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

For me it all depended on how old I was..

Very small meant going out to play with my friends.. a little bit older ( 11-14).. would mean occasional trips on a Saturday morning to the pictures ( cinema).. and sneak in the back door, because we didn't have money to pay..someone would pay to go in and another kid would open the fire exit door and 1/2 a dozen kids would sneak in to see Cartoons..

..or occasionally to the Baths as the local swimming pool was called. We couldn't go regularly because we didn't get pocket money so, if we did have any money from our respective little jobs we'd go. It was unheated so when we came out our teeth would always be chattering, and we'd warm ourselves up by getting a bag of hot chips from the Italian cafe next door..

Very often on a Saturday tho' we had to clean the house .. polishing floors , helping with the washing, turning the Mangle for my mother, hanging the washing out.

My fondest memories were when I was in one of the many foster care homes before the age of 10. Every Saturday morning all us children would have to queue in an orderly line outside Matrons office after we'd done our chores .. She'd dole out Pocket money according to age.. age 9 = 9d (pennies).. 10.. =10 pence etc..

We'd have our weekend clothes on, polished shoes, and we'd get taken somewhere by the Aunties..One time we got taken to see the Beatles film 'Help'' at the cinema after it had been newly released . Went straight over our heads , I was 9 or 10 ... but clearly the aunties wanted to see it :LOL:
 
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Bike riding around the neighbourhood with my best friend, Jimmy Collins. We'd go to where they had
coke (similar to coal) piles, and climb them. The older (cute) brothers from across the lane, would get a
baseball game going in the alley-way, which we joined in on. I'd take my brother over to the public pool
on hot summer days. Lots of marble-shooting games and card-throwing games with Jimmy & the boys.
Climbing trees .. I was a real tomboy.
 
...up until your teens or the time you left school .. what did you do on Saturdays ?
Church in the morning
Gramma kept a 'Bible Sabbath'
She raised me in my early years
I keep Sabbath now
I find it a much needed rest

Afternoons were baseball
mostly watching baseball with Grampa on Moms side of the family
....and breathing in Grampas wonderful cigarette smoke
while watching Willy in the national league, and The Mick with the Yankees

Sunday was football...all day.....in the mud
sometimes on weekends I'd go to work with Dad on one of his side jobs
Seems he worked 24/7

I didn't hang around much from my teens on
 
Weekends when I was under 14 I would just hang out with friends playing pickup basketball, going fishing, riding bike, if dad had a job for me to do or help him with, that usually came first. Saturday evenings, we would go out for dinner a lot or grill outside, Sunday morning was church, go to a baseball or football game, dad and I would sometimes go fishing or canoeing or whatever we felt like doing in the afternoon.
 
What did Saturdays mean to you as a child ?
Freedom!!!
what did you do on Saturdays ?
It varied a bit, but nothing indoors! Outside from sun up to sun down and sometimes all night. Fishing, camping, fort building, or just exploring. It was all great fun. Looking back I am really glad there were not video games...
 
Before we had tv and lived next to railroad tracks, lots of boxcar climbing and crawling around on all types of train equipment. Sat morning were cartoon and double feature movies to take up a few hours a day. Bike riding all over town and nites, playing various games. Kick the can, hide and seek, stealing grapes and apples off neighbors trees and vines. I had a great childhood.
 
Bike riding also.
Wheels were great as a kid.
Independent transportation ruled. Lol
Luckily as a kid we had a lot of kids in our neighbourhood so there was never a lack of friends to ride with.

We’d go to the store and buy candy šŸ˜‚
Then go to the creek and sometimes the playground to swing and stuff.

After dinner a bunch of us would play games like Red Rover, hide ā€˜n seek, red light green light. Sometimes the girls would play jumpsies, double Dutch, or that game you draw squares on the pavement. šŸ¤” hopscotch! That’s it.

We were an active social bunch.
 
The first thing that popped into my head was the Bugs Bunny / Road Runner Show, followed by the Tarzan / Lone Ranger Adventure Hour.

Fishing, riding bikes, playing baseball, following the creek, and catching whatever we could. Tadpoles, minnows, eels, frogs (if we were quick enough).

Every once in a while, we'd get lucky and catch a snapping turtle big enough to sell to the seafood place on Main Street. That two dollars was a veritable gold mine at Kramer's 5&10 penny candy counter.
 
When I was very litttle before the age of 7 ( because we moved to another city then ) , we used to live next an open meadow. On that meadow were wild flowers, and also wild peas growing. We used to play there , and eat the peas... . Next to field to it was chalk mining.. and the chalk rubble hill which we thought of as HUGE mountain,

Like this...
chalk-mining-hills-surface-sumy-region-ukraine-limestone-quarry-open-cast-179832048.jpg


and we were convinced the Giant lived under it.. , we'd dare each other to run up as far as we could before the Giant came out to eat us... in retrospect we never got further than about 5 feet up
 
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When I was very litttle before the age of 7 ( because we moved to another city then ) , we used to live next an open meadow. On that meadow weere wild flowers, and also wild peas growing. We used to play there , and eat the peas... . Next to field to it was chalk mining.. and the chalk rubble hill which we thought of as HUGE mountain,

Like this...
chalk-mining-hills-surface-sumy-region-ukraine-limestone-quarry-open-cast-179832048.jpg


and we were convinced the Giant lived under it.. , we'd dare each other to run up as far as we could before the Giant came out to eat us... we never got further than about 5 feet up in retrospect

Oh, man, the things we could have done on our bicycles with that!
 
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...:eek:
 
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No school and no school uniform

Friends knocking on the door

Dad looking after us , as mum
Working and dad and I cooking the Saturday Tea !! Good Times
 


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