things you miss from childhood

[rocklobster]

I'm feeling pretty nostalgic lately. Here's some things I miss from childhood:
1. Saturday Morning TV--yeah, it's still around, but most of what I see on network tv doesn't seem nostalgia-worthy.
2. Star Trek spinoffs--What, no Star Trek show, even with how well J J Abrahms did?
3. Library book clubs--I joined one. Got some good freebies too.
4. Star Comics--a short-lived Marvel imprint. Don't let Linkara fool you, it wasn't that bad.
5. NES--sure some games were insanely hard. But I still enjoyed it.
6. Colecovision--yeah, it had a clunky controller. But it wasn't that bad.

[Fish and Chips]

People not asking me about things I miss from my childhood.

[Furen]

Good saturday morning cartoons, I mean some of them are good still but I'm talking like sonic, rescue rangers, dark wing duck, goof troop (it goes on and on)

I don't really miss the game systems as I still play them! (Though I do miss my NES cause it broke... )

My parents making a nice breakfast, I usually end up making it now, I enjoy it when they help me though!

[Ante Bellum]

2. Star Trek spinoffs--What, no Star Trek show, even with how well J J Abrahms did?

NO. NO NO NO. The last thing we need is a new Star Trek show, especially a remake of the old series. Sure, the movie was good, but not good enough to branch out into a new series. Especially since the entire canon was messed with in the movie.
And if someone decided to make a whole new series? Unless that someone really knows what s/he's doing, the whole thing will be a disaster.

[Beau Soir]

We had this Spiderman Movie Maker thing on our old PC. It was stinkin' awesome. There was also a Christian game called Spiritual Warfare on there- you threw fruit (the fruit of the Spirit, I suppose) at thugs and they turned into saints. Wow, lol.

I miss our old backyard. It was really big, lush, and green, and my brothers and I used to run around in it and roll in it and play in it. Now we have a small yard and woods in our backyard...

I miss spending hours outside playing with just my imagination and my brothers. Going outside now, it's like there has to be an organized reason. I don't just wander out there anymore without having the slightest clue of what I'm going to do.

I also miss making super cheesy movies with my brothers. My oldest brother got a camcorder for Christmas one year, so we made lots of movie spoofs. There was this Bollywood one we made three movies of because we saw some of it in an Indian restaurant and we liked the title... Hilarious. We make references to it even now as we're older.

[Atria35]

Going sledding on winter mornings. We have a local hill (yes, singular- we're in the middle of a large lot of flaaaaat land) and we'd get bundled up and go sledding on winter mornings with snow. The earlier the better.

Too bad all our sleds are gone or destroyed

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

NO. NO NO NO. The last thing we need is a new Star Trek show, especially a remake of the old series. Sure, the movie was good, but not good enough to branch out into a new series. Especially since the entire canon was messed with in the movie.
And if someone decided to make a whole new series? Unless that someone really knows what s/he's doing, the whole thing will be a disaster.

Not that I'm at all knowledgeable about Star Trek, having only seen the J.J. Abrams movie, but isn't the whole point of it to be an alternate continuity?

[mysngoeshere56]

I concur with all who said Saturday Morning Cartoons. They made waking up early on a Saturday worthwhile!

Oh, and does anybody else miss the older video/computer games they made for kids? Like, the old JumpStart/Learning Company/Humongus Entertainment games. I adored the JumpStart Adventures series (especially the 3rd grade/Typing editions because Botley was my favorite character), The ClueFinders, Freddi Fish, Spy Fox, and Pajama Sam... Putt-Putt was a bit *too* young for my taste, but I still thought he was cute and played some of his games. I still have all my old copies of those games. I should hook up one of my older computers so I can play them all again.

[ShiroiHikari]

I definitely miss watching cartoons on Saturday mornings. Plop down on the floor in front of my grandmama's RCA console TV and just chill with Garfield, Muppet Babies, and all the rest.

I miss the days when cable was new and exciting with a variety of shows. I refuse to believe that cable programming is better now than it was then. But I won't get into that right now.

I miss the days when there was usually something to watch even if you didn't have cable. My dad recorded so many things for me just off broadcast TV.

I miss going to my grandmama's house on the weekends.

I miss the little brown church I went to when I was a kid. Some good memories there. It burned down sometime in the early 90s.

[Roy Mustang]

Sega Master System

Indoor Malls that was the place to shop (I know there are still indoor malls, but malls are a big thing in the 80's and it was something that my family enjoy going on a Friday night or to shop at Christmas time. Then we would have dinner somewhere in the mall or a eating place outside the mall. Now a days, indoor malls nothing like they were and most are empty spaces.)


