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Across the Fence:  How things have changed.....  |
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mikesgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
3659 Posts
Sherri
Elma
WA
USA
3659 Posts |
 Posted - Jun 21 2007 : 6:46:47 PM
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| I was responding in a different thread when the subject matter reminded me of how we had a half dug well on our property when I was a kid, with just a piece of plywood thrown over the top. How things have changed in 40 years!! Everything is so ultra, super safe now for kids, car seats, cribs, disposable diapers, bike helmets, etc. When we were kids, fun was climbing up on top of the neighbor's huge chicken houses, or jumping out of a hayloft, or walking on the trestle across the river. Kids nowdays would never be allowed to do that. I survived, but I know a lot of stuff we did was dangerous. Do you have any such memories? |
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Kathie
True Blue Farmgirl
2436 Posts
Kathie
Thonotosassa
Florida
USA
2436 Posts |
Posted - Jun 21 2007 : 6:53:03 PM
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Oh My God.. here we go Again Sherri!!!
In a World Where you Can Be Anything, Be Yourself.. |
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mikesgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
3659 Posts
Sherri
Elma
WA
USA
3659 Posts |
Posted - Jun 21 2007 : 6:56:54 PM
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| Get on a plane and get over here Kathie - we have a lot of catching up to do!! |
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Kathie
True Blue Farmgirl
2436 Posts
Kathie
Thonotosassa
Florida
USA
2436 Posts |
Posted - Jun 21 2007 : 7:06:10 PM
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Ok.. I've mentioned before that I grew up with all boys.. 13 cousins.. all boys & they were all Hellions.. We lived in the same town together our entire lives..we went to the same schools.. did everything together.. So I had to do what they did.. & as well as they did.. or they would beat the crap out of me!
ok.. all that fun aside..
In my little neighborhood we were surounded by Soybeans on one side.. Corn on another.. & Wheat on another.. there was a train track on the other side.. & before the Wheat Fields was this awsome little creek & a teeny little bridge.. My Grandmother used to have a fit.. telling s to stay away from the creek which was all the was up to my knees for God's sake.. But according to her..
"You can drown in a glass of water you know!"
So naturally THAT was where we all wanted to go..!
Well we had these Dare Devil kids from Kentucky!!
They were the best of course because they always managed to come up with the most dangerous things to get into!!
I won't say their last names..JUST the "THE SMITH KIDS"
ANYWAY..
There were water Moccasins in the creek!!
AND if THAT wasn't bad enough The SMITH KIDS.. used to bring a shot gun to the creek to shoot at the Water moccasins so we could SWIM SAFELY!!
There were like 50 of them.. ( the kids.. not the snakes..)
& they took turns with the gun..
So it was nothing for Marc to say..
"HOLD STILL KATHIE, THERE'S A SNAKE" & he would Shoot the damn gun!
& the crazy thing was.. WE WERE FINE WITH THIS!!!
We'd hold still they'd shoot at said snake.. & then we'd all go about our merry swimming way!!
Our Parents would have had a mortal stroke if we'd have told them this!!
& even now as adults.. when i tell my Mother some of this.. she just goes white.. it's just too much for the old girl I think!
Can you imagine now though??
HOLY SMOKES!
Our Kids would wind up in Jail for toting around a shot gun at the creek!
Yep.. I'd say a few things have changed!!
In a World Where you Can Be Anything, Be Yourself.. |
Edited by - Kathie on Jun 21 2007 7:08:55 PM |
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Kathie
True Blue Farmgirl
2436 Posts
Kathie
Thonotosassa
Florida
USA
2436 Posts |
Posted - Jun 21 2007 : 7:07:10 PM
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I'm on line as we speak looking at Flights Girl!
In a World Where you Can Be Anything, Be Yourself.. |
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Carol Sue
True Blue Farmgirl
4033 Posts
Carol Sue
Washingtonian
USA
4033 Posts |
Posted - Jun 21 2007 : 7:49:19 PM
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Lavender Fields Dreamer, my dd, is laughing so hard she is crying. Okay, you guys we need a book of these stories. And yes, Kathi we will meet you on your way to Sherris which is only 7 hours from us. Teresa said we just need a good old fashioned girl camping and tell the stories around the camp fire, we would be there for days!!!!!!!!!!
