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As A Kid, What Were You Like?

Geiamama

One of the Regulars
Messages
201
Location
Cheltenham, UK
I wasn't your typical kid.

Ahahaha me neither. When all my friends were asking for televisions and games consoles, I was begging and pleading with my father to redecorate my room with floral wallpaper I saw in the local museum and to have a old (it wasn't smart enough to call it antique) wooden school desk with the flip up top and ink well.
 
Messages
10,883
Location
Portage, Wis.
I can so relate to that. While my friends were playing PlayStation, I was asking my dad if we could get a Model T.

Ahahaha me neither. When all my friends were asking for televisions and games consoles, I was begging and pleading with my father to redecorate my room with floral wallpaper I saw in the local museum and to have a old (it wasn't smart enough to call it antique) wooden school desk with the flip up top and ink well.
 

HepKitty

One Too Many
Messages
1,156
Location
Idaho
Yeah, although not often enough. I have been swing dancing for five or six years, and knew how to much sooner than that. I also dabble in latin dancing. I really enjoy merengue especially. Of the standards, I can only waltz, although I plan to remedy that sooner or later. Charleston is also high on my list, instead of just some charleston steps in swing.

As soon as I meet a beautiful Argentine girl to teach me, I will learn tango. I tried learning at a ballroom studio, it was boring.

Charleston is a ton of fun, I love it! Latin is ok, if it's the only dancing I go for it. Ballroom is ok but really not my thing, I somehow manage to step on the lead's feet about every third step when waltzing. Belly dancing is a blast too, total bonus to watch a good male dancer. You live in DC, finding um acceptable tango classes shouldn't be a problem :)
 
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59Lark

Practically Family
Messages
569
Location
Ontario, Canada
I was the awkard farm kid with the awfull turtle glasses, that was still wearing long johns when we moved to city and went to gym for the first time in my life and everyone laughed about that. WE didnt have gym at the country school, we had enough chores for exercise and we worked outside and the barn wasnt heated so we wore heavy clothing. Moving to the city at 14 ruined me for a while, and i still want to go home to the farm to this day. I got teased pretty bad and that one of the reasons we home school are kids, the only friends I had in high school were farm kids mostly for that reason. I think the past was a safe refuge, and since i grew up in a museum of a house, a 25 room farm house, 1860, think about this having a bedroom that was your fathers and your grandfathers as a child, and it was as big as all three bedrooms in my house, with a bay window. No wonder i am warped, 59LARK
 

Pompidou

One Too Many
Messages
1,242
Location
Plainfield, CT
Charleston is a ton of fun, I love it! Latin is ok, if it's the only dancing I go for it. Ballroom is ok but really not my thing, I somehow manage to step on the lead's feet about every third step when waltzi. Belly dancing is a blast too, total bonus to watch a good male dancer. You live in DC, finding um acceptable tango classes shouldn't be a problem :)

I went Latin dancing on a date once. I can't dance. She was semipro. Needless to say, there was no 2nd date, but if I let looking foolish stop me from acting, I'd never leave the house. It's no way to live. I thought I had a good time.
 

HepKitty

One Too Many
Messages
1,156
Location
Idaho
I went Latin dancing on a date once. I can't dance. She was semipro. Needless to say, there was no 2nd date, but if I let looking foolish stop me from acting, I'd never leave the house. It's no way to live. I thought I had a good time.

As long as you have a good time, that's the important thing. And you tried :)
 

green papaya

One Too Many
Messages
1,261
Location
California, usa
I was a shy quiet kid , and kept a low profile didnt cause trouble, spent lots of time at the public library, and playing in the river near my house

my favorite toys were usually playing army, and military related toys

I was never interested in sports
 
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sheeplady

I'll Lock Up
Bartender
Messages
4,477
Location
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, USA
I was shy, but talkative. I grew up on a farm, so I spent most of my life outside doing chores or digging in the mud. When I was young, I played mainly with "boy toys." Think Legos, GI Joes, a raccoon stuffed animal, etc. I worried many people who kept trying to throw barbies at me.

Throughout elementary the teachers often told my parents I was "stupid"- I can remember my third grade teacher telling me this in front of the class. In sixth grade, one of my teacher's "discovered" that I was placed in the wrong classes, and I was switched to the hardest reading group, etc. I was always reading age-inappropriate things- The Scarlet Letter in 7th grade- for example.

