This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations. On Saturdays I’ve combined my usual Sepia Saturday post with the letter of the day. A double challenge.
My cousins Warren and Dale playing against my uncle Hugh Cleage and my mother at Old Plank. My family bought this house about half an hour from Detroit in 1961. There was talk of moving there year around, but it never happened. We also played one-base-baseball, rode bikes and had a large garden. We went up on weekends and for longer periods during the summer. We only owned 2 acres of the 40 acre farm, not including the barn. In 1967 a man bought the barn and started keeping chickens and pigs there, though he didn’t live on or near the property. The animals regularly escaped. The pigs dug up our garden and the chickens roosted on the porch. Before Henry and the man came to blows, they finally sold the house to him.
Playing Ball – Old Plank – 1964
Reading Mad Magazine at Old Plank
Henry Rototilling Garden at Old Plank
Picking beans – Old Plank 1963
The Snake
Old Plank Road
Ha, I love playing badminton too 🙂 And that is such a lively picture! A real snapshot of the past 🙂
The Multicolored Diary
Yes, it does bring back those days for me. Especially the light.
I wish I had some flat spot in my yard so I could play badminton now.
It’s a fun game! I have very similar memories…
I too liked playing badminton as do my daughter and granddaughter – but sadly no photographs exist.. Thank you for sharing your memory.
I think I have a couple of badminton photos from those old days and maybe one of my granddaughters playing some years ago.
“One-base baseball”… can’t say I’ve heard of it…
Maybe it wasn’t called that. There weren’t enough people for a team so we had a pitcher and a home base and one other base. I guess a catcher too and everyone else in outter field. It’s been about 60 years so I may have it all wrong! SIXTY years. Wow!
I haven’t played badminton in years! I wonder if the roosting chicken left some fresh eggs?
Not even one. They must have been laying somewhere else and just roosting on the porch railing.
Beautiful photographs! I especially liked the Mad Magazine picture. I used to read that magazine myself, as a kid. I remember the fold-in back cover (or whatever it was called), where if you folded the page, a secret picture would be revealed. Sometimes you could tell what it was going to be just by looking, but sometimes it was really cleverly done and a real surprise.
I used to read it too. I didn’t know about the fold-in-photo though. How could I have missed that? Did I stop reading in 1963?
I love this post! Having lived on a farm as a child, there is just nothing like a livestock dispute 🙂 We used to play croquet on our lawn with an old wooden set. I remember tamping the tall grass down so my balls would roll through the wicket.
It was even harder because we weren’t there all the time to keep a watch on things.
We used to put a badminton net up in our back yard in the summer and we played a lot. We also played croquet in our back yard and baseball with a whiffle ball bat and a mostly deflated playground ball. Oh, and yard darts! And no one ever got hurt!
After I was grown we moved into an old house and there was a croquet set in the garage. I think the kids tried it once or twice. We did set up the badminton net and play regularly.
Of all sports I like badminton the most. That farm sounded fun until the pigs came. I loved your tone in the closing sentences.
I think that is my favorite interactive sport too.
What a wonderful atmospheric photo of those bygone days! Badminton was never a big thing with us but our girls did play cricket. The closest I got was tennis but I’d collapse if It tried it now 🙂
It was much easier to play badminton since we could put up a net and play in the yard while we had to go somewhere to find a tennis court. I might have played once or twice – tennis that is.
I truly love your memories you share! Takes me back to being outside all summer!!
The good old days!
I played a lot of badminton too – great memories rekindled. I do love the B/W photos, evocative.
I like black and white photos for that very reason.
Mu husband was tidying up our garage yesterday and came across our badminton set. He was going to throw it out but I said let’s keep it. Perhaps some of our 12 grandchildren who are visiting for Easter may have a hit.
I hope you have some rousing games of badminton with the grandchildren. I have 12 grandchildren too.
Badminton was always an activity my mother and grandmother enjoyed, except my brother and I would hit the bird too hard and send it flying out of the yard.
It usually ended the game after 3 times.
Thank you for the memories.
I’m glad it brought back good memories.