When you were young what did you do during your Summer Holidays?

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

Before the Internet, Social Media, PlayStation and hundreds of TV Channels I was wondering what people did back in the 70s and 80s during their Summer holidays when they were young. As I live in a rural area myself and my friends would spend a lot of time playing soccer or spending most of our time going down to our local river for a swim. As we didn't have the above mentioned i look back now and say to myself how did we ever manage to find things to do for our Summer holidays.

lukesmom

Played out the back garden in the sun. On the swings and climbing trees. The best days of my life. No summer has ever seemed quite as sunny since.

Exploring, walking around woods looking for places for a treehouse, following streams up mountains, lots and lots of soccer, going around to the farming neighbours during hay and silage, running around after cattle, lots of jumping off bales of hay, lots of tree climbing, crab fishing, lots of cycling.

Playing until we got tired really.

Galwayguy35

The bog.

Turning turf
Footing turf
Bringing home the turf

Lovely summers back then though

Hammer89

Deleted User wrote: »

Exploring, walking around woods looking for places for a treehouse, following streams up mountains, lots and lots of soccer, going around to the farming neighbours during hay and silage, running around after cattle, lots of jumping off bales of hay, lots of tree climbing, crab fishing, lots of cycling.

Playing until we got tired really.

What are farming neighbourhoods?

Hammer89

Hammer89 wrote: »

What are farming neighbourhoods?

Farming neighbours. Lived in a rural area, some neighbours had farms, they were always infinitely more exciting than the houses of PAYE workers...like our own! Sheds, bales piled high, big fields, lots of dogs and cattle, and nothing matched the excitement of hay and silage time.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Your neighbour that has a farm presumably?

We would have played, family would have come visit from America/U.K. Most years, holidays, farm stuff, hay and silage being baled and brought home, playing with the other kids on the road

Dial Hard

We went to Portugal for two weeks and then straight to Wexford for two weeks every year.

The rest of the summer we spent out on our bikes, playing rounders and kick the can and building tree houses in "the Manor" which, in order to make me sound like a proper oul one, is all houses now.

Other than that, we generally only came into the house to grab food or try and scab money for the shop. Hometime was when the streetlights came on. Five kids in my family so whenever any of us stuck our heads in the door my mum would just ask if we'd seen any of the others and would be told "Yeah, she's around on the green with x, y and z" so she always had an idea where we were.

Hammer89

Deleted User wrote: »

Farming neighbours. Lived in a rural area, some neighbours had farms, they were always infinitely more exciting than the houses of PAYE workers...like our own! Sheds, bales piled high, big fields, lots of dogs and cattle, and nothing matched the excitement of hay and silage time.

My bad I read 'neighbourhoods'.

iamwhoiam

Swimming in the sea , climbing on rocks and fishing for crabs .We gathered a big bucket of periwinkles on a Wednesday and a Frenchman came on Thursday and bought it for a £1 . We then spent the £1 between us all on ice cream wafers and a bag of mixed boiled sweets and a bag of broken biscuits .
Played kick the can and rounders in the evening in the field and sank into bed at night after a supper of bread and jam .

Stigura

Walked, for miles, out of the inner city and into the countryside. Spent the day there and walked back.

No mobile phones. Never got scooped up by a paedo. Never got murdered.

Agricola

Walking around, exploring, lots of time spent in woods near the house playing "army" with toy guns or even a nicely shaped stick! Cycling around the area and down to the shops on battered old bikes and high nellies that were laying around in the shed, the previous owners long gone. Eating copious amounts of Mr Freezes. Then 1994 and Ray Houghton....we discovered soccer. Soccer morning, noon and night.
On what seemed like the very odd wet day, watching "VHS" "tapes" from the local "video shop" and some rich fella had a brand new Playstation which blew our tiny minds.
Glory days. So glad I was among the last generation of kids to have this kind of childhood. No phones, no social media, no heavily organized events where parents brought you to keep you out of trouble. No paedophiles, imaginery or otherwise around every corner. Innocent innocent times.

robertpatterson

Op made me think of this

https://vimeo.com/68906475

The grim day was going back to school and the inevitable "mo laethanta saoire" composition...think they became "essays" when we hit puberty...

