Before all this nonsense started.
All the devices,all the apps, all of all of the new stuff and more stuff again.
I stop and think of generations older than mine, who got to live most of their lives without the stuff.
I still hear their dead voices.
“We made our own entertainment in those days.”
Really?
Were you any good at it?
My granddad’s generation : He used to wander about country lanes stealing cabbages.
My generation : I had a stick.
Eventually I got a calculator and learnt to type in 0.7734 or 58008
If you turned it upside down it read ‘Hello’ or ‘Boobs’
Yes we made our own entertainment.
We were shit at it.
Although I am still happy playing with my calculator.
The rebel fish 
I read and did puzzles.
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I’m ashamed to admit I knew what the calculator numbers meant. We may have made our own fun, but was it really fun?
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505. Are you dissing my stick? I’m trying to remember the calculator numbers as it may be the only way to communicate with aliens when they arrive. Someone has to save the world 07734
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Understood.
Although why aliens would want to visit this 37047734 of a planet I’m sure I don’t know…
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It might not happen. But I’m ready.
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I couldn’t afford a calculator to play with. I had to play with myself!
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Peter !!!!!! Go and stand in the corner.
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I had an Erector Set, and a Kenner Building Set – for days when I was stuck inside. If I could go outside, there was no end of things that were fun and/or dangerous, so I was good.
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You must have had a stick though.
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Several.
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I read books and climbed trees. Stealing cabbages sounds like fun! 😀
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So I having a stick. Climbed trees too. Once sat in a tree eating bark convincing younger children I lived there
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Oh, my dear. I’m old enough to truly remember when we made our own entertainment. And we not only were good at it, we had fun. Can I share with you just how we were?
I REMEMBER NINE
© 2016 Barbara Grace Lake
Ah, nine, a happy perfect age,
For laughing, playing, make believe
My playmates, some are even real,
assist in building fortress eave
As king or queen and even mage
We rule this realm of wondrous nine
As doughty knights we fight with zeal
With cardboard sword or carabine
We guard against fantastic fiends
Or djinns our parents cannot know
Beyond belief in things unseen
Not ever me, I will not grow
Or watch as castled clouds on high
Give birth to lions, dragons, too
From safety crouched behind the hedge
Go charging forth all bandits strew
Invincible we occupy
A special place, a private den
From which we make a solemn pledge
Whatever else, we won’t be ten.
As days passed by I reached fifteen
An age beyond all myths and toys
Recalling nine in wistful dreams
Far from my life of lipstick, boys
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A nice poem, thanks for sharing it. I am old enough to remember the ‘before’ times
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We used to ride bikes, make tree houses outside or tents inside, read, waited for the Mickey Mouse Club to come on. We sometimes played by ourselves, but never that other preposition.
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We climbed trees, pretended to be pirates and explored the woods next door…
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Pirates in the woods…. everyone seemed to climb trees
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They were child-friendly monkey bars.
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