“On cable TV they have a weather channel — 24 hours of weather. We had something like that where I grew up. We called it a window.”
Today is chilly and damp, the sort of day when being inside the house is like wrapping a blanket around you. The house is dark, but I haven’t turned on any lights. I don’t mind the darkness. When I was a kid, this was a favorite kind of day. I’d lie in bed with the lamp on, the one which hung on the headboard, and read. I was never bothered as the TV drew all the attention, and anybody coming upstairs was heading to the bathroom and pretty much ignored me. I have nothing I need to do today so I won’t even get dressed. I will read away the day.
I was part of an easily amused generation when I was growing up. We didn’t have electronics or computers or cell phones. Board games were the best fun. We’d sit on the rug in the living room, set up the game and play all afternoon. The only movement in the game came when I’d move a man around the board. We’d play cards, even war which is about the dullest of all card games. Slap Jack was fun because you got to whack a faster player’s hand. We played Crazy Eights and Steal the Old Man’s Pack. I always thought that was a neat name for a card game and wondered why it was an old man, maybe because we already had Old Maid.
I remember sitting at the kitchen table coloring. The crayons were all different sizes. Some were full size but many were stubs worn down by use. I had to guess the colors of those as the paper had been torn off as the crayon was shortened. The older I got the better I got at coloring. I learned how to shade the colors, to apply the crayons lightly. Every Christmas I always got a new coloring book and new crayons. The books were mostly Christmas scenes and red, green and brown got a lot of use.
We did get bored sometimes stuck in the house as we were on some rainy days. I remember my mother going crazy when we moaned and groaned about nothing to do. She was expected to keep us entertained. I guess we always thought of her as the house cruise director. She was never honored by the title.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: board games, chilly and damp, coloring books, crayons, Crazy Eights and Steal the Old Man's Pack, darkness, easily amused generation, favorite day, light on the headboard, reading all day, slap Jack, warm day
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August 9, 2015 at 3:39 pm
My goodness, how did we ever live in those dark analog days? Are board games even sold today? I know you can still buy a deck of playing cards. Casinos keep the playing card industry alive. When I was a kid on a rainy day I would either read a book, watch TV (only four stations were available) or set up and play with my electric trains.
I had a set of Lionel electric trains as a kid. I would put the tracks together in different layouts and run the steam locomotive pulling four or five different freight cars and a caboose. The tender had a build in whistle and I could put small pellets into the smoke stack and the train would puff white smoke as it ran around the track. In those days the locomotives were made of cast iron and the cars were made to last for years. When I moved to NYC at 13, my father either sold or threw out the trains. Today they would be worth a lot of money. Today freight trains don’t even have a caboose.
Today is another sunny and hot dry, day in North Texas. Right now it’s a cool 101 heading for a forecasted 104.
August 9, 2015 at 5:35 pm
Bob,
There are still board games and some kids still play them. It is a way to be social that computer games don’t give.
We never watched too much TV during the day. Books were to while away the time.
Today I never see trains unless I go to Colorado where they are longer than any I have seen before. I am always happy to see a train and stop to watch.
No sun at all today, cool and damp.
August 9, 2015 at 4:50 pm
Hi Kat,
I don’t recall being bored as a kid. There was always something to do and if the weather was lousy, there were always books. In fact, there were usually books. My mother was always after to me to get my nose out a book and get outside in the fresh air. Books, TV, computer games. It seems there’s always something that keeps kids from getting outside in the fresh air. 🙂
Today is lovely again. Well, it was mostly cloudy all day and the east wind is very definitely present but it’s still lovely. The sun has overcome the clouds at last but there’s still plenty of time to enjoy it before it sinks below the horizon.
Enjoy the day.
August 9, 2015 at 5:26 pm
Hi Caryn,
Being stuck in the house on a rainy winter Sunday got boring after a while. I could do stuff for a while then I needed something else. I’d read all day if I could too. Rain always gave me permission to stay inside.
We had no sun for the whole of today. It stayed grey and damp.
Have a great evening!
August 9, 2015 at 6:49 pm
I used to gather up the crayon stubs from the first grade teachers to melt in my Dad’s lead pot. I made a mold set like a bullet mold and cast the wax into new crayons or new color amalgamations keeping the combinations restricted to proper tertiary associations from the Color Wheel. I had the coolest crayon set in the whole berg….
August 9, 2015 at 6:52 pm
Beto,
That was so artistic to make your own color combinations. I never thought of melting them. When the stubs were too small, they got tossed. Now I’m sorry I did that.
August 10, 2015 at 7:23 am
I could tell the weather by looking out the window. But I also watched the tv so i would know what to expect in the morning on my drive to work. Progress is not all bad. Ask the person recently saved from cancer.
August 10, 2015 at 10:01 am
Phreddie,
I can lookout as well but I’ll miss the forecast and the temperature. I used to get up at 5 and would catch the news, but it was always a bit more shallow than the paper offered.
I don’t ever dismiss progress entirely, but I also don’t dismiss the old ways off-handedly.