It's Saturday. What did Saturdays mean to you as a child ?

As best as I can remember from age 8 to about 14 Saturdays were no school & able to work all day. No need for work permit back then. 14 to 16 able to get odd jobs that paid more. Did have time in the evenings to play outdoors with the rest of the neighborhood kids. Sundays were the best afternoons were all play time, The kind of play kids today probably don't know. Games like
Hide and Seek, Kick the Can & Capture the Flag.
 

Timewise 60+ said:
It has already been mentioned, but for me it was Cartoon Day! Get up early turn on the TV and watch Cartoons and other Saturday shows for kids like, Sky King, Flicka, etc.
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from the age of 12 I never got to see Cartoons on TV because I delivered milk to doorsteps from 4am.. then when we finished for the morning, we'd go back out and knock the doors collecting the milk money from the 'stragglers'' we didn't get on Friday evening..

It beggars belief to this day when I think of it, but we took it in our stride..... and if I hadn't been there, I wouldn't believe it because the world for children has changed so much today
 
debodun said:
It depended largely on what my parents did or wanted me to do. I usually did any homework on Friday evening to get it out of the way; so my weekends were pretty free.

Now that it has been mentioned, what happened to network cartoons on Saturday?
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well here they're all on the Cartoon channels ... not on terrestrial anymore
 
5-8 tonka trucks
8-12 cartoons (blackberry chopping, feeding dogs, cats and mowing the lawn)
13-21 working, carousing, drinking, and chopping blackberries, feeding dogs, cats and mowing.
 
I sometimes went (with my parents) to the St Lawrence Market in downtown Toronto to shop for food.
Out to the park with my 3 younger siblings or we just played on the front lawn.
Cartoons.
Hockey night in Canada and parents sometimes ordered Chinese food at night.
 
I mostly did chores all day on Saturday. Weeding the gardens, cleaning the pool, and whatever else my father could think of that didn't involve fun. When it was all done, we'd be allowed in the pool for a bit until it was time to set the table and have dinner. Afterwards, it was cleaning up and doing the dishes. Then we'd probably be allowed back in the pool again. Then there'd be more work on Sunday unless there was a party or we were going to my grandma's for dinner, which meant that we'd be at her house around noon.

My parents entertained a lot. My mom worked on Saturdays, so their parties were on Sundays. That meant setting up everything for the party. Cleaning lawn chairs, cushions, tables, the large cooler on wheels that would be filled with ice and beverages, the bar cart, the grill, and making sure the backyard was pristine. The parties were fun, but it was a lot of work getting there. Saturdays and Sundays were work days, not something I looked forward to until I left home.
 
In grammar school and junior high I would spend the day with my friends. We'd play sports or go to the beach or to movies, on outings or picnics. We'd go shopping or just driving around in someone's car. By senior high school I often worked on Saturdays. In my senior year I was a total beach bum and I loved it. :)

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My older sister and I were allowed to go to the local movie house most Saturday afternoons. Gee you got a lot for your money in
those days. A box of Fan tales to share, or an ice cream. Also we got the news, 2 cartoons and the main movie. We loved it.
 
Saturdays were Sea Hunt and have Gun Will Travel and then bed...........until I discovered girls. Then it was Saturday night at the girlfriends house. We watched TV but I don't remember which shows. Just know I was happy. Her Dad would drive me home and we would do the same thing the next weekend. So long ago but it was good.
rbtvgo
 
Catechism class early at the Catholic high school building. Then home to do chores, mostly housework, help with making bread. If all got done in the morning, then off to the sauna in the afternoon. Saturday evening was usually spent listing to the National Barn Dance on WLS Chicago in the winter (because the signal was good in winter...we were 400 miles north of Chicago).

Starting when I was in 7th grade, Saturday mornings were for junior high football games in the fall and basketball games in the winter (I was a cheerleader...probably the only cheerleader in the history of the world who couldn't do cartwheels or splits). As soon as the game was over, home to do the chores that used to be done in the morning. Still had to hurry, though, because...sauna in the afternoon. Still the same evening, though. National Barn Dance on WLS Chicago.

Maybe board games in the evening.

In the summertime chores were done all week long and included hoeing and weeding the vegetable garden and feeding the ducks and chickens and gathering eggs, and if we were lucky, we got to go to our grandparents' cottage to spend Saturday and Sunday.
 
Georgiagranny said:
Catechism class early at the Catholic high school building. Then home to do chores, mostly housework, help with making bread. If all got done in the morning, then off to the sauna in the afternoon. Saturday evening was usually spent listing to the National Barn Dance on WLS Chicago in the winter (because the signal was good in winter...we were 400 miles north of Chicago).

Starting when I was in 7th grade, Saturday mornings were for junior high football games in the fall and basketball games in the winter (I was a cheerleader...probably the only cheerleader in the history of the world who couldn't do cartwheels or splits). As soon as the game was over, home to do the chores that used to be done in the morning. Still had to hurry, though, because...sauna in the afternoon. Still the same evening, though. National Barn Dance on WLS Chicago.

Maybe board games in the evening.

In the summertime chores were done all week long and included hoeing and weeding the vegetable garden and feeding the ducks and chickens and gathering eggs, and if we were lucky, we got to go to our grandparents' cottage to spend Saturday and Sunday.
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sounds like the American dream Idylic childhood Gigi... .
 
Grew up in S. California, so weather was not usually an issue... Saturdays you could find me lying on my stomach under a shade tree, reading. Did that for hours.

Or just have make-believe play with whatever was handy...

Turn on any of our record collection (leaned heavily to Rogers and Hammerstein musicals) and dance/sing/make up the story.
 
hollydolly said:
sounds like the American dream Idylic childhood Gigi... .
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Ha. It was mostly work, work, work and rush, rush, rush. The rushing was done by footmobile.

