QotD: When I Was a Kid

What did you do for fun when you were a kid? How is it different from what you see kids doing now?
Submitted by jaklumen.

We were a right bunch of lunatics, the four of us. I don't say that in an infuriating "I'm mad, me!" way (usually uttered in a deadpan monotone by the least exciting and "mad" person in the room). I mean we seriously were lunatics.

Picture the scene: a typical morning circa 1988. Big brother JoeFish (9) is careering down the steep, stone back steps on his bike, scaling walls topped with barbed wire, throwing rocks at his own head, or otherwise hell bent on his own self-destruction. Little sis A (4) is marching determinedly around and around and around the parameters of the breakfast table, having refused to sit still for longer than ten seconds or eat anything on her plate, the birds nest of bed hair at the back of her head bigger than her head itself. Helen (barely toddling) hovers like a ethereal little pea in her green romper on the outskirts of the scene, swaying on fat legs. In her head she's fully engaged with what's going on around her; in reality she's kind of smiling vaguely at nothing. And where am I (aged 8)? Crouched underneath the fuschia bush in the front garden, writing notes on passers-by.

A little girl who lives on our road would fit right in with this bunch of nutters. She's a talker- a pathological, unstoppable, brain-melting talker. She lurks around on her bike waiting for adults to pass by, upon she which she forces the adult into a lengthy conversation, informs them that she's been spying on them, or just kind of prattles until the adult makes lame excuses and is followed by the little girl right up to their front door- not the front gate, the front door. One has to be careful when closing the door, in case little limbs have already managed to find their way in. Once when I walked past she remarked nonchalantly as she lolled on her bike: "that boy you live with is in your living room, painting. I've been watching him through the window. He was painting yesterday too", and then cycled off. 

Personally I don't think much has changed. Children are completely, brilliantly bonkers. And quite right too.