Saturday morning cartoons

I also miss going to my grandfather's house in the next town. My mom had to work on Saturday afternoon and after cartoons were over. She told me over there and me and my grandfather would have lunch and watch college football until my dad got off from work and came to get me. Whch, we would end up staying there until 3:30 football game was over and then went home.


[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[ShiroiHikari]

Indoor Malls that was the place to shop (I know there are still indoor malls, but malls are a big thing in the 80's and it was something that my family enjoy going on a Friday night or to shop at Christmas time. Then we would have dinner somewhere in the mall or a eating place outside the mall. Now a days, indoor malls nothing like they were and most are empty spaces.)

I miss malls too. They used to be so cool and some of them had some really nice architecture and interior design. The mall here in town has been there since the 70s and is still thriving and has some good shops, but some of the Oklahoma City malls have not fared so well. One of my favorite local malls is all but dead now. It's sad :<

[bigsleepj]

Mellow Yellow.
Fanta Naartjie
8-Bit games.
Sierra On-Line Adventure Games
Lucas Arts Adventure Games

[Mr. SmartyPants]

My innocence.

[Radical Dreamer]

People not asking me about things I miss from my childhood.

Is this kind of comment really necessary?

Anyways, to answer the original question, I'd say the endless time to do almost whatever I wanted. XD If there's one thing that's frustrating about college, it's never having the time to do things that I used to love doing, like playing video games or something. XD

Also, I sometimes miss having my brother around all the time. XD We've both more or less moved out (though I still move home during school breaks), so we see each other a lot less than we used to. XD It's both a good thing and a bad thing, I guess! XD

[Nate]

5. NES--sure some games were insanely hard. But I still enjoyed it.

If you miss it so much why'd you get rid of it?

[ShiroiHikari]

Maybe his NES broke. They did have that one fatal design flaw y'know.

[Dante]

1) Cartoons (I'm not talking about those on cable, as I never really had it). I mean, it used to be a non-stopped set of cartoons on Channel 61, 45, 15 and 5 between 6 AM and 12-1 PM. every Saturday, a good portion of Sunday and 6-8 AM for every weekday.

2) "Toy wars" with friends, where I built up an army of over 1,400 soldiers, about 50 tanks and tons of fighters, bombers and military bases to face off against their mass of soldiers and men.

3) Yard sales that actually sold good stuff for kids... like toy soldiers for cheap and massive air-craft carrier (Purchased for $50, my parents resold it for about the same, it is currently worth about 1.5k dollars).

4) "Good" video games, that actually tried to introduce new concepts instead of being a set of clones, and 2D video game graphics instead of 3D ones.

5) Awesome friends that spent many a recess sharing "The Wall" and office with me after our various escapades. We were even planning on running away together to escape the school (if you don't like school, why not run away and then they can have a permanent recess!).

6) The feeling of awe that I used to have looking at everything from the stars in the sky to the clouds. An innocent lack of knowledge about the universe that has a strange nostalgia in my heart, as it was a world where anything seemed possible and everything was mysterious.

7) Clean air. With the growth of Phoenix, we lost our clean air and my allergies formed driving me up a wall every single year. When I was younger, the air was significantly cleaner and I never got sick. Now I need prescription meds to take care of my allergies.

8) Dark skies. You used to be able to look up from our house and enjoy all of the stars in the sky. Now, with modern light pollution, you can hardly see the brightest stars at all and half of the sky is lit up when you go out in the desert.

9) Less city, more country. Our neighborhood used to be across from an orchard, with farms and vacant lots all around. We had more bugs, insects, lizards and all manner of living things. But then the yuppies moved in, blasted their lawns weekly with pesticide in an attempt to kill off every living thing within a 100 klicks, the housing boom initiated causing them to tear down the orchards and destroy the farms for new housing developments and SUVs began to get pleasure from nearly running people over. I hate the new Phoenix, I wish it would have stayed the way it used to be.

10) The freedom to do what you wanted without serious consequences from authority figures. Sadly I didn't take greater advantage of this - today we have a curfew and attempt to keep kids in school year round 24 hours a day to compete with China. But that freedom is something I really miss. If you messed up, and did something stupid, it would just be assumed that you were young and learning, you could actually experiment more with life then you can when you're an adult. And if anyone so much as tries to lay a finger on you in public, there is always at least one adult who will return the favor for you 100 fold.

11) The belief that "we" were always the good guys and that war only hurt evil people. A bit political, but ultimately anyone who believes this the way we do when we're little, is just naive. I didn't really consider that there were actually two sides to a war until I played Red Alert, and even then I felt that the other side must have known they were doing evil, because "we" were the good guys, and hence always right. This led to a rather confused view of protesters, because I couldn't understand why they would protest what "everyone" must have known as correct in their morals. It's a shame the world didn't live up to my expectations - but then there would be nothing for our generation to fix.

