Whether it’s a game of Trouble or Twister with your siblings, a day at Gwynn Oak Park or Painters Mill Skating Rink, or a sundae at Woolworth’s lunch counter, what’s your favorite memory of simple pleasures while growing up?
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What’s Your Favorite Memory Growing Up?
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I have many fond memories growing up. I lived in the city with my family and spent my pre-teen summer vacation with my parents who lived near the Ocean. I remember going fishing my dad and siblings, we went land-crab hunting at nights (so much fun) and moonlight picnics on the beach (church event). My parents owned cows, sheep etc. so I got to help care for the animals with them, we were just not allowed see the animals give birth (I thought that was weird). Teenage years took fun to a whole different level. I got to spend them with my friends, again at the ocean, but this time it was more adventurous which included hitch hiking rides to get to the nearest beach, etc. Guess you can tell I referring to life in the Caribbean!
I would watch with excitement and curiosity as my mother would put on a nice outfit and make-up for a night on the town with my father. She always looked so beautiful!
- no school in the summer, going to the pool EVERYday
- christmas time following my brother trying to find hidden gifts... I thought to myself and said to him " How can Santa get in here we live in an apartment (no chimney)?" He replied, "He has a magic key". So, we kept on looking. 🙂
Going to the neighborhood park with my family (usually 3 of my sisters & 2 of my brothers - the others were busy doing other things - there were 12 of us all together). After I'd finished with the playground, while I waited for my other siblings to finish playing, I would lie under a tree to read one of my new comic books. The park was an important place for us. We would slide down the hills (on sleds in the winter, & waxed refrigerator packing boxes in the summer), run through the sprinklers, swing or slide on the playground, and, if we were very adventurous, walk the rails of the fences like a balance beam. No video games for us!!
As a small child, eating my Mom's homemade bread and soup and talking with my family around the table (there were 7 children)
my mom made lemon meringue pie, umf!
Snowballs, Jacks, Playing red light-green light,hoola hoop and packing all the kids into the station wagon in our PJ's and going to Bengie's Drive in for movie night. None of us ever made it to the third movie! We went early, played on the swings and then we would lay in the wagon on pillows and the adults sat outside of the car on lawn chairs. The bats were a bit scary though.
I can remember going up on North Avenue and Harford Road and shopping at Sears Department store. I would also go to the case where they sold all sorts of peanuts, cashews, brazilian, almonds, nonperils, fgum drops, etc.. No matter how much money you had you could always get a warm bag of the sorts and candies, too. Sears sold as little as one quarter pound, in order for you to have something on your palate before you went home for dinner. Those were the good days.
Beaver dam swimming and the Enchanted Forest - they still have some of the forest's attractions at Clark's Ellioaks Farm. Was neat to go and see. Lots of pics from inside the whale's mouth.
You may know this already but there's a new book out about Enchanted Forest. Here's a Baltimore Sun article about it: Book opens a new chapter of nostalgia for Enchanted Forest.
Walking to the snowball stand with my sisters and getting a skylight snowball, goin' downee ocean, visiting the Baltimore Zoo and going to Orioles games and cheering on my favorites-Brady Anderson and Cal Ripken!
Fishing with my grandpa.
fishing with my Dad...as long as I didn't have to bait the hook or touch the fish I caught. The best catch was a flounder. My mom cleaned and cooked it for me. I love flounder to this day but, none compare to that one 🙂
Going to Floyds department store on Liberty Road to look in the pet store and then eating at Lums across the street.
There are so many wonderful memories, but one that came right to mind was how everyone in my neighborhood in South Baltimore would sit out front in the summer evenings. The older folks would all sit and talk (they all had folding web chairs) and there were so many kids. We would play board games or cards on the front steps or maybe a game of "curb ball." And of course we often had ice cream from Mr. Softee or the Good Humor man or an icy snowball from Miss Ann, the snowball lady. It was a much simpler time, but thinking about it sure brings back good memories.
Rolling in the autumn leaves.
With little money, but lots of friendly folk around, we would play 'step ball' on the steps of an abandoned warehouse near Paca Street (on Warner Street I think it was). If we lost the rubber ball, we would pool our funds for another fifty-cent ball and the game would continue.
Block parties, penny candy, riding your bike or bigwheel all day outside with friends untill the street lights came on, skinned knees, running in the house to dig for change when the ice cream man came, drinking from the hose and leaving the doore wide open with the AC running =) circa the 80"s.
the candy lady's house and sliding down the dirt or snow hill (depending on the season) with a piece of card board we found. My kid's fancy design board is not as much fun...lol
most of all everybody outside with there bikes, skates or skate boards being pulled down the hill...man!
Goin' down the ocean, hon.
Playing Hungry Hungry Hippo with my friends.
When my mom would take me downtown (Baltimore) to get my "summer kit". It included a hoola hoop, jax, bat-n-ball, steel roller skates w/key, sundresses, short sets, a pair of sandals and a pair of jack percell tennis shoes. Then she would take me to Bragar Gutman's department store to eat at the lunch counter. That started summer off right!