I realized in middle school that in many group sports, I could use the rules of the game to enact revenge on the girls who physically beat up my friends. Not actually tripping them or anything, just being really aggressive on the field. I was always tall and so skinny I got made fun of a lot for it. Which is kind of odd given the emphasis on being thin in US society.

In high school I was told that I was hurting myself because I hung out with the "poor stupid people" rather than the "rich smart kids." (Most of the rich smart kids were cruel, drug abusing, mommy and daddy come rescue me types that have failed to get anywhere in life. They were also very middle class, which served as a wakeup call when they left our impoverished area.) My friends got made fun of and beaten by the "rich" kids (who always got passes because of connections), treated badly by the administration, and had cruel comments made by most of the teachers. I was disgusted by it then and am still disgusted by it today. The things I encountered in school have driven me throughout my life to help people and give lesser advantaged people voice in the greater society.
 

Amelia

New in Town
Messages
5
Location
New York, New York
I was a weird girl growing up hahaha. I played football under the name of John so the other team didn't know I was a girl, I begged my aunt to enroll me in samurai lessons (didn't happen, still working on it). I always had friend who were boys because of my love for sports and anything reckless (I have 8 older brother and I'm the only girl and the youngest so I had to be rough). But at the same time I excelled in history and science, my aunt and teachers couldn't understand how I got into soooo much trouble but was an A student haha.
 

Juliet

A-List Customer
Messages
368
Location
Stranded in Hungary
I think I was rather friendly as a child. My favourite toy was an amazing vintage porcelain doll - one of the few family antiques that remained, but I also loved my stuffed animals - still have them. I liked to draw - some embarrassing evidence is still being kept by my mother))))) I read a LOT, but I also liked to play outside. Mostly, intellectually I was shaped by my family - with a really long family tree of intellectuals and scientists. As long as I remember, there was... not exactly a competition - rather an air of expectations. Which, I think wasn't a bad thing at all. I even went to a Good Manners afternoon school))))
Then, as we moved from St. Petersburg to Sheffield, and later to Hungary, I grew rather reserved. Probably due to being a novelty and a big-city girl thrown into the country (and having the gall not to confirm to the crowd), and to the fact that the puppy-fat took its sweet time to distribute evenly. I did have friends, but wasn't close to any of them.
And I never played sports - just didn't like it. I love dancing, however.
 

Chad Sanborn

A-List Customer
Messages
428
Location
Atlanta, Ga
I was small and a late bloomer. So I did whatever it took to not get noticed. I was like a chameleon and I could go anywhere and blend in.
Not until I was older, divorced, and living on my own that I realized "Hey its my F@#$#@ life and Im gonna live it my way" And now I do.
Now I am almost the exact opposite of when I was a kid. I am very outgoing. I work in TV/Movies and perform on stage. Odd how life is
sometimes.
 
Messages
10,883
Location
Portage, Wis.
My high school years were great haha. I had a ton of friends and my closest friends from high school and I are still as close as we were then. In fact, two of them work no more than 30 feet from me at the plant. I was always adding a touch of vintage to our circle. Most noticeably, we all parked by each other in the high school lot. Being a part of the 'redneck' crowd, it was a group of about 20 pickup trucks, and my 60 Chevy Bel-Air in the middle lol. I had a great rapport with all of my teachers, I got good grades and had good manners, and oft found myself getting my buddies out of a jam.

During the summers, my folks have a cabin and we'd all get together there and go fishing and shoot the breeze and do whatever else came to mind. Again, a sea of pickups parked on either side of the dirt road, and my old sedan sticking out like a sore thumb! Sometimes, I think it pays to be yourself if you can be yourself comfortably. With me looking like I stepped out of the 50's and the rest of them looking like Larry the Cable guy, it was never an issue like one would think. I know a lot of people conform to be more comfortable, or to make others more comfortable, but you gotta do what makes you happy.
 

martinsantos

Practically Family
Messages
595
Location
São Paulo, Brazil
I had a similar problem. Never understood how can a teacher say "you're not apt to read this" - until you really read it and say what you understood!