12) My mother coming down to school to pick me up for lunch and take me out to burger king, or Pete's fish and chips ect.

13) At least before high-school, I greatly enjoyed loads of free time which I was able to enjoy with friends.

14) The opportunity to draw all-day-long on computers at GCC at 12-14.

15) The thrill of laser tag.

16) The ability to transform any environment, from my backyard to the park, to the campground to a fantasy world where my wildest dreams came true.

17) All of my child-hood pets that have passed on.

18) The thrill of Christmas morning (I would be the one to wake up at 3 AM and wake the rest of the household, because my parents would put the presents under the tree just AFTER I fell asleep)

19) That amazing uncontrollable feeling of inner destiny, as though I had some incredible purpose planned out for me since the dawn of the world. This got me into a lot of trouble later on, but as a child, it was an amazing source to draw perseverance from.

20) Getting my head scratched.

21) My great green comfy couch.

22) Real weather. Not like today. I used to be able to look up at the sky and tell during the middle of the day if a thunderstorm would arrive in the evening, and they were always incredible thunderstorms. It rained far more back then and they would always be preceded by a huge dust storm. I got an incredible charge out of these storms and my [s]parents[/s] mother could hardly keep me inside and away from the lightning.

23) My personal dreams (not those in sleep, but those I had while awake).

24) My infinite potential from a life yet un-lived.

25) An early zest for life, with very colorful and powerful emotional feelings that were nearly as real as the colors in front of my eyes.

[Yamamaya]

I sold my NES a while back. I'm currently considering buying a new one, although I didn't love the games that much they were still enjoyable.

Things I miss: Going to Grandma's house(all my grandparents are dead now)
Being a kid.
Power Rangers
Actually being impressed by 4kids shows.

[Nate]

Maybe his NES broke. They did have that one fatal design flaw y'know.

True, but it's not like they're rare or anything. You can find used systems in some stores, and even if not, there's always emulators and ROMs.

"Good" video games, that actually tried to introduce new concepts instead of being a set of clones, and 2D video game graphics instead of 3D ones.

HA HA HA. HA HA. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Oh man. That's a pretty good joke. Pretty good joke indeed. Well except for the 2D part. That one is true, but the rest of it? Comedy gold.

today we have a curfew and attempt to keep kids in school year round 24 hours a day to compete with China

I have no idea what you're even talking about here. Well okay, I know some places have curfews for kids (they don't where I live) but what are you even talking about with the second thing? Besides year round schools aren't anything new. They had them when I was a kid. I hear it's actually a pretty sweet deal. It's something like school for a month, then two weeks off, and then school for another month, then another two weeks off. You still get exactly the same amount of time as kids who get summer vacation, but just not all at once.

[ShiroiHikari]

I always thought year-round schools would be a good idea, but you say "year-round" and people start flipping out because they think it means NO BREAKS EVERRR.

[Yamamaya]

I always thought year-round schools would be a good idea, but you say "year-round" and people start flipping out because they think it means NO BREAKS EVERRR.

I was homeschooled, thus I did go to school year round. It wasn't too bad really. Anytime my mom had a really busy day, I would get the day off, as well as a few other days off for holidays and such.

I can't say I loved it, but it gave me a few breathers in between the day in day out drawl of school.

[Dante]

HA HA HA. HA HA. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Oh man. That's a pretty good joke. Pretty good joke indeed. Well except for the 2D part. That one is true, but the rest of it? Comedy gold.

Ok, yeah, never mind, other then a few. Most were clones. But when I first played them I thought "Wow, this is neat, I've never played anything like this before"! Nate is correct once again.

I have no idea what you're even talking about here. Well okay, I know some places have curfews for kids (they don't where I live) but what are you even talking about with the second thing? Besides year round schools aren't anything new. They had them when I was a kid. I hear it's actually a pretty sweet deal. It's something like school for a month, then two weeks off, and then school for another month, then another two weeks off. You still get exactly the same amount of time as kids who get summer vacation, but just not all at once.

Yeah, we've got a curfew for all individuals under the age of 18 around here. I don't know what they do if they catch you breaking curfew.

The other thing I'm referring to is the continual push to add more hours to the school year with every passing year. That gives kids less time off over-all simply to raise their scores compared to other students around the world. Test scores aren't the only thing, sure there are dictators in China who have no problem torturing kids into learning, but they also have no problem making their adults work horrendously long hours either. It seems to me that we should be pushing for a more laid-back life-style for everyone around the world to enjoy their freedom then to push continuously for a smarter workforce by forcing kids to study more.

Of course, I got LITERAL year-round school for a year, no weekends, no holidays, not even Christmas. Morning to night education. That's what led to number 8 in the other list.

