Tomboy as a Child?

M

Mar

Cathlete
Hi all,

Just wondering how many of us were tomboys as children? As for me, I grew up in the fifties. Lots of westerns and combat/war shows on TV. I was terrible. I refused to wear any frilly tops let alone dresses. I would cry and tell my mother that they itched so bad, I couldn't stand it! I climbed trees and swung from them (tarzan); played baseball, basketball, hockey, football (tackle), ice and rollerskating. My dolls (the few that I had) had their arms in slings made from bedsheets as I pretended they had been in the war. I insisted on having a cowboy hat, holster with guns, Zorro and GI Joe outfits. I could never keep my clothes clean as I was always playing some sport outside. I remember pedalling my bike with one friend on the handlebars, one on the seat and me in the middle. I had legs of steel as a kid.

Anyone else care to share!

Mar}(
 
How fun, Mar!

I used to terrorize the girls (nine sisters) by catching snakes and frogs and giving chase. They always ran, the chickens! I was a tree climber extraordinaire! I was never particularly athletic but I did want to BE a horse or a cowgirl! LOL! We lived on three and a half acres of wooded land with lots of ravines and streams and I had a wonderful kingdom. I collected wildlife which I tried to save and was never adverse to bringing home dead creatures for burial in my little animal graveyard. I was outdoors from sunup to sundownn as a kid, barefoot and fancy free. It was wonderful!
Bobbi http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif "Chick's rule!"
 
I grew up in the 70s and 80s with Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies, wrestling matches with a very young Hulk Hogan (anyone remember Super Fly Snooka [sp.?]), and Japanese robot cartoons like Voltes V and Mazinger Z. I climbed trees, played with my brothers' toy guns and Tonka trucks, and drove my mother nuts by hiding under the bed whenever she put me in a dress. I loved my brothers' hand-me-downs. Nothing beats a simple T-shirt, a comfortable pair of jeans and sneakers.:) My father ran a construction company and he would take me to his projects. He'd leave me in the bunk house which had a blackboard and some colored chalk for me to entertain myself, but he always found me hours later, sitting atop a pile of sand and gravel, unsuccessfully making a sand castle, or doing a balancing act on the riprap, or scaling the scaffolding. His architects would try to entertain me by giving me an old blueprint to trace with drafting pens, but I always ended up sitting next to some heavy equipment driver, hee-hawing over how easily a bulldozer can cut through a hillside. At 13, I learned to drive a stick shift, although my parents made me wait years for a license. My childhood was a blast. Adolescence is another story.

Pinky
 
Me too, Mar, and I didn't grow out of it!! :D :D

All of my jeans had holes in the knees from crashing my bike or skateboard, or sliding into bases playing softball.

I'm actually the oldest of three girls and to this day we tease our Dad that he had daughters, but no one bothered to inform him. There were no gender-based roles in our household, which I believe was a very good thing. We were expected to mow lawns, stack and chop wood, help with construction projects, etc. It has really made my sisters and me much more independant, in a way.

Nice thread...your bringing back memories. :D :D
 
Yup! Me too..I grew up in the late 70's early 80's just before video games took over.
I grew up in a neighborhood with all boys, there were only 3 of us girls. So, we always wound up riding bikes and skateboards, playing baseball, wiffleball, football, even wresling(mostly watched). I lived near a small woodsy/swamp area and well all played there looking for bugs and salamanders. Swinging on the tree rope as well as climbing trees(my specialty). I loved gross things, worms, frogs. I was daddys little girl and would go fishing and clam digging with him. He also taught me how to play softball in the back yard. I watched all movies, the scarey ones being my favorite. I also was a fan of the Rocky movies and Arnolds combat movies. I was constantly competitive and hated competing in sports at school against the girls. I thought they were too wimpy. I wanted and tried to be better than the boys. I loved when people would say how good I was at something, for a girl. coming from a boy that was an accomplishment.
But, I must say, after a hard days play I still would come in and play with my barbies. I was great at making my own things to put in her house. I was also young when I started my shoe fetish. I used to walk around the house in my moms and grandmothers heels(they had to be high), and just flip through magazines just for the shoes. Funny thing, looking at me now you would never think I was a tom boy. They say I look too "High maintenance."
Ho hum, good ol days.
 
Hi Mar!

Good thread! Count me in as a tomboy- loved to run, jump rope, play ball, ride bikes, wrestle, run races (I was second fastest on my block and boy was I proud of that- beat out most of the boys and I was the smallest one as well!:p)

I'm the youngest of three with two older brothers and wanted to do anything that they did. My parents, who were from China, would shake their heads sometimes and sigh because I didn't quite act like the girls from the old country. :) But they enjoyed that I was active. As tomboyish as I was, I still enjoyed dressing up to go to tea on Sunday in Chinatown with relatives and playing dolls with friends- so I guess I had my *moments*. Interesting to read others' childhood experiences.
 
