Let me take you back to the days of “yesteryear.” No, I am not a retired lone ranger on disability with an Indian sidekick but a twelve-year-old boy born in Baltimore on Lakewood Avenue. I am wearing a yarmulka with a belt in back (Ivy League style) or sometimes a blue felt “Yid lid” marked with the luchos and “TA,” my school.
Growing
up, we also knew about other letters, such as “AA,” which meant Alcoholics
Anonymous, and “AAA,” which stood for the American Automobile Association. Fast
forward about 40 years, and today, these letters indicate battery size. What
would we do without batteries, the crucial “energizers” that help run our
society? Back in my youth, we were very resourceful and didn’t require or value
batteries. In fact, we got along very nicely without them. Our energy came from
within, and our games were child-created and directed – no carpools, no
fatherly coaching – and just fun.
But
before I tell you about some of our games, let me describe our unique playing
field. I lived in West Baltimore, 20 blocks west of the center of town in the
1950s. My backyard was occupied by two garages that my father used for storage
for his grocery store, which took up two rooms of our two-story row home. I
didn’t see grass or need a mower until I was 15 years old, when we moved uptown
to Mt. Washington.
Down
the street was our playing field, a school yard called ABC Park. Our ballfield
lay between a fenced railroad track and a cliff – not fenced – that dropped off
to the street below. (Yikes). A kind, gentle old man who could have been
anybody’s Zaidy often sat on a bench. He talked to us while carving canes for
us from tree branches with his penknife. He fit in well with the times, when
bikes were ridden without helmets and cut-up tires cushioned the ends of our
sliding boards.
Here
are some of our games:
Ball
Games: We played any kind of ball: punch ball, basketball, football,
softball, baseball, dodge-ball, and handball, both Chinese and American. One of
us, a very good handball player, became a rosh yeshiva.
Chalk
on the Pavement Games: Hopscotch was popular with the girls: You draw
12 contiguous boxes on the pavement and throw a shoe heel or pebble onto the
last box. The object is to transverse all 12 boxes by hopping on one foot – not
stepping on a line – picking up the heel and returning. Wow!
Rope
Games: The girls liked to jump rope, too. They used one or two
ropes and had many variations and multiple participants. Jumping rope
was also popular with boys, who used the exercise for training in boxing.
Quiz
Games: My favorite quiz game was School! We would sit on the lowest
marble step of six stairs or more. The “teacher” would hide something behind
his back in one hand and then bring his fists forward. One at a time, each
“student” would have to guess which hand it was in. If correct, the student
would go to the next class, one step higher. Whoever reached the top first won
the game and became the teacher.
Bird
Beast or Fish had a leader and multiple players. The leader would shout “bird,”
“beast,” or “fish,” then shout a participant’s name, and quickly count from one
to ten. The one called had to name an animal in that category within 10 seconds
or be punished.
In
Twenty Questions, the leader would pick a subject or object, and participants
would ask yes-or-no questions until someone guessed the object and became the
leader.
Memory
Games: Who remembers playing On My Trip I Took…? The first
player “takes” something that starts with an “A,” and each player must recite
an ever-increasing alphabetical list that must be repeated over and over again.
Failure to remember meant losing.
Car
Games: “I see with my eyes and the color is ____(blue, etc.) Then
those in the car would call out every time they saw a car of that
color. We also tried to spot license plates from different states. These
were simple time-passing games!
Card
Games: When we couldn’t go outside, we played numerous card games: Old
Maid, War, Rummy, Crazy Eight, Blackjack (can I mention Poker?!), Canasta with
two decks, and Solitaire for the lonely.
Pencil
Games: Can you imagine playing Battleship without buying it
first at Target? We drew a 10x10 grid with ships (four boxes), battleships
(three boxes), and submarines (two boxes), each taking up room on the grid. The
object was to figure out where your opponent hid his ships, find all, and win.
We also played Hang Man and Dots.
Board
Games: There was Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble, Boggle, Clue, Easy Money –
the list goes on.
Classic
games: Checkers, Chess, Parcheesi, Chinese Checkers, etc.
Lawn
games: Some of us didn’t have lawns, but we somehow managed to find
space for tennis, table tennis, badminton, frisbee, boomerang, catchers/It,
Red-Light, Spud, Red Rover Come Over, and Giant-Step, also known as Mother May
I?
Specialty
Games and Diversions: We put on magic shows and did science projects
and experiments for school. Anyone remember Mr. Wizard? He did exciting science
experiments on 7TV in the 50s. It was a run-up to the Space Age.
Dangerous
Games: Territory. (Nervous types, don’t look!) To begin, you mark a
rectangle at least three feet by six or eight feet in the ground. Divide it in
half, thirds, or quarters, according to the number of participants. Each
section is a territory owned by a player. The object of the game is to win all
or most of the “territory.” Each player stands in his territory and throws a
penknife into an adjacent parcel of land. (He is the only one in the field.) If
it doesn’t stick, he loses his turn. If it sticks, he draws a new boundary for
his land from where the knife is stuck. You get a turn as long as you can stand
in your parcel and can get the knife to stick. The game ends when the playing
field has only one owner.
Imaginary
Games: Our desks were “vintage” 1940-style, and each had
a hole for an ink jar. Yes, we had fountain pens. That was before gel
pens – or even ballpoint pens. This game was for the one who took the less “safer” derech.
You place the sefer on the desk, roll a piece of paper into a
golf club and another piece of paper into a ball. You hit the ball around
the sefer into the ink hole – and viola – a golf course on
your desk! Repeat with your friends, and you can have tournaments
during class!!
* * *
Leisure
is not a Yiddishe concept, but children must be children, and playing games is
a constructive way for them to spend their free hours. “Kid culture” has passed
these games down “midor l’dor,” from generation to generation of
children. Besides being lots of fun, they helped children develop many skills –
like planning, leading, cooperating, imagining, and more – that are
not learned with the solitary, battery-driven amusements of today. Our
generation is proof that children are resourceful and can make their own fun.
Any way to bring back some parts of those good old times? Then we also wouldn’t
have to worry about how to dispose of batteries to save the planet. Hashem will
take care of that – just as He takes care of all of us all the time.
