Memory Monday:

Toys I used to play with as a kid.

Most of them were simple, didn't require any batteries or other source of power - only a great deal of imagination :o)

Like:

The Slinky

As I recall it only came in two versions.
The plain

And the rainbow

The Footbag or the Hacky Sack

The yo-yo

There were a lot of tricks to those.
We used hours and hours to perfect the tricks, and only by watching and learning from each other.
Today you can learn all the cool tricks by watching a video

The Frisbee

The Roller skates - quad skates, not inliners.

The Rubik’s cube

And the Rubik’s snake

And finally the Hula hoop

I never could swirl more than 3 at a time.

But some are much more talented.





Many of these seem to have had their revivals. Some more than once.

The only difference between now and then seems to be the layouts.

Memory Monday: Bedtime stories, fairytales and childhood books.

Yes. More books.

I don’t remember if we (my sister and I) were ever read that many bedtime stories. At least not on a regularly basis. Most of the time I think we read to ourselves. Comics to begin with – mostly Anders And (Donald Duck) - then books later on. But when we did get a bedtime story, it was either a fairytale or something by Astrid Lindgren.



The first book I ever was given as a present was Ronja the Robber’s Daughter by Astrid Lindgren. The next I got was The Brothers Lionheart. And I loved them. I can’t even remember how often I read them during the first years I had them.
It’s the only books I ever practically wore out as a child. (Those - and my copy of The Children of the New Forest by F. Marryat.)





Besides Ronja the Robber’s Daughter and The Brothers Lionheart I read pretty much every book Astrid Lindgren ever wrote and/or I watched the movies/series made of the books. Like Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga and Madicken.





[Madicken often makes me think about Anne of Green Gables as well - but that’s probably because they both went up - and fell down from - a roof to prove a point…



Couldn’t find a picture but I found this clip where Anne falls down from the roof – and later she get’s Diane drunk ;o) ]


Now, where was I? Bedtime stories, childhood books and…oh yes…fairytales…

At school we read a lot of fairytales. Mostly by H.C. Andersen or the Brothers Grimm.





But when we had to tear the stories apart to find the deeper meaning/the theme/the lesson to be learned in the stories, they lost their magic. And I really hated that. I liked the stories but at the age of 10 that’s what I really cared about. The stories. And even though most of the fairytales were also written with grown-ups in mind, my 10 year old brain didn’t want to dissect them and discover the underlying story. I just wanted to be entertained. Although I didn’t find most of H.C. Andersen’s work that entertaining – actually I found it rather depressing.

(I’ve learned to appreciate both the writing of H.C. Andersen and the ‘necessity’ to dissect stories/fairytales since then, but I still like to be entertained when I read.)

But all in all I read a lot as a kid.

I still do.

Enjoy your day :o)

Memory Monday:

I stumbled across the first video in this post by accident (don't even remember what I was searching for at YouTube at that time...) but suddenly I found myself searching for other videos like it. Intros for television for kids.

Every time I hear these intros they throw me right back to when I was a kid waiting impatiently for my favorite tv shows to begin...

Legestue:


Kikkassen:


Intro for Anna & Lotte


Intro for Bamses Billedbog


Did you have any favorite tv shows as a kid?

Memory Monday:

When I think back on my childhood summers it seems like the sun was always shining. Or maybe I just didn’t care about the rain.



I loved the 6 ½ weeks absence from school. But even though I never (not in a million years) admitted it to anyone I was always longing to get back to school. At least during the last week of the summer break.

I usually spend my summers playing with friends or cousins.

What I enjoyed the most was when it was time to harvest.
My grandparents (my mother’s parents) lived on a farm. We’d spend time there during the year but the favorite time was during harvest.
Oh those summer days spend in the field. Running around in the crops, waiting for the machines (i.e. the combine harvester and the grain cart) to start cutting down the hay, so it could be formed into bales for us kids to play in.



I’ve build numerous of forts out of hay bales. Good times!



Then it was time to gather all the hay bales and put them on the hay wagon. Back then it seemed safe enough for us kids to ride on top of the hay. Pretty sure our parents wouldn’t do that if it was today. But we did then.



When we got to the barn we either went straight to the hayloft trying to get all the cats and kittens out of the way for all the bales to fit in or we helped with the hay elevator. Actually we did a lot of work but it always seemed like more of a game.



At the end of the day we were always dirty and itchy from all the hay and we were hungry and tired as hell, but still we could barely wait to get started the next day. Doing all of it all over again.



No wonder I don't have much energy left ;o)



Also.
It's May 4th.

Today 64 years ago WWII ended - at least the occupation of Denmark did (- along with the occupation of Netherlands and North West Germany).

Some still light candles and place them in the windows to honor freedom and those who lost their lives during the war.

I don't get the point of war. At the end of it everybody has lost something and nobody really seems to have won.