I have Question for any boomers here .

[Texaswitchy]

Did you drink out of a water hose as a kid...

I did..


There is a reason I am asking.

To me it is a fond memory of childhood.

[redwitch]

1. Yes.

Didn’t everyone?

[Lochloosa]

16. Yes

[Duncanpup]

2. 1966 born here so not a Boomer.

Yet we drank out of a hose here is another memory those rolls of caps that would pop in toy pistol. Or wing vents in car window. And riding in the bed of a pickup or in the back of the Chevy station wagon no seatbelts.

[Haggard Celine]

5. I was born in 1969 and had the same experiences.

I loved riding in the backs of station wagons and pickups. When we went on a long trip, I used to get on my knees and turn around and look at the scenery as it dropped out of sight while we continued down the road. I used to fantasize that we were outrunning an earthquake that was taking all the land that we had just passed over. I guess that was a strange fantasy for a kid, or maybe not.

[Texaswitchy]

10. Our neighbor had a station wagon.

Loved riding in the back.

[Not Heidi]

106. Ah, yes, the way back.

Fond memories. And only in my adulthood am I aware of how much leaded exhaust I inhaled.

[yellowdogintexas]

105. Grandaddy had a metal Jeep with no roof. We went all over the farm with him

as well as to the smaller farm he leased out to a couple of families (we went swimming in the big creek by one of the houses)

That old jeep had metal seats, and a little flat bed that had a little bench like thing on each side. We loved to ride in the back! He bounced that thing all over the farm, and when we went to the other farm which was 5 miles away or so, we had to cross a little stream (no bridge). He would plow through that creek, hitting all the big rocks and we would bounce around like crazy.

We Loved Every Minute!!!

[Haggard Celine]

110. Sounds like a lot of fun! Great memories!

Reminds me of my friend Rodney and I. This was in the late 70s, 40 miles north of Jackson, Miss. Rodney's grandpa loved to take us to the zoo in Jackson on Sundays, when weather permitted.

Jackson was a much better city back then. Lots to see and do. Anyway, Rodney's grandpa had a bench in the back of his pickup, and we used to sit on it all the way down to Jackson and back.

Rodney's grandpa, I'll just call him "Grandpa," would always buy us ice cream on the way back home. We would sit on the bench and take a bite of our ice creams and let it melt in our mouths. Then we would spit on the cars when they came up near the truck, either to the back or the side while they passed us. We enjoyed the hell out of that, but nobody enjoyed it more than Grandpa! He would be laughing all the way back home! Those were great, special times!

Grandpa bought Rodney a Shetland pony for some holiday or other. We used to ride that pony all over Grandpa's huge farm. Sometimes we might fall off, but we would get right back up and hop back on the pony. Grandpa was a kind, wonderful, special man. I look back with such fondness of all those times!.

[Texaswitchy]

6. My group of friends would go to the bayou to hunt alligators.

Yeah we did.

With bb guns and walking sticks.

We didn't get eaten.

[Lochloosa]

17. And don't forget Lawn Darts. And trying to catch them.

[Texaswitchy]

18. Yes .

Lawn Darts..

Thing Maker I had that made plastic bugs.

The smell of cooking plastic .

[RobinA]

123. Yes To The Hose

And a big yes to the smell of cooking plastic. We had the flowers. That was sooooo fun!

[Texaswitchy]

124. That was my favorite toy.

I made a lot of money selling those bugs.

Different colors or mix of colors.

The smell of cooking plastic is unforgettable.

[Duncanpup]

21. 😂

[Texaswitchy]

32. It was a hot mold that you put plastic liquid .

Different kinds of bug molds.

I made money selling those bugs

The mold got hot.

[retread]

51. Ed's Redeeming Qualities

[Hieronymus Phact]

43. '67 here, forget about helmets too...

Bike helmets, ski helmets, helmet laws, mostly nonexistent.

[Texaswitchy]

54. Who needed a bike helmet .

I had a good bike wreck when I was about 10.

Hit a some gravel over I- 10 on a bridge when I-10 was being built in the neighborhood. It almost dark and I didn't see the gravel .
.
The bike went one way and I went another.

A total wipeout.

Thankfully I was wearing jeans.

