View Full Version : Childhood sleepovers.
Anyone want to join me in reminiscing about our childhood sleepovers and the fun we had? I'll start.
I HATED being scared as a young child, still do, yet ever sleepover I ever took part in (so it seemed) we kids would talk spooky stories, or watch something scary on television before going to bed, or someone would hear something outside the tent or trailer and for the remainder of the night we'd all take cover under the protective rolls of our sleeping bags until morning! Then we'd be right back at it again a few weeks later! :)
My favourite was just sitting up for most of the night talking and snacking on chips or popcorn. Being "tired" back then didn't exist. When morning came friends parents usually put on a nice hot breakfast for us kids with juice and toast and all the fixings, then we'd all pack up and make our way home like hobos (sleeping bags over shoulders) as if we had just gotten off the night train!
When I had sleepovers with one particular friend, they were always planned around the late night movies, either Gidget movies, or cheesy old horror movies like the original Frankenstein, Dracula, or The Mummy (Return of the Mummy, Revenge of the Mummy, etc.) or the Planet of the Apes movies. We'd lug our 19" black and white TV upstairs to my room to watch it in there. We invented a snack we called Junk Food Salad. We'd get a big bowl and fill it with a mix of Fritos, M&Ms, jelly beans, Willy Wonka Oompas (which used to be kind of like peanut butter M&Ms) and Planters Cheese Balls. Part of the fun was going to the store ahead of time and buying all that junk with our own money.
Hi Kathy WI. When I seen your post I just knew it would be a great one! :) (I'm not disappointed)! Talk about make me laugh when I read the part about you lugging your old B&W TV upstairs for the night!!! I love your kid salad recipe too! :laff:
A big one for me/my friends (sleepover related) was playing Monopoly and Life. Thinking back on it all of my friends parents were so good about sleepovers, never complaining about the noise/ruckus we made/stirred, and always ensuring us kids had all of the extras any kid could ask for, like pop and chips and homemade treats and all sorts of things!
Tonight is the first ever sleepover for my youngest. All week long that's all he's talked about, going over to his friends place (next-door) and having a sleepover/camp-out. Early this morning he gathered up a few of his favourite things (toys), organized his sleeping bag for himself along with a his toothbrush, and then "together" we watched the clock until it was time for him to go.
Eating supper without him tonight was really strange. There hasn't been a single day since he was a baby that him or I have been separated from one another for more than an hour or two, so consequently I've found myself staring and checking out the kitchen window towards the neighbors house again and again.
I appreciate you dropping by to share your story with me Kathy. Thank you!
As I look back on childhood I see that I was a discerning kid. I am the same person I was at 6 that I am now.
I remember specifically someone--who I thought was "stupid" (my generalization for someone who bored me) inviting me for an overnite and my mother said "yes" without me ok'ing that. And I was SO BUMMED that I had to go because she had made the committment.
And later, many years later, that person was very popular in high school but she still bored me because she wasn't very bright.
Funny how I was always about what kept me interested. It is ALL ABOUT ME ;)
I remember being a kid and having to socialize with my mother's best friend's children. I thought that they were boring.
But--my dad's cowokers's kids were wicked funny. They made me laugh. They were gold. They made quiet, smart alek comments that I thought were wicked funny.
Still, to this day, someone who makes me laugh is Gold, baby.
fidgiegirl
3-4-11, 11:42pm
I had to come add a sentence at the top that this one is not for the weak of stomach! :laff:
I was always the first one asleep and the last one up. They had to drag me around the room in my sleeping bag and dump me out to get me up. And a freight train could have come through the sleepover and I wouldn't have known it. I think I missed a lot of good stuff. I know for certain I missed some puking once.
One time we had a sleepover at SCHOOL! In 7th grade. We had a lock-in. O.M.G. My mother chaperoned it and decided that the activity she would do to keep herself busy while she had to be awake watching us was to sew herself UNDERWEAR. And I was dared to wash my face in the toilet and did it. Dear goodness . . .
Too bad there isn't a smiley for tears-down-the-face laughing.
fidgiegirl
3-4-11, 11:45pm
I put this one on my FB, too. Thanks for the laugh, Mrs. M. Fun times.