Donal55

Swimming in the Grand Canal. Cutting grass and washing cars and standing in the queues at garages during the petrol strikes for a few quid.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

We played in the nearby woods, went on bicycle trips with a bottle of cold tea and a sandwich, went fishing, picked fruit, helped keep the vegetable garden, cut lawns, and generally just played with out mates.

Rubberlegs

We built towers with bales in the fields and jumped off them. We also built mazes with roofs on them , I can vividly remember the heat inside them and the sweet smell of the straw. We went off on our bikes with picnics. When we were a bit older we went into town and thought we were so grown up getting coffees and vanilla slices in a cafe in one of the shopping centres. Proper vanilla slices, a layer of cream and a thick layer of custard, nothing compares these days. No mobiles back then so by God you had to be home when you said you would be

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

The bog.

Turning turf
Footing turf
Bringing home the turf

Lovely summers back then though

Yes footing turf for a local farmer and then going back to his house for a bacon and cabbage dinner. Remember been quiet sore around the back of the legs but it was worth it at the end of the week when I got paid.

Butterface

Played outside all the time - making huts in trees or ditches.
Played football and tennis with the neighbours down the road - the road was the pitch.
Played tig in the fields and on bales.. being run out of fields by neighbouring farmers for jumping on their bales.
Going fishing and swimming in the Blackwater.
Cycling around the roads being nosy feckers.
Went through the BMX phase, where we made our own track in the woods of an old big house before we were run off it.
Played Manhunt in the woods of a religious order's house with loads of local kids - best couple of summers of our lives, before the Brothers ran us off it for wrecking the trees.
On miserable days, playing on the Sega Mega Drive, then eventually on the Nintendo 64 and Playstation. We would never stay inside during the good weather.

Summers were never boring as a kid.

Lorelli!

There were loads of fields behind our houses so we spent a lot of time there building huts. We had different names for each field, The Hay Field, The Field, The Green, a place we called Paradise because it had loads of wild flowers etc.

When we were a bit older we went to the beach. Sometimes thumbing a lift I remember a limo stopped to give us a lift before. A neighbours dog had followed us to the beach that day and we were that naive, we went to bring the dog into the limo with us. The driver was like "ah here, you're not getting in with the dog" so we had to walk home that day. Got 50p from the dogs owners for getting him back safe though

harr

Out all day no phones always home for lunch and dinner....climbing tress , fishing, swimming and just basically exploring places we probably shouldn’t have like old abandoned houses and farms..
Would send two weeks with cousins who were farmers and used to have a ball with them and also spent a week in Galway on holidays.
Once I got to 12 or 13 I got little part time jobs ....I compounded boats and cars for 3 whole summers and got a nice few quid for that.
another few summers I worked for local farmers and a gardener...

5starpool

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

The bog.

Turning turf
Footing turf
Bringing home the turf

Lovely summers back then though

Memories of that blight my youth. The summers of the second half of the 80's were far from lovely though. Doing the turf on a squelchy bog is not easy or pleasant, and getting eaten by the fecking midges late in the end was not great either.

We had hay to save as well, but I didn't mind that as much in the years we were able to do the old square bales.

We never went away on holidays though. A Sunday outing to the seaside or similar twice a summer was the most like a holiday away we got back then.

Lia_lia

I would have been a child of the 90's. We went to France every summer as my Dad lived there. He was in a band so we often went on tour with him. He also brought us to beach a lot, hung out in the local village, went to lots of "fetes" etc...