My front bike wheel had to be replace and I limped home..

I was lucky no traffic was coming.

Limped around like Chester on Gun Smoke for a week.

Would we have wore the helmet if we had one.

No.


My rear end was hurt the most.

[NanceGreggs]

3. Of course.

I can still remember the taste.

[Texaswitchy]

4. Good.

I think we all did.

Did anybody feel traumatized by drinking out of the hose.

This was just a childhood thing.

I told by a younger person we all should be traumatized by this.

And playing outside all day.

I guess it a generational thing or something.

[wnylib]

78. Playing outside all day was the point

of drinking from a garden hose. We didn't want to take time out to go inside to drink tap water from a glass. Also, on a hot day while the hose was on for a drink, we could spray each other to cool off.

[EYESORE 9001]

7. I have no memories of my childhood

They tell me it’s because I drank from the garden hose.

Seriously, I drank readily from the garden hose when compelled by thirst, but even then I knew it wasn’t healthy because of the strong taste of plasticizer.

[Texaswitchy]

9. Had to let the water run first.

To let the hot water go first

[EarnestPutz]

28. Yes, exactly. Let it run to get rid of the hot water that tasted like vinyl. "Yuck, it tastes.....

......like the hose".

[Texaswitchy]

30. Yes.

That hot water could burn you.

[Mr.Bill]

75. I also tasted the brass from the metal on the end. n/t

[Texaswitchy]

80. Yes.

Burnt lips.

[yellowdogintexas]

107. besides the yuck taste, we ran our hose because our well water was very cold

I now know it was fed by a cave stream (this was in Kentucky which is basically a big hunk of swiss cheese) Water temp was probably in the 55 to 60 degree range. Damn that was good water! And of course we sprayed each other to cool off

[Auggie]

33. Same here

[EYESORE 9001]

44. Oh, I did run water first, believe me

I could still taste it, or at least I imagined so.

[ProfessorGAC]

87. Not To Worry

The amount of plasticized ingested from the occasional drinking from a rubber or PVC hose is so small the risk asympototically approaches zero.
There are lots of chemical hazards we face that are WAY higher than this.
We'll all be fine over this.

[BittyJenkins]

8. Yes and

So did my kids and pups
In summers when we were little Mom would put out the wadding pool on the front lawn. She would fill it with hose water and then a big bucket of hot water to make the pool water just right.

[multigraincracker]

11. Garden hoses were a new thing

and it was before paper cups.

[MiHale]

12. Still do...

Never used plastic hoses they don’t last long in the sun so black rubber hose is the one.

[TexLaProgressive]

13. Yes even though we were warned not to.

The other thing was breaking frosty ice from the freezer compartment and putting in in our mouths, another no-no.

[JT45242]

14. Gen X here..and yes

Every summer.

[nightwing1240]

15. Certainly did

Both at home and football practice in High School. During practice for water breaks they would have us line up and take turns drinking. Not the most sanitary I guess but we drank.

[Texaswitchy]

19. Yes.

We had one mother that would give us one glass to drink out of.
.
The water hose was better.

[2naSalit]

20. Once or twice but...

I hated the taste so I would get water from the house.

[Texaswitchy]

24. If you could get in the house.

The water tasted better if you let the water run.

[Native]

22. Yes, but not often because it was so gross.

That said, my parent's generation used to run behind the mosquito truck as kids because they thought the fog was cool.

[Texaswitchy]

26. Some kids did that

I never did.

I did some stupid stuff but never that...

It was mosquito spray.

[Native]

29. Yup.

[Augiedog]

23. Yes

[DeeDeeNY]

25. Never, because I was a city kid

No garden hoses because we lived in an apartment.

[Texaswitchy]

27. You had have a house.

My neighborhood was a kids Paradise..


Lots of places to play..

Woods and a railroad yard.

[DeeDeeNY]

31. There was a huge park across the street from us

So, a fantastic childhood. But no garden hose to drink from!

[Texaswitchy]

35. Still do it if you house now

It wasn't bad if you let the water run

[diddlysquat]

34. yes

[sarge43]

36. Sure

That and breaking a thermometer and playing with the mercury. Eating ants. The school monkey bars. Bike helmet, what's that? I'm surprised any of us made it out alive.

