Strolling Down Memory Lane

[min]

The hamlet I grew up in had a swing set, slide, and sandbox in the park.  And an old abandoned car with no tires.  We pretended we were travelling in that car.  Never found any "treasures" in that sand box...and I just had to keep up with my younger brothers and do a flying dismount from the swings...Lord knows how I never broke any bones...or my glasses.  My brother broke his arm falling out of a tree he was climbing up.  We used to be out all day and often until dark during the summer months, riding our bikes around (no lights on our bikes), and just playing with the neighbourhood kids.  Had to dodge the cow pats in the field across from my Dad's shop.  Wish I was a kid again....

[MagicM]

This is the wonderland we used to play in as kids - Wellington Botanical Gardens. Can you imagine parents letting six or seven year olds take off on their own here today? The pine forest in the third pic was much more dense when we lived there too. 

[MagicM]

We climbed up this hill as well (Radio Hill). There were wild horses up here then and they charged at us so we jumped in a gorse bush to escape and got covered in prickles!

[injest]

We climbed up this hill as well (Radio Hill). There were wild horses up here then and they charged at us so we jumped in a gorse bush to escape and got covered in prickles!

 

[injest]

The hamlet I grew up in had a swing set, slide, and sandbox in the park.  And an old abandoned car with no tires.  We pretended we were travelling in that car.  Never found any "treasures" in that sand box...and I just had to keep up with my younger brothers and do a flying dismount from the swings...Lord knows how I never broke any bones...or my glasses.  My brother broke his arm falling out of a tree he was climbing up.  We used to be out all day and often until dark during the summer months, riding our bikes around (no lights on our bikes), and just playing with the neighbourhood kids.  Had to dodge the cow pats in the field across from my Dad's shop.  Wish I was a kid again....

it would be fun to go back for a day or two wouldn't it? just to relive for a while?

[huntinbuddy]

Here's one.  I grew up in a rural area, on a farm actually, in the 60's & 70's.   Only the very well-to-do had color TV’s or clothes dryers.   My parents did have their first color TV until the early 80’s, and my mom had an outside clothes line which was like about 40 feet long, and had three lines on it, where she would hang out the laundry to dry.  Even in the winter, clothes and such would freeze-dry, and would be slightly damp when thawed out indoors and would dry in a couple hours there.

But in the spring and summer months, with the sheets, and towels and such hanging out on the clothes line; me and my little brother and our friends would run through them like little wild animals as they blew in the wind.

Even with all the modern laundry additives and dryer sheets and such, nothing smells cleaner or fresher than laundry dried in the wind outside.   A couple years ago, I put mine out on the fence between the mine and the neighbor’s property, but they said it looked trashy and like something you'd see at a trailer park....so I haven't done it since. 

[injest]

Here's one.  I grew up in a rural area, on a farm actually, in the 60's & 70's.   Only the very well-to-do had color TV’s or clothes dryers.   My parents did have their first color TV until the early 80’s, and my mom had an outside clothes line which was like about 40 feet long, and had three lines on it, where she would hang out the laundry to dry.  Even in the winter, clothes and such would freeze-dry, and would be slightly damp when thawed out indoors and would dry in a couple hours there.

But in the spring and summer months, with the sheets, and towels and such hanging out on the clothes line; me and my little brother and our friends would run through them like little wild animals as they blew in the wind.

Even with all the modern laundry additives and dryer sheets and such, nothing smells cleaner or fresher than laundry dried in the wind outside.   A couple years ago, I put mine out on the fence between the mine and the neighbor’s property, but they said it looked trashy and like something you'd see at a trailer park....so I haven't done it since. 

get yourself a REAL clothes line! no one can complain about that!

just remember your clothes line etiquette so the neighbors don't start talkin'...

[huntinbuddy]

just remember your clothes line etiquette so the neighbors don't start talkin'...

And just what might this be???   All I had out that day was a couple of towels and a set of sheets.....not my jock straps!

[injest]

And just what might this be???   All I had out that day was a couple of towels and a set of sheets.....not my jock straps!

there was a reason why they had three lines on the poles; sheets and towels on the two outside lines and unmentionables in the middle, shielded by the towels and sheets from shocking the neighbors..

of course this was back in the day when showing your underwear in public wasn't an everyday thing..

[MagicM]

...or you could get one of these HB. They're called Hills Hoists and no Aussie backyard is complete without one.

[injest]

I had my youngest niece over the other day and she was emptying an ice tray...she said it was 'hard'...I told her "well when I was your age, our ice trays were metal and you had to pull a lever up to get them out...THAT was hard! PLUS, your fingers would stick to them!"

she said "Why didn't you just get some plastic ones?"

I told her "this was before they made plastic"

it was the first time I had that 'moment'...you know the moment when the 'younguns' look at you like you are wearing furs and carrying a club...

 

she was boggled that there was ever a time when they didn't have plastic and even MORE boggled that I was old enough to remember it!

[injest]

...or you could get one of these HB. They're called Hills Hoists and no Aussie backyard is complete without one.

this was the 'new fangled' clothes line that only the rich suburban women had!

 

I remember seeing them on TV commercials and thinking that they were the epitome of sophistication!

 

[MagicM]

I had my youngest niece over the other day and she was emptying an ice tray...she said it was 'hard'...I told her "well when I was your age, our ice trays were metal and you had to pull a lever up to get them out...THAT was hard! PLUS, your fingers would stick to them!"

she said "Why didn't you just get some plastic ones?"

I told her "this was before they made plastic"

it was the first time I had that 'moment'...you know the moment when the 'younguns' look at you like you are wearing furs and carrying a club...

 

she was boggled that there was ever a time when they didn't have plastic and even MORE boggled that I was old enough to remember it!

Well Jess never mind metal ice trays - I can remember ice boxes (a box with a giant lump of ice to keep things cold). I also remember when ice cream was sold in cardboard type packaging instead of plastic tubs and black and white TVs. But what really makes me feel prehistoric is my total lack of interest in texting non stop and fiddling about with my cell phone. Forget all those fancy apps - I mainly just talk into it lol!

[MagicM]

this was the 'new fangled' clothes line that only the rich suburban women had!

 

I remember seeing them on TV commercials and thinking that they were the epitome of sophistication!

 

LOL Jess! Here in Oz the Hills Hoist rotary clothes line is considerd the epitome of unsophisticated suburbia!

http://studioincite.com/makingwifi/?p=26

"Hill’s hoist has become a curious symbol of cultural identity and a domestic icon, of sorts. It’s synonymous with backyards, working class families, sprawling suburbia, summer and Australian technological inventiveness. It featured, along with motor mowers, corrugated iron, surfboards and horsemen wearing Akubras and Drizabones, in the 2000 Olympic games closing ceremony in Sydney. I’m sure Dame Edna has a dress printed with an image of one. It’s listed as a national treasure at the National Library of Australia and rated fourth in the TV programme Greatest Aussie ideas, icons and inventions. After Cyclone Tracy struck and devastated Darwin in 1974 a hoist was the only thing left working in one family’s home."

[Artiste]

The nouveau-rich new neighbours took photo of things hanged on the clothlines here on mother's property! These are obviously so-called ones and not real neighbourly  since they harass mother continuously. Even the first day that new neighbour spoke to mother, she yelled at mother! We have clothline here since 1948, but now the nouveau-rich want people only to use electricity in 2011?- or they are just bullies?