Old time play. What passtimes from your childhood will never be again?

[csziggy]

71. Playing in the swamp next to our house

Where the alligators and water moccasins lived. That swamp had been dredged and called a lake when the neighborhood was first established in the 1930s but by the time I was a kid in the 50s it had reverted back to a swamp. After Hurricane Donna flooded the neighborhood in 1960, it was dredged again and the city put in storm drains and paved the roads. It's not nearly as interesting now that they keep it mowed as it was when it was an overgrown swamp!

We also swam in Florida lakes - something now not advisable with the parasites that live in the waters. Back then we worried more about the larger critters in the water - I remember swimming one day when Dad called to all us kids to tread water quietly. He was a little upset that a moccasin swam between us and the shore. While alligators lived in the lakes, most of the time they stayed away because we kids were making so much noise!

I rode my bicycle and later my horse miles out in the countryside mostly by myself - something a kid would not be allowed to do today, especially a young girl. In the summer and on weekends I'd leave before dawn, take a lunch and return sometime around sunset. Most of my friends were not interested in riding that far or that long. Sometimes I'd ride to nearby towns but mostly I'd go out off road and explore.

Mostly I remember the freedom - as little kids we had certain boundaries but other than that, we were free to go anywhere in that area we wanted with little adult supervision. In fact, most of the parents wouldn't let us in the homes during the day except to use the bathroom. We'd drink from water hoses in the yard and our Moms would give us sandwiches to eat outside. I don't remember many cartoons from my childhood because we were outside most of the time.