[Yamamaya]

The problem with trying to compete with China is the fact that you're up against a dictatorship with the largest population in the world that will do anything to ensure they are the best. Not to mention that I doubt the Chinese are the happiest people in the world.

The Danes are the happiest(or at least the most content).

[Nate]

Ok, yeah, never mind, other then a few. Most were clones. But when I first played them I thought "Wow, this is neat, I've never played anything like this before"! Nate is correct once again.

Well, it's just that your brain doesn't like remembering bad things. This is why there's things called "triggers" for people who have been through traumatic experiences. The brain tries to get rid of the bad memories but then they see a word or an event that brings the bad flooding back.

Video games are much the same way. We remember all the great games for the NES and Atari and all that. We don't remember the bad games. We don't want to remember the bad games. We remember the greats, the classics. Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, Metroid, TMNT 2: The Arcade Game. And these games are truly great games!

But for all of those, you have all the Deadly Towers, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Hudson Hawk, Super Pitfall, Action 52...the games that were so horrible, so awful, so mind-numbingly BAD that you either didn't play them (because games are expensive and you wanted the ones you knew were good) or tried your best to forget them.

On Giant Bomb, Jeff has made a point that for anyone who thinks that the Atari 2600/Intellivision era of gaming was the golden era of great games, Game Room on Xbox Live will prove that there were awful, absolutely atrocious games that came out. But people either didn't play or don't remember those games. It's easier to just remember the good times.

I had a really rough bit of nostalgia-destruction myself. I bought the old 80s Transformers cartoons on DVD. I was looking forward to watching them because I loved the show as a kid. Then I tried watching them. And...it was not a good show. At all. Characters were constantly colored wrong, would disappear mysteriously in the middle of the episode, and the one that made me just give up was an episode where Megatron had captured Spike, and dropped him as he was flying away. The Autobots were all like "Oh no what will we do Spike is falling!"

At that moment an Autobot said "I'll save Spike!" and transformed into a plane and saved him. Now, that Autobot had not only not been in the episode at all up until that point, he had NEVER BEEN IN THE SHOW AT ALL. As the Transformers wiki put it (the character's name was Powerglide), "He literally appeared out of nowhere to save Spike Witwicky."

At that moment my rose-colored glasses were shattered, and I realized the Transformers cartoon was not really that good. It was hard to accept, but it was the truth.

The other thing I'm referring to is the continual push to add more hours to the school year with every passing year.

See, I haven't seen that anywhere either. In fact, from what I've seen, there keep being less hours in the school day with every passing year. I think they do this thing called "block scheduling" here where you take some classes one half of the year and the others the other half. But I mean I'm seeing kids get out of school at like 2 in the afternoon. When I was a kid we were in school until 3:30.

[bigsleepj]

I always thought year-round schools would be a good idea, but you say "year-round" and people start flipping out because they think it means NO BREAKS EVERRR.

We have year round schools, and we got lots of breaks. We did not tear each other's throats out or anything.

[Atria35]

Of course, I got LITERAL year-round school for a year, no weekends, no holidays, not even Christmas. Morning to night education. That's what led to number 8 in the other list.

No offense to the people who raised you, but what were they thinking putting you into that school?! That's NUTS!

[Lynna]

No offense to the people who raised you, but what were they thinking putting you into that school?! That's NUTS!

reminds me of that vegtable island from Charles Kingley's "The Water Babies"

Anyway, what I miss from my childhood is wearing frilly, lacy dresses and outfits, Having lots of time, and playing "imagining" with my friends. Also, my audacity of being able to make friends with anyone I wanted too.

[Fish and Chips]

Is this kind of comment really necessary?

Is making two threads were one would work really necessary?

That said, I do miss Sonic games actually being good.

[FllMtl Novelist]

Being in a church. Even if there were good reasons to leave, it was nice being there while it lasted.
My faster (or less noticably slow) reading speed. This ticked me off so much when it left.
More time to spend on what I wanted to do. Naturally this was often entirely wasted on video games. XD
My grandpa. :<
My love of music. I know I have a talent for it, but it's not my area of interest, so I get a wasted gift complex. XD
Whatever innocence I had, in the naive sense of the word (I was a pretty observant and sharp kid).

I was homeschooled, thus I did go to school year round. It wasn't too bad really. Anytime my mom had a really busy day, I would get the day off, as well as a few other days off for holidays and such.

I can't say I loved it, but it gave me a few breathers in between the day in day out drawl of school.

We're homeschooled, and despite working in the hopes that you get summer off, once my brother and I hit high school we got significantly less time off. Just last year I was working into July on chemistry lab. That was horrible.

I also tend to get a day off when there's either nothing I can do myself or we're just busy all day.

[armeck]

innocence