I can't pick one! Since it's summer, I'll limit it to two summer memories.
Reading: I had the space to just sit and read and get lost in a book for hours on end. As the daughter of a children's librarian, I practically lived at the library!
Camp: I loved camp! Now I can see why: I'm a solid extrovert, but was a sheltered only child. And I love nature. Camp was incredible because it was constant interaction and allowed me to spend lots of time outside.
Playing jacks and pick-up sticks on my front steps of my home in summer time.
I had a friend who could also catch all the jacks on the back of her hand. She would when most of the time. I was not happy.
Having a nickel and going to the store and trying to figure out how to get the most pieces of candy for that 5 cents. I usually went with the atomic fireball jawbreakers because they were 2 for a penny and they lasted a long time. You had to save the paper they came wrapped in so you could wrap up the jawbreaker and have it to eat later. then you were outside playing with your friends all day and not in the house playing on a computer.
Going to the Ohio State Fair and my dad putting on his shoulders so I could see the Jackson Five perform.
Camping in the summer and when my mom would make Faschnauts for Fat Tuesday.
Riding my bike around the neighborhood looking for glass soda bottles to cash in for penny candy at the Little Bit Shop on Wise Avenue in Dundalk.
In the 60s, the kids in Northeast Baltimore could not wait for school to close so that we could go swimming @ Clifton Park Pool. The teens would take along the little ones from their block for some of summers best times & memories!
When my sister and I were very young we made home made taffy with our baby sitter. I also loved going to North Point Drive-In with my cousins and sitting on top of my grandmothers station wagon.
Taking the boat out on Saturday morning, catching a bushel of crabs, steaming them for dinner and night swimming in the pool. PRICELESS!!!!
Oh Man, that was PRICELESS!!!!
Every year my Mom would take me back to school shopping. My grandmother would come along. We would go to Westview Mall to shop and eat lunch at Woolworth's. We would all get milkshakes and my mom and I would split a club sandwich. On the way home, I would fall asleep in the car because my mom would wear me out--she still does!
Watching the Rube Goldberg like automatic orange juice squeezer at Silber's bakery in Pikesville.
Riding the little roller coaster 13 times at Gwynn Oak for my 8th Birthday.
Playing jacks on the front steps with my friends!
Saturday morning cartoons. Laying around the living in our PJs and eating cereal while watching cartoons and then spending the rest of the day playing outside until the street lights came on.
Paying .50 to sit in the outfield wooden bleechers at Memorial Stadium on a Sat afternoon with my dad to watch Brooks and the O's play Mickey and the Yanks in a double-header. We ate tuna sandwiches my mother had packed in paper bags and bought a coke in a paper cup with saran wrap held on by a rubber band as a lid. You couldn't move to better seats because there was a chain link fence enclosing the area. I later graduated to section 35 and "Wild Bill" - O-R-I-O-L-E-S
Catching a bus on weekends during Christmas to go shopping & see the windows of Hecht Co., Stewarts & Hochschild Kohn Department stores "All Dress Up For The Holidays" ! !
We'd spread out the shopping so that we could go several Saturdays in a row & always end up with lunch @ Reads & Woolworths lunchrooms. Sue
I grew up in Montgomery County. For us, it was Pizza Oven pizza on Friday night, or a trip to Hot Shoppes to split a hot fudge cake as a treat, with Dad admonishing us not to get chocolate on the seat of the GTO. We played with the other kids in the neighborhood - rambling from house to house, or our mothers would load us up and take us to the zoo or Wheaton Regional Park for fun.
When the entire neighborhood children were able to play outside safely. We played games like red light, hopscotch, valleyball, baseball, or my favorite rollerskating. Those were the days!
going on trips in my Auntie's long blue station wagon with the imitation wood paneling on the sides....My brother and sister and I would sit in that flip up seat in the back with our feet out the back window.....GOOD TIMES! I think it was a Chrysler stationwagon...it was lo-o-o-o-ng 🙂
Going to White Coffee Pot Jr. I loved the food and always looked forward to going there!!
Packing up the station wagon and going to the cherry orchard in Maryland to pick cherries. We would camp out in the car the night before to get a good place in line. Once the gates open it was a "free for all". People running to get the most trees. Eating cherries till we burst.
Going to Orioles games at Memorial Stadium with my parents and brother... walking down 33rd St., and the stadium lights finally coming in to view!
Going with my parents and siblings in our gold Rambler station wagon to Sears at Mondawmin Mall for hot roasted peanuts—when department stores had nut and candy counters—and then heading to Druid Hill Park to play.
Nothing like the memories of heading to our back-yard theme parks right here in Maryland... Gwynn Oak Park or Enchanted Forest... what memories. And I can't forget hearing the lions from the Baltimore Zoo roaring in my bedroom at night or the wee hours of the morning since we lived across the street from the Zoo. PRICELESS :0)