Feeling Nostalgic Day 5: Let Kids Be Kids!

It makes me smile when I see children playing outside these days. Yes, it annoys me in the summer when they’re outside yelling and screaming and my vampire lifestyle makes me sleep during the day with the windows open and it keeps me awake, but I would rather they be outside than indoors glued to the television and computer or their handheld computer of a smartphone. I did write a blog awhile back about a similar issue. 

Dude, when we were kids, we were ALWAYS outside. I loved being outside, even if it were just sitting at the picnic table watching the traffic go by. We lived in a small town where we knew pretty much everyone; so well that Mom usually knew what I had done before I’d gotten home. We’d ride our bikes and rollerblade all over town, climb trees, play in puddles, have water wars, come home muddy, and just be kids.

I smile now when I see kids being kids because there is too much pressure on kids from the fearful adults who are raising them. Parents are too afraid to let their children out of their sight out of fear they will get hurt or abducted or shot or something. Yes, that’s always a possibility, but I don’t think keeping our kids locked up all summer is the answer. Let them go outside and run around and get hurt and learn from it. That’s how we grew up. 

 

I miss seeing kids be kids and playing outside, getting dirty, ripping holes in the knees of their jeans, hearing the joyful shrieks from a game of hide-n-seek or chasing one another with water balloons. The freedom of riding our bikes all over and popping in our friends to see if they were home to play. If they weren’t, knocking on another’s door was the norm. You didn’t have to “make plans” to meet up with your friends because if there were any events in town, you knew you could find everyone there. You couldn’t text your friends to see where they were; you had to figure out whose house they were at by all the bikes out front or the noises coming from the backyard. 

And the neighbors did not call the cops for something because they would come over and ask if everything was okay prior to doing so, and if you were throwing a party no one called the police because all your neighbors were at the party! But you had better be home at the time Mom told you to be because this was prior to the days of cell phones and if your folks had to come hunt you down, it was brutal. 

But we were still outside. And as I mentioned in an earlier post about the declining enjoyment of the natural beauty of the Dells, I don’t think it’s just there. The Dells is just more commercialized to detract from it. All I know is that kids spend too much time indoors today. Whether they’re glued to their computer or video games or just have parents that are too afraid to let them out of captivity, gone are the days where children learn to appreciate the small things in life by being amused by an insect or lying on the grass to point out what the cloud shapes appear to look like upon a blue sky. Don’t grow up too quick, kids. Learn to appreciate the small things in life by appreciating the beauty of the natural environment. Slow down. Quit being in such a hurry all the time. Don’t overwhelm yourself with so many activities that you stress yourself out and don’t have time for anything. There’s no fun in that. 

Maybe it is just a personal thing with me, but I would always get upset when someone told me they did not have the time to do something. I always interpreted that as they didn’t want to make the time. And if you really do not have the time, then you’ve probably taken on too much because if you really want to do something, you would find the time to make it happen. A little off topic here, but not much, because this could be the underlying reason we do not see children outside playing anymore… parents have them rushing from school to band practice to a soccer game to evening church activities then home to dinner and homework then bed. Then parents turn around and blame the teachers for the amount of homework they give kids nowadays. We didn’t have any of these issues when I was a kid. Not that I was aware of anyway… we had plenty of things to keep us busy and if we told Mom we were bored, we wouldn't be bored long after that because that darned bathroom floor always needed to be scrubbed with a toothbrush. Ha! I wonder why she never suggested the kitchen floor...

All I’m saying is… I’m happy when I see kids outside these days. 

Feeling Nostalgic Day 4: Before Reality TV

What were some of your favorite television shows as a kid? 

Today it is mostly all “reality tv” and most of it is boring or sickening and aligns with my thoughts about the degradation of society… for another time. 

TV time was limited in our home when I was a child. After school I watched Full House and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Sometimes Reading Rainbow, then the news. 

Tuesday evenings we watched Rescue 911. Man that show kind of freaked me out sometimes.

Fridays was TGIF on ABC… good shows such as Boy Meets World, Full House, Perfect Strangers, Step by Step, Two of a Kind, So Little Time, and that’s all I remember at the moment.

Boy Meets World has reruns on nowadays on MTV2, and they are also making a sequel called Girl Meets World which is supposed to be Cory and Topanga’s teenagers as the main roles. 

Step by Step and ALF have reruns on the Hub and Full House is on Nick at Nite every weeknight. Now you know you feel old when shows you enjoyed as a child end up on Nick at Nite. Even though I own all 8 seasons of Full House on DVD, I still watch it in the evenings sometimes when there is nothing else on… which is most of the time.    

Another show I own all seasons of on DVD but still watch when it is on is 7^th Heaven. Why did I never hear of this show until I was like… 17????