I remember climing in the tall maple braches and twirling like we did as kids on the monkey bars that they no longer have. Racing my bike down the road with no helmet.
Blackberry picking and walking across the tressel to get back to the car with my dd. Just normal life.
Tell us more, tell us more.
Carol Sue
Life is short, enjoy every moment. |
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MariaAZ
True Blue Farmgirl
203 Posts
Phoenix
AZ
203 Posts |
Posted - Jun 21 2007 : 8:44:07 PM
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I remember when I was around 7-8 years old, on summer nights I used to play outside until well after 10pm with my friends. There were only two rules; no crossing the street and we all had to stay under the street lights. Since all the streetlights were on our side of the street, there was a whole lotta play space. I have fond memories of playing tag and kick the can on those sultry Texas summer nights.
Oh, and I remember I practically screamed for joy one Christmas when I found a Spirograph under the tree. I spent hours upon hours playing with that darned thing. These days, I don't think such a simple non-computerized toy would be as popular among the pre-teen set as it was when I was a kid. Heck, even the stuffed animals for toddlers these days are battery operated.
Visit my blog at www.craftyfool.net |
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mommatracy
True Blue Farmgirl
490 Posts
Tracy
My. Olive
NC
USA
490 Posts |
Posted - Jun 21 2007 : 9:05:59 PM
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| I use to climb everything! I would climb up the back of the house onto the upperback porch just because it was exciting. Lord I would climb up on top of the garage and jump over to the tree limbs. I'd hang upside down from tree limbs, clothesline poles, what ever I could find...just like a monkey. Swing as high as I could get on a swing and jump into a pile of leaves like a rocket! Slide across frozen ponds....You get the picture. Fearless. The only time I broke a bone I was on my hands and knees racing at a birthday party, fell, broke my collarbone. On my hands and knees, not out of a tree! I was a wild one. Turned cartwheels with one arm with my collarbone broken. I was totally opposite with my two daughters. Tried to raise them to be prissy young ladies.The youngest one is in the Army Airborn! Payback. |
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mikesgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
3659 Posts
Sherri
Elma
WA
USA
3659 Posts |
Posted - Jun 21 2007 : 10:11:04 PM
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| Carol Sue - I am headed for Montana in a couple of weeks - go right through Spokane. If we can get Kathie here - we can have a great time, sitting around that campfire! |
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Runbikegrrl
True Blue Farmgirl
250 Posts
MaryAnn
Waterbury Ctr
VT
USA
250 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 04:09:52 AM
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I was a tom boy and hung around with the boy in town. We would leave our houses in the summer and only return at dark. I grew up by the ocean and we use to go fishing all the time. I can remember being 7 or 8 snd hanging off the docks with a string, a piece of meat from butchers dumptster attached, trying to catch crabs to sell. Also we use to go out in this rickety old abandon boat and take lobsters out of the traps near shore too (I feel bad now I know how hard lobstermen work) The best part is on the way to the water we would play "chicken" on the rail road tracks that went across a bridge. Winner was last one to jump as train approached. Now parents want to know where their kids are 24/7 and probably wouldn't let a 7 year old go anywhere alone. My parents were good parents too...it was just a different world in the 1960's 1970's. Did any of you ever play to game where you have a pocket knife and take turns chucking it between your fingers (Hopefully) hand is flat on the ground, fingers spread wide... we use to do that too...another whoever flinches loses game. Also in the winter when I was a teen we use to do bumper surfing. hold onto the truck bumper and get pulled around the parking lot with yor feet as skis! Ah all the memories
"So many interests so little time!"