ApatheticNoMore
3-5-11, 3:44am
I loved sleepovers. I do remember my last request for a sleepover was denied. I cried and cried and cried, I didn't know why no matter how I begged mom she said no, it all seemed so senseless, "why not mom?" .... no answer. Just senseless cruely from my mom without rhyme or reason. Then later my dad said it was probably because it was with a boy. I was shocked. I was 10-11 and that was very far from my mind (it would be years and years before I would capable of say getting pregnant). I was a kid mentally and physically and though I did feel a bit flattered when that boy played a "beach boys" song that he knew I liked on tape JUST FOR ME :), that was as far as any crush went. Almost all my friends growing up were always boys. I never had much in the way of girl friends.
My childhood sleepovers did not include movies of any kind because our 2 television stations stopped broadcasting at midnight and there were no VCR's, DVD players or pre-recorded movies (60's). Just fun and food. My favorites were when we slept in the hay mow. The imagination can run wild in a hay mow. One of my best friends back then is now a U.S. senator. I joke that if she ever becomes president that I can say 'the president slept here'.
We've had several adult sleep overs with couples and families. One time the plan was to watch all of the Star War movies in sequence, snack all night then do an early breakfast. Most of us made it to about 2 AM. We decided our next will be a 'nap' over, from noon to 10 PM.
My mother chaperoned it and decided that the activity she would do to keep herself busy while she had to be awake watching us was to sew herself UNDERWEAR. I'm am laughing myself silly over this one.
I loved sleep-overs though 'sleep' was usually not on the list of activities. There was always 'snipe' hunting, cow tipping, hide and seek in the corn field (before modern day commercilized corn mazes), mid-night rides to the hidden field to lay in the tall grass listen to the coyotes and watch the stars, then back to the patio of the house to wait for the sunrise. I was pretty bored with going in town for sleep overs at friends because just watching movies seemed pretty boring, and you couldn't run around town after 1 a.m. without the police thinking you were causing trouble.
Church lock-ins with pranks, games, more pizza and soda than anyone should ever eat in a month crammed into 12 hours. These I did until I was 30 since I worked in youth ministry my first career.
Good morning Iris and Fidgiegirl and ApatheticNoMore and Goldensmom and Bootsie and Float On! Whew!!! I best catch my breath after that one..... So nice hearing from you all. :)
Iris. Count me in too as being the same person now as I was back then, only now (with age) I'm worse! :laff: Your mom sounds a lot like my mom used to be. My mom would lineup babysitting work and odd jobs for me and my older sister without our knowledge (or approval), then when we'd get home after school she'd drop the bomb on us! (Oh Margaret dear, Mrs so and so needs a sitter tonight or Mrs so and so needs this or that and I told them you girls would help), that sort of thing. And she did it ALL THE TIME!
FG. Funny stuff! First to bed- last to wake? Thumbs up to good old beauty-sleep! :laff: I'm just happy to hear you weren't the brunt of fellow sleepover party-goers pranks! :) We girls tried unsuccessfully (many times) to make our hosts younger siblings wet the bed by waiting until they were asleep then sticking their thumbs into a bowl of warm water.
ANM. We girls were opposite when it came to boys, it was a girls club only, NO BOYS ALLOWED! The only thing we lacked was a homemade painted sign stating so! :laff:
Goldensmom. The hay mow sleepovers sound like so much fun! The new modern "kid" generation have nothing on us old fogies! :D Even without all the modern day appliances and things we see today we managed to have the time of our lives. I second the "nap-over" idea. Seems the older I get the harder it is for me to stay up past about 11 o'clock. DH and I are known (by a few) to be party-poopers because we always leave parties and get-togethers early. :~)
Bootsie. The underwear thing made me laugh too! :)
FO. Your sleepovers sounded like a lot of fun. If I could pick and choose an out-of-town sleepover over an in-town one, I'd be all for an out-of-towner! One thing we did (in-town) was visit favourite gardens of ours, like the neighbours raspberry patch. We would have our behinds warmed had our parents found out.
