Low Tech Childhood

Before iPhones, tablets, and even the internet...

Occasionally during lessons, I mention to children that art was a way for people to record events and research. For example, John James Audubon's numerous bird studies captured details of various species for the world to see. I explain that over 100 years ago they didn't have Google or ipads to search anything and everything, and if someone wanted to know what something looked like, they could consult the painting or print (in a book!). When I mention the concept of no internet or ipads, the kids are shocked. I tell them that it wasn't that long ago, and that there was no internet (as we know it) when I was their age.

I may as well tell them that I am from the dark ages (which they can Google if they want to learn about it. We had to pour through the good old Encyclopedia- but I digress). 

I suppose it's no different than me not being able to fathom life before TV. Sure we only had 4 channels at home and cartoons just came on Saturday morning, but at least we had TV. I have fond memories of watching Three's Company and The Jeffersons after school, and of 6am-10am cereal fests on Saturday morning (The Smurfs were my favorite- at least until they started doing the weird time travel thing). When we went to Grandma and Papa's house we watched more- because they had cable AND a $800 Beta-max that they used to record cartoons so we could watch them whenever we wanted; a concept that was beyond awesome to our every day animation-starved eyes! We weren't supposed to watch MTV, but sometimes we got away with it. :-)


Although we had our share of screen time, we spent a lot of childhood entertaining ourselves in other ways. Here's what we were up to when we weren't watching TV... "We" consists of myself, my twin sister Susie, and my older sister Jennie, who share the spotlight in the following photos...

Legos
There were never enough Legos- especially the kind with all 8 nubs on top. The short and/or skinny ones had to be combined to make enough bricks to successfully complete a house. If we were very careful with our rationing we'd have enough left over to make a roof. How I'd love to have a HUGE tub of Legos now. I looked at them the other day at Target and the "big" tub felt like it only had about 50 blocks inside. Boo!!!

Just add Water

In warm months, we loved to "go swimming." Of course, going swimming seldom included anything that resembled actual swimming. It may include playing with the hose (the fan spray attachment made it really awesome), running in the sprinkler, or sitting in any vessel that could hold more than a gallon of water.

Games with family
I have solid memories of just lying about whether or not my opponent hit my Battleships. A-17... Miss! What a little cheat I was. The same could be said about my sportsmanship playing Chinese Jump Rope. To play, you needed three people: two to hold the rope (which was actually an elastic band) and one to jump. The jumper was "out" when she stepped on the rope and then had to hold the rope for everyone else. I hated holding the rope, and would beg my sisters to let me jump first. Knowing my track record, they would say no because they knew I'd run off after I jumped without holding the rope for them. But somehow, as grandma always retold the story, they would always fall for it. My powers of persuasion must have been great. Without three people to play, we'd have to use a chair to hold the rope. This worked out okay, but the chair legs were a fixed width apart, and the rope was supposed to go from skinny to wide as the game progressed. 

Stunt Work
Climbing the walls, jumping on (and off) furniture, tumbling tricks, and make-shift cheer-leading stunts. To our credit, we never got hurt doing anything that I would probably tell Lily not to do. I'm such a nervous Nelly mom. Last week after I watched her walking the balance beam and tumbling at gymnastics class, I held her hand while we walked down the gym's concrete stairs. Although I knew she was getting too old for me to hold her hand and laughed at my protectiveness, I just couldn't let go. Maybe next time.

Eating
We LOVED to eat junk food at Grandma and Papa's house. There were always cookies, candy (miniature Hershey Bars), Little Debbie snack cakes, Neapolitan ice cream, and other great stuff that we didn't usually have at Mom & Dad's. The bottom drawer of the refrigerator had an impressive array of cold cuts, and one of my favorite things to snack on was a "cold cut plate" with various hand-selected meats and cheeses. But- nothing could ever compare to the delicacy of the bologna curl. I'm not sure if Grandma invented the bologna curl or if she read about it in one of the cookbooks that came with the revolutionary microwave when it came out in the early 80s. To make one, all you have to do is fold a piece of American cheese into 1/4ths and center it in the middle of a piece of bologna. Microwave it for one minute, and the sides of the bologna curl up to create a little bowl for the melted cheese in the center. Yum.  

Fun with Nature

There's an old magnolia tree outside of Grandma and Papa's house that was perfect for climbing. The branches started out really low, so you could step from one to another and go as high up as you wanted. I was always pretty chicken (still am) so I only went up less that half-way. My older sister Jennie was much braver and she went all the way to the top. Somewhere, there's a black and white picture of her perched up there.

Grandma and Papa had a really nice yard and garden, so there was usually some dirt to play with: another favorite past time.

I can just hear that conversation with Lily:
"Mom, I'm bored."
"Go play in the dirt."

I'm not sure she'd go for it but, for us, it was always fun to play in the dirt and pretend to plant stuff in random containers, make mud pies with sticks and rocks, and build mountains of earth. One of the best things they ever had in their yard was a huge load of fill. They were planning to spread it out to keep water from standing in low areas of the yard, but for a couple of weeks it was there in a big pile that we happily climbed on and played in.

 

Wheely Fun
If it had wheels, we rode it. However, we didn't ride on a nice and smooth sidewalk, street, or bike path. Nope, we rode in the grass, we skated on the wooden slatted deck- and we liked it!

Atari!
My favorite games were River Raid and Pitfall Harry. I even won an Activision patch for my high score in Pitfall. I could work one of those Atari joysticks, too. No other controller has ever been the same, and if a
game has more options that left or right, up or down, I get really confused. Oh, how I miss Atari.
 

Art Time
No explanation necessary.

Creative Thinking
We could turn anything into something to play with. Check out Grandma's old treadmill, which had metal rollers under the belt. A big trash can makes a great drum, especially when your sister is underneath, and a piece of otherwise conventional wire makes a great costume.

 

... and the best past time of all?

Fighting with and antagonizing siblings.  :-)