What Did You Do As A Kid?

What did you do as a kid?

If my memory serves me right I can remember as far back as 1955, which would make me about nine years old. The games we played as a child were pretty simple compared to today’s games. I do not remember anything that required electricity other than a small transistor radio that ran on batteries.
The streets and the sidewalks were our playground, and the backyards our domain. We climbed over fences, and ran on rooftops to the sound of our neighbor’s screams to “get off of there”.
In the winter we would hitch rides on the back of car bumpers as they pulled us down the icy streets. We called it skitching, and even though it was dangerous, it was not as bad as you think. The tires on cars were not very good, and the side streets not plowed very often, so the cars drove a lot slower.
Summertime we stayed outside from morning to night. The junkman would come down the alley in horse drawn wagon buying, and selling junk, or taking away items he found useful in the garbage. Following him down the alley we would sneak a ride hanging on the back of his wagon until he yelled at us to get off.
One pastime was digging a hole in the dirt yards where we played marbles. We would play “Mumblety-Peg” in the dirt, or on the old wooden porches and steps.
This is a game where two opponents stand with their legs apart about the width of your shoulders, and using a pocket knife they would throw it into the wood or dirt trying to make it stick as close to their right or left foot as possible. The other does the same. If you stick it in your foot, or the other player sticks his closer to his foot than you do you lose.
The longer version of the game is a series of pre-determined actions that require you to make the knife stick using different throwing motions. You continued until you missed, and then the other player takes his turn. The first one to complete all the required actions wins.
It starts with throwing the knife down by the blade to make it stick with both your right, then left hand, fig. 1, (see attached PDF file)then you progress through moves such as balancing the point of the blade on your left thumb, fig. 2, while your right index finger is on top of the other end of the knife, and flipping the knife off your thumb with your index finger you stick it in the ground or on a wooden surface. After your thumb you go off each finger on your left hand, and sometimes your right hand. You continue doing it off your wrist, elbow, and shoulder. Then using your thumb again off your chin, nose, and forehead, finally point down off the top of your head, fig. 3. After this you reverse the process.
Another game we played was “Catch-One-Catch-All”. One person was “it”, or the
designated hunter, and he would count to 25 while everyone ran to hide. As the person that was “it” would search out and tag the people, they would have to help catch everyone else. The first one to be caught would start the next game.
“Ring O Levio” was another game. One team would stay in a fifteen-foot circle drawn with chalk, or the square dirt patch in front of the house bordered by the sidewalks and street, and would slowly count to 25 while the other team would hide. At the end of the count they would search out the other players and tag them, then take them back to the prison, (the circle, or square where they started). While they waited in prison for the others to be captured they could escape if a teammate ran through the prison without being tagged, and yelled, “Ring O Levio”. It the prisoners joined together arm in arm, or holding hands they could go out of the prison as long as one prisoner kept one foot in the circle or square, and if they could pull the guard into the prison yell “Ring O Levio”, and they would all go free. The game was over when everyone was captured.
Roller-skating in the street was another big thing. We would draw a path in the street with chalk. Two lines about 24” wide as one big oval with paths that would connect through the middle, with a safe house where no one could tag you that you could stay at for a pre-determined amount of time. Skating as fast as we could, we played tag through the maze. If you went out of the lines with both skates, or were tagged you were “it”.
Kick the Can was another game. You would throw a can as far as you could, and call out someone’s name. They would chase after it while everyone would hide. They would retrieve the can and place it on the ground where everyone started, then look for everyone.
When they spotted someone, the person was called by name, and the two had to race back to the can. The person whose name was called would try to kick the can before the other person could pick it up. If they were successful in kicking the can they would hide again. If the person that called them out picked the can up first they would bang the can on the ground saying “Rock-A-Dock-Dock” followed by their name, and they would be out of the game.
Another thing we did was to use orange crates to make go-carts, or scooters. Oranges used to be shipped in wooden crates, and we would nail the crate to old 2x4s about two or three feet long fig. 4. Our roller skates were made of steel, and you could take them apart in two pieces. We would then take the front part of the skate and fasten it on the bottom of the 2x4 at the end where the crate was attached, and the back of the skate on the back of the 2x4. We nailed two narrow wooden boards for handlebars. Eventually put skates on the bottom of shorter boards without the crates, creating the front-runner to today’s skateboards.
“Spud” was another game we played. Everyone was assigned a number, and one person would throw an old worn-out softball in the air calling out a number. If your number was called you had to chase down the ball while everyone ran away. As soon as you picked up the ball you hollered “Spud”, and everyone would stop where they were. The person with the ball could take three steps in any direction, and then throw the ball at someone who could move or duck, but could not move their feet. If the person was hit they received an “S”, if they were not hit the person throwing the ball received an “S”. You were out when you spelled “Spud”. The person whose number was called threw the ball in the air repeating the whole process until only one person was left.
We were always walking down the alley looking for the cardboard cartons thrown out from refrigerators, or washing machines that our neighbors had bought. To us this was like finding gold. Cutting off the top and bottom flaps we would make what we called tanks. One or two of us would get inside the box making it roll down the sidewalk as we moved forward in the box. At first the box would bang along until the square box became almost round with none of the corner shapes left. If we had two boxes, or a refrigerator box cut in half we would rumble along at each other trying to roll over each other. When the box would tear apart the fun was not over, because then we placed it on the front stairs using it as a slide.
These are just some of the things we did as kids. I was the skinny kid in the neighborhood from running around so much. We did not have games that used electricity.
We used imagination, and our own energy.

Robert L. Murdoch 02/26/09

See attached image for Fig. 1 - fig. 4