Oh. I forgot about weekday afternoons in the summertime. After lunch if the chores were done, we'd ride our bikes to the park to go swimming. It was okay as long as we were home in time for me to make supper before our mother got home from work (I started doing the cooking when I was about 7 or 8). I was also required to keep an eye out for her so that when she was about a block away I could put the coffee on in order for it to be done when she came in the door.

Summertime chores also included chopping wood for the kitchen stove, pitching it down into the basement and stacking it. The coal delivery was easy. Just open the basement window and the delivery guy would put a chute there to unload the coal.

Holy crap! We worked hard.
 
I forgot about another thing...my older brother had to mow the lawn in the days before power mowers. Our property was about a half acre. Maybe half of that was the vegetable garden so he "only" had to mow a quarter acre.
 
Georgiagranny said:
I forgot about another thing...my older brother had to mow the lawn in the days before power mowers. Our property was about a half acre. Maybe half of that was the vegetable garden so he "only" had to mow a quarter acre.
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My brother a year younger than me ..only job was to put the bins out.. and he moaned and carried on about that. I on the other hand, had to cook and clean and every single night without fail, regardless of how much homework I had, had to wash the dishes for 6 people, and make hot drinks for the parents.. I did that from the age of 7..until I left home for good.....on Sundays or again during school holidays we had to polish the floors..or mum would polish them, and tie rags to our feet to skate around to shine them up...

There was a lot of washing to be done and she only has a single wash tub.. so everything had to go through the wringer.. an then bcause at that time we lived on the top floor of sandstone tenements.. we had to carry basket loads down 6 flights of stairs.. then of course, being Scotland rain was never far away ..so we'd have to be prepared to dash down again to bring all the washing back in from the communal drying green.. and then hang it all up on the Pulley in the kitchen

like this...
caledonian-clothes-airer-one.gif



Then of course came the dreaded ironing... :rolleyes:
 
Chores in the morning and then by 10, I was a free agent. Fun the rest of the day.

When I turned 12, I got to go "downtown" with my friends occasionally. $2 took care of the day. 50 cents for the round-trip on the bus. 50 cents for lunch at the dime-store counter. 50 cents for the movie and a dime for a candy bar. That left 40 cents to spend at Woolworths. A Tangee lipstick was only 19 cents....oh, forbidden fruit....had to be hidden from my mom.

Saturday night was bath and hair washed. Clothes laid out for church Sunday morning. Shoes needed to be polished, hats needed to be located.
 
Geez. I forgot about the ironing. I even had to iron the sheets and pillow cases. That was done on Tuesday morning in the summertime, Tuesday evening in the winter.

We didn't have a washer until a couple of years after the war. The washing was done on a washboard before we got a wringer washer. Hate to tell you how many times my arm went through the wringer! Two tubs of rinse water. And the washer had to be filled and emptied with a bucket. Lemme tell ya: we thought we were really stylin' when we got that wringer washer.

And those !@#%^&! hardwood floors. It wasn't fun to strip the old wax, put down new wax and wait for it to dry, then polish.

I sure couldn't do all that now.

Supper dishes. Sometimes I'd get lucky and only had to wash them while my older brother dried. But only sometimes. When my sisters were a little older, I'd wash, they'd dry.
 
Georgiagranny said:
Geez. I forgot about the ironing. I even had to iron the sheets and pillow cases. That was done on Tuesday morning in the summertime, Tuesday evening in the winter.

We didn't have a washer until a couple of years after the war. The washing was done on a washboard before we got a wringer washer. Hate to tell you how many times my arm went through the wringer! Two tubs of rinse water. And the washer had to be filled and emptied with a bucket. Lemme tell ya: we thought we were really stylin' when we got that wringer washer.

And those !@#%^&! hardwood floors. It wasn't fun to strip the old wax, put down new wax and wait for it to dry, then polish.

I sure couldn't do all that now.

Supper dishes. Sometimes I'd get lucky and only had to wash them while my older brother dried. But only sometimes. When my sisters were a little older, I'd wash, they'd dry.
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yes my mum had a washboard too, because that little single tub washer couldn't cope with heavily stained items. so she'd scrub with a big bar of sunlight soap..on the wooden washboard

The wringer on the washer wasn't capable of taking anything thicker than a tea-towel or vests and socks etc.. so most of the washing had to go through the big mangle ..so I would get the job of turning the handle with all my might to get folded sheets or thicker items through..

61v+6K4elWL._AC_SY355_.jpg
..oh what joy some weekends were... :rolleyes::rolleyes::D
 
hollydolly said:
Some Saturdays or it more likely would be the school holidays... my friend would lend me a bike.. she had 2..I never had one... and we would just ride for miles in the city.. We were only young, maybe 10 or 12.. and we were riding on roads we had no business being on, cars tooting us, but we'd just take a bottle of water, and a jam sandwich with us, and we'd be out all day...

Like @jet said previously.. no-one missed us

I've mentioned this before on this forum in years past.. that from the time we could toddle were allowed out to play with no adult supervision, and at the age of 2 years old I was kidnapped''.. The police found me at midnight the same day drugged, asleep.. and lying as a bundle in the road after a late night Bus driver going back to the depot stopped his bus to see what he nearly ran over...

..and I only mention it again, because even after that happened, my parents never stopped us going out to play unsupervised...and we'd be gone for hours ..all day some days

It beggars belief really.. but even then I clearly was too young to be frightened by it so it didn't affect my enjoyment of playing out.. in fact I never thought of it..but if the same thing had happened to MY child, she would still at just turned 47 not be going anywhere without me there...lol
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Wow, @hollydolly! It's a miracle you are alive! You have been through so much!
 

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