Oh The Games People Play Now!

[Trip]

Watching "Sunday Morning" They had a segment on Stave Puzzles. They are amazing, creative hand cut wooden puzzles, from the warped imagination of this man Steve, who, from a company in Vermont, drives puzzle lovers crazy around the world. Can we talk price? If, you have to ask, you can't afford them Rd. check out the website, it's enchanting designs willl make you drool...

But, in watching this segment, my mind wandered, to all the games we played as kids...what kept us occupied in the pre-computer world?

Were you in inny or an outie? Loved the time outdoors playing, tag, red rover, stickball, or did you put on shows as I did?

Was Monopoly,your fave, and did you have a favorite playing piece as I did? I HAD to have the shoe, 2nd place was the scotty dog!

Candyland, Battleship, Parcheesi,Scrabble, all these and many more, were part of our childhood, and I know we all purchased them for our kids, to relive our memories

So how did you wile away your childhood days? I did love puzzles, but even when young, I always bought the box, with the picture of another place, far away, never animals or the like, even then, I was an arm chair traveler

SOOOOOO, what game did/or do YOU still play?

[Comet Cruiser]

Hi there,

Trip, what a great question, made me think of all kinds of games we used to play as kids.

There was the usual tag, red light green light, stone school,puzzles of course, clue, snap(card game) road hockey(yeah, I'm a girl, but a Canadian girl! ), played pool(snooker), played house(my sister always had to be the "Mom"), baseball,played school(again my sister had to be the teacher!) and there was some game, I don't remember if there ever was a name for it. We would put a sponge rubber ball in a stocking(LONG before pantyhose) and tie one end of it then have to stand up against a wall and we'd hold it in our hands and bang it against the wall as we said some sort of rhyme, it was banged under our arms, between our legs and above our heads, I honestly can't remember the name of it, but it passed the time and we were OUTSIDE playing, which is something kids nowadays seem to forget how to do

We play lots of cards still, love to play euchre, a new card game we just learned called "Hand and Foot" lots of fun, we also play trivial pursuit and other board games. I still love getting out our puzzles and just relaxing doing them, hubby loves to hide a piece on me so he can get to put in the last piece

The very best thing about growing up in the 60's was being able to be outside ALL day with our friends and not going home til the street lights came on........my how times have changed.

Thanks again Trip for the great topic..brought back lots of great memories.

Gail
Comet Cruiser

[rollerdonna]

Trip, what a great topic! I do love puzzles, and will check out that site!
Comet Cruiser, it must be a Canadian thing, I do remember playing that game with a ball in a stocking. but can't remember the name of it! Do you remember "Skip-It"? That sort of plastic bell shaped thing on a plastic rope attached to a plastic ankle bracelet that you swirled around your feet and had to jump over? I just saw one advertised in the Zellers flyer for $14.99!!
We probably paid about $2 for ours way back when...

I also remember playing outdoors all the time. Hide 'n Seek, Stando, Red Rover, Kick the Can, riding bikes, soccer baseball... Do you remember that game you played in the schoolyard where you'd stand a bubble gum card against the wall and flick other cards at it to knock it down? I don't know what it was called, but I was the schoolyard champ, and yes, it was a "boy thing"! Come to think of it, there was a game called "Champ" also, involving a big rubber ball, and a large square divided into 4 smaller squares, and you had to bounce it around and try to get the others "out". I was pretty good at that too!

As for board games, the only ones I remember (and still have!) are Twister, and Racko, and a Memory Card Game. Today I love to play Trivial Pursuit, but can't find anyone willing to play, except on cruises!

donna

[venice]

I remember playing with my Tonka trucks and ordering 299 plastic Civil War minature action figures (100 for each side plus cannons etc) from the back page of my Archie comic books and recreating battles in my mother's flower gardens in the back yard

also my Daniel Boone hats and rifles and going to the summer fireman's carnivals in each town and having my Dad and I build an Indy style racer for Boy Scouts

[ready2gonow]

Wow, memory lane!

Played school, played "cars" with my big brother, jump rope, hop scotch, cut out clothes that I drew for my paper dolls, climbed trees, played sandlot baseball, played with marbles, jax, pick-up sticks, slinkies. Board games were Wahoo, Monopoly, Chess, Chinese Checkers, Checkers. Also played dominoes, 42 and Moon. And anything that belonged to an older sibling that I could play with and not get caught!

