Childhood ~ Tuesday 4

Welcome to Toni's Tuesday 4 and another chance to learn more about yourself and your fellow bloggers.

1. Were you an adventurous child at all?

I don't think I would describe myself as a very adventurous child. My mother was overly protective with me as the eldest and a girl. I was always told about the dangers out there and my time to do the normal things was strictly limited and observed. I developed a fear of doing a lot of things that other children did more naturally such as swimming, riding a bike and skating. I did do all of these things eventually but none too well and to this day I really don't do any of them.  All of my siblings took to these activities very naturally. I suppose too they were given a lot more freedom given that by then mom and dad had more experience as parents. However they were still given strict instructions about when to be home and so on. I'm glad for these kind of rules when I was young but wish I didn't become so fearful. It's something I've tried to work on in later life with some success.

2. What were some of your favorite places to go when you were a child? Amusement parks, movies, restaurants, zoo.  etc?

I enjoy all of these things as a child. My small town didn't have a zoo but each year the circus would come to town and practically everybody would attend. I enjoyed it a lot and was always nervous when the lion trainers would work with tigers and lions. This was in the days before such things as animal rights. I'm not even sure if there is such a thing as a travelling circus anymore in small town Canada. We didn't have amusement parks though once a year in late summer just before school started again, we would have the Fall Fair and Rodeo. The fair always included the carnival and was something we loved to visit into the late nights. We did have one movie theatre and dear mom would make sure that I went to matinees either with her or with my siblings and of course we'd have popcorn and pop for a treat. Restaurants were very few but we did get out to the Woolworth's Cafe once a month when mom went shopping or when it was back to school shopping. We also had a chinese restaurant where we had a treat now and then but not that often. 

3. What games did you play outdoors? indoors?

We played every game that was known in our parts both indoors at outdoors. Indoors at school we played things like dodgeball, volleyball, basketball, indoor hockey and probably more. Outdoors we played a lot of soccer, road hockey, baseball, cricket, track and field, hide and seek, roll over & tetherball.  I feel like I'm missing something from the list of games and sports. For quiet games indoors we played all kinds of things like card games (Crazy 8, solitaire, some played poker and some played cribbage) and board games (snakes and ladders, Chinese Checkers, Yahtzee and so on). In summer it would stay bright outside. Even at midnight it would be like dusk so we kids did a lot of playing outdoors in those times. We even played outdoors in winter because the sun would shine brightly and though it did get cold it wasn't cold each and every day. We'd make snowmen and have snowball fights.

4.  Where did you grow up and do you think it affected who you are today?

I grew up in a small city in northern British Columbia (I lived in more than one) and yes, I do feel it affected who I am. I love the city and all it offers. It suits my personality but I also have a huge appreciation for the small town way of life and it's people, animals, wildlife and so on. I think I would love to go back and live however what holds me back is the lack of services, especially good health care. In fact, the lack of health services and easy access to specialists is what keeps me from moving to most parts of my province. That and the cold weather.

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