[naciketas]

I remember to have played Cricket as a child. As a child I was very fond of playing the game of cricket. Even now I would not miss watching a cricket match.

 

[Boomerboulevard]

Baseball, baseball, baseball.

Once I reached about the age of ten, I was always in a baseball game.
I lived just a block from our junior high (middle school now) and it
had four large baseball diamonds. My best friend, who lived across the street,
and I would always find a game.

If no game was to be had we would play "Over the Line" -- just the two of us.

It was not unusual to start playing baseball at 8:30 in the morning and play
until dark. One evening a week they turned the field lights on until 9 pm.
On that day we would play until the lights went off.

 

[Aqualung]

We sort of rotated out with different things. It was usually basketball or baseball. We gave soccer a try & got bored. Playing without arms is counterintuitive to me, personally. Played some volleyball, badminton & croquet. Sometimes miniature golf. We would make up stuff when we got really bored. We climbed up a tree & the older guys tried to knock us out with basketballs. We won/stayed alive. : ) Then my older brother suggested I ride past on my bicycle & he tries to knock me off with a tetherball. Well, after a rainy night that tetherball was pretty heavy. Knocked the front wheel out from under me & I hit the road face first, shattered my glasses & got major road rash. Foot races were fun. We were always racing each other in 50 yard dashes. I don't think the 50 yard dash is an event anymore. Oh, & jumping ramps on bicycles. Not sure if some of these are actually sports or just bursts of temporary lunacy.

 

[Boomerboulevard]

My gosh, Aqualung, it sounds like you had an eventful childhood!
Reminds me of the sign for the missing dog: One ear missing, one eye
missing, one leg missing, no tail. Answers to "Lucky."

I must admit I was never much of a daredevil when I was a kid. We did
used to go over to the playground at Longfellow Elementary School and
do tricks on our bikes. The playground was sloped and we would get
going down hill standing on our seat (we kept our hands on the handlebars)
or standing on the side of our bike.

Only once did I crash into the chain link fence --- but I had slowed myself
down some before I hit.

 

[Siggy]

didnt play sports. I built tree houses and nature trails.

 

[MsBossyPants]

I was a tomboy - still am really athletic. I played all sorts of sports. I lived in a neighborhood filled with lots of kids.

Baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, a soccer/flag football game called Speedaway.

In elementary school, I loved tetherball and handball with that big oversized red ball - anyone else remember that? ... and remember "freeze tag"?

And, in our neighborhood there was always some sort of us-vs-them type game going on like "army" or the ever popular, politically incorrect "cowboys and Indians". (makes me cringe to say that now)

 

[au contraire]

Hockey was my favorite sport, and I was pretty decent at it-the scoring part, not the fighting. My team almost won the state championship once, but almost doesn't count. Then there was the time a friend and I dragged each other behind snowmobiles at 60mph. Oh wait, that was just a few years ago.

 

[Boomerboulevard]

Ms Bossypants: Tomboys were cool! My wife said she was a tomboy when
she was in elementary school. Why play with dolls and wear frilly dresses when
there were trees to climb?!

When I was growing up we had fruit trees in our backyard: a fig tree (great for
climbing), a nectarine tree (good for climbing but sappy), an apricot tree (too
small to climb), a peach tree (OK but also sappy), and a banana tree --- which is
not a climbing tree and the bananas never got ripe enough.

It was always my dream as a kid to have a tree house. Alas, it never came
to pass:sad:

Au Contraire: Ice hockey was never played in my neck of the woods growing up in
Southern California. My boys played it some here in St Louis. And during the winter all
the parks that have skating rinks are buzzing all the time.

Now that I think about it, I have only been ice skating once. Used to
roller skate (back when it was four wheels); but never developed the ankle
strength to do ice skates or in-line.

Great memories! Thanks, guys.

 

[woodpeace]

The sports I enjoyed playing were cricket, rounders [which is the British version of baseball] and tennis. I had to play football and rugby at school, but hated them.

 

[Zster]

You are assuming all kids played sports!

I was not athletic at all - last chosen to be on the team, etc... However, I had one, hands down, all time favorite participatory sport:

CRAB SOCCER!!! (our ball was made from a rolled up twin bed mattress, so kids got CRUSHED during game play).