http://lovelifelivegrrl.blogspot.com/ |
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mikesgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
3659 Posts
Sherri
Elma
WA
USA
3659 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 05:54:13 AM
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| Yep - did all of that stuff when I was a kid too in the 50s. I was also thinking about when my mom would let me ride the train to Tacoma (about 1 1/2 hr. trip) by myself when I was in Jr. high to go school clothes shopping. The train station was in a really seedy part of town and when I got there I would have to walk to the bus station which was quite a ways away in an even seedier part of town, and catch the bus to the mall. Then do it all in reverse to come home. I would do that today as an adult - I'd be scared to death, even though they have revitalized that part of Tacoma. Mom didn't drive though, so if I wanted to get anywhere out of our little town to go shopping, there wasn't much choice. And, I lived through it. Those were different times - not to say it wasn't dangerous, but definately not AS dangerous. |
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Kathie
True Blue Farmgirl
2436 Posts
Kathie
Thonotosassa
Florida
USA
2436 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 10:09:26 AM
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Ya know whats funny. is that i remember back them the boys got to do EVERYTHING! They got to ride their bikes to town!! & i could not because I was a GIRL!! ( Bad things apparently diddn't happen to boys back then?????) BUT, i was allowed to go if i went the back roads .. which to me now makes NO sense at all.. because isn't that where we would look for the weirdos? off the beaten track??
It all seemed so unfair to me!!!
Now of course NONE of them get to go.. so how unfair is this?
But.. remembering a more innocent time...
Yes.. funny how we were all climbers too.. i LOVED climbing!!
i practically lived in trees! I remember one time my mom had a friend from work that had stopped by one afternoon.. he had this red convertable with the top down & the interier was all white leather..
I just happened to be up in the Cherry Tree when he pulled up..
& i thought it would be so funny for him when he came out to see loads of Cherries all over the seats of his car when he came back out..
Well NOW we know of course what a STUPID idea this was!!
But WHO KNEW that Cherries would Stain White Leather while sitting out in the hot Sun???
ok.. so this wasn't really the same sort of story..
But it is a funny one!!
alright.. i have to tell you what i looked like when i was little.. Did you ever See the Movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" ?
Do you remember The Little Girl, Scout? there! that was me.. but maybe less freckles.. my hair was just as screwed up though.. why my Grandmother always insisted that i would be best in a "PIXIE" hair cut was beyond me!! & they always had to do it with a stupid razor.. That might be because they made me do to the damn barbor to get my hair cut!!! Do you know how humiliating that was? sitting on that stupid little bench on the regular seat in the BARBOR SHOP full of men with my Grandfather?? I was always the only Girl there!! Those people warped me!
In a World Where you Can Be Anything, Be Yourself.. |
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mikesgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
3659 Posts
Sherri
Elma
WA
USA
3659 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 10:23:17 AM
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| Now that you mention it, my mom would let me go to Tacoma, alone, but she wouldn't let me ride my bike to school, which was up a country road about 1/2 mile. |
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Runbikegrrl
True Blue Farmgirl
250 Posts
MaryAnn
Waterbury Ctr
VT
USA
250 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 10:54:56 AM
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Pixie cut ha ha now that brings back memories...my bangs were like a fringe accross my big ole forehead! In hinds site as an adult I know why.....mom use to have to chase me around the yard to catch me to cut my hair...it was so much work that when she did get me seated she would cut the bangs SOOOO short so it would be a long time until she had to go through that ordeal again! Yup, I was a tree climber too! I looked like a little boy...the guy in the 5 and 10 use to call me son. I wore boys converse sneakers and was flat chested (errr still am )maybe that's why my folks let me roam...figured no one knew I was a little girl anyway.
"So many interests so little time!"
http://lovelifelivegrrl.blogspot.com/ |
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mommom
True Blue Farmgirl
854 Posts
Susan
Lancaster
Pennsylvania
USA
854 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 12:21:53 PM
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When I was growing up in the fifties we lived on a big farm. Snow storms were pretty horific back then. I can remember we would get shovels and dig tunnels. My dad would hook us up on a sled to the back of his tractor and take us through a trailer park not far from where we lived. This one little dog would always chase me because I was on the back of the sled and one day he actually bit me in the butt!
Another time I went fishing with my boyfriend in the bay and the boat started leaking. No life preservers and he couldn't swim! I managed to pull him to shore. Back then I was about 95 pounds! By the time I got him to the shore I looked like a drowned baby rat! Susan |
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Kathie
True Blue Farmgirl
2436 Posts
Kathie
Thonotosassa
Florida
USA
2436 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 12:50:41 PM
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OH SUSAN!!
I forgot about about the SNOW!!!!
Remember out parents tying our sleds to the bumper of their cars & driving down the road with us on them????