Saturday nights we would watch shows such as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Early Edition, and Walker, Texas Ranger. 

Another television show I greatly enjoyed that I wish they (who’s they?) would put on DVD is Promised Land, one of my favorite television shows ever. About ten years ago there were reruns on a local station but I have not heard or seen anything of it since. If I’m lucky I may have a couple of fuzzy recorded episodes on a VHS tape buried in a bin in my garage. And yes, I still own a VCR that works and many VHS tapes. Slowly I have been attempting to upgrade all the VHS tapes to DVD but some are impossible to find or so rare they cost too much on Amazon. 

Yes, I’m still old school. I still prefer the classic video games. My Super Nintendo died so for Zach’s birthday I bought one of those FS Twin consoles that plays both 8 bit Nintendo games and 16 bit Super Nintendo games. All the games on the newer systems are too complicated with too many buttons. Even when I got a Wii, I downloaded some of the games I couldn’t find in cartridge form such as Dr. Mario. I even still own a Game Boy Color even though I have not played it in forever. Zach has a PS3 and most of the games he rents to try are so complicated just to set up, let alone figure out how to play. I just want to play the game, not spend two hours choosing the color of my player’s pants. 

Here is the link to my Pinterest board of stuff I may have forgotten to talk about here: http://www.pinterest.com/hollyswaney/movies-and-tv-shows/

Feeling Nostalgic Day 3: Wisconsin Dells

It saddens me to see what has become of Wisconsin Dells. The city has absolutely no connection to Greek history or mythology and there is a greedy guy who is trying to buy up everything and turn it into that, as he was quoted in the Dells Events newspaper a couple years back saying he wanted to turn his places into the “Disney of the Dells”.

When we went to Mt. Olympus a few years ago, we had more fun in the back part of what used to be Family Land than up in the Mt. Olympus crowded maniacal madness. The rollercoasters gave me whiplash, the wait for one go-kart ride was two hours for like….two laps, the waves in the gigantic wave pool are strong enough to literally knock you off your feet, and we nearly went head over heels on the tube ride. It wasn’t fun, it was terrifying! Plus having to walk a mile downhill from the parking lot AFTER paying $10 to park! Actually, the walk down the hill was not that bad…. It was going up that killed us, especially after a long day of being out in the sun and water.

I want the old waterparks back. Riverview Park and Waterworld, Family Land, and Noah’s Ark. Well, Noah’s is still around. Riverview was my favorite because it was small enough to not really get lost and still be able to do and see everything with enough to keep you busy. Plus it wasn’t totally a lost cause… if it was too cold or you got sick of being in the water, you could go on the rides. We always went to Riverview at least once a year because my Dad could get free tickets and I could choose who I wanted to go with me for one day of the summer. There was one year that Uncle Edward and Kayla, Derek, and Kyle came with me and Kayla had to be rescued by the lifeguard in the wave pool. I remember taking Melody and her three sons one year. Another year I took Dave and Carol and his kids. I had one of my birthdays there with my two best friends and Beth and Michele and my Mom. I had a waterproof disposable camera and took pictures of my friends doing handstands underwater in the pool. I remember just Beth and me going one year and we stopped at the docks to visit Dad and Beth locked her keys in her car. Then it was pouring rain so hard on the way home that we could barely see the road. The first year I was working and going to Riverview for my birthday, my boss would not give me the day off so I told her I was going to call in. And I did. Also called in the next day because I was sunburnt so bad I could not move. She was not too happy with me. Apparently if you plan on calling in to work, don’t tell your boss the day before...
Galaxi Rollercoaster at Riverview:

We had so much fun at those waterparks. Going to Riverview and Family Land for A/B days. If you had an A or B on your report card you would get in free and it was usually about a week or two after school was out for the summer. I remember going with Beth and Michele once to Riverview for A/B day and my brother got so sunburnt from not wearing a shirt in the pool. And we went to Family Land once also and I lost my t-shirt on the Pirate Ship ride. I was so upset because it was one of my favorite t-shirts. It was pink and in glittery letters it said “I once thought I was wrong but I was mistaken” or something like that. I was like eight and didn’t understand it, but I do remember my Mom telling me she never liked that shirt. She seemed almost happy that I did not have it anymore.

Family Land was also the waterpark that made me terrified of tube rides. To this day, I won’t go on the ones where you put your butt in the hole, but I’ll go on the ones that have a bottom and you sit completely down in. This is because Beth and I went on one at Family Land and at the bottom of the slide we flipped over and she came down on top of me and I thought I was going to drown. I didn’t, of course, but I’ll take a body flume slide over a tube ride any day.