 

[Boomerboulevard]

We used to play something similar in the gym on days when it rained. It was great exercise. We used a huge red rubber ball. I forget how you scored --- did you hit the opposite wall with the ball? I remember the gym coach would divide us into two teams and we would crab walk all over that gym going after that ball. Kicking it when you are in that position is not an easy thing to do, either.

Thanks for the memory!

*********************

 

[Zster]

We used to play something similar in the gym on days when it rained.

You made my day! At least ONE person knew what I was talking about. I used to LOVE rainy school days back then (sure beat the snot out of kickball or flag football).

 

[Boomerboulevard]

When we were in elementary school and we couldn't go out to recess on the
playground because it was raining we used to play a game called 7-Up. Seven
kids were "up" and all the other kids had to put their heads down on their desk
with their eyes covered and hold up one hand with one finger sticking up.

The seven would each go out and touch one finger each. Then they would stand
in the front of the room and the teacher would tell the people who were touched,
or tagged, to stand up. If you were one standing, you had to guess which of the
seven tagged you. If you got it right, you took their place for the next round.

Simple little game, but we loved it! I think it was one of the early forms of flirting
because you would always tag someone you had a crush on.

Anyone else remember 7-Up?

*************************

 

[dosconejos]

I didn't play structured sports as a child. I climbed trees, played kick-the-can, rode my bike, explored the woods (turtles, tadpoles, etc), jumped in leaf piles, did high jump.

We had this wonderful tall merry go round at my grade school; one or two kids would get in the middle to push and make it go really fast, and I would hang onto the bar and at speed my body would be horizontal. Felt like flying!

What great times!

 

[Boomerboulevard]

Dosconejos,

Thanks for the great memory! We used to play on the merry-go-round all the time.
More than once I can remember getting slammed in the head as it went around
(maybe that's what is wrong with me!)

Do you remember metal slides? When they were slippery they were really
slick! Other times they weren't slippery at all and they were almost
impossible to slide down. Remember how hot they used to get on summer days?

I remember we used to stand at the top and run down them! Don't think I would
want to try that these days.

 

[42161]

My most fun sport, as a kid, was tennis! LOVED playing: played on teams in high-school & college, and played until I was in my mid-30s. Don't play now, but I still love the sport, and watch all the big matches: Wimbledon, the Opens. In fact, one year I watched the entire, I mean the ENTIRE, US Open on TV from beginning to end.

Also, loved riding my one-speed bike as a kid! Yep, only had one-speeds back then! LOL

 

[telepariah]

We played a game we called TRENCH. It was like dodgeball, only there were up to 6 balls in play at any one time, the lines you couldn't cross overlapped to about 20 feet from the walls so there was this huge no-man's land, and it was not only legal, but encouraged by the PE teachers to throw at the head. This was a brutal and terrifying game, especially when you were one of only two players left on your team, and the other team had all the balls, and they were all baseball players, and they were standing about 20 feet away from you. YIKES!

I played baseball, American football, and basketball every day of my childhood, but I sucked badly at anything involving hand to eye coordination. Still, it was fun to play. I was much better at individual sports. I won the first foot race I ever entered at age 8 and was hooked on running for life. I was on the swim team and I ski raced until I got kicked off the swim team for skipping practice one Saturday to race skiing. Soon after that I quit ski racing because it was just too regimented and you had to spend too much of the day just standing around waiting your turn on the course. I wanted to free-ski in the woods, jump off cliffs, and be a general hooligan on the mountain so that's what I did all the time for the next 40 years. I got stupid good at it and today, at age 55, I become 15 again every time I click into my bindings.

That cornice up there? Sure I'll huck it...

That 50 degree glacier above that rocky moraine and that ice-choked tarn? We'll ski it in shorts and we won't fall. We'll go skinny dipping in that lake after...

That mountain in the wilderness that's never been skied before? It has now...

That no-fall zone at Silverton? Sure, I'll go first...

That avalanche on the Continental Divide? Yeah, sometimes test skiing yields positive results. We actually practice disciplined avalanche safety and endeavor to make good decisions about where to go under what conditions. We do know we can die doing this...

Sports are fun, but nothing comes close to big mountain backcountry skiing. Nothing. Not even sex. :crazy:

 

[vittorio.cambria.1]

Hi Sigmund, if you would like to go back to your childhood , I would be very happy to invite you at my place in Tuscany to help me to build some tree houses and trails. Is not an excuse to hire cheap labour, but to share a passion . I live right in the middle of a splendid forest. See my address in my profile. villaferraia.com