What Was Your Childhood Like.........

[Tbar]

Reading CC post in another thread got me thinking.

I often reflect on what a "middle class" family was when I was a kid...

They typically lived in a small 2 or 3 bedroom frame house with one bathroom. if they were doing well they had window units in a couple of the bedrooms that only got turned on when people were in there. If they were upper middle class they had a television with three working channels. They typically owned one car and car pooled to work. Kids shared a bedroom and hand me down clothes were acceptable. Moms cooked dinner every night at home and basically from scratch whether they worked or not. Entertainment at night after coming home from playing outside was sitting outside when the weather was good with our heads tipped back at the stars and looking for "satellites."

Times sure have changed and I'm only in my 50's.

Mine childhood was very similar to the above. We were middle class and lived in a tiny 3-1 950sft house. Dad was self employed, mom stayed at home and took care of my brother and I. I remember getting our first attic fan and thought we were really uptown.

We owned one car and later dad splurged and bought a Lambreta motor-scooter(I found a letter my mother wrote to my grandmother thanking her for the $100.00 down payment).

My brother and I were rug-rats.......we and our friends were outside all day long playing.......sometimes making our own toys. Mom gave us no curfews or boundaries as long as we were home in time for dinner.

I helped dad build the patio on the back of the house. We tared and graveled the roof and much to my surprise........it still stands today some 50 years later.

What was your childhood like....???


Tbar

[Mayhem]

grew up middle class, small 3-1 house, then a 3-2 house w/ garage man that was the ticket. dad was a firefighter and mom stayed home and cook and cleaned and took care of my brothers and i. we played outside and had to be home by dinner time/ dark. i call it a normal upbringing and i am only 28.

[Mayhem]

oh yeah, we grew up eatting alot of deer and hog meat.

[holdem]

Constant state of fear of my Father and his beatings.

[Atfulldraw]

Sounds very similar -- we always had two cars, but both my parents worked (Mom taught school).

My first house was way bigger than my parents house.

I bought it way before I could afford it and put two new cars in the garage, and all the electronics you could muster, buster.

Dad didn't say much, cause they still live in the 3-2 that I grew up in -- it's nice, but small.

It's also been paid for for thirty-seven years.

Dad still gets it.

I'm coming around.

[Fishndude]

Cull and I grew up hunting, fishing and playing music. We lived in Austin but spent most of our weekends in Fredericksburg. We were middle class I guess, living in a 3/1 home off hancock drive. We watched Mopac being built and often played in the middle of it. . We were in a family band (steve played drums and sang and I played bass)with our dad and two other members playing German and country music which earned us plenty of money for new hunting and fishing equipment. Dad was a postal carrier for 35 years and mom worked for the state health department for around the same amount of time. They bought our ranch in Mason county in the late 70's. Steve and I learned to bow hunt there after getting bored with smoke poles. We had a great childhood to say the least.

[Mayhem]

Cull and I grew up hunting, fishing and playing music. We lived in Austin but spent most of our weekends in Fredericksburg. We were middle class I guess, living in a 3/1 home off hancock drive. We watched Mopac being built and often played in the middle of it. . We were in a family band with our dad and two other members playing German and country music which earned us plenty of money for new hunting and fishing equipment. Dad was a postal carrier for 35 years and mom worked for the state health department for around the same amount of time. They bought our ranch in Mason county in the late 70's. Steve and I learned to bow hunt there after getting bored with smoke poles. We had a great childhood to say the least.

that sounds like a great childhood jeff.

[prkchp]

My brother and I grew up in a 3-2 trailer house just across the pasture from our grandparents. Mom worked, my father died in a car wreck a month before I was born, brother was 18 mo old. We were raised in an environment that included lots of family, grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends took care of us while mom worked to pay the bills. My dads parents were farmers and we always had something to do. The big perk to being raised in a farming family was always having land to hunt on, creeks to fish in and lots of cool equpment to play on. All my school friends were always jealous that I got to drive all the trucks and equipment. We moved into a 3-2 rock house when I was around nine and thought that was uptown. Coolest thing about that old trailer was when we moved out, my grandparents bought it and whenever someone needed their first house to start a family, or just needed a place to stay for a while, thats where they ended up.

[Speedgoat]

My chilhood was full of turmoil. Dad was in the military and traveled alot. He did two tours in Nam and was stationed overseas in Germany. I lived in 8 different places by the time I was 9. My mom joined the military and became an officer, which ended my parents marriage. I lived with my Grandparents for my whole first grade year. Stayed with mom after that and did not see Dad for 6 years. Mom remarried, this time to a Army Warrant Officer and pilot. He was crazy from the get go, also having served two tours in Vietnam. That lasted for about two years on and off. Never had anyone to go to scout meetings with or fishing. My Maternal Grandfather was the only bright spot in my life and he died of lung Cancer in 1986. Shortly after that I ran with the wrong crowd and got arrested for multiple things. I spent the next couple of years of my life in Juvenile and finally got out 4 months after my 18th birthday. I did manage to get my Highschool diploma and go on to college. That about sums it up. I hope that my relationship with my son is alot more than what I had. Sorry for the spin off, but questions like this always get to me.

