"Go Play, or Else!"

Life, I'd say, was more innocent and care free. In the 60's we weren't near so busy, and we didn't know everyone else's business in a worldwide way!  We'd just go outside and play. 

Some acquaintance said, "Would love to hear your experiences, and what you had to contend with; day to day life, meals, days out, what your day as young children was like."

My mind went zinging.  It went zinging right back in time to when my brother and I jumped off dad's homemade picnic table into a #2 tub of water.  Boy, we had to have been really little tykes to think it was full enough to dive into!

We weren't allowed to answer the phone, because it was dad's business phone. Before that it'd been a party line of what they called "3 old biddies" and he needed it free to get calls for his carpentry work housebuilding plans.  After he got the business phone we learned to always get a name and a phone number or "let someone else answer the phone!"

We made trails in the weeds, and tunnels in the hay bales stacked in the barn. We nailed boards to a tree for a ladder and then built a tree house. It always started with one of the boys getting a great idea, then we girls could play right along.

We pretended the pedal cars were real cars and would pass each other on that long sidewalk from the office to the house, and we'd parallel park along that sidewalk in the grass-free dirt.

We walked the sheep trails down over the hill along the river where we pretended to fish, and poked at minnows and crawdads until we heard a faint far in the distance call from mom to come home.

We didn't get t.v. until 1969! And even then it was black and white.
I was shocked at t.v.'s soap opera. Billy caused Peggy to have a baby out of wedlock? Some man stabbed a woman with scissors? Then there was the movie over which mother caught me crying. Bonnie and Clyde had been shot to death!  Horrors! We'd never seen such stuff!

Mom taught us every nursery rhyme you could think of, and we sang the radio songs right along with her,  "Hello, Dolly!"  They kept the record player going, too, popular tunes from Elvis and Tennessee Ernie Ford, gospel songs, kids sing-a-longs "Its a Very Good Habit" and polkas "She's Too Fat For Me".

Didn't know a thing about sex, or violence, or criminal acts.  The times were so uncomplicated that we fed a hobo a sandwich or two while he sat on that picnic table.

A #2 tub was a swimming pool.   A swingset was an amusement park. 
A blanket over the fence was a tent. Mayonnaise on bread was a sandwich.  An old shed from a remodel worksite of dad's was our playhouse, and yes, we made and ate mud-cakes.  And the outside brick structure of the fireplace was a stepping stone ladder to the roof!

We had to leave dad alone for a spell after work. Supper was on the table for him just in time. We drew his bath water and he taught us to shine his shoes.

If mom were sick, no matter any of our ages, WE cleaned house!

We were respectful to ANY ONE older than us -- ANY ONE, no matter their station in life.  

Swat to the butt, pop to the mouth, no book at bedtime, "You'd best take a nap", were quick corrections.

Neighbors trusted us with their fruit trees and their bull and their dogs and climbing their fences.  

We were taught music, encouraged to read, and learned common sense safety measures.

Breastfeeding and diaper changing were done behind closed doors. Speaking of closed doors, if you knocked on the parents bedroom door, you got swatted.  If you were locked out of the house, you'd better go play or else.  You never knew what the "or else" was.  Or that famous "I'll tie a knot in your tail."  Those were surely something terrible!

AND, no screaming unless there's blood! ROFL.

"Go play."  Remember being told to go play.  Wished someone would say that today,  "Young lady!  Go play!"