Did you "play" Indy? Like in "Without a Paddle"

Goodeknight

Goodeknight

New member
When you were a kid, and saw the films for the first time, did you "play" Indy?

I just posted this on Stoo's 30th anniversary of TOD thread:

Goodeknight said:
I was 12 at the time. It wasn't Raiders but Temple of Doom that inspired my first "close enough" Indiana Jones costume. Close enough was pretty far off, but I didn't care, or have any reference photos or the World Wide Web...

My costume consisted of a OD Army jacket, and a light gray cowboy hat. I buried it in our coal pile for a few days to dirty it up, then reshaped it as best as I could into a fedora.

On weekends, I'd get my parents to draw me treasure maps around the house and yard. Looking back, they were really great to indulge me so extensively. They drew maps, laid traps, hid clues, etc. They definitely went above and beyond. (I was an only child....)

The treasure was usually the same thing. I'd taken some scraps of wood and fashioned a small "idol" out of them, then painted it gold with my mom's ceramic paint. It was basically a stick with a 1/4 circle gold face and a hole for the eye. Wish I still had it.
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My friends and I would play down by the creek, discovering bits of Noah's Ark or the 10 Commandments as we swam, or traipsed through the woods with bb guns. It seemed that adventure was all around.

The opening of "Without a Paddle" captures that feeling, as the characters play through an Indiana Jones adventure. It's not high art, but the movie is actually pretty good, in my opinion. (At the very least, it's underrated.)

So what were your backyard Indy adventures?
 
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Mickiana

Well-known member
Didn't quite play any games, but the excitement and thrill of adventure in exotic settings came through when in wild or rugged natural settings. There is always a bit of history around the corner in Australia wherever you might be.

In 1982 I started whip cracking when I bought an American style bullwhip and an Australian stockwhip from Greg Grant's Western and Saddlery Store. I cracked the stock whip until it fell apart and then I replaced it and I still have that replacement as well as the bullwhip. :whip:
 
S

S. Dakota Jones

New member
Goodeknight said:
When you were a kid, and saw the films for the first time, did you "play" Indy?

I just posted this on Stoo's 30th anniversary of TOD thread:



My friends and I would play down by the creek, discovering bits of Noah's Ark or the 10 Commandments as we swam, or traipsed through the woods with bb guns. It seemed that adventure was all around.

The opening of "Without a Paddle" captures that feeling, as the characters play through an Indiana Jones adventure. It's not high art, but the movie is actually pretty good, in my opinion. (At the very least, it's underrated.)

So what were your backyard Indy adventures?
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Sure did!

I just read your post and it reminded me of my own adventures and yes they did begin after seeing ToD. I had a piece of rope that was about 4 or 5' long. one side had a small knot about 4" into that started the handle and the other end had a small knot in it to act as what I thought would help hold it wrapped on objects lol. We ran around the neighborhood and the gravel alley became crevasses, stone pathways became the "word of God" trial from LC, and every tree was attempted to be swung under with our "whip"


:whip:
 
Goodeknight

Goodeknight

New member
S. Dakota Jones said:
Sure did!

I just read your post and it reminded me of my own adventures and yes they did begin after seeing ToD. I had a piece of rope that was about 4 or 5' long. one side had a small knot about 4" into that started the handle and the other end had a small knot in it to act as what I thought would help hold it wrapped on objects lol. We ran around the neighborhood and the gravel alley became crevasses, stone pathways became the "word of God" trial from LC, and every tree was attempted to be swung under with our "whip"


:whip:
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Ah, yes, rope whips. I tied a length of rope onto a piece of stick at Boy Scout camp. We all did...then whipped the crap out of each other. I also had an ultra-cheap "real" whip I got in Old Bedford Village, a living history Colonial village in Pennsylvania. Four strand leather whip attached to a large wooden dowel rod. I eventually broke it trying to swing from a tree branch.
 
HenryJunior

HenryJunior

New member
We had a rope making area at summer camp many years ago. I got as much brown and orange-ish yarn as possible to make an Indy whip (which I think annoyed someone since I took so much). I also had brought the Novelization of Raiders to read in my bunk. Yeah I've got the reputation several times in my life for being an Indy nut :D
 
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micsteam

New member
For me it was Raiders, I was 8 going on 9 that Summer and we were moving into a new house because my Mother had just remarried and he had money. We moved into a 4 acre home built in 1909 and out back across what seemed like an old service road was an old power house circa 1880-1910s .... it was great !!!! Discovering old caches of bottles and turn of the century stuff buried, in a lot of ways I really was Indiana Jones !!! I made a whip from black electrical tape wrapped around a long piece of rope, it snapped really well and behaved like a real whip !!! Found an old hat my Mother had and worked it to look like Ford's fedora and I had an old military flap holster with a cowboy cap gun, it wasn't a bad outfit for 9 year old kid. Great memories. Yeah in '84 there were so many movies coming out, especially that summer, you couldn't focus on just one. :hat:
 
Goodeknight

Goodeknight

New member
HenryJunior said:
I also had brought the Novelization of Raiders to read in my bunk.
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Summer camp, what a great place to read the Raiders novelization.

micsteam said:
out back across what seemed like an old service road was an old power house circa 1880-1910s .... it was great !!!! Discovering old caches of bottles and turn of the century stuff buried, in a lot of ways I really was Indiana Jones !!!
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That sounds like a fabulous adventure for an Indy fan at any young age. One of my friends (same as the swimming and hiking crew mentioned above) had a house that backed up to some woods that had old, hidden camp houses tucked away here and there. Filled with old junk, and we used to explore there occasionally. Not too often, because the roofs were caved in and it was actually rather dangerous inside. I'd guess maybe from the 20s to 40s.

micsteam said:
I made a whip from black electrical tape wrapped around a long piece of rope, it snapped really well and behaved like a real whip !!! Found an old hat my Mother had and worked it to look like Ford's fedora and I had an old military flap holster with a cowboy cap gun, it wasn't a bad outfit for 9 year old kid. Great memories.
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Nice.
 
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