Just a little something funny to mention. When sleepovers happened at neighbours with tents and trailers, we never stayed put after around midnight. We'd tramp around the neighbourhood walking up and down the streets and alleyways, through people's years, and even take up residence on neighbouring lawns to lay around and talk for a while before returning to our quarters, yet in all those years never once did any of my friends parents or our own parents catch us. Utterly amazing when I think about it because parents (back then) were all so savvy and wise, and all it would have taken was for someone to wake in the middle of the night to use the bathroom or to make a point of getting up to look out the window, yet not once did it ever happen! :laff:
One thing I remember about elementary school sleepovers was that there was at least a year or two where every single sleepover included the Sarah Jessica Parker movie Girls Just Want to Have Fun and at least one movie starring Molly Ringwald.
My favourite elementary sleepover was at my friend Geneva's house. A bunch of us camped in a tent in her basement and went out canoeing after the sun went down. She had an April birthday so it wasn't late enough in the year for there to be mosquitos yet.
Actually a lot of my favourite sleepovers were with her. We used to go up to her cabin near Duluth. I was friends with her little brother who was about two years younger than us too. We'd hunt for chanterelle mushrooms, ride our bikes, help their mom bake and do all kinds of fun stuff. I remember going canoeing with her brother one night after it was dark intending to go fishing and getting eaten alive by mosquitos.
I actually had a lot of sleepovers with my male best friend in my teen years. Now as a parent I kind of wonder what the heck our parents were thinking. Nothing happened between us though. We'd watch Star Trek or the Red Green Show and he'd play his guitar and build cool things out of duct tape and random items his parents had around the house. He'd make me macaroni and cheese with cheese wiz and ham sandwiches and show me all the comic books he was drawing. I was in college at the time (started when I was 15) and he was in high school and he was a refreshing break from the more adult world I otherwise inhabited.
My freshman in HS daughter came home and said a friend was having a birthday party boy/girls and it was a sleep over. Like there is any way in hell that we would say yes to that.
We had a couple bad experiences with our older kids even when it wasn't a co-ed sleep over (lack of supervision of host parents). Finally I just have said, "we don't do sleep overs".
Our youngest would stay up too late, and then come home the next day too cranky and not want to do chores (and I am talking really light chores), homework, etc. Just lay around too tired... We have also decided she is a good kid, but does need adult supervision to stay "focused" so if that means no sleepovers...I feel fine about being the "bad guy" :+1:
Stella. The macaroni and cheese along with Cheeze Whiz and ham sandwiches is funny and classic! :laff: I was giving thought to the idea of mixed (sex) sleepovers and although I'm older, I think it wouldn't have been a problem with my parents when I was growing up. By the time we reached our early teen years, we (all of us neighbourhood kids) were close and everyone knew everybody. Times have definitely changed though.
Have you ever picked Shaggy Mane mushrooms Stella? They're my favourite wild mushroom by far. Sliced thinly then sautéed in butter with a dash of salt and freshly ground black pepper, and a hint of garlic! Yummy!
Greg44. And what a party-pooper you are! :laff: On the serious side of things I admire you for being the way you are. There are kids who do well with little authority, then there are those who need more! (Some needing lots)!!! :) But when all is said and done and your children are yet a few more years older (than they are now), you and your wife will be able to give each other a long warm hug and relish in peace of mind glories. Some things really are for the better.
"Greg44. And what a party-pooper you are! On the serious side of things I admire you for being the way you are."
It is what I do best! ;) I always tell them just blame it on your cranky old dad - I will be the scape goat!
Hey greg44. There's a lot to be said about a parent who possesses a more strict and poker straight (upright) approach with authority and direction. In my experience it resounds positively in the later years of a child's life. In pretty much all the cases I know of (including my own older children) the kids involved have a greater appreciation and higher level of respect for their parents (and themselves) as a result of being raised and directed in the manner they were. :+1: Job well done! :)
...my wife says, "emphasis on the cranky part"! :laff:
Greg44. Judging by your ever so friendly and heart-melting smile, you're not cranky at all, just a little assertive when need be. :)
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