Maybe this is one of the reasons that so many don't like to read. No respect about the rythm of each one. Remember that in school my colleagues used to say that I would be "studying all the time" because I'm always reading something - at those days, just in love with Agatha Christie... The act of read was understood as "study", and not something for self-pleasure.

Throughout elementary the teachers often told my parents I was "stupid"- I can remember my third grade teacher telling me this in front of the class. In sixth grade, one of my teacher's "discovered" that I was placed in the wrong classes, and I was switched to the hardest reading group, etc. I was always reading age-inappropriate things- The Scarlet Letter in 7th grade- for example.
QUOTE]
 

Stray Cat

My Mail is Forwarded Here
.


Shy or outgoing?

Active or a couch potato?

What was your favorite toy?

What sports, if any, did you like to play?

Were you small, regular, or large for your age group?

.
1. Both: with other girls I was shy, with boys I was outgoing. Mostly because I was a tomboy.
2. If a could find a good read, I would leave the world while I finish it. Then, there were days when exploring new junk yard was way more important than anything.
3. I didn't like toys. Certainly not Barbie and so. I preferred to play outdoors. So, I'd had to say: white chalk. My mom was a teacher, so I had a lot of those..
4. I never played any sport.. I mean, if chasing screaming mama's boy down the street is a sport, than that's me. :)
5. I was regular.. for my group. But, "my group" were mostly boys. As a girl, I was just a bit taller, but thinner than other. It was all about the knees. :)
 
Messages
12,032
Location
East of Los Angeles
Sherman, set the WABAC machine...

Shy or outgoing? It depended on the situation, but I was usually outgoing. I've never had problems approaching and speaking to people, but I was well schooled in manners by my parents and knew when it was or was not appropriate.

Active or a couch potato? Equal parts of both. If I wasn't out playing with my friends in the neighborhood I was either camped out in front of the television or listening to music while drawing, reading (I could read the newspaper at the age of 3), building model kits, or whatever other activity I found entertaining.

What was your favorite toy? As best I can remember, anything Batman or Star Trek related. I was also very interested in the Apollo space program and can remember watching Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. land on the moon, so anything 60s-era real-space related as well.

What sports, if any, did you like to play? Golf. My father was an avid golfer, so I've been playing off-and-on as long as I can remember. I was also on the track and football teams in grade school. I was pretty good at track because I could run fairly fast for long distances; football, not so much.

Were you small, regular, or large for your age group? I'd have to go with "regular", but I was the typical skinny kid; my how times have changed (6'1" and hovering around the 200 lb. mark these days).
 
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Burton

One of the Regulars
Messages
144
Location
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
As A Kid, What Were You Like?
.


Shy or outgoing? Outgoing yet innocent

Active or a couch potato? Very active

What was your favorite toy? Toy guns

What sports, if any, did you like to play? Many

Were you small, regular, or large for your age group? Medium but tall.
 

shazzabanazza

Practically Family
Messages
537
Location
New Zealand
Shy or outgoing? Shy

Active or a couch potato? Active

What was your favorite toy? Dolls and my bike

What sports, if any, did you like to play? Badminton

Were you small, regular, or large for your age group? Slim and tall
 

Mae Croft

Familiar Face
Messages
82
Location
Gentry County, Missouri USA
Shy or outgoing? Outgoing when I was very young, but as time wore on and I hit puberty (at 8) I became very shy. I wasn't only the fat girl, now I was the fat girl with pizza skin and boobs! That'll make you shy right quick. lol

Active or a couch potato? I've always been very active, I hate being cooped up for too long!

What was your favorite toy? Jump rope, my crappy garage sale bike and my oh-so-grown-up high heels.

What sports, if any, did you like to play? I ran around like crazy and climbed a lot of trees, but I never played sports as in team sports. But we did play basketball, softball (The girls called it baseball since we used a baseball and it would irritate the boys. They seemed to think that softball is what girls play, and baseball is what boys play! lol), street hockey and street soccer, and bike races.

Were you small, regular, or large for your age group? Big - I had the fun distinction of being the fat kid on my block. I was taller than everyone else and heavier. It wasn't until years later that I realized I wasn't all that big, I just felt like I was.
 

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