Nice memory, Woodpeace.
We would play outdoors all day long and never even check in (except for lunch).
We would have ball games, at times we were in someone's backyard
building forts or clubhouses, sometimes we were riding bikes or roller skating.
In Southern California our generation built the original skateboards we called
scoboes (pronounced sko-bo). We made them at home using a piece
of 2 x 4 and attaching an old metal shoe skate we pulled apart --- half on the
front of the board and the other half on the rear.
Believe it or not, we would fly down some pretty chilling hills on our homemade
scoboes. Eventually a lot of guys began making them in wood shop as a
shop project.
During summers schools would open the playgrounds for summer activity.
We would have huge games of dodge ball (we used to call it bombardment)
that would last for five and six hours. We also played softball, carroms
and kickball, which was like softball but with a volleyball.
In kickball, you kicked the ball which was rolled down a line from the pitcher's
box to home plate. You could ask for a slow pitch or a fast pitch; rolled or
bounced. My favorite pitch was always "fast baby bouncies." The game also
called for the team in the field to throw the ball at the runners as they ran
between the bases in order to get the runners out.
By far the majority of my childhood memories involve playing out of doors. We
would literally stay out until it started getting dark and our moms would call us
to come home.
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