(623) Yesteryear games

Children of the by gone days may not have sophisticated toys but many were the games and physical activities they enjoyed.


Remember the marbles? Some seasons my brothers used to dig holes in the dirt road in front of our wooden house to play with white marbles. The aim of the game is to hit your enemies' marbles one by one into any of the holes. Once I manage to hit one which is not mine into any hole, it becomes mine,  These white marbles were about the diameter of the fifty cent coin (27 mm). Other years they played with transparent but small marbles with beautiful flowers inside. I still see the small marbles in aquariums.


Year round girls would play with five stones. Actually they weren't stones but little cloth bags filled with either rice, beans or sand. The game involves throwing up the little bags in different configurations and then catching it when it or increasing number of bags come down. It tests the eye hand co-ordination and the timing as well as how versatile the hand is in catching as many bags at one go.


All they require was a flat space where three or four girls could squat or sit down to play.


Do you remember the long strand of rubber bands? We could do simple high jump or the twist around touch the strand with our bum. We used to play that under the old big trees while waiting for our buses. It provided hours of fun and it really is good exercise, not many girls can be fat despite the many plates of white rice we ate. We were also nimble on our feet. It is like playing badminton but we didn't have to look for badminton courts.


And the kite flying ... I still remember my brothers breaking a bottle of green glass (seven up drink) so the whole gang could coat their strings of the kites. Then many were the hours they spent having a fight for the championship of the neighborhood. In the end everyone lost their hand-made kite except the champion. The losers' kites flew away as soon as they were cut loose. I believe it was more fun making a champion's kite than playing.


Then we had the picture cards. We would pile whatever cards we were willing to part with in the middle of the dirt lane. The every one would take out their slipper and from a distance of fifteen paces aim at the cards. Whoever hit and caused the pile of cards to fall had won them. I remember three sheets that can be cut into sixty cards used to cost five cents when I was in kindergarten.


What about the flowers tied together with a rubber band which we kept air borne kicking with our ankles? We loved to play robbers and thieves, eagle and chicks, what is the time Mr. Wolf? Most of these games involved a lot of running around in groups. It was a lot of fun.

* toys-brushes.jpg from playlandstation.com