Gosh! Those were the good old days. Growing up in the city of Brooklyn, New York, all you had to do was simply step outside and there were so many things to do.

My friends and I would meet up early in the mornings. We did not want to waste a single second of the day, because once the street lights come on, that is it; time to get in the house and get ready for dinner.

For those who wanted it, the public schools offered summer day programs and would supply breakfast and lunch to the kids in the neighborhood. For working moms and dads, that really came in handy. If one of us went to breakfast, we all went. It was the most fun that way.

After breakfast, we would put on our roller skates and skate around the neighborhood for a while. We would visit each other's houses, go to the playground, or maybe even stop to watching the guys in the neighborhood play basketball. Actually we watched the guys a lot *giggle*. Once we got tired of that, we'd take turns riding our bikes around the entire block and back. Some of us didn't have bikes, and as I recall, we had to share a lot. But you know what, that was okay.

Everything was a competition for my friends and I. Does anyone else remember Super Elastic Bubble Plastic? Well, we had so many Super Elastic Bubble Plastic competitions till I can never get that name or that smell out of my head. We've also had endless competitions with click-clacks, paddle balls (the one with the paddle, long rubber band and little red ball), footsies (not sure of spelling), hula hoops…you name it, we've competed over it.

If it got really hot, someone would turn on the fire hydrant (Johnny pump, as we used to call it, don't know why though) full force and we all would splash around in the water until someone alerted the fire department and they would send someone out to turn it back off again. Sometimes the firemen would hand out buttons, ropes and other fun stuff.

Speaking of ropes, what little girls didn't jump Double Dutch?! That in itself can be an all day thing. Sometime even the adults would join in. Dad would bring the music outside and we'd all take turns jumping.

Periodically we would have a cookout at a park or someone's house. We would carry balloons to the park, fill them with water and have water balloon fights. Wait! Do you hear that?! It's the ice cream truck!!! The ice cream truck is coming!! Run!! Get some change from your mom!!! Mom! Throw down some change!! THE ICE CREAM TRUCK IS COMING!!!!!! That happened almost every day! It was the same way for the Italian ices man…funny!

Oh, another fun thing that we used to do was to use the sticks from the ice cream and race them against one another in the water that flowed down the streets from the Johnny pump. The first one to the corner is the winner!

Gosh, I could go on and on. We made fun with what we had. We didn't have much, but we never knew it.

Thanks, Mom and Dad. Thank you too, Darylynn. It's because of you that I remembered some really good times from my childhood that I had completely forgotten.

Until next time!