[Texaswitchy]

40. No kidding.

I no idea how we reach teenage years..

[sarge43]

41. Teenage years?

Two words: Driver's license.

[malthaussen]

64. Some of us didn't, of course.

There has been a measurable drop in child mortality since we stopped doing all the fun things. It's probably inappropriate to wonder if it was worth it.

-- Mal

[Texaswitchy]

71. I think I made us stronger.

We did learn how to stay alive.

We learned to make decisions rather they were good or not.

Kids are dieing now for all kinds of stupid reasons.

One of Union sisters lost a grandson from being shot by a friend.

Playing with a gun.

The only guns we played with were BB guns.

We never shot at each other.

[gademocrat7]

37. Yes

[rampartc]

38. of course

and still do on occasion, but don't use me as an example. our water has been found to have brain eating amebae (Naegleria fowleri).

[KarenS]

39. yes. n/t

[beemerphill]

42. Yes

[Better Days Ahoy]

45. Yes, I did!

I still remember how the hose gave the water a old rubber smell and taste. The colder, the better.

[Maine Abu El Banat]

46. Yes

And yet I still live.

[kacekwl]

47. Yes

[jamesatemple]

48. I was born during the "Silent Generation", before the end of WWII.

And I, and all the other kids my age, drank water out of a tin cup hanging from the pulley arch of a water well. We made it a point to drink on the side of the cup opposite the side where tobacco chewers drank. That plan was not always successful, and it did add a bit of flavor to the well water. In the early years of the Baby Boomer Generation, we adapted quickly to the luxury of drinking from a water hose.

[Texaswitchy]

56. Just curious.

A lot of Moms went to work during the war..

That was interesting time.

Kids on their own a lot.

My brother was December 1945...

My Grandparents kept a tin cup like that outside on old water pump with a handle.

We all drank out of it.

[jamesatemple]

65. Yep! Those were interesting times during which I grew up.

I was born 30 November 1940, in Merit, Hunt County, Texas (the Blackland). The farms there had earthen cisterns rather than wells. Next came the above-ground big metal cisterns. And finally, community water was supplied by nearby lakes... and therby, those wonderful garden hoses.

[Texaswitchy]

69. My Grandparents had a cistern attached the house.

Rain water.

Never tasted it.

[jamesatemple]

91. Many of the farm homes had rain barrels in various places around the house to catch rain water.

One ol' Texan told me that some of their chickens would roost around the open top of the rain barrel at night. His job, before going to bed, was to make sure all the chickens were facing each other.

[Texaswitchy]

103. Yes.

The chickens.

Trying to get them all back inside the chicken house.

Not easy.

[jamesatemple]

112. Heh, heh! These days, most folks wouldn't know the necesity of having chickens face one another

when the chickens are roosting on the rim of an open rain barrel. Think about it!

[Texaswitchy]

117. Thinking about it.

My Grandparents had chickens that rather roost in a tree and get eaten by night visitors.


Or lay their eggs in weird locations.

[yellowdogintexas]

108. Cistern water was the best although there is no telling what was down there

crawling around in the tank. I try not to think about that!

Anyway lots of folks had cisterns; my grandmother used to send me out to fill up a bucket of water for some thing or another she was doing. She also kept a dipper on the pump.

Water was always cold and tasted so good!

I have a vague memory of a hand pump on my aunt's kitchen sink; interesting it was still there because she had running water in the house.

Lots of folks had outhouses even in town, even up into the 1950s .

My folks bought an old house that had no running water in the house. Old folks who lived there pumped all the water from the cistern. Well, of course the house was modernized before we moved in, but my mom refused to stop using the cistern because she loved the taste of the water!

[jamesatemple]

113. I remember when the new, modern metal cistern was delivered to the home place.

After it was set up and galvanized pipes were run under the house to the kitchen sink, we waited with great anticipation for a good rain. Soon, we were all gathered in the kitchen to watch my aunt open the faucet. Hooray! No more goin' out to the earthen cistern to draw water. Someday, I reckon, someone will start a thread about smokehouses, cellars, and two-holers.

[Texaswitchy]

125. I know about Smokehouses and outhouses.

My Grandparents had both.

I have a smoke house on my little farm.

