I’d forgotten about pop guns! I believe I might have had one or did I often use the neighbors’ – they had 5 kids, only one was a girl.

Well, guess my childhood was a bit different. I mostly remember living in government housing in Germany. We lived in apartments that were very close together. Don’t remember any cowboys and Indians or crocodiles in the jungle. We were really hooked on our roller skates and would zoom up and down the side walk. And then the bakery truck would pull up and we’d all scatter home to get some money for fresh, hot brotchen!
Think I’ll try for a second walk today, if it doesn’t rain. 🤗

Hi, @lilypaws, Actually, Sue wrote about discovering the climbing tree with her two grands and I wrote about playing Tarzan and Jane in the treehouse behind my home. I'm smiling because I'm pretty sure that if there'd been another little friend playing with us during that tree climbing era, I would have probably been the chimpanzee, too! Smiles. Like you, though the important thing was being part of the play time group, yes?

@wisco, Were those pop guns the ones that had the little red strips of paper with a tiny black dot in the center???? If so a little neighbor boy had one of those and though I begged to try it, the little stinker never let me even come close! Fun years and fond memories! Giggling, because our "walking maestro" may need to nudge us back on track but still the digression has been fun!

And yes, to our super instigator of this walker/cizer group, @becsbuddy, I Did walk today but it was humid and I needed to set up a little gathering of four at the front table which included washing the entire shaded concrete yard of earlier bird visitors…any excuse in a pinch, yes?

Fiesty76
In response to fun years and fond memories. Those pop guns were very dangerous, be glad the little sinker did not let you try it.

In my childhood neighborhood there were several bad kids, very unruly. With irresponsible parents. 2 of the bad boys would go up to some of the kids, and pop those awful guns in other kids ears. Enough times and those kids went hard of hearing. I’m still friends of one of the kids, and now are 99% deaf. As to the boys and their irresponsible folks, I’m sure the dumb parents are no longer living, and the 2 boys I’m sure are a failure in life, and their best report cards were all D,s.
Another gal who’s father always best her up, took out her frustration with other kids and had one of those guns.
My fun memories were riding my 2 wheeler bike, and playing board games, and playing golf and tennis.
Funcountess

The red paper strips were for cap guns!

@funcountess & @wisco50, Funcountess, thank you for the enlightening information on the dangerous effects of the pop guns. I remember his did make a very loud noise and he thought it very funny to point it in the direction of someone who wasn't looking. Are pop and cap guns the same? I already have pronounced hearing loss from turning the music up too high as a teenager so am doubly thankful that I never had a chance to use that gun. My friends and I had great fun racing around the neighborhood on our bikes as well. Interesting looking back that my family played board games but I can't recall playing any with friends growing up. Did you play board games with your friends?

Never played golf but played tennis in high school and used to "practice" by hitting the balls against the high outside walls of our high school gym during the summers. Now there are golf and tennis "camps" for youngsters. Our 15 yr old got into a young "caddy" program the last summer in Evanston, IL and while I offered to "gift" tennis lessons, his preference is golf. Unlike so many sports it can become a lifetime sport although I've known friends who complained about being "golf widows". Have you continued to golf throughout the years?

@becsbuddy, Interesting to learn about growing up in different areas and how locales affected our childhood past times. Roller skates were prized in my childhood too and we spent many hours skating sidewalks in our neighborhood. Sounds yummie to have a bakery truck come by. No wonder you scattered for money to buy from it! Two walks in one day? I'm in awe!

@becsbuddy The bakery truck brought back memories for me too. Our neighodrove a bakery truck that delivered to businesses. At the end of the day he would drive home with leftovers from the day’s deliveries. His children, along with the neighborhood children, would raid the truck and buy leftover snack cakes. Happy times!

We lived on a farm and used to take a hammer and pound them on the cement to get them to spark and make the noise. It didn’t take much to entertain us.

@jude07 We did that too! The little guns that you put the rolls of caps in always seemed to break pretty quickly so we just used a rock on the sidewalk

Oh, yes, rocks worked well! But my gun never broke ‘cos it was an Annie Oakley gun, remember?! 🤣

@fiesty76 Are you setting up a nice table for your friends daughter? Is this the same daughter who was so unhelpful when your friend was dying? I’m just glad ‘whichever’ is coming and you’re doing a nice welcome!

@becsbuddy, Thank you for your response, Becky. No! This was not the best friend's daughter (also from Denver who remains in the house here with one daughter and 2 dogs) who continues to cause so much unpredictable and unnecessary grief. My invite was for one of the great guy's daughter's who travelled from Denver for a visit and him and their precious Yorkie.

It was great fun to "dress up the table" with colorful tableware and presentation and the visit with these two was a grand diversion I'd been looking forward to. An anecodote that was really hilarious is that I'd called my friend to leave a message about time to come because a cousin was also invited. Instead of calling the guy's cell #, I'd left a message on my best friend's cell # which is only one digit different. In the message, I said I'd be calling the house phone but if the disruptive daughter, T. answered, I'd be hanging up. My friend's cell had been given to the troublesome daughter who listened to my message. We Know this because she gave Fred an envelope containing some of the notes and letters I'd written my friend over the past two years to return to me. They were trying to figure out how "she knew" they were coming over…Turns out, I'd left a message on the Wrong cell and she'd heard it! We had a wonderful visit and solving the mystery was worth a laugh too for all of us!

I am having so much fun walking and talking with everyone! I think we would have had so-o-o much fun together as kids😀
Did anybody play with Jacks? We used a golf ball instead of the rubber ball that came with the set, and all of us girls had fingernails that were well worn down on one side from playing on the smooth concrete porches.
I hope everybody has good weather for walking this week.