I was the most naive of people when I went to college. I had grown up on a farm thirty miles northwest of Clinton, Oklahoma and nine miles from the nearest village where I went to school my entire twelve years. My "outside world" consisted of anything within a half mile of my home.
As Jeff Foxworthy reminisces on one of his CD's, kids today have all these fantastic toys and electronic gadgets to entertain them, "We had 'Outside'"!
In fact, that was one of my mother's favorite expressions. When she was busy and we were getting on her nerves, it was always, "You kids go outside and play until I call you for supper!"
Now, I don't mean to say that we had absolutely NO toys, because we did. But, we used our imaginations a great deal of the time too. I had put together an outdoor playhouse under some trees down by a stream near our house. I recall that somehow I came upon an old stove; from there I pretty much improvised, creating cabinets, tables, and furniture from discarded boxes and "cobbling" them together. I think I did have some play dishes that I had received for Christmas one year.
Jimmy and Larry always wanted bulldozers, graders, trucks, tractors with discs and plows for Christmas (I always thought they got better gifts than I did! A shiny new Tonka grader next to a pair of new pajamas always left me green with envy!)
They spent hour upon hour building roads, creating their homes, laying out their fields and immersing themselves in a magical fantasy world they shared with their mutual imaginary friend DoughDough. DoughDough was usually their "boss" who also had his own "headquarters". They would head over to DoughDough's to get their work assignments for the day. Then they were busy creating new roads, building bridges, etc.
Their other great love was baseball. I was a tomboy and I liked baseball too. I was left-handed and how I longed to receive a right-handed glove some Christmas. But, thanks to Mother, it never happened. Dad would have bought it for me, but Mother wouldn't let him. So, when I played baseball with them, I always had to wear one of their mitts "backward" on my right hand to leave my left hand free to throw.
My school didn't have women's softball in those days--long before Title Nine; but we did have women's basketball, so I was allowed to have a basketball. Jim didn't care for basketball a lot; however, Larry did, so the two of us played many a game of one-on-one. We both later started throughout our junior and senior high years.
Our other love was our horses. It's a wonder we didn't kill ourselves because we jumped them over barbed wire fence, tied our wagon to to the saddle with one riding the horse while two rode in the wagon. IF we could think of it, we did it!! None of us ever had so much as a broken bone though we had our horses rear on us and fall backward when they got caught in the barbed wire. I once had the saddle slide completely under the horse's belly when I was pulling Jimmy and Larry and turned too sharply.
We were just three farm kids who didn't even own a television until I was ten or eleven years old and then we only got three channels--if we were lucky. We attended a school that didn't have a single minority nor so far as I know a single gay person.
I had to ask someone what a homosexual was the first time I heard the expression in college; we thought "nigger" was the accepted term for people of color, because that's was all we ever heard them called.
My dad each fall would make the statement, "I'm going into town (meaning Clinton) to get a load of niggers to come pull cotton. I'm surprised I didn't get my head taken off before I learned that was a derogatory term.
Everybody in our community knew everyone else and we were all friends. I didn't realize that some people later would deliberately be vindictive toward me for no good reason. I thought all people were good. I especially believed all adults, or people my parents age, were good and would never vilify me. What a heartbreaking lesson to have to learn. I still can't accept that quality in people. I consider it among the basest of all sins. And I still believe all people are good until they prove otherwise. It is just beyond my comprehension to want to hurt another person by imagining or concocting lies about him. Something I would never do
.
8 comments on Limitations...
Add a comment
To add comments without entering your email and image verification, you must be logged in. Login or Join Blogster
We used to spend hours and hours pretending to play house. When I think of it now it makes me laugh. We used to use any old bits of rubbish for plates and things. Now as soon as the kids pick up a bit of rubbish, I'm shouting at them to put it down and to wash their hands!
My! How times do change!
I was born in 1950. Making up games, all sorts of imaginary play, sports, running around outside from dawn 'til dusk, bike-riding adventures, inventive nature explorations, reading and sharing stories, all were a great part of my young childhood with my two older brothers and my playmates in my neighborhood. We did have a freedom and independence, but I was also surrounded by safety, but I never had to deal with gangs, or criminals, or violence. The world for children is so very different now, and scarier for parents.
Yes, my grandchildren will never know the joy of going outside and playing from daylight until dark with their friends. It's so sad that they cannot have that freedom that we had.
My experiences in growing up were very much like yours and, yet, very different. While I might have played in much the same way as you, a lot of what was in my world was different than yours. I think there's a lot of good old-fashioned value that could be applied to childhood today, but I think that all children and people should get out of their own little towns once in awhile and be a part of what is the real world because there really is a world outside of "This Spot, USA" and there are other people out there, too.
Oh, I couldn't agree more. I have done quite a bit of traveling, but so many more places I would love to go.
Sounds pretty idylic! Those kinds of childhoods are something to be cherished.
Well, it wasn't all fun and games! We had to work hard to help with chores....but all in all, I wouldn't trade it.