We hunt feral hogs and process them.

Lots of Czech sausage.

My Grandfather taught me.

[Texaswitchy]

72. My Grandparents didn't get electrical power about 1940.

The farm was to far back.

My Mother grew up without electricity.

They had powerful lamps of some kind .

Ice box.

Smoked their pork meat.

Home canned.

Beef was a luxury.

They had a meat club for beef.

Drinking out of a water hose was pretty good.

[jamesatemple]

93. My grandpa left Hunt County to make a homestead claim in the New Mexico Territory in 1907.

The family generally went to bed at sundown (with the chicken, as was said) and occasionally burned a kerosene (coal oil) lantern by which to read. My mom, born on the homestead in 1919, read by such a lamp, grandma cooked on a wood (cow chips in hard times) burning stove, and grandpa worked the fields from "can to cain't". He sold the claim after the depression and the dust bowl and came back to Hunt County in 1939. Hard scrabble, my friend, wore his old body out.

[Texaswitchy]

101. My Grandparents were lucky.

My Grandfather had a army pension from being injured in WW1.

That saved the land.

They grew all their own food.

My grandma could sew.

They made it .

It was tough.

[Silver Swan]

121. You brought back a memory which I haven't though about for decades.

I grew up on a farm. We had a windmill to pump water. Hanging from a wire was a white enameled cup that we used for outside drinks.

[Texaswitchy]

126. My Grandparents had a big windmill for their water needs.

Until the electric power came.

The windmill pumped water for the animals then.

Cold water.

Somebody had to run out to pull the handle when the water tank filled up.

To stop the windmill.

It was very windy there.

[nuxvomica]

49. All the time and my mom got a special fountain

It attached to the outdoor faucet so we wouldn't have to drink from the hose, though we still preferred the hose. My mom wanted to make sure we could stay outside all day in the summer so she could get her housework done and watch her "stories" (soaps).

[3Hotdogs]

50. '42 here. Yes, on the garden hose. Tasted awful.

Yesterday, I was thinking about summer sand lot baseball. In the fields that are now condos and houses. But those two fields were bare dirt. Bases were stones. Mr. Flynn would mow the weeds for us.

Summer -- you could stay outside until 9 or 10, past when it was too dark to play baseball. That's when it was time for just sitting around and watching fireflies. And watch stars. You can't see stars now. Just, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.

And I remember when we saw Sputnik.


I feel sorry for my grandkids. They don't have any of that. Meeting friends is on the cell phone.

[Texaswitchy]

59. They text.

I had some walkie talkies when was a kid.

Pre cellphone .

My best friend had the other one.

They were good ones to...

[GreenWave]

52. Sure did! I was no weirdo.

Good enough for the dog, good enough for me!

PS Don't tell mom we ate dog food one day too!

[Chainfire]

53. Not only hoses, but hand-pumped wells.

I recall that the neighbor that lived behind us did not have running water and got their water from a hand pump in the back yard, that was 50 feet from their outhouse. It was good water!

[Texaswitchy]

60. My Grandparents had that also.

And a out house from before they had indoor plumbing .

A outhouse in the summer was a experience.

[ProfessorGAC]

89. My Mom's Parents Too

Not my dad's parents though. And, they came to America later than my mom's side.
They both lived in city limits, so not sure why the difference.

[Golden Raisin]

55. Yes.

So many memories, like metal skates and your Mom would put the key on a string which you wore around your neck.

[Texaswitchy]

62. I never skated.

I remember the skates.

[demosincebirth]

57. Still do at times.

[Ocelot II]

58. Yes. The water tasted terrible from sitting in the hose but we did it anyhow.

And we were told not to do it which was probably another reason we did.

[Texaswitchy]

61. Yes.

Just let the water run.

[malthaussen]

63. Yes. n/t

[area51]

66. Yes.

Generation Jones here.

[debm55]

67. I did too.

[Prairie_Seagull]

68. yep, just let it run until cooler.

Also swam the American river when it was its swiftest at 10yo near Sacramento. Had to plan where you wanted to land and go upriver to try to time it right. Someone would get arrested now a days. I learned to swim very well.

[Texaswitchy]

70. That is how learned.

There was big wooded area we played in.