[Deb]

Lol, pretty much like a stray dog.

[RedRaiderInAustin]

I was the youngest of four children - a "surprise" child so the other kids were quite a bit older than me. My mom died when I was five years old. My dad overheard the busybody aunts talking after the funeral and one supposedly said that it was such a shame that my oldest sister would have to drop out of college to take care of the rest of us. Dad said it was then and there that he vowed to do anything it took to keep that from happening. And he did.

Just a few months before my mom died, they had found a small 3-2 on foreclosure in what was then one of the better neighborhoods on the edge of town. They could afford it but mom had to take a part-time job and kept the old home as a rental property. The girls shared a room, my brother had the smallest room, and I slept in a small bed in the corner of my parents room.

Dad worked in the switchroom for Southwestern Bell and was paid by the hour. If there was a problem and someone had to go down to fix it, it paid time and a half for a minimum of two hours even though it usually only took a couple of minutes to take care of the problem. His coworkers knew that he was raising all of us by himself - and they didn't really want to get up in the middle of the night - so Dad took care of all the alarms. During bad weather, things weren't so simple but it earned him a lot of money so one of the older kids would watch me. When they were out of the house, I got to spend a lot of hours finding my own fun at the switchroom or sleeping in the only carpeted office.

Even though my dad worked so much, he always made sure that I had three sit-down meals a day. If I was in school, he made breakfast and supper. If it was summer, he would come home and make sure that I had lunch. He did everything in his power to make sure he gave us everything we needed and more. He never raised a hand to me but I was always in fear - not fear of violence but fear I would disappoint him. He never seemed to do anything wrong and I wanted to be just like him.

Once I was old enough to run around without parental supervision, I didn't spend much time indoors. We played football year-round after school. We went to little league practices and games but being good west-Texas kids, football was in our hearts. Our neighborhood butted up against the city limits so we spent quite a bit of time playing in the brush, too. We cut trails on our bicycles, built forts, chased bobcats (we thought), and caught the occasional diamondback.

Dad felt that he owed it to us to give us his full attention until we were grown. He dated a little bit but didn't give the ladies the bulk of his time and energy. That was for his kids. He started dating seriously when I was a freshman in college (he sent us all to college) and married shortly thereafter. She was good to him and gave him the love that he had deprived himself of for so many years.

I guess it's obvious that he is my hero and always will be. I miss him every day. And he made it pretty good to grow up working-class.

[Tallcowgrl]

My dad went to Sul Ross State University when I was a kid and worked on a few ranches for day work. We didn't have a lot of money, but the ranch owner allowed him to hunt deer for food. When he graduated, we then moved to Midland TX. where my parents became Paint and Quarter Horse Trainers. My Dad trained Western and Cow horses and my Mom trained English and Jumping Horses. So I had fun learning and showing in a wide variety of events and traveling all over the USA. We traveled to Fort Worth frequently to show at the Will Rogers Coliseum. We liked Fort Worth very much and is the reason why we moved here in 1993. I had a great childhood and was blessed to see a lot of country growing up and have some nice horses.

[Encinal]

I'll tell you when I'm done with it.

[DeadlyDiamondShooter]

I too grew up in a middle class family!My mom got pregnant very young and I was born while she was a sophmore in High school!She dropped out and had me then went back and finished and graduated she then went to business school!My biological father I never knew he was never around why I dont know and never really cared!My mom started dating my brother and sisters dad when I was 2!He always loved me and raised me like I was his own!He passed in 1983 when i was 9 years old!I always consider him my Dad and thats what I tell everyone!The really sad thing is that my sister was only 1.5 years old and my brother was 8 months old when he passed so I knew him alot better than they did!I always hated that fact!The one constant in my life was always my Grandpa!Dont get me wrong my mon was a heck of a mom she never put anybody in front of us even though she was only 26 years old when my dad passed!She always had a good job and we never wanted for much,but I still spent a majority of time with my grandparents taking trips all over Texas with them.I used to love to spend the night at their house all the time its the house I grew up in!We lived about 5 minutes from downtown Houston but still we had horses and a stable that was about 5 minutes from our house.We had a shetland pony named mr. ed and an appaloosa named comanche!My g-pa was an avid hunter He used to fish alot when he was younger but didnt when I was growing up!My oldest uncle which was his oldest son drowned when he was 16 so my g-pa had a fear of the water after that!I fished with him once at Lake Mathis when i was about 15 years old and I can still remember the smile on his face when he reeled that fish in!Hunting was another story we were on alease in Gonzales from when I was 2 till I was 18 thats where he loved the most.Taught me how to shoot and track and all that goes with it.I might have been a city boy but I didnt grow up like one.I was always a country boy at heart and still am do this day!OH yeah I also played alot of little League baseball growing up!I can say I had a few setbacks but I loved my childhood!Sorry so long but wanted to explain everything!

[Texbow]

I was lucky. I grew up much like the TV show "Leave it to Beaver" Middle class, mom stayed at home, my brother was 5 years younger than me. I have no complaints.