I Remember: A Blog Post That Really Dates Me

I was never super-athletic, but, growing up, I did enjoy playing with scooters or the parachute in gym class or other activities that were free of pressure and competition.

I do. I actually do. This was something I remember doing in the first and second grades. I had more fun doing this than playing dodge ball or kickball.

We had a lot of simple ways of entertaining ourselves.

Or jumping through the sprinkler

Or sliding down the stairs.

I remember going down the stairs like this as a child, sliding down the carpeted steps and leading with my hands. I'd put out a couple of big floor pillows on the bottom of the steps. There was some sort of game I played on the stairs where the "lava men" might come and eat me or my friends if we touched the bottom or fell off the pillows. At this point, I can't remember how much of this came out of my own imagination or were inspired by my older brother Dan.

I remember this old Betty Crocker cookie recipe book from the '60s. This is the exact cookbook my mother still has, which contains a lot of traditional recipes she's baked over the years.

I remember '70s latch hook kits. This pattern above looks so familiar that I feel we must have had this one or else someone I knew did. This was one craft I could do well and found relaxing. Mom and I both worked on one of our own while on vacation in the Adirondacks. Mom made a butterfly design, and mine was a brown bunny. Even my oldest brother made his own latch hook rug for his bedroom door, drawing out his own pattern of Snoopy laying on top of his doghouse.

These Makit & Bakit suncatchers are another craft I remember from childhood. At one point, I had one hanging in each of my bedroom windows. One of them was a cute cartoonish hippo.

I remember when these braided ribbon barrettes were popular for girls, some time back in the '80s. I made a pair or two as a craft in my Pioneer Girls church group. It seems you can still buy some or the kits to make your own, and they are labelled as "retro."

Before I'd even heard of a friendship bracelet, there were friendship pins. We made different patterns, exchanged them with friends and wore them on our shoelaces in the '80s.

These are just a few of the many things I remember from childhood.