MY CHILDHOOD: WHAT WE DID FOR FUN in JUPITER

We didn’t have video games or computers in the 60’s and 70’s, so we had to use – oh horrors – our IMAGINATION to entertain ourselves. Okay, occasionally our mom’s would come up with fun things to do too, but largely, we were on our own. Our mom’s would say, “Go outside and play!” Then, they would yell as you went out the door, “And put your shoes on! And don’t you dare slam that door!” We’d hear that as we went out the door – slamming it – and kicking our shoes off.

Here are some of the things we did to entertain ourselves – in no particular order, but mostly from ages 5-13 or so…

Movies. I’ll start in the later years because that is what got my mind on this topic in the first place. We had a very tiny theater in Tequesta. We were lucky to have one new movie a month or so. If you wanted to see current – i.e. good – movies, you had to go to the Twin City Mall on Northlake Blvd. or even better, to the Palm Beach Mall in West Palm. And it was no picnic getting there either – I-95 didn’t run to Jupiter until the late 80’s…but that’s a memory for another time.

Anyway, movies. The movie theater was on US1, same plaza as Village Bootery and the bakery. I’m sure we saw a gazillion movies there over my childhood, but I only have a clear memory of one. It was called It's Alive! It was about a giant killer baby who was going around killing everyone. I have no idea how old I was when that movie came out, but it scared the bejesus out of me! Didn’t sleep for weeks after that one. Absolutely horrible movie. It came out in 1974.

Movie Trailer says, “The Davies expect a baby, which turns out to be a monster with a nasty habit of killing when it's scared. And it's easily scared.”

King Tag. Now this was a big thing in our neighborhood and kids from all over the neighborhood would come to play in our great big yard. There were zillions of places to hide what with the mango trees everywhere. I don’t remember actually getting to play though. My brothers and sister Lee (David), Ernie, and Mona never let me play. (FYI: My eldest brother, Andy, was older than us and was way too cool to play King Tag with a bunch of little kids J ). So, I was the baby of the family and they would usually say, “Karen, you wait here and we’ll call you when we’re ready.” Uh-huh. Never happened.

(My cool brother, Andy Hamilton @1978-1979)

Matchbox Cars. Mary and I had thousands of matchbox cars. The house next to hers – right in back of my house – had not been built yet and there was just a large sandy field there. We would build entire cities in the sand field and run our cars there. Great fun! I wish we had saved those cars…one car from that time period goes for $50-$100 today!

Tarzan. Did I mention my yard was like a jungle? Daddy was always working in that yard – it was (is) so beautiful and a child’s dream playground. Flowers of every kind, mango trees everywhere, palm trees, and big shrubs. We would pretend we were in the jungle and the pool was our lagoon. We made ‘meals’ by cracking open coconuts and using the shells as our ‘dishes’. We cut open mangos and used them as dishes too. We ‘swung’ from the mango trees into the pool – not literally, but in our imaginations.

Barbies. Every girl had Barbies back then. My cousin, Connie Ann, had every Barbie that ever existed, along with clothes, shoes, groceries, dishes, houses, etc. She had the coolest collection of Barbie stuff any girl would want. I bet she still has them – almost 50 years later. J Barbies went everywhere with us – to the pool, to the park, on road trips, to Aunt Grace’s house, you name it…we took our Barbies. I don’t recall Mary playing Barbies very much though…she was more the tom boy type, not really into the Barbie scene.

Marco Polo. Everyone played Marco Polo in the pool. I don’t remember any of my friends at that time who had a pool, so we all hung out at my house. We made up different games to play along with Marco Polo…sometimes we played ‘house’ in the pool, with different sections of the pool being different sections of the house. The air filter in the side of the pool was our ‘oven’. Great times in the pool, except when a horsefly would show up – then someone would yell, “HORSEFLY!” and we would all dive into the pool and hold our breath until it went away.

Dancing. Mary and I used to love to dance in her living room as her mom played the organ. We also made up our dances to Michael Jackson songs and Simon and Garfunkel.

Cookies. We made cookies A LOT. If we were really bored, we’d hit the kitchen and make peanut butter cookies or chocolate chip cookies.

Fire Station. Mary’s mom was a paramedic and ambulance driver in Tequesta. We used to go up to the fire station and hang out in the rec room there playing ping-pong and yakking with the firemen.

Tequesta Park. It was a long hike (or bike ride) to the park out on County Line Road but always worth it. We would ‘play’ tennis on the tennis courts there. We didn’t really know how to play but we had a good time volleying the ball back and forth. Of course, we had to attend all of Mary’s softball games there too…my only real exposure to sports as a child. The park had a concession stand and you could buy hot dogs, icee’s, soda, popcorn, candy, etc. when there was something going on at the park. We spent a lot of time there.

Loxahatchee River. I lived right across the street from it. We would swim in it and take our inner tubes out there and just float along. And of course, there was the dolphin there for awhile until some idiot killed it. The bridge on Tequesta Drive was a favorite place for neighborhood kids to go – they would jump off the bridge into the water. I don’t recall that I ever jumped off the bridge though…I’m sure Mary must have.

(photo courtesy of Jupiter Old Days on Facebook)

Backgammon. We learned how to play backgammon at a very early age, thanks to Mom and Aunt Grace. Aunt Grace would put on tournaments at her house on Palm Beach, and we would go there to serve drinks to the guests. Then we would get to play too. Aunt Grace was the master!

(Me with Aunt Grace @1977)

Beach. We lived in Jupiter, Florida! Of course, we went to the beach. And there were many times that we rode our bikes there from Tequesta! Can you imagine kids today doing that? We would take inner tubes and spend all day in the water at Carlin Park.

(That is me and Connie Ann @ 1976)

Hanging with my cousins, Pat Hamilton, Connie Ann Hamilton, and Frankie Hamilton @1976

Oh so many more memories to share and so many pictures to find!! That is for another day....stay tuned...