What did American children ever do before there was Internet, PC's, tablets, gaming and mobile phones?

[Leggett71]

Mom ran us out of the house rain or shine, we lived outdoors as we had lots of woods & creeks. dad called us in for dinner with an old cow horn bugle.

There was Boy Scouts,
working on merit badges
camping
hiking
conservation projects
performing flag ceremonies
ushering at ball games
paper drives

fishing
crawfishing
hunting eels
hunting anything that moved rabbits, squirrels, doves, quail, armadillos, possums,
building forts
digging fox holes & playing army
shooting marbles
shooting clothes pins off mom's clothes line
shooting turtles off logs in the river
throwing axes into pine trees
Horse-shoes
tether ball
swimming
riding bikes for miles

Always had home chores
Working at dad's store
Washing Dad's truck or Mom's car
bailing hay
mending or building fences
brush-hogging
Mowing yard
feeding the cows, chickens, pigs

Don't remember any "idle time" and electronic games didn't exist until I had kids.

Leggett

 

[ICanFixIt]

Most kids (at least farm kids) had "chores" that had to be done before there was any playing.

When was the last time anybody played "Annie over" or "kick the can"???

 

[okcBob]

Had to come home when the street lights came on.

 

[xseler]

Most kids (at least farm kids) had "chores" that had to be done before there was any playing.

When was the last time anybody played "Annie over" or "kick the can"???

Yep. First time I heard of soccer, I think I said, "Sounds like kick the can without the can."


.

 

[adamsredlines]

Legos and Hotwheels on days that were too cold or rainy

Bikes/neighborhood pool/woods/creek all other days. We didnt have video games when I was a kid...and I dont feel I missed out on anything either. Heck I'd get up in the morning on the summer and ride my bike to the pool, not a peep to the parents, but they knew where I was. Back home for lunch, back to the pool. Home for dinner. Repeat all summer.

 

[davek]

Public libraries reading all sorts of books and magazines.

 

[Snattlerake]

When I was not feeding cattle, chickens, horses, pigs or sheep, I was helping to fix fences with dad on Saturdays listening to Lucious, Dewey and Lee Roy beat up on various teams every week. I helped drive the truck to haul hay and wheat. On weekends I sometimes got to go to town to visit my townie friends and rode bikes and played at the playground across from grandma's house. We went to the movies and rode to the city park to swim and play on the 105 howitzer and the jet plane in the park.

Sometimes my townie friends came to visit me and we popped leftover Black Cats among army men and models in the sand box, went splorin down to the pond or concrete dip and shot 22's. Years later we rode dirt bikes and swapped engines in old trucks to drive to Enid to drag race.

 

[cowadle]

When I was not feeding cattle, chickens, horses, pigs or sheep, I was helping to fix fences with dad on Saturdays listening to Lucious, Dewey and Lee Roy beat up on various teams every week. I helped drive the truck to haul hay and wheat. On weekends I sometimes got to go to town to visit my townie friends and rode bikes and played at the playground across from grandma's house. We went to the movies and rode to the city park to swim and play on the 105 howitzer and the jet plane in the park.

Sometimes my townie friends came to visit me and we popped leftover Black Cats among army men and models in the sand box, went splorin down to the pond or concrete dip and shot 22's. Years later we rode dirt bikes and swapped engines in old trucks to drive to Enid to drag race.

i knew a guy that would swap the engine out of his pickup into his race car on the weekends and then back into the pickup during the week so he could get around.

 

[Okie4570]

Fished, hunted, burned things, blew up things, worked, rode bikes everywhere, baseball, BB gun fights. Only time that we were inside was to eat or sleep, except during the fall/winter on Sunday afternoon, watched some fishing shows and then football games the rest of the evening.

 

[rickm]

I can tell you one thing we didnt do and that was let our parents or grandparents hear us say we was bored they could sure come up with stuff to get you unbored real quick.