Did you used to climb trees when you were a kid?

We had a big ole Summer Rambo (or is it rainbow) apple tree, it had one low branch that was almost horizontal with the ground about 5’ up. I spent hours on that, it was my race horse, I won a lot of races on that branch. I also had a huge rope hanging from a much higher branch and it was terrifyingly amazing to climb up high in the tree and swing down on that rope.

There was also an Oxhart cherry tree, ate millions of cherries while sitting in that tree, most of them wormy.

A walnut tree but that wasn’t a good climber, branches were too high. There was a huge boxwood that was the size of a tree, that was good for hiding.

It was a big yard and full of fruit trees. I spent time in them all, often with my lunch in a bag or a book to read.

GQ, fun to remember stuff like that!

There was a tree in my front yard I would always climb up around dusk and I would bring a small flashlight. I would wedge the flashlight between the trunk and a limb to keep it there until the next time I climed up. Then one day town workers came around and cut the lowest branch and I was no longer able to climb the tree. A few years later when I was taller I decided to jump up to the next branch climb up and see my old spot again. The tree had grown around the flashlight, and it’s now forever part of the tree.

I used to love climbing trees until the summer of 1996 when I feel out of onbe and broke my arm right at the beginning of the school holidays. I haven’t climbed a tree since!

We had this one big tree along the river near where I was growing up, we tied rope to it and swung right over the water, cant even count the times we fell in! That tree is still there although the branches have been trimmed so that kids cant do that anymore – health and safety nuts going around I guess. But I think it would be odd for kids NOT to climb trees at some point. It’s all part of growing up methinks.

My mother would chase us out-of-doors the first thing in the morning on nice days, let us back in for lunch, and then shoo us out again until dinner. I wanted to spend my time reading, and she discouraged this (!!!!!), saying I needed to be outside. I would ride my bicycle up to where the bookmobile stopped, load up on books, and hide them in the garage. When my mom chased us outside, I’d grab a book, and head up a huge sycamore tree in the front yard, and read for hours, perched at the top of the tree. She’d get so mad! You could hear her yelling at me from all over the neighborhood. But she had no way of getting me or the books out of the tree until I was ready to come down. The punishment would have been to ground me, and send me to my room—where my books were, or to have me underfoot.

I used to try. I always fell out of them though.

I still do! =P

Not unless it was absolutely required. Always had one or the other to do it, for. **laughs**

Will never forget my experience at the age of about 11 or 12, climbed up in a small tree (bad decision) behind our house and the limb broke and fell about 12 feet or so…oh my gosh! Just laid there for about 15 minutes. Very lucky….could have been really bad! Just another time, my guardian-angel, Clarence, was watching out for me! Thank you Clarence!

I didn’t climb trees for the view. I would get far enough up so other kids couldn’t see me, then read my book in peace.

I loved climbing trees. I still would do it if I had one that was a good climber.
I loved hiding up there and watching the world go by.

Isn’t it great how much fun you can have with your imagination and climbing “skills”!! I think back though and wonder where my parents thought I was!!!

@rooeytoo Thanks .. it’s so much fun to remember the simpler times and how much fun we really had as kids!!

@Ansible1 Oh wow, you really left your mark on that tree!

oh yes! like tarzan! until I fell from one that left a scar the size of a crayon in my leg literally, I was hanging from the tree, not with my hands but my skin

There was a beech tree w/a natural seat where the branches grew away from the trunk; I used to climb that, also a spruce/fir of some kind in my friend’s yard. I was chicken to go too high, though! I never thought of reading while up a tree; when I was outside I was busy playing, I guess. I was a voracious reader though.

Did I ever!!! I was the number 1 tree climber in my neighbourhood, no one else could monkey around like I could. I had arms of steel unfortunately that’s all gone now but hey at least I still have the memories….good times, good times.

All the time. I still do. I just climbed a few of them while apple picking in October.

Two stories from childhood:

There was a great tree on the street behind my house. My friends and I climbed it almost daily and pretend all sorts of things. One of the neighbors hated it and would yell at us to come down. We ignored him until one day we went out to the tree and it was covered in black tar. Staring, dumbfounded we hear laughter and turn to see this neighbor – in his driveway, holding a bucket or tar.

Few years later, a friend and I were up a different tree that overlooked a secondary highway. We had made bundles of pebbles wrapped in leaves and began tossing them onto the road. We must have timed one throw poorly as a car came careening around the corner honking it’s horn. The driver got out screaming and pulled us out of the tree. Apparently, one bundle had gone through his open window spraying pebbles everywhere – hitting him and his wife. He dragged us each home by the hair. It was one of the only times my father was really mad at me.

Yep all the time. Once, my best friend and I were out in the woods playing and I fell out of a tree and scraped my back on some branches. She didn’t want to go home, so she made up some story about how native Americans would grind up dead leaves and some other stuff and rub it on wounds and it would feel all better. So, I thought this was a worth a shot and she made her magic potion and rubbed it on my scratches. It was pretty much leaves and dirt. A great combo to be grinding into a fresh open wound. It still hurt, but I pretended it didn’t.

Yup, I did. Had a favourite tree I called my Climbing Jack. Had a near horizontal brach about four feet off the ground. Found several red ants nests higher up the tree one day. That day was not a good day. Apart from that, I had a great time with that tree. **faraway look*

Yes, and we built our own tree houses.

ABSOLUTELY!!!

you dont climb trees? are you silly? – michael jackson

What wonderful stories!! Thanks to everyone for sharing them.

What do you mean “when I was a kid”?

I was a great tree climber and reader. There was one tree on our farm which I would climb up with a book, perch in the crook of two branches and read for hours.

Yes, I spent most of my childhood on trees. My grandmother spent most of my childhood under them telling me to get down and how dangerous it was, especially since I hadn’t finished my dinner/done my homework/apologised to my sister for breaking her toys/tidied my bedroom before my mother came back/brushed my teeth etc.

Yes. I use to live near woods as a kid, so I climbed trees all the time. Me and my siblings would fight for the best ones. My father made a tree house out of the lone tree in our front yard. We also had a tire swing on it. :)

Of course! I remember one day I stayed the whole day up in the tree it wasn’t a tree house I just sat on the branch all day reading. I miss those days :(

No I was too girly for that! I wanted a treehouse though, my own little space, never go one though lol :),

I never realized there were so many other kids (young and old) up in the trees!!! I love it.