Sounds great but I hated it as I missed all my friends back home! I remember being devastated that I missed Westlife at the Killarney summerfest in 2002 :pac: . I was about 13 then. After that I got summer jobs so got to stay at home and work. Still visited France for a couple of weeks in the summer though when I was a teenager..

retro:electro

I used to call next door to my neighbour and I swear we used to be gone for what seemed like the whole day. We had fields for miles all around our houses so we used to just wander off for the day and built huts and play games. We kept the local shop in business too buying penny sweets. She had cousins from Dublin and they spent a lot of time in hers during the summer and I loved it when they came down to Galway. They were pure mad and had all these amazing games and cool stories that we'd never heard of. It never seemed to rain at all. We didnt need much, just a fine day and bundles of energy. We created our fun. Don't remember my mother ever looking for me.
I was probably a bit neglected if I'm honest :pac:
By today's standards anyways.

JohnCleary

Swam. Every fcuking day, I swam.

I'd head out to Blackrock (Galway) in the morning and wouldn't come back until I was starving.

Best days ever

harr

Do people think today’s generation of 10 or 11 year olds would be able to look after themselves out all day without getting themselves into bother and without parents fully knowing where the kids are located.
Saying that I would have been off out on my BMX for the day at 9 or 10 :eek: as would all of my friends.

missyb01

Most of my summer holidays were spent out on the road playing tennis, tip the can, squares, kerbs and then go off on our bikes somewhere, more than likely it was to the shops!! We would be taken on a day trip to Skerries beach and it was my favourite day of the summer break. Still brings a smile to my face. We never went on a sun holiday but did go to pewellie in Wales once...

Irish Guitarist

Played games on my Commodore 64.

Nettle Soup

Swimming in the local river. We would cycle down 2 or 3 times a day only returning home for food. I still look back on it with delight.
I even loved swimming in the rain.

wendydoll

Cycled out to the old railway tracks, leave the bikes at the start of the tracks, walk for ages, come back and the bikes would still be there.

Build camps, have campfires. Go feed the chickens and ducks, take a short cut to countryside through the field and avoid getting chased by the angry bull in the field.

Spend the morning packing a big cooler box full of sandwiches and treats and go to the beach, get chips after the beach.

Getting Mr.Freezes every day and being delighted to get the ones that allowed you get one free

the purple tin

Work.

uch

Robbed apples and rode the youngwans

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

uch wrote: »

Robbed apples and rode the youngwans

I wouln'd go that far but we did play kiss chase in the woods and of course avoiding the ugly girls. Also we would spend a lot of our days picking mushrooms in the fields near our homes. We would be up around 8am and wouln'd be home until 4pm and my mother would make creamy mushroom soup with home made brown bread. They really were the good old days.

MadYaker

My parents work in education so they always got the same holidays I did. We had a dog back then too and their house is in the countryside so it was lots of time out exploring the woods with the neighbours kids and generally messing about getting covered in muck. Throw in a 4 week holiday to the US to visit relatives and it was a ****ing good time.

MilesMorales1

Lot of working. Not in a bad way forced to do it like, I used to think I was the ****ing bee's knees getting (ripped off) working 5 days a week earning maybe 100 quid a week all for me, rich as **** I was.

corner of hells

Fished , fought with kids from neighbouring estates , set fire to hay/cornfields , robbed orchards.

The arson stopped abruptly one year when two young Gardai stood up suddenly after being hiding in the cornfield.

Usain Bolt would've been proud of that Sprint away.

EPAndlee

Being outside for about 13 or 14 hours of the day cycling for miles,chilling on bales in a field with the occasional one ending up on fire,exploring the countryside and then there was the dreaded bog and eating an awful amount of Mr Freezes! Only coming home for food and sleep. As the teenage years kicked just enjoying a few cans on the hot days without any cares in the world.

It's sad how times have changed tho. Kids just stuck to screens. Parents terrified that something will happen their kids outside.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

Picking potatoes for the local farmer again hard work but it was my only way of earning pocket money so I could go to our local record shop to buy some of my favourite records. Also I used to go around to my neighbours house and collect empty glass milk bottles for our local shop keeper as he would have to give them back to the local creamery. My friends and I would wash them before giving them to him and depending on how many bottles we collected he would offer us either 2p a bottle or the money's worth in sweets. Of course we always took the sweets. They really were great times.

elperello

Great stories.
Reminds me of old people talking about between the wars.