Don't see that happening too often now days either!
( well especially not where I live!)
In a World Where you Can Be Anything, Be Yourself.. |
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nut4fabric
True Blue Farmgirl
885 Posts
Kathy
Morgan Hill
CA
USA
885 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 12:55:35 PM
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We rode our bikes everywhere, rollerskated down the steepest hills, climbed on anything even the roof at the school (when school was out). No wonder my parents always made me go to summer school, it was to keep me out of trouble. LOL I can remember leaving the house in the morning and not coming home again until dinner and nobody worried.
Hugs, Kathy |
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jpbluesky
True Blue Farmgirl
6066 Posts
Jeannie
Florida
USA
6066 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 1:10:58 PM
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Here is what I did that I would die if my daughter or granddaughters did! Near our house was an abandoned hospital. Bums slept there sometimes. We went in and explored every part of it, including the old elevators! What if we had gotten stuck? No one would have known where we were. There were old prosthethic (spelling?) legs, old hospital records, old photos including the type that look like negatives when you take them out of the velvet frame, chandeliers in the dining room, and an old piano in the basement. It was a grand old place! Even a sunroom on the top floor for TB patients! But the bums found out we were there and would leave threatening notes.
I also rode piggy back on my cousins' motorcylcle on farm roads in Iowa. We would screech around corners and up and down rolling hills and even fell off in ditches a few times - resulting in a skinned leg.
I chased bulls around the pasture! And biked all over my neighborhood and the surrounding parks, and wandered where I pleased! My mom thought it was safe, and it probably was. Oh, for the good old days.
Psalm 51: 10-13 |
Edited by - jpbluesky on Jun 22 2007 1:15:25 PM |
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mommatracy
True Blue Farmgirl
490 Posts
Tracy
My. Olive
NC
USA
490 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 1:33:02 PM
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| This is fun reading all of these stories. Snow? We use to sneak the lid off the old washing machine,a round one, and slide down a snowy hill on it! What a hoot. When I was dating my DH a freak snow storm came through and he got on his tractor pulling an old car hood to my house. A bunch of us had a blast sliding on that thing down the side of a hill of a highway bypass bridge. He would pull us down the road on that thing, slinging us off for fun! We were nuts. |
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Photobugs
True Blue Farmgirl
363 Posts
Pamela
Post Falls
Idaho
USA
363 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 1:57:58 PM
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I was more 'lady like' and did not do alot of climbing. But oh the mud pies I could make! This seemed to be a daily duty for me in the summer months. I also liked to "paint the house." Water being the paint, of course.
My daddy was a preacher of a small church (with small funds) in a small town, so he had to have a Monday through Friday job as well. He worked in an lumber mill and would bring home wood scraps for the fireplace. We would build some great 'forts' using that scrap wood. Of course the forts we girls would build were really our houses. We would have kitchens, etc. Our dolls were our kids.
The boys, my brother and his friends made more boy like forts. They got to use a hammer and nails and build it. It even had a top on it they could sit on. There were no trees in the back yard, so it was along the fence. My sister and I would not be allowed in there. I do not remember a "no girls allowed" sign, but it was understood we could not go in there. They might punch us or somethin.'
My sister and I would just play in the porch on the back of the house...this was actually the laundry room too...we had indoor plumbing except for the laundry. I do remember my mom having to carry clothes in and out of the house to go back and do laundry.
Before moving into that house we lived near my grandma in her old Victorian, so went to her house to use the old wringer washer. It was on the back porch. Then all laundry was hung out to dry. But this was okay by me cause she had blackberries in her back yard and I could pick and eat to my hearts content. Yum, Yum!
We did ride our bikes to "The Little Market" all the time, which was about five blocks away. Those were the days of buying a candy bar for a nickel!
This was in Northern California...the hot valley. And did it get hot in the summer. We went to the 'creek' for swimming. But if it got over a 100 degrees mom would take us to a Red Bluff to the public pool, which we loved!
One of my favorite memories of summer was watching Mrs. Ginn workin' in her yard. She was a 4th grade teacher at our school and was a heavy lady about 60 years old. She would wear her dresses and go out and bend over to weed her flower garden...oh the site of her undies hanging out! All of the kids would talk about Mrs Ginn workin' in her yard. Now I think about it she had a lovely flower garden...but as a kid I did not notice that. We always look to see if Mrs Ginn was in her yard when we went by!
