Childhood play
The neighborhood where we grew up (1224 Athens Street) was a different world from today in San Francisco. The door to our house was unlocked all day, even if everyone had left home for school, work and shopping. At night, Daddy locked the door. All the homes had a one car garage, and each home owner had a maximum of one car if any. If we were going on short errands, the car was not taken out of the garage, we walked. For many excursions we used public transportation. There was a bus stop at the end of our block. The cars were kept in the garages so there were very few vehicles parked on the street. This left the street wide open for children to play, and we used it! There was a decent size group of kids in our immediate vicinity, and after school and on the weekends we were out on the sidewalk or in the street to play. "One foot off the gutter" and "dodge ball" were two of the games we played in the street. On the sidewalks we played jump rope, hop scotch or jacks (girls), rode our clamp on roller skates or one speed bicycles (boys and girls). Of course there were always the reliable "cops and robbers", or "cowboys and indians" group endeavors as well.


Play guns, gun belts, soldier gear and cowboy and cowgirl outfits were common toys. Flexies (factory made four wheeled coasters) and home made coasters were always a source of fun. The home made coasters were made from pieces of clamp on roller skates and whatever wood could be found. The steering mechanism involved a rope, and brakes were supplied by our feet.
We wore a specific set of clothes to school, and for girls that meant dresses. After school we changed into our "play clothes" and roared out the door. Girls were allowed to wear pants for play. It's hard to imagine now, but children were expected (go outside and play!) to play outside in public areas, without constant adult supervision. Parents did not worry much about the safety of their kids as long as they were within "the neighborhood", and what constituted the neighborhood grew progressively larger as we grew older.
The childhood girl playmates I remember were: Linda Genai, Janie Kaiser (famous for having her three year old younger brother dance naked in the living room window in front of all the kids), Dolly and Conny from around the corner, and Evelyn McCloud. Yes I'm the bratty looking one in the first row right, sitting next to Evelyn. The third boy from the right in the back row is Larry Castelli. He and I had the misfortune to be school mates our entire public school career, and endured endless teasing of "Abbott and Costello, Abbott and Castellli". We both heartily wished the other one would move, die or something to end the torment.


There was a series of four blocks of hill near us and we would laboriously skate or pedal up the four blocks, then go at top speed down each steep block, across the level cross street, down the next hill, and so on until we careened around the corner to our own block. If we were riding a coaster, we were out in the street for this stunt. When riding our skates, we used the sidewalk, and it took good coordination to jump off the curb at the bottom of the block, fly across the street, then jump the curb onto the next block successfully. It speaks of how little traffic there was, and how much adults watched out for reckless kids that none of us were hit.
During the summer we were allowed to play outside after dinner, and when the street lights came on, that was curfew for all of the kids.
We had a neighbor three houses away, Mr. Winkler, who was a policeman on parking enforcement patrol. He drove one of those motorcycle with two back wheels, and the great event of each afternoon was being allowed to ride on the back as he drove down his driveway into the garage. On Halloween, Mr. Winkler would thoughtfully bring home bags of illegal fireworks that the police had confiscated, and distribute them to the neighborhood children. We had a high old time with fire crackers, cherry bombs, and other more deadly explosives. We lit the fireworks with a "punk", which was a short piece of clothesline. We got the end of the clothes line burning, then kept it smoldering by blowing on it so we always had a live spark.

Truly it is amazing what we were allowed to do, and that we suffered no serious injuries. It is true however, that I had constant wounds and scabs on both knees (those damn dresses!) for most of my childhood years, and there are many family photos where I am carefully holding my dress down over each knee to hide the ugly marks of knee meeting concrete. See the photos and my kindegarten photo above.

We had a trapeze (a pipe hung from ropes) in our basement, and played on it regularly, swinging from our knees. After a few too many falls onto the concrete floor (!), Daddy put a mattress under it.

Note the ripped and patched knees on the pedal pushers.