>I grew up in the 70s and 80s with Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan
>movies, wrestling matches with a very young Hulk Hogan (anyone
>remember Super Fly Snooka [sp.?]),

LOL!!! My sisters and I used put each other in the "Figure 4 Leg Lock". Too funny!!
 
Love all your experiences. Bobbi, I also remember being outside from sun up to sun down, many times till midnite. No fear for safety in those days. I think everyone had a corner store in those days. At my corner store, the owner had these huge ears with lobes that hung down six inches. We would go to the store every day with our nickel and look at the candy isle for what seemed like hours. He would get so annoyed at our loitering and after a few minutes he'd cup his ear and those huge ears would stick out and he'd say "I hear your mother calling you." We tried so hard not to laugh at him, but we always did and we knew at that point we'd better leave the store.

Great times -- great memories!!

Mar
 
Oh yeah, I was a tomboy too. I would climb trees, make forts in the woods, I have broken both of my legs and my left arm as a child. Not all at once! I played Dukes of Hazard, and Star Wars. To this day I don't like to wear skirts or dresses. But there is a part of me that wouldn't mind trying on a skirt for the spring and summer time. I just don't know where I'd wear one since I work out of my home.
Oh, and I played with a race car track as a little girl too, my mom was horrified at my dad for buying me that! Ha, ha!

Kathy
 
"You've Come a Long Way, Sybil MacIntosh"

Did any of you other 70's-80's kids have this book? It was a book on ettiquette and grooming for girls, but was written so that it was actually an entertaining read. I remember my mom buying it for us to help tone down the "tomboy" so we were at least somewhat publicly presentable.

I'd love to it updated and re-printed. It was a cool book.
 
Hey Mar...great thread! I was a huge tomboy. I grew up next door to 3 boys and my sisters were older than me by a bit so I played with the boys. Loved climbing trees and I used to get on our garage roof and jumped to the house roof which completely freaked out my Mom! And I remember when my neighbor Ron and I decided to play with matches....wow....that X-mas tree went up in flames quickly, thank god it was outside...I loved roller skating and skateboarding and I even made this ramp to jump in my driveway with my skateboard, I remember my Dad watching and shaking his head and walking away. My Dad also taught me how to use a BB gun. That was until I shot a bird out of our Apricot tree and unfortunately it fell right in front of my Mom...:)..she was a bit annoyed. Loved being a kid....hate all these adult responsibilties...:)...Carole
 
Hardly anyone knew I was a girl till I was almost 15. I was known as Beatle on one playground because I had a Beatles' haircut and everyone thought I was a boy. (I never corrected anyone unless I had to. I thought it was a terrible to curse to be a girl.) Some of my not so kind male playmates called me Anthony. But I could run faster than all of them, hit the ball further, and out rebound them too.

My saddest moment was when some soccer coaches saw me playing in the park and asked me to come to their practice the following Saturday because they wanted me to play on their team. When I got there (I had to ride my bike and cross busy streets I wasn't normally allowed to cross) they had me write down my name and phone number. When they saw my name was Ann they asked me, incredulously, if I weas really a girl. I confessed and they then explained that I wouldn't be allowed to play on the team. I was furious and humiliated at the same time.

If anyone ever disses Title 9 they get an earful from me. If I'd been born ten years later my life would have been completely different. Now I coach high school girls' soccer, and live somewhat vicariously off my players' joy.

--Ann(thony)
 
I used to hide in the top of a tall pine tree when my Dad was looking for me to come in at night. I don't know if that qualifies me.
 
I was the only girl in the family and growing up with three brothers, I protested dresses like a plague! always wore jeans and prefered playing with frogs and lizards and playing trucks and cars! hate dolls and everything girlie LOL. One time we were moving from California to Utah and I didn't want to leave my two frogs behind, I was staying at my grandmas and going to Utah with them so I took my frogs to my grandma's house and they got loose and could never find them and to this day I wonder what ever happened to those frogs LOL Yes I lost them in the house.
 
I was such a tomboy growing up- no dresses for me. Loved to wear my brother's hand-me downs. Enjoyed inviting little boys in my class over to play because they were just so much more fun. Played baseball on the boys team and loved it (when I was 10 years old). Many many happy memories growing up as a tomboy!
 
Add me to the Tomboy club- staying out all day, getting out of the bath with a dirt ring around it, playing every sport, wearing toughskins (remember those?) w/patched up knees, plotting w/the boys against the girly girls. I actually got the original tall GI Joe w/Kung Fu grip for my 3rd birthday. We'd run around in the woods and ride bikes all summer long!

Then puberty hit and in 8th grade I discovered hormones and "boys"... but I wouldn't trade the tomboy that's still inside me for anything.
 
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