A short while ago I read a friend’s blog post about games we used to play as children. It was fun thinking of how we entertained ourselves back in the old days.
Of course, if you’ve read my last blog post (https://cindyscountrycorner.com/2009/07/20/a-secret-place/), you know I spent a lot of time playing in the woods so very long ago.
Back then, we sometimes spent hours away from the house and no one knew where we were, or worried about us, for that matter. And, we climbed trees and climbed rocks and crossed streams or played with some little wild critter if we were lucky enough to catch one.
One time, when I was about eight years old, I was playing with some older kids in the woods. They were taking turns swinging on a wild grapevine from one hill to another across a rock filled creek. (We’d call it a ‘holler’ if we lived in Kentucky!) It looked fun, but super scary, too. And, after they taunted me and dared me to try it, I of, course, had to or never live it down. Now, I am sure that this was the first time I had ever tried to hold all of my body weight with only my two girly arms so, of course, I couldn’t hang on, and fell to the creek below! I had the wind knocked out of me and thought I was going to die. After my friends helped me limp home, bruised, but not broken, dear dad, unruffled by the whole event, told me to go lay down for awhile! (This, by the way, was the last time I swung on grapevines.)
Yep, those were the days! Other, not so dangerous activities included playing jacks – onsesies through tensies, Chinese jump rope, hopscotch, Simon Says, Button Button and Pick Up Sticks. ‘Course, now that I think about it, us girls had some pretty cutthroat jacks competitions!
The Cat's Cradle is the first of many string interpretations.
Do any of you remember the string game? I used to love to play it, the cat’s cradle, soldier’s bed, candles, manger, diamonds, cat’s eye and fish in a dish were what the different patterns were called. (I know this cause I looked it up!) I also discovered that telling stories using string is very old and that Eskimos have one of the hardest to play!
I sometimes laid out stones or pine cones on the ground in a house design, complete with bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bath to play house. Or, made a tent from an old sheet draped across lawn furniture. I remember making mud pies, and cutting up earthworms to serve my guests! Well, the earthworms were only ever eaten on a dare!
I remember once I made a make-believe flute out of a stick and the caps from acorns. I glued the acorn caps to the stick to represent the keys and then played my instrument in a marching band! The keys kept falling off and I spent time off and on that whole summer trying to improve my design (with no luck, I might add). And, by the time school started that fall I had grown out of acorn flutes.
My favorite board game for about a month was Green Ghost. It was a spooky, glow in the dark game that was really cool to look at, but no fun to play.
I loved my spirograph, too.
Brian had about six sets of Lincoln Logs and could build whole towns and he loved playing Capture the Flag!
Well, I could go on and on, but if I think of absolutely everything I ever did as a child, I wouldn’t leave room for you to share your kid stuff!
So, please, comment away! May you have as much fun thinking about your childhood play as I did mine!
