelligent and almost all of them are in the TAG program, but it amazed me the lack of imagination most of them have. They are smart, well-mannered and respectful, but lacking in imagination.

And to save from another post,

I forgot to mention going to Fenway, Riverside (now six flags) and Quassapaug