I was lucky because my grandma lived next door (my Dad's mom). She had lots of property which I loved to explore. I was big on buried treasure. I would bury treasure in the woods and make a map of where I buried it.
She also had a chicken coop but no chickens. It was so much fun to play in. It had four separate but large rooms. When it would get dark, I would dare myself to run through. It was kind of creepy.
I was big on clubs (even if it was just me and one friend who were members).
I loved catching crickets and grasshoppers. Crickets were the prize.
In the fourth grade we studied American Indians and I made an Indian drum out of a Quaker Oatmeal box, and I dressed up my Barbie doll as an Indian in an outfit I hand made.
I loved Viewmaster. I used to make my own movie projectors with the little magnifying lenses I would get from Cracker Jack boxes.
I loved playing detective. My friend and I would pretend a murder happened in the woods and we had to figure out who did it.
I loved to whittle wood and carve with my official Girl Scout pocketknife (even though I was an official Girl Scout for only fifth grade).
I loved brand-new boxes of crayons, particularly when I was lucky enough to get the "big box" with the crayon sharpener in the back. I was thrilled whenever I got a new coloring book. My all-time favorite was from the Jungle Book and Balloo on the cover was fuzzy.
I loved little stuffed animals. I loved Little Kiddles, and cherished the "one" I had. Everyone at school had three or more.
I loved picking out a new lunch pail every summer before the new school year (the tin kind, and I always broke my thermos during the first two weeks of school).
I absolutely adored whenever Rankin-Bass productions had a holiday show on TV, Brady Bunch and Partridge Family on Friday nights, Wonderful World of Disney and Mom trimming nails and cleaning ears on Sunday nights.
Snow!! It was infrequent but when we got it, it lasted for days and school was canceled. I would play in the snow till dark in my Grandma's field.
I could go on and on ... dinner calls!
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