To get there you had to cross 20 rail road tracks.

This was a busy railyard.

Moving trains.

None of were killed or injured.

We learned how to do it safely.

[highplainsdem]

73. Yes.

[Mr.Bill]

74. Yes, I did.

And rode bicycles and skateboards without helmets or any other pretective gear.

I did break a wrist on the skatebosrd.

[Texaswitchy]

76. Never used a skateboard.

The ones before the newer wheels were more dangerous I guess.

I should have broken something.

We always were jumping off of something playing paratroopers.

[NowsTheTime]

77. Of Course!

[Tree Lady]

79. Of course kids were told to play outside

And come home when dark. You barely got watched, I think the stay at home moms wanted some tme to themselves. I remember riding my bike at least a mile or more away to neighborhood grocery store for candy and pop, and I went pretty young.

My fav game was hitting baseball with bat to kids on street who would have to roll the ball over bat laying down. If batter caught it as it came over they could stay at bat.

But mostly I was in my trees, sitting, hanging, playing with my dolls. Thats when I wasn't roller skating, riding bike with no hands, or playing tennis up against our wall outside.

Kids were active and outdoors.

[Texaswitchy]

81. I was the youngest and a surprise.

My mom had 3 kids in five years.

Just got my brother in 2nd or 3rd grade and here I come.

I think our Moms wanted some peace and quiet.

[Texaswitchy]

82. Finding coke bottles to cash in.

We were always looking.

[Mr.Bill]

83. For one summer in the late 50s,

my dad had started a new job and he had to work graveyard shift for about six months, which included that summer. My two brothers and mom and dad lived in a small apartment in Virginia, and since dad slept during the day, us kids were banished from the apartment during the day.

It was the most fantastic summer. There were woods nearby, there was a community pool, fields where we could play any sport we could imagine, low-traffic streets to ride our bicycles and plenty of kids of all ages to play with.

We didn't care about the hot humid weather, the few bullies in the neighborhood we had to avoid, the fact that our parents didn't have much money, or much else. We just played until we dropped, went home for dinner, watched a little TV and I particularly remember we slept very well with not a care in the world - past, present, or future.

[Texaswitchy]

84. Sweet memories.

This made us the adults we are.

Self sufficient.

Able to handle ourselves.

My Union Sister's granddaughter who we were talking to
had helicopter parents.

She is having trouble in college.

She is smart but can't handle things.

Her parents smothered her .

We were lucky to have the parents we had.

[Mr.Bill]

88. In 1961, my dad's job moved us to the San Francisco Bay Area.

I brought that lille kid in me to California. He was there with me all through school, he was there when I visited the Haight Ashbury in SF during the Summer of Love. He was there when I got my first job, when I registered for the draft, about 90% certain I was going to die in Viet Nam for no apparent reason. He was there when I met my wife and on my wedding day.

I'm 69, sitting here, still in Northern California watching TV with my wife and he is still with me.

You are not only the age you are today, you are still every age you ever were. Even when you have five great grandchildren. I hope they are all playing outside a bit today.

[Texaswitchy]

92. I adopted my best friend's daughter when she died from cancer.

Then then adopted a foster child.

Almost four grandchildren now.

I had a big yard and my daughters did play outside.

Made a nice tree house for them.

Then the grandkids played in the yard.

No staying in the house all day looking at a computer.

We had the popular house.

All their friends came over all the time.

They played outside.


Got them play ground equipment and a above ground pool.

Good fenced in yard .

And I have country place so they have that area to explore.

I raised them like little boomers.

They knew how make decisions.

The are very successful women.

[Mr.Bill]

95. That's a great story.

Keep up the good work.

[Texaswitchy]

97. I am, thank you.

They live in Canada now.

I talk them everyday.

My two oldest granddaughters are fantastic.

Doing college level work in high school.

Their Mom is raising them well.

I never planned on children.

They just happened.

[Tree Lady]

94. I was raised In Napa in late 50's

To early 70's. I am 66 few yrs younger. Had older cousins who got masters at Berkeley and as a teen I would go and buy homemade candles and sandals on the streets. Back then I was a skinny thing with hair to my waist and dressed like a flower child. Those were the days!!

