The absolute peak of luxury as a child

As a child, staying home, playing hooky, pretending I was sick so I could leisurely watch King Kong, One Touch of Venus, or Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid and then have my mother all to myself till my sister got home from school. My sister called me "hooky player." Thinking now how I got away with it so often. I know my mother saw what I was watching on the TV. Couldn't she put two & two together?
 

Pepper said:
As a child, staying home, playing hooky, pretending I was sick so I could leisurely watch King Kong, One Touch of Venus, or Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid and then have my mother all to myself till my sister got home from school. My sister called me "hooky player." Thinking now how I got away with it so often. I know my mother saw what I was watching on the TV. Couldn't she put two & two together?
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I am laughing here...cuz I don't think you've changed... :sneaky::ROFLMAO:
 
911 said:
I don’t know what it is about having a bike back in the day, but to a boy, having a bike was everything.
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Not just boys. While i was a kid in the 50s my hand me down bike meant freedom, of course i also sometimes went to store for Mom. And wowed the kids who thought i was just a nerd because of how much (and what) i read by doing stunts on it. When they thought they were cool for riding a with no hands i would stand on the seat with arms spread for a few yards. Never fell. But then i'd been doing various acrobatics for years.
 
Pepper said:
As a child, staying home, playing hooky, pretending I was sick so I could leisurely watch King Kong, One Touch of Venus, or Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid and then have my mother all to myself till my sister got home from school. My sister called me "hooky player." Thinking now how I got away with it so often. I know my mother saw what I was watching on the TV. Couldn't she put two & two together?
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I'd play the "too sick to go to church" ploy occasionally. But it would backfire, as mom would say "If you're too sick to go to church, you're too sick to go out and play after lunch. Go back to bed." Darn.
 
Gark said:
As a 7-year old that never ever encountered air conditioning, in the hot sweaty summer the parks & recreation system offered a 1-hour ride on a passenger train for 25 cents. It was air conditioned - in 1959 - I could not comprehend how absolutely comfortable dry cool air was!!
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Or go to the movies and sit through two features, newsreel, cartoons, etc. And maybe watch the first feature again.

One admission was good for the whole day, if you wanted to just stay there.

Nice cool airconditioning.
 
Pepper said:
As a child, staying home, playing hooky, pretending I was sick so I could leisurely watch King Kong, One Touch of Venus, or Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid and then have my mother all to myself till my sister got home from school. My sister called me "hooky player." Thinking now how I got away with it so often. I know my mother saw what I was watching on the TV. Couldn't she put two & two together?
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I tended to read more than watch TV when i played hooky. In HS in NJ i got away with it because sophomore year a teacher busted me for wearing jeans under my dress on a snowy day. I'd double timed to girl's room and took them off since we weren't allowed to wear pants to school, but he was waiting outside and i got detention. My Mom was mad. She told them "Fine, i don't want any complaints about her being out sick." And told me, "Just don't exceed the maximum to be able to go to next grade."

I kept track and never did. When she was working Day shift the deal was i'd call her if i woke up 'sick' and she'd call school.
 
911 said:
My parents were good providers for me and my sister. Our home was nicely furnished and I had a clock radio in my bedroom, which I thought was a big deal back then.
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Same was true for me. We had a big house and more than enough of everything.

Built-in pools were rare when I grew up on the east coast, so while I thought they were luxuries, I can't say I coveted them. Same was true about country club memberships.
 
My parents bought a brand new fridge in 1940. It would make ice cubes in a tray, but ice cream would melt. We didn't have frozen food back then.
There were 6 houses on our block, 3 had phones and 3 had cars. We were the only house that had both.
I was 19 when we got our first B&W TV in 1953.
Our phone did not have a dial, you picked it up and told the operator the number you wanted. We didn't have area codes either.
 

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