All is changed, changed utterly.

Nabber

We used to organise min tournaments Used to be about 60 of us and we'd all descend on some pitch in one or another's local park.
Some of us literally lived around the corner.

But the rivalry was huge.
Thinking back in it, ages ranged from 9-12. We were all primary school. How we did it is beyond me. We had knock out tournament. One every Saturday. Or most, in my head it was every Saturday day. In reality I doubt it.
After summer holidays back in school the bragging rights kicked in and the ail "my daddy is bigger than your" **** was back in full swing.

Great memories. It never rained either ðŸ‘ðŸ‘

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

elperello wrote: »

Great stories.
Reminds me of old people talking about between the wars.

All is changed, changed utterly.

The old people back when I was a young lad had great stories about how they worked very hard to make a living and even back then made me realise how lucky we were to have such hard working parents who made sure we got the best upbrining they could give us. Many of them sadly gone now.

NIMAN

Played football and rode my bike.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

NIMAN wrote: »

Played football and rode my bike.

Ah yes I used to cycle my dad's high nelly bike. It was nearly taller than myself and had a crossbar. The aul crown jewels would be fair sore after going for a long cycle.

Most of my days were spent on the farm, just sitting in the tractor etc when I was very young and then once I was 8 or 9 helping on the farm all summer, driving tractors, helping with all the jobs etc.

branie2

Played in the garden, went to the beach, and went on holidays in August

Mister Vain

Jumpers for goalposts.
Bringing home the turf.
Getting chased by the local farmer after we trespassed on his land.
Shooting each other with water pistols.
Eating Mr Freeze cool pops.
Eating Fat Frog ice pops.
Eating Rocket ice pops.
Eating a lot of crap in general.
Putting those reflectors from the corn flakes boxes on the wheels of our bikes and cycling around the village for hours.

posturingpat

Football,
Fishing,
Making peg guns/hawblowers and then starting wars with local(enemy) estates :pac:
Building gokarts,
Boxing tournaments in gardens
Skateboarding,
Playing kiss hug or torture and hoping to get caught by the pretty girl in the group.

Those were the days

wexandproud

firstly it used to be 2 weeks in curracloe in a caravan , going to the beach , collecting bottles for the deposit , and a good bit of squabbling with the rest of the family in the caravan . After that we had a mobile home on a farm guest house near rosslare . the very weekend the school's closed we headed off for the whole summer . Spent the summer '' helping out'' around the farm and guest house making beds ,cleaning rooms , fishing , picking spuds , milking , saving hay. pocket money had to be earned .
they were fantastic holidays , meeting kids who were in the guesthouse on their holidays , highlight of the week was friday evenings walking about 3 miles along the beach with any other kids who were around to get chips in rosslare and then walk the road back

different times but good times , innocent times

Mister Vain

posturingpat wrote: »

Football,
Fishing,
Making peg guns/hawblowers and then starting wars with local(enemy) estates :pac:
Building gokarts,
Boxing tournaments in gardens
Skateboarding,
Playing kiss hug or torture and hoping to get caught by the pretty girl in the group.

Those were the days

Ahh yes, the auld peg guns. A brilliant invention. That and the tin can telephones.

fmpisces

We were out from dawn till dusk pretty much. Only went indoors for a bite to eat. We used to get up to all sorts in the 80's. Go to friends' houses and play with dolls, get the roller skates out and zoom up and down the path, pick mushrooms, rob apples, tie knots in the overgrown fields and then run round like mad yokes getting tripped up all over the place. Sometimes we'd do a small scale yard sale and make a bit of money, play house or shopkeepers outdoors. Great times, all very innocent

wexandproud

uch wrote: »

Robbed apples and rode the youngwans

all the nice stories but there's always one to spoil it