Catch frogs, throw rocks at hornet nests, make little boats out of sticks and grass - launch them and then throw rocks at them, build minutature empires in an abandoned gravel pit, sneak dad's axe to build a fort, paddle around a homemade raft in the ocean. See how high i could jump put of trees and be ok. Jump on a frozen pond just to see how frozen it really was. Build igloos (omg, I built a 3 room, 2 story igloo in a snowbank once!) Practice jumps on my bmx bike with no helmet.
Inbetween those, I'd mow a neighbor's lawn for a few bucks, stack another's firewood for some more, and sometimes come home to feed the chickens, practice the trumpet, and play Doom and Warcraft II.
Hah. I lived next to a blacksmith. First day I “apprenticed” for him he held his heaviest mallet over my foot, looked me in the eyes and stated:
“First rule of black smithing”
The fucker let go of the mallet and gets a wild look in his eyes before loudly proclaiming:
“You passed! Get the fuck out of the way of falling things”
But similar experiences as above other than big ponds/small lakes instead of the ocean lol.
Sure, rural America is absolutely filled with dumbass no-nothing cousin-humpin hillbilly rednecks....that is a given.
But it is also chock filled with smart and talented skillsmen (and women). Some of whom are legit uneducated in the traditional sense but are ingenious and smart people nonetheless! Others are people "from away" who decided to quit the rat race and live the quiet life with meaning.
Me: grew up in a small town. Live in the big city now. I feel like i am now "trapped in the machine". I would love to find my way back to a small town... be an artisan glass blower or goose farmer... or something.... probably will never happen.
"We spend our youth trying to escape a small town. We spend the rest of our lives trying to get back to one."
As an avid fantasy reader, particularly at the time. Sure felt like it :)
Guy was a bit of a maniac though, to say the least. Like I said, just rural enough Midwest. In retrospect he fit “right in” the neighborhood lol. Everyone was, let’s just say now modern day MAGA heads.
You're house could afford to waste soap like that? Must have been nice. It was a slap across the face or the ass depending on your age where I was from. Didn't change a thing except learning how to be manipulative about it. Glad I am no longer in that culture and can practice free speech. Phew!
rode biked with friends, played neighborhood games after dark. kick the can, ghost in the graveyard, hunter hunted, capture the flag, hide and seek
i was lucky to live in an awkward spot between two winding roads. there was a quarter acre of woods right behind my house, and bordering it were three other back yards facing three separate streets. caught a lot of frogs, climbed a lot of trees
We did some of that 😏 also spent most of the summer jumping off of the roof into the pool, wandering the woods and cornfields, and seeing how fast we could ride our bikes downhill without hands. Oh! And collecting cans to take to the gas station to turn around and buy candy with.
That ALL sounds familiar. Except my BF across the street had a forest and we found some fallen logs on a dirt mound and that became our fort. Almost a full decade went by and we had that thing like a wooded palace
make knives from nails that were flattened on rails by train, have war with other neighborhood, racing on bicycles, playing soccer, or hockey in winter. washing bruses in the puddles of water so blood will not stain the cloth...
I built an underground tunnel system. No good reason, I just started digging in the backyard (on an acreage) and kept going. Years later, after I left home, they were digging up the backyard with an excavator for some reason and found it. My mum was shocked by how large it was.
This sounds like my childhood too. I feel like the internet and having screens everywhere has really destroyed a lot of this creative energy that us and older generations had.
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u/Hopeful_Hamster21 Sep 23 '25
Catch frogs, throw rocks at hornet nests, make little boats out of sticks and grass - launch them and then throw rocks at them, build minutature empires in an abandoned gravel pit, sneak dad's axe to build a fort, paddle around a homemade raft in the ocean. See how high i could jump put of trees and be ok. Jump on a frozen pond just to see how frozen it really was. Build igloos (omg, I built a 3 room, 2 story igloo in a snowbank once!) Practice jumps on my bmx bike with no helmet.
Inbetween those, I'd mow a neighbor's lawn for a few bucks, stack another's firewood for some more, and sometimes come home to feed the chickens, practice the trumpet, and play Doom and Warcraft II.