I've been remembering many of the fun times my siblings and I had growing up. Mom packing a picnic of PB&J with Kool-ade; my sisters and I would walk a few hundred feet into a meadow and explore and have a wonderful time. We picked wildflowers and berries. Seems we always had baby animals of some sort to play with, rather than dolls. We made mud pies, played "school", made tents with blankets over the clothes line. We used to do "Sing and Dance" shows for any adult we could corner, with the picnic table as a stage. What a riot! We had no neighbors nearby, so it was just my sisters and I. We had to make our own fun. When I turned 12 we got our first horse, Bucky. I wish I knew how many times I fell off that horse! What are your kids and grandkids doing for fun? Share some of your summertime childhood memories of growing up in the country. Thanks Everyone!

-- Cathy Horn (hrnofplnty@webtv.net), July 27, 2000

Answers

Cathy, Last year the kids wanted to play hide-and-go-seek. Well, I am a very large person so I told them we could only play when the sun went down. Later that night we decided to feed the llamas on our way down to the creek bed to play. With the llamas all fed we started playing. We started a new game in each pen with a different person being "it" and searching for the people hiding. We have 4 separate pens which made the area to be searched a bit smaller than using the whole 26 acres! The first 3 pens all went well but the 4th pen it all fell apart. I wore dark clothes and I hid myself around the base of a cedar tree, literally wrapped around the base! So the kids would walk around me but couldn't find me. My youngest(6 years old) was having a ball, but my 9 year old got upset because she couldn't find Mom. Like I had vanished in thin air. You could hear her losing it. So, I stepped out from my spot and stood like a tree waiting for them to find me. As we find people they help to find the rest of the people. They walked right by me. We had ecently bought a cockoo clock so I started cockooing and they still didn't find me. I got sick of holding my arms up so I lay down and looked at the stars while making noises. Eventually, my youngest daughter found me, my olders by her side crying!! Then we realized Dad was missing. When I mentioned we should find him my oldest said, "No, he will eventually come up to the house. I'm going home." Still to this day she will not play hide-and-go-seek! My youngest thinks its fun to tease her about it. And we still get a chuckle thinking about it!

-- Emily (bellyacresfarm@kyk.net), July 27, 2000.

My kid's grown and I didn't get to raise him so I can't reply to that. But as for my childhood, I remember most of the things mentioned in the first post, all our animals, cows, chickens (I was afraid of the chickens but didn't want anyone to know it), horses, dogs, cats and all the wild animals we had on the Texas prairie where I grew up. But I think my fondest memory is of when my mother would rock me in a cane chair in her room and the windows were all open all the way because it would be so hot outside like it is here today. I must have been only about 3 years old and that would have been around 1950 but I remember it like it was yesterday. Mom's 90 years old now and doing well.

-- Joe Cole (jcole@apha.com), July 27, 2000.

I would go out to the horse pasture with just a lead rope, and try to catch my favoitre mare, Queeny. I would latch on the leadrope to her halter, jump in her bare back and ride off around the pasture. She was onery and skittish and loved to run FAST, but I learned to be more secure on a bare backed horse than a saddled one. I'd ride in shorts with bare feet, and be as free as a bird. When I got done, just took off the leadrope, and hung it on a nail in the barn. No tack to clean, no bit to wash!

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), July 27, 2000.

We're going to the beach for my son's birthday. No big 'party', just sun, water, sand and goodies. Should be great. The free time at the zoo where the kids can get in with the little goats (stuck in the city, can't have our own), and 'camping' in the backyard are on the list for this summer. annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), July 27, 2000.

Berry picking ,making forts , playing with all the baby animals .We also like seeing whats in the garden Picnics ,summer fairs , and sitting out at night and buiding a fire to roast marshmellows.

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), July 27, 2000.

My kids are 41/2 and 3 - we are having a ball this year! They each have their own garden patch of course and their "chores" are feeding the chickens, collecting eggs and making sure all animals have water. (OK so that's basically playing with the hose!) We love picnics where I can also find some berries. We bring along bubbles and bug catchers too. The kids spend HOURS frogging in the ponds. We all had a great day last week at the "Big Ex" (our agricultural exhibition and fair) How many generations have been excited over the fair coming to town and the 4H'ers showing their stuff. Ox and pony pulls, the sheep rodeo, horse and dog shows, quilting competions...what a great day!

-- TerriYeomans (terri@tallships.ca), July 28, 2000.

My memories are of long ago, and of a different world. We played "house", and we drew our rooms with a stick, in the dirt. One square was the living room, replete with many windows, then we drew the kitchen, etc. Had no plastic toys to play with, only our imagination, and Magnificent Imagination, it was. We set the whole thing up, beforehand. Identified the family situation, and the occurence. Identified that the empty soda bottle, broken limb off tree, or stick of wood, would suffice as a telephone, or whatever. it took real imagination. Thank you for the opportunity to relate that experience.

-- Church Fan (handw@ver.com), August 02, 2000.