what summer activities do you remember as a kid- yard darts ?
84 Replies
2y
the house. Targets ( shirt, hay bale, pile of grass) 50-100 yds away. Shoot up in the air to see who came closest. After a round or two we tired of walking back and forth. Solution was a person at each target shooting back at other target. Could get scary with arrow in mid-flight looking like it might come close!
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
Jumped those ramps with nothing but shorts and flip flops on. You wrecked? Water hose washed the blood and dirt off. None of this sissy stuff today with helmets, pads, etc.. Building forts in the woods. Fishing the local ponds. Playing in the creeks. Mowing the yard because my father said that’s why he had kids…lol.
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
building forts with our city cousins on my grandparents' farms, swimming pool, catching butterflies and moths, and listening to the Big Red Machine on the radio with Marty and Joe. And we fished a lot too. When we got a little older, we worked in the hayfields for local farmers, bringing in big bucks - $2 an hour.
** Edited by WVHokie84 at 5/10/2024, 4:45:15 PM
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
Neiborhood and spray out these huge clouds of what I assume might have been DDT. We would jump on our bikes and chase the truck to see who could touch the back of the truck first. Right into the huge cloud. No one ever told us not to do it. The driver would get mad at us for chasing the truck and that was it. It was pure genius I tell you pure genius!
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
Just kidding. I remember the same thing when we lived in Hawaii, no one ever told us not to do it.
(In response to this post by vthhhi)
2y
Spent a lot of time in "the woods" on the "knobs" behind the houses
** Edited by TomTurkey at 5/10/2024, 2:22:14 PM
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
house without brakes, killing caterpillars in the road as we went. There were two contests, speed and how many did you kill on the way down. It was a trade off as swerving to kill more slowed you down.
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
My childhood mostly revolved around baseball. I would have been in heaven if our neighborhood had a field like in The Sandlot.
** Edited by MP4VT2004 at 5/10/2024, 9:58:17 PM
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
better yet, standing up in the back of the truck.
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
(In response to this post by Nortazhokie)
2y
to see a dead body by the railroad tracks.
Also spent a lot of time at the local cement pond.
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
So the pleate was just right. Picking out which shade of white sweater to wear around my neck on the yacht.
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
(In response to this post by Tafkam Hokie)
J
jdkhokie
2y
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
Rode combine, bailed hay, cut fence rows with bush axe and chopped thistles and cedars in the pastures with grubbing hoe. A good time was had by all!
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
we would all get in trouble over it (a good assumption on his part), and not be able to have BB gun wars anymore, so he didn't do anything about it, and it's still there.
(In response to this post by astrohokie)
2y
(In response to this post by astrohokie)
We did that too but parents put a stop to it…..
For some reason bottle rockets were viewed as less problematic. I think it was the greater fire thing. Oh well…..
(In response to this post by HokieByWater)
2y
Toss the can at your best friend.
Good times.
(In response to this post by CrystalCoveHokie)
2y
We did play some bizarre softball, basically batter down on a flat spot, everyone else up on a non trivial bowl of a hill. Unless we played in the Kelleher's pasture, softballs hitting dried hoof prints made for some interesting fielding, I got to be pretty quick, learned on my own to get the glove down to the ground and then bring it up to field a ground ball and getting hit in the chest wasn't so bad, learned to live with it.
** Edited by `lag at 5/10/2024, 11:20:25 AM
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
Did get into a Louisiana crawfish thing for a while, never occurred t me that those were the same things. 'course three of them doesn't make a very large meal.
(In response to this post by UTPr0sim)
2y
(In response to this post by UTPr0sim)
2y
two teams head out into the cornfield. Can't see the other team so wait for first cob to be thrown. Once you see where it came from, entire other team launches that way. And then it's on. Oh, corncobs hurt, man
(In response to this post by Stork)
2y
If you could throw them accurately, those things stung!
(In response to this post by Hokerer)
2y
a fairly good distance-
(In response to this post by Stork)
2y
football, and baseball, depending on the time of year. Also played war and a bunch of other stuff.
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
H
Hurley09
2y
anything, we couldn't afford those. I think we had cap guns with no caps and we'd run all through the woods "shooting" at each other. There was no way to actually hit anyone so you'd just have to scream "I GOT YOU! YOURE DEAD!” Looking back, water guns probably would've been a better toy.
(In response to this post by reestuart)
2y
and stuff, but it was fun. I agree on water guns. I wish we'd have had nerf guns back then as well.
(In response to this post by Hurley09)
2y
so we either did water guns, or the toy guns that genuinely looked like a real gun, except for the red plastic piece in the end of the barrel.
Now that I think about it, I had a water gun that looked like a real Uzi. That sure wouldn't fly today.
(In response to this post by Hurley09)
H
Hurley09
2y
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
E
EDGEMAN
2y
Not too far from the community center, so we would spend a lot of time there too.
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
times as a kid i guess
(In response to this post by EDGEMAN)
E
EDGEMAN
2y
...constantly. Surprised they held up, even after building a jump...lol
I don't see the young kids on my streets doing much cycling these days. The kid across the street from me is heavily involved in youth baseball, and I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up getting a college scholarship down the road if he doesn't burn out first...lol
The only people I see cycling in my neighborhood are adults.
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
made fun of- but bever busted my nads on it - so there was that
(In response to this post by EDGEMAN)
2y
** Edited by HokieDan95 at 5/10/2024, 10:55:46 AM
(In response to this post by Tuckahokie)
2y
We had a tiny cottage on the lake and would go a lot in the summer. My brother and I would pull each other (and friends) skiing until our forearms were numb. Mom & dad recognized that we lived in a "not-so-child-friendly" city (Emporia), so they provided us with a place to keep us out of trouble...well, for the most part.
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
(In response to this post by Tank)
B
BRVT
2y
of kneeboarding all around that lake
(In response to this post by Tank)
2y
and it became a skin-removal device that somehow rivaled asphalt.
(In response to this post by RhinoVT)
2y
of grass.
(In response to this post by Tafkam Hokie)
2y
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
L
LaneRat
2y
It was a pain to pull them back out as the water was about 8' deep. So we tied a rope to the bike, and the other end to the dock. I was the first to try out this brilliant idea. The rope got caught on the dock just as I reached the edge. The bike stopped but I didn't. It was a Sting-Ray with high handlebars. Got pretty beat up. Good story tho.
(In response to this post by vthhhi)
2y
(In response to this post by vthhhi)
2y
In the evening, we also threw rocks or acorns at bats. We wanted to see which one would dive the closest to the ground, lol. I don't remember any crash landings.
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
on by kid engineering/creativity.
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
2y
medieval wargames with sticks as swords and trash can lids as shields. We beat the crap out of each other back then.
(In response to this post by Vtskier1)
2y
Squirt guns. Those guns were very lucrative for him.
(In response to this post by Vtskier1)
2y
Where you fill an elastic tube that swelled up. It had a longer range than anything else in the neighborhood, so the water 'gun' wars were on after that....
(In response to this post by GreenvilleVT)
2y
(In response to this post by Tuckahokie)
2y
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)