Simple childhood pleasures

[Thornyone]

I was reminded on my ride today of a couple of things that used to amuse me when I was pretty young. Can’t imagine that many kids do such things today.
1) Making “granny pop out of bed”: squeezing the base of a bindweed flower causing it to launch into the air
2) Poking a stick into a cow pat. If poked into one too-recently-deposited it is no good, ditto poking into one that is too old. Most satisfying was (is) the delightful knife-into-crispy-Yorkshire-pudding sound which is obtained when the “skin” of the cowpat is sun-dried to perfection (The sound was all: there was no unpleasant intent like flicking it or anything).
Did anyone else indulge in such things?

[bogmyrtle]

I used to pop fuschia buds.
Also in the days when things came in paper bags and when houses had working fireplaces, myself and my friend used to set a paper bag on its open end on the hearth, light the corners and watch the bag shoot up the chimney like a rocket, that is until we set the chimney on fire.

[crazydave789]

summer of 76 playing out in the park with the local kids till I was hungry then finding out it was 11.30pm and I was in trouble. for my 8th birthday I got a cheap watch.

not sure if it ever got dark that summer.

being able to wander off all day and not having the police out searching for lost children.

and that was living half a mile from Jimmy savilles mums flat

[mercalia]

I used to pop fuschia buds.
Also in the days when things came in paper bags and when houses had working fireplaces, myself and my friend used to set a paper bag on its open end on the hearth, light the corners and watch the bag shoot up the chimney like a rocket, that is until we set the chimney on fire.

blow up and pop paper bags - dont work so well with plastic ones. Use as darts those grass things that look like wheat/corn heads, look for a 4 leaf clover( or is it 5 ?). make daisey chains.

[Thornyone]

being able to wander off all day and not having the police out searching for lost children.

and that was living half a mile from Jimmy savilles mums flat

I was in junior school when Hindley and Brady were carrying out their evil (though not in their area). I remember being told not to accept sweets from strangers and thought it was because they might be poisoned, like Snow White’s apple . But there was never any attempt to imprison me in the name of safety.

[pwa]

Making dams in streams and rivers near my home.

[Bonefishblues]

being able to wander off all day and not having the police out searching for lost children.

and that was living half a mile from Jimmy savilles mums flat

I was in junior school when Hindley and Brady were carrying out their evil (though not in their area). I remember being told not to accept sweets from strangers and thought it was because they might be poisoned, like Snow White’s apple . But there was never any attempt to imprison me in the name of safety.

I remember, aged perhaps 7or8 when walking with a mate back from one of our escapades being offered a lift by a car that stopped. We knew enough to remember his number all the way home.

[ferrit worrier]

Grans homemade lemon curd.

[crazydave789]

play ground fighting where you ended up pinned down and subjected to the typewriter - something I excelled at getting out of.

dead arm competitions on the school bus.

cycling three miles to school rain or shine.

rushing home for dangermouse.

[tatanab]

The pleasure of having a clean piece of paper on which to draw instead of on the back of something. 1960s that was.

[merseymouth]

Hi all, Number one pleasure in childhood? Got to be proper toilet paper, rather than cut up pieces if the Liverpool Echo! TTFN MM

[Stradageek]

+1 for disappearing all day aged 9 and coming home to unworried parents when it got dark, often as result of cycling to far and getting lost. What about buying a box of bangers aged 11 and wandering the fields blowing up cow pats?

[Cyril Haearn]

Cow pats are great for learning about biology

I have a grownup activity, collecting fruit for free. Eating a lot of cherries at the minute

[Audax67]

+1 for disappearing all day aged 9 and coming home to unworried parents when it got dark, often as result of cycling to far and getting lost. What about buying a box of bangers aged 11 and wandering the fields blowing up cow pats?

How do you blow up a cow pat with a sausage???? Mind you, our butcher...

A thing that crossed my mind was how it used to be perfectly normal to carry a penknife in my school-blazer pocket. I suppose nowadays I'd be suspended and sent for counselling, while my parents were hauled in for a word with the head.

[Cunobelin]

We used to have a back service road to RAF Wyton

It was ideal for us as it was the end of the taxiway and the start of the runway, so aircrafts use to sit there for a few minutes just a hundred yards o so away.

We had everything from Canberras, Lightnings, Phantoms, Victors and even Vulcans

Spent hours and hours up there.

Funnily enough we hadn't realised the "Network" that my Mother had!

One day one of our friends twisted his ankle and we were limping home when his Father picked us upon the car...... what we hadn't realised that she knew the woman in the nearby Farmhouse, and would get the occasional progress report on what we were doing. In this case it was a simple phone call to get us sorted.