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After supper, the night games began................

The sun is starting to set on Gold St. back in the fifties. One more week until school starts and we have a lot of playing to do before it starts. It was a much easy going time as there was very few TV sets, video games, etc. We had to invent our own games and things to do.

Anyway, I'm rushing through my supper as a fierce game of kick the can will soon be starting. Mom says, why are you eating so fast? I explain to her that Terry, Warren Teddy, Jimmy and a few more guys are meeting outside by the street light in a few minutes to start the games.

Later, as everyone has had their fill off kick the can, we would sneak around in peoples back yards, between Gold and Rexford St, and "borrow" a few apples and then we might see how many fireflies each one of us could catch. Our faces dripping with sweat, we would sneak into into our clubhouse, which was a building attached to the back of my parents garage. The clubhouse was well stocked with "penny" candy and comic books. My mom wouldn't allow candles in the old clubhouse, so we had several Roy Rogers or Hopalong Cassidy flashlights hidden in secrect places to read by. Batteries didn't last very long back then, but we managed to finish up our reading.

Then came the dreaded call. "Time to come in, it's time for bed." Time for a bath and off to dreamland. My dreams....what are we going to do tomorrow night?

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5 comments on this topic:

patmlaw says:

September 22nd, 2008 at 11:58 am

Those were the good old days when children could go out and play at night and the parents didn't have to worry. Thanks for the memories.

pappy says:

September 21st, 2008 at 4:51 pm

Yes, I can see what you mean, justaguy. All that came later after we got our cars and grew up a liitle. Different night, different games....

justaguy says:

September 20th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

I gotta tell ya, after reading your title my mind went in a completely different direction than your blog did. Still it brought back some nice memories from my youth, thanks pappy.

r23nor says:

September 23rd, 2008 at 2:40 pm

Ten years earlier we also played "Kick the can" on the BLOCK. The block was a concrete pad at the intersection of Steeres Lane and Natoli Ave. The rest of both streets were dirt at the time. Also overhead of the block was the only street light on either street so it made a great place to play after dark.