Noah’s Ark is a good waterpark on a hot day because that’s just it… nothing but water involved entertainment. I’ve never really had many good experiences there. Went with Mom one year on Labor Day and the park was so big and hilly she couldn’t really walk around much, so she sat in the wave pool most of the day and I ran around on my own. That was no fun. I took a friend’s son a couple of years ago and after an hour and a half he was bored and wanted to go home because he’s been there so many times that it wasn’t fun for him anymore. Riverview Park and Waterworld has always been my favorite waterpark. Too bad now it is a zoo :(

There was also a small waterpark in Plover. It was called Rainbow Falls and I was only there once with two girlfriends of mine. It was small and now it’s a car dealership. “They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot…..”

But it’s not just the waterparks around the Dells… it’s everything. I remember being crowded by people window shopping until midnight or later. Now it seems the sidewalks are rolled up by 10 p.m. except for partyin’ bar hoppers. Broadway and downtown isn’t appealing to many anymore because they’re all in Lake Delton at the ginormous indoor waterpark hotels that have everything so no one ever has to leave. Downtown is losing its’ draw… and even the unique store that has been downtown for over 30 years (Bailey’s Landing) has closed down. I am just wondering where the giant singing troll from their store will end up.

 
 

And I remember the Pepsi tower I always wanted to ride at Fort Dells but they closed down before I got a chance to. I remember I was probably 5 or 6 and riding in the backseat of Marie’s car with Mom and staring up at the tower as we went by. I don’t remember where we were going that day, but it was raining. The old saloon and mini golf course downtown with the theater hidden in there somewhere. Biblical Gardens and Xanadu, the foam house of the future. Even though I had never been to those two places, I remember seeing them. The old Lake Delton McDonald’s where we could dine outside and the sparrows or wrens would come right up to the tables and beg you for French fries.

Every year I would anxiously await the arrival of the new travel and attraction guide to see what would be new every year. I would collect them and keep them in a box under my bed, along with all the individual attraction brochures. I wish I had still kept some of them; had I known when I was a child that these things would no longer exist. Places like The Wonder Spot and Corny Maze.

It was ironic yesterday… one of the local facebook pages I follow (Dells Local Views) asked “where is your favorite place to enjoy the natural beauty of the Dells” followed with an opinion question about nobody coming here for the beauty and history of the area anymore. 

Funny that I was just writing about that. I swear I have a sixth sense or something… 

Feeling Nostalgic Day 2: Skating Rinks

Who remembers strapping four wheels to your feet and hittin’ a slippery wooden floor grooving to the music below awesome lights that could give a person seizures? Yeah, finding a skating rink nowadays… not so easy peasy. 

We used to have one in Friendship that was open on Friday and Saturday nights. It wasn’t humongous, and had a cement floor (ouch!) but it still fulfilled the need for a clean, safe weekend night out with friends.

In junior high, we would take a quarterly field trip to either Skate City in the Rapids or Tamarack in the Dells. I never once went to Tamarack; always Skate City. We could choose which place to go to as a reward for good behavior. Only the students who had not been in any trouble that quarter could go. I did have some disciplinaries, however they all seemed to disappear from my file after the principal got sick of seeing my parents due to write-ups for frivolous actions.

Anyway, back to the skating rinks. I haven’t been on rollerblades in years. I still do own a pair. I think the last time I skated was at my nephew’s birthday party a few years ago at High Rollers in La Crosse… 2011 maybe? All my head injuries haven’t helped either. It was nearly the hardest thing in the world for me to make the decision to sell my hockey equipment and skates last winter.

I remember when I first learned how to skate. I was in 5^th grade, and one of our neighbors gave me a pair of figure skates. Prior to this, my experience with skating was putting on the roller skates, sitting on the skateboard, and rolling down the hill on the street next to our house.

The fire department would come out every winter and flood the schoolyard for an ice skating rink for us kids. My best friend taught me how to ice skate during noon recess one day. I threw up in class right after lunch that day and was sent home.

That Christmas I received a pair of hockey skates. I don’t remember how I obtained my first hockey stick, but I was pretty much unstoppable after that. I would go to the schoolyard after school and play hockey with one of the teacher’s sons, who was obsessed with the Mighty Ducks movies (as was I) and thought he was one of the Bash Brothers. This kid was like 6 years old at the time.

The first weekend after school let out after 6^th grade, we went up to Park Falls to visit my grandparents. And to leave my brother there for the summer. On the way home, we stopped at Pamida and my reward for having a good final report card was my first pair of rollerblades, complete with a helmet, knee and elbow pads, wrist guards, etc. I felt like I could barely move once I got all the gear on, how on Earth was I going to learn how to skate?

By Monday morning, my best friend was over and we were down in the schoolyard on the blacktopped smooth parking lot so she could teach me how to rollerblade. I didn’t throw up this time, and I only remember falling once or twice.