[linuxpm]

we played in the fields (Now a development) behind my parent's house. Around 10 I starting riding dirt bikes. I had my first one Honda XR75 when I was 10. I think I got a Yamaha 125 when I was about 13. A Yamaha 250 when I was 15 . Around 16 I gave up dirt bikes for girls and a car to impress them.

I would cringe if my son wanted one to do what I did with it (the dirt bike, not the girls).

Brian

[mehawk]

I played baseball, football, read books, sketched and painted.

Mom figured we were better off outside all the time.

[Cruznut2]

Trip, Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Roller skating on the sidewalk, had to keep stopping to tighten the skates on the shoes. Hide and seek, kickball, dodge ball. Hula hoops and Ginny dolls. Monopoly, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders. Bikes, pogo sticks. Putting on shows for the neighborhood. Playing house and school. Going to the Stoneham Pool on a hot summer day. sliding in the back yard in winter. Ice skating on "the swamp". Evenings at #1 pond at Mt Hood, ice skating. Going up to NH to our "camp" in summer. Learning to waterski when I was six. My own skis made for me by my uncle. Roasting marshmallows at camp and watching the July 4th fireworks. Vacations in Eastport, Maine visiting my grandparents. Playing with the toys that belonged to my Mother when she was a child. Skipping school in my elementary years and hanging out in the cemetary all day. Watching baseball games at Pine Banks Park at night. The little zoo at Pine Banks. Easter Sunday at Stoneham Zoo was a family tradition. In the evenings ringing doorbells and hiding. Summer days waiting at the bottom of the hill for "Jimmy" the ice cream man. Piling in his truck for the trip up the hill. If I was real lucky I could sit up front and ring the bell. Getting the milkman to give us pieces of ice chipped from his big block. Trips to Revere Beach to the amusement park. Summer nights when the dads in the neighborhood got the bucket of bocci balls out and played bocci. They would order enough pizza for everyone. Wow, I could go on forever about those days. It was safe for kids to be out back then. We were always outside playing something. Those were the days..........They REALLY were.

Laura

[Luanne Russo]

We played all the games above, plus, when the street lights came on we could play Hide and seek in the front yard.

We would love it if someone in the neighborhood receive an appliance, so we could play with the box. It was a house, a fort, and many other things.

After Christmas we would collect all the Christmas trees and use those to play house, or a fort.

Swing for hours!! We also skated, and carried our skate key around our necks on a shoe string.

I was, for a time, into Mary Poppins. I was sure that if I had an umbrella, I could just out of the upstairs window. It didn't work like I thought it would.

My little brother got one of the first skate boards in our neighborhood. I told him to sit on it, and I would push him. We were on a down slop driveway. My dad's new car was at the end. We didn't read how to stop. Car was fine, little brother was not.

[SUSAN CURTIS]

Remember paperdolls. I would spend hours cutting out all the clothes, then plan with them over and over. The Lennon sisters were my favorite. Thanks for the memories, Trip

[DougR.]

I enjoyed playing with my pet dinosaur Cuddles.

[Cruznut2]

I got so carried away with this thread I forgot to say I too love puzzles. I used to always have at least one going. When I was a child my dad made me a board with edges around it for my puzzles. Over the years that got lost. I would still be working on puzzles now but for the lack of space.

Laura

[VTJen]

Many Memories

Outside - played - Red Light - Green Light, Mother May I, Statues,
Hide and Seek, Red Rover, Kick ball, Baseball
Swinging from the homemade swing in the neighbors
horsechestnut tree
Rode bikes around the neighbornood
Winter - sliding and skating

Inside - paperdolls, all kinds of board games and cardgames,
house or school - cars and trucks (inside and out - loved
to make a big mud hole and slop them around), Tea Parties
and with my Easy Bake Oven. Read a lot as well. Puzzles -
still love to do those - but space is limited

[JamesRT]

Mam,
Good thread, brings back alot ot fond memories!
Thank You!

[DavidBgood]

I love puzzles too, and one of my favourites is below: Whats the odd one out?

1, 2, 6, 15, 32 ,48 ,83