We did not do too much that was dangerous...I was probably too much of a 'fraidy cat.' I am sure my brother did though.
Pamela
http://homesteadmercantile.blogspot.com/ |
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gateway girl
True Blue Farmgirl
135 Posts
Shari
Missouri
USA
135 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 2:04:08 PM
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I was born and raised in the city (unfortunately)and there were 11 kids in my family. We had our bounderies in the city which actually was about a 5 mile radius to the house. We rode our bikes or skated everywhere, from sun up until 5 pm when dinner was on the table. If you weren't at the table by 5 then there was no dinner for you and you went to bed. That was our check-in. After dinner we stayed out until 9 pm.
My best memory was spending the night at my friend's house. She was an only girl and her bedroom was on the first floor. We would make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, take an apple and set her alarm clock for 4 am. Then we would jump out her bedroom window and run to the park which was only 2 blocks away. We climbed this big old oak tree and watched the sun rise eating our sack "breakfasts". One time her mom snuck out behind us and followed us. We had no ideea she was there. We didn't get into trouble though. She just climbed up into that big old tree with us and shared our food, watching the sun rise.
If kids did this now, they would never be heard from again. What a shame that our world has gotten so violent in such a short period of time. Wish we could turn back time sometimes so that our kids and grandkids could enjoy their youth the way we did.
Gateway Girl
Guardian Angels surround me and keep all enemies from me! |
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MzzBee
Farmgirl in Training
12 Posts
Rebecca
VA
USA
12 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 3:01:56 PM
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I grew up in a small town in Michigan...talk about winters! We couldn't wait to get outside to fresh snow and I walked 2 miles and back just to iceskate. In summer we left in the am, rode our bikes all over the place, climbing trees, having apple fights, playing softball, tag, collecting birds nests and fireflies, then back for lunch or dinner. I never really told my parents exactly where I was going because who knew where I was going? In a small town, however, everyone knows who you belong to and news traveled fast back to good old Mom if you stepped over any lines. Those were dangerous and glorious days.
"Don't wear perfume in the garden... unless you want to be pollinated by bees." (Anne Raver) |
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Runbikegrrl
True Blue Farmgirl
250 Posts
MaryAnn
Waterbury Ctr
VT
USA
250 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 3:44:03 PM
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Wow, what a bunch good thing we didn't all live in the same town....can you say TROUBLE...LOL
"So many interests so little time!"
http://lovelifelivegrrl.blogspot.com/ |
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Carol Sue
True Blue Farmgirl
4033 Posts
Carol Sue
Washingtonian
USA
4033 Posts |
Posted - Jun 22 2007 : 4:56:57 PM
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Did you all have the fun elderly neighbors you loved to go visit? We had an older couple from church, Seymour and Ruth. They had a huge garden and loved to entertain. No tv, but a piano we would hang out and sing by.
Seymour has this box of wooden blocks all shapes and sizes, if you coult make a single stack up to their ceiling, you got a whole buck. We tried and tried and tried, finally one year my brother did it and shocked himself. Wish we would have had pictures of that one.
Here in our mobile park that we live in, our manager made a sled to pull behind his truck, it has a love seat on it with ski runners from a snowmobile. After dark, the ones whose parents will let them, he hooks it up to his truck and takes off. You should hear the giggles, the hooting and holler ing. It sure makes me laugh.
Where I lived we didn't get much snow, when we did it was get out those inner tubes, baby, and fly. We use to go to Mount Rainer every Presidents day, my family and some of the church family. What a hoot, if our parents had seen where some of the places we went sledding they would have had a cow. We discovered after choosing this good looking slope that if we would have gone 50 ft further it would have been over the side of the cliff part. Okay, that one scared us and we picked a different spot.
I agree with Maryann if we all would have been in the same town, goooooooooodddddd grieeeeeeeeeeeeeffffffffffff would we have gotten in trouble!!!!!
Life is short, enjoy every moment. |
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Across the Fence: How things have changed..... |
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How things have changed.....
