I think that kids are pretty imaginative when it comes to finding ways to keep themselves entertained. The neighborhood I grew up in had a lot of kids who were like that. If we had a ball and a few kids or some sticks and some rope, fun times could be had.
The streets were used for kickball and wiffleball and the three neighbor yards beside my house was our football field. We played freeze tag as well as hide and seek (only at night) and had water battles with empty dish washing detergent squeeze bottles and water balloons.
In the wintertime, we rode our sleds down Norman's hill or down the hill that was beside my house (both were pretty steep). We built snow forts and had snowball battles until our hands were too cold to continue making ammunition. We once had a 36 inch snowfall that allowed us to tunnel around our yards like gophers. Of course the tunnels collapsed, but what fun that was. When the winter snows finally melted and warm weather arrived, we would ride Big Wheels and Green Machines down the same hills we sledded on.
When parts were available, we made go-carts (the coasting kind) out of rebar (axles) and lawnmower wheels on 2 x 6 board frames and raced each other in the street. While there were several racers made, one was the king...The Grey Ghost. It was the best looking, the heaviest and I think the fastest one we had ever made...it even had a real seat. When go-carts got boring, we focused or attention on seeing how far we could jump our bicycles, ala Evil Knievel. We constructed homemade ramps with wood and cinder blocks and set them up in the street. I think this is the one area that I did better than everyone else. I guess that makes sense since I was one of the lightest boys in the neighborhood.
Jumping ramps was not the only bike related excitement we had. We rode our bikes down the block to a little trail called "The Dinky" (I have no idea how it got that name) and rode on it. It was our first (and last) foray into mountain biking (except for me...I still enjoy a level four or five ride now and then). Speaking of the Dinky, it had a sulfur creek (common in coal mining areas) that ran across it in one place that we would dam up periodically, causing a bit of a problem for the people who lived near there...boys will be boys.
When we got older we began to taking our bikes further from home. KD and I used to go to the top of Winding Way and then coast all the way down towards town. It was at least a mile if not longer and it was all downhill on a narrow two lane road riddled with pot holes and debris. Navigating it was a bit hazardous if you did not pay close attention. Since KD and I were your typical competitive teenage males, naturally we competed coasting down Winding Way. The plan was to coast as far as we could down Winding Way without using any brakes. It sounds easy until you try it. Even those who were "brave" would chicken out and hit the brakes at some point on the route. We started at the top and began coasting, picking up speed as we navigated the potholes. KD was (and still is) bigger than I am so naturally he coasted faster. He got pretty far ahead of me and I event hough did not want to lose, I did not want to go any faster than I had to. I like speed but I had my limits and I had just about reached them. Just as KD was nearing the end, he hit some gravel and wiped out. It was one of those times that you were not sure whether to laugh or cry at...he could have been seriously hurt, but it looked so funny as it happened it was difficult not to laugh. God was smiling on him that day and out side a few scrapes and a bruised ego, he was fine. To his credit, he did not use his brakes. The funniest part was that he wiped out in from of an old lady who was using either a walker or a cane. She spoke up in her little old lady voice, "Son, are you OK?". KD just looked up at her and said quite caustically, "What do you think, woman?"
We did some pretty dangerous things as well...dangerous for a suburban neighborhood that is. I remember shooting arrows straight up in the air just to see where they landed. The same was also done with model rockets. During the Fourth of July, our love of (then) illegal fireworks caused more than a few problems. We used to place our bottle rockets in the street and light them, turning them into "road racers". KD or KG (not sure which) once made the horrible mistake of tossing a lit Jumping Jack too close to their box of unused of fireworks and the Jumping jack landed in the box. The resulting inferno scared KG's little brother half to death. It was another of those events that we we were not sure whether to laugh or cry.
Other dangerous activities included playing war with BB guns. Most of us were smart enough to wear thick clothes and helmets but that was not going to stop someone from getting shot in the eye. To make matters worse, most of us had multi-pump air rifles and even though we agreed to only pump the guns a maximum of three times, we rarely enforced that rule.
During the early teen years KG, KD, Carp, and myself started playing Dungeons and Dragons. At first I was enthralled by it, but after a while I could not stand to play it. KG and KD would play every day for hours and hours, doing little else. I stopped playing for a while but then started up again in high school. I found a new group of people to play D&D with and they were only interested in playing once a week or so. When that group stopped playing regularly, the BSOB gang started up again for a while. I continued to play off and on (the 2 Live Jews I lived with played with a couple of their friends) while I was in NC and I would sometimes catch a campaign when I came back to visit people in WV. Sadly I stopped playing right about the time I got re-married. I do not think I have played since.
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