[Mr.Bill]

96. What a great time and place.

I was in what is now Silicon Valley. Very different place now.

[Tree Lady]

98. I remember San Jose from back then

Had regular neighborhoods with cheap houses. Hard to believe right? My first husband's parents lived there. Went all the time.

[Mr.Bill]

100. We lived in a three-bedroom tract home on the east side.

It cost 15K in 1961. We lived there for ten years. I looked it up on Google Earth. It's boarded up and has tarps on the roof. Zillow values it at 1.5 million. There's a shooting on the news within one mile of it almost every week.

[Texaswitchy]

99. My parents and I went to California in 1970 before I started high school

San Francisco was great.

Went to high school with long hair hippies.

[Grammy23]

85. Absolutely.

Ran around in the yard playing hide & seek after the fog machine (spraying chemicals for mosquitoes) came through, too. Lived to tell the tale. 😉

1948 Boomer

[Texaswitchy]

86. Remember those trucks.

We played a game called I See a Ghost.

Only when it was fully dark.

No fenced in yards back then.

Total darkness in the back yards.

Took a lot of guts to go back there.

[ProfessorGAC]

90. Not Much

But, until I was 13 we lived about 500 feet from a large city park. Playground, tennis courts, basketball courts, baseball diamonds, picnic areas...
We spent tons of time there and there were water fountains in about six locations.
We weren't in the yard playing that often to use the hose.
But, I definitely can't say never.

[yellowdogintexas]

102. Absolutely! Quicker than going back in the house

just to get a drink.

I would still do it if I were out working in the yard and did not otherwise have a nearby beverage.

[Not Heidi]

104. Yep. Only got a spider once.

[yellowdogintexas]

109. Our daughter always wanted to be outside with her best buddy

They climbed trees, rode bikes, made up all sorts of crazy stories which they acted out
(they called them 'games' but they were more like a serial play.) Fantasy tales.

I have always been glad that she wanted to do that. She could not do the things we did because of living in the city with only a few kids to play with and none of the good stuff to explore and do safely. When you grow up in the country or live in a town of 200 you have the run of what feels like the whole world!

[Texaswitchy]

111. Kids need to be kids.

We had a small blue collar neighborhood.

Now it is all town houses.

[Wicked Blue]

114. You bet I did!

We also had wonderful water fights with hoses and buckets.

[Elessar Zappa]

115. I'm a millenial

and I would drink outta the hose as a child. Nothing better after hours of playing and running around.

[bikebloke]

116. Yes

Though hoses had an awful taste. But it was water to quench a thirst.

[BootinUp]

118. LOL. You betcha.

[Raine]

119. Absolutely!! 💦💦 nt

[Marthe48]

120. Yes, and ot was the same hose we let the dogs drink from

We had St.Bernards. If they drank from the hose, we swabbed it off with the bottom of our shirts and had a drink too. But we kids weren't allowed to drink from the same bottle of pop. lolol

[KY_EnviroGuy]

122. Absolutely and many a well, creek and spring.

Don't recall anyone getting sick drinking from any water source down in the country in my youth during the 50s and 60s. I also believe country people had stronger immunity back then.

My little farm town's water supply had a strong sulfur odor that we did not notice at all but our city kin folks from Nashville would gag from smelling it.

KY........

[Hekate]

127. Naturally. But nowadays I have a gardener, who tells me slugs & snails crawl inside seeking moisture

Though I think a good strong squirt would probably take care of that…
Anyway, being a kid is a different state of being.

[Texaswitchy]

130. Yes.

We ate dirt when we were little.

Remember making mud pies.

[happybird]

128. Yep, and I'm GenX

The only problem when was I was working a summer job at a nursery (plants not kids) and took a minute to chug out of the hose I was using to water tables of perennials. Someone on my radio yelled out “Stop!” I didn’t realize the hoses were fed from the pond, not the well. I was fine, of course but, after that, took the time to walk up to the building to get a drink when I was thirsty.

When playing outside when I was a kid, you had to drink from the hose because no one was allowed in the house till dark/dinner time.

[Texaswitchy]

129. Yep.

Your mom wanted the floor to stay clean.

I had the issue with daughters and their friends when they lived in my house in the summer time.

I understood my mother then.

I not a clean freak but damn.