# Kid's Stuff: What Did You Miss? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 17, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613 "2013-05-17T18:04:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/1 "2013-05-17T18:04:39Z")
Poll to follow, but just wondering what sort of kid’s stuff you never learned or did? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/2 "2013-05-17T18:16:26Z")
Growing up in San Diego, makes sense I never learned to ice skate. Bike riding is another story, something I still haven’t learned to do and even wrote a blog post about it. Never went camping (outdoors, in a tent, etc.) as a kid but have done it a lot as an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/3 "2013-05-17T18:19:49Z")
We lived on the main street of our small town, and my Dad was concerned there was just too much traffic for me to have a bike. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/4 "2013-05-17T18:25:37Z")
Should have clicked other. Never learned to dance to my satisfaction. Looks like fun if you’re good at it. Not interested in learning in front of a crowd so I’m very subdued when dancing in public. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/5 "2013-05-17T18:26:08Z")
Never learned ice skating or board skating. I had a skateboard, but I couldn’t go more than a couple feet on it. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/6 "2013-05-17T18:27:08Z")
I was and am a physical coward. I never learned to do anything that involves balancing–bike, roller skates, ice skates. I came in here thinking it was going to be a happy nostalgia thread. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/7 "2013-05-17T18:28:16Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > Never went camping (outdoors, in a tent, etc.) as a kid but have done it a lot as an adult. Me too. I went ice skating once (at an indoor rink in Orlando), and I guess I could have tried harder to ride my brother’s skateboard, but I didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/8 "2013-05-17T18:29:16Z")
Everything but skateboarding. Skateboards weren’t popular in the late 60s through the 70s though, were they? Seems to me I tried a few times, but couldn’t balance long enough. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/9 "2013-05-17T18:31:50Z")
Never rollerskated, and inline skates weren’t a thing when I was a kid. I tried learning how to skateboard as an adult. On my second outing I broke my arm in 2 places. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/10 "2013-05-17T18:50:01Z")
I grew up in Minnesota but never learned to ice skate. I learned to roller skate because we could rent skates at the rink, but nobody rented out ice skates. ETA: We did have skateboards in the late '60s/early '70s, but they were just actual boards with skate wheels on them, useful mostly for falling off of. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/11 "2013-05-17T18:56:59Z")
I grew up in a part of town with no sidewalks (asphalt to the gutters), so roller skates and skateboards were not common. We had a long driveway, but it was gravel until I was in my later teens. The first time I was on roller skates was in a rink with my young daughters, and I took two steps and did a flying land on the small of my back. Developed dark-blue bruising across my rear belt line and numbness around my hips (and other, uh, sensitive areas) for several days. It all went away in a few days, but scared the bejeezus out of me. So I just watch now. Nearest ice rink was 10+ miles away in a bad part of town, so the first time I wore skates was in my 30s, some time after the roller skate incident (I did badly at that, too, but mostly because my ankles wouldn’t hold out.) ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/12 "2013-05-17T19:34:00Z")
I had a pair of those kiddie extendable roller skates that fastened to your shoes- so I thought I could skate. Then I borrowed a pair of skates from a friend when I was about 10, and they actually _rolled_, mine sort of scraped along the floor. I couldn’t even stand up on ‘real’ skates ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/13 "2013-05-17T19:43:28Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > Growing up in San Diego, makes sense I never learned to ice skate. Ridiculous claim! I was born and raised in San Diego, and I learned to ice skate on the rink at UTC, which has been there forever.\* Granted, I’ve never been ice-skating _outdoors_. \*For some values of forever, including “as far back as the mid-70s” and “as far back as **Dr. Drake** can remember.” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/14 "2013-05-17T20:26:35Z")
I bought myself one of those tot-sized skateboards at a garage sale (Barbie!) and tried my darndest to learn how to ride it, up and down the driveway. I never ever got the hang of it. I wonder if it was just too small for me? (I was a huge kid) I have BEEN ice skating several times but I never quite learned how to do it with the same skill as roller skating. But that’s not what the poll asked 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/15 "2013-05-17T20:35:29Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > I was and am a physical coward. I never learned to do anything that involves balancing–bike, roller skates, ice skates. > > I came in here thinking it was going to be a happy nostalgia thread. aw. I think we could get you up and running on a bike if you really wanted. biking is not as much of a balancing thing as skates are by a long shot. It’s the gyroscopic affect of the wheels and not your skill keeping you upright. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/16 "2013-05-17T20:40:10Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Everything but skateboarding. Skateboards weren’t popular in the late 60s through the 70s though, were they? > > Seems to me I tried a few times, but couldn’t balance long enough. when I was a kid in the 60’s skates were those hideous metalic things you strapped to your shoes. They were metal on cement harsh. You could get up a huge head of steam and it was all lost the second you coasted. My skateboard was a dismantled skate attached to a board. It was even less fun than skates. It’s odd that I remember the board came from an old crib. The edge wasn’t even straight. Had some design scrolled into it. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/17 "2013-05-17T21:16:57Z")
Skateboards weren’t around much when I was a kid. Also, I could never get e hang of a cartwheel no matter how much I tried. I ever camped outdoors, but I never wanted to, either. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/18 "2013-05-17T22:10:29Z")
I did all of those things, some of pretty well and others not so well. Although I was taught how to do baseball and basketball in high school, I both sucked at them and hated them. The nearest thing to “not learning” was ice skating. I have pretty good balance, and I could technically skate, but I was slow and wobbly. I should have practiced more, but I got tired of falling flat on my tits on the cold hard ice. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/19 "2013-05-17T23:09:41Z")
Wow, I thought I had a pretty sheltered childhood (my mom was very overprotective), but I, as a bookish, nerdy only child, actually did everything in the poll as a child. Only exception was ice skating, which I didn’t learn until I was older (we didn’t have a rink anywhere close to my house). I even had a skateboard, which in retrospect I kinda wonder how I managed to get Mom to let me near! Camping was only once (Y camp one summer for two weeks). I was never any good at swimming and hated it, partly I think because Mom signed me up for lessons too young (I think I was three) and I was terrified of the water. I liked splashing around in the pool, but anything where I had to put my face in the water while moving was a no-no. I sucked at organized sports, but I _did_ play them, at least in PE and recess. Never joined any leagues, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613/20 "2013-05-17T23:41:48Z")
I surprised myself by checking just one (camping). I guess I did more cool stuff than I’d imagined. And as it turned out, I didn’t miss a damn thing by not going camping. I’ve done it twice as an adult and _hated_ it. (personal opinion, of course) mmm [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-stuff-what-did-you-miss/658613.md?page=2)