Child's Play

The passing of the Halloween holiday presents all parents with the next daunting project. Christmas shopping. I stood in Walmart last week struggling to choose the best gifts for the amount of money I had. The unsteady economy has dampened the Christmas spirit.

Standing in the toy aisle, I thought back to my childhood. My dad was a manager in a small factory, and my mom was a house wife until I turned 10 years old. At that time, she went to work stocking shelves at a department store. My parents did not have a lot of money to buy presents for my two older sisters and I. Christmas presents for the family included new clothes, household necessities, bath supplies, and one toy for each of us. We were happy to get whatever we got.

My eyes wandered over to the shelves of games. Even now I get nervous thinking about the millions of tiny pieces in the games. In my house they get lost, stepped on, or broken. Then, there is the choking hazard for small children. What happened to the days when we could go over to a friend's house with nothing, and still find a game to play? A game that would amuse us, and keep us happy all day.

Tag was a big game with the children in my neighborhood. We would meet in my backyard. We had a playhouse in the back right hand corner. Since it was the farthest away, it was "safe." We spent hours giggling as everyone avoided "it." Every so often, we Incorporated Red Rover, Red Rover into our game of tag.

Red Light, Green Light brought enjoyment to our backyard also. One person stood in the back yelling "green light." At this command everybody ran forward. When the person yelled "red light" everyone had to stop and freeze immediately. Laughter couldn't be contained as people fell over or were statues in funny positions.

We soon realized this was a good way to play Simon Says. We took turns being Simon and calling out actions for the others to preform. We made our commands as difficult as possible. Of course, you could not do the action unless Simon Says. One by one we were eliminated because we didn't listen to instructions.

Hide and Seek was played at night. We screamed more as friends were found unexpectedly in shaded hiding spots. The only problem with this game is that nobody wanted to be "it." Everybody wanted to hide.

There were even games to play when it rained. The girls liked to play hand clapping games. Patty Cake and Miss Mary Mac are two of the chants that I can remember. I know we had a lot more when I was a kid. Each chant had a different rhythm. Different hand motions were preformed with each chant.

My older sister taught us Cookie Jar. All of the kids would sit in a circle. Each of us had a name of a cookie. Oatmeal, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip, and M & M to name a few. One person would start by calling out the name of a cookie. The person with that cookie name had to call out another cookie as fast as they could. If they were not quick enough, said the name of a cookie not in the circle, or forgot their own cookie name, they were kicked out of the game. You had to be very fast to be the final cookie remaining. The last person was the winner.

Another circle game was telephone. One person whispered a couple of sentences into the ear of the person on their right. The sentences would be whispered around the circle. When the last person said the sentences out loud, we found it humorous how much the sentences had changed from the first person.

These games were simple and easy to play. Everybody went home happy. It saddens me to think that in order for a child to play a game today, it must have a least a dozen pieces. These games come and go, but I will never forget the joy I got with my friends from my childhood games.