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Toys and games, when there was
no TV.
Most of the boys at school carried a pocket
knife and played Mumbley peg during recess. There would be a group of
small boys in a circle on the ground playing a game of marbles. You would
hear the words, boulders and shooters. Both boys and girls would play hide
and seek. With the ever, Oley Oley Oxen Free, heard when someone slipped
back to the site, without being tagged.
With a length of string tied into a large
circle, you could play Cat's in the Cradle. If you had a large button with
two holes in the center you could make a Whizzer. Which many a boy used to
snatch a few strands of hair from another's head. Just a piece of paper
would make a neat airplane to throw, or a spit wad that would be thrown at
some un-expecting student.
In the evenings at home, you would have a lamp,
which cast shadows on the walls, and with some inventive hand twists, make
animals and birds come alive on the walls.
How many of you have ever tried to make sheep
shower, or dandelion wine? You would put water and some of the crushed
leaves into a glass jar and bury it in the ground for a week. Mine turned
out very bad.
I remember playing with a small bottle of quick
silver. ( Now I know it was mercury.) Very heavy and hard to catch.
My Father would send me out to find a willow branch. He
would say get one about a foot long. Then with his Barlow knife he would
cut around the branch and slip off part of the bark, cut small wedges into
the branch and slip the bark back, and plug the end, cut a hole into the
bark, and I would have a willow flute.
Lou Anne Allen, Attended Moss Schools from the 3rd. - 6th. Grades. |