Page 118 - my-people-abbie-harris-beck

FUN AND GAMES

By: Abbie H. Beck

In Geneva, if anything happened, it usually oc­
curred on Commerce Street, or better known as Pollyanna—a store bought game asked for on your
Christmas list. The game played on a Ixiard with
Main Street. In the late 1 9 2 0 ’s and early 1930’s,
dice. No good Baptist would have one in the house.
girls and boys had chores to perform each day at
home. There were yards to sw eep, wood to bring
in, chickens to feed, eggs to get up, cow s to stake Jump rope and jacks.
out in empty lots, trash to carry out to burn and por­
ches to sweep. The children would rush through Remember Kick the Can?
their work so they could go out to play. Mothers did
not ever hear, “what can I do now”. If they did, the Swim m ing in the Creek and playing on the
children would get another chore to do! sandbar?

Let’s take a trip down memory lane to games the Bum! Bum! Bum! Where are you from? New
children played: Y ork— P en n sylvan ia- W hat’s your trade?
Lemonade, Go to Work. All ages would gather at
Playhouse—Every little girl had a playhouse. It the Draughon home before supper to play this game.
was made by marking off a square on the ground, The more the merrier. ,
outlining it with bricks or stones. The furniture for
Tom Walkers—Two kinds. One made from syrup
the playhouse consisted of a broken chair, an apple
buckets w ith rope, the other one taller made from
box for a stove, a paste board box for a doll bed,
broken dishes to cook with. Mud was used to make 2 x 4 lumber.
a cake, and flowers from the yard to decorate it.
Making and pulling trolley cars. It was the only
\\ ith things that were cast off or supplied by nature,
little girls could spend hours playing house. tim e you were allowed matches.
Boys would build houses of their own, in trees. Three-eyed cat—A pitcher, a catcher and a batter.
They also made sw ings from old tires and sling
shots. Sling shots were used for battle, knocking tin Spin the Top —The old fashioned top was shaped
cans from fence posts, killing birds and ju st to see like a turnip w ith a groove around the top and a
how far the rock would go. The insulators on metal tip at the bottom. A cord with a button at one
telephone poles were greatly reduced by muny a end always came W th the top. To spin the top tix.k
sling shot. Almost every small boy had a sling shot plenty of “knovYEovv”. Peal whiz-bang artistry was
hanging out of the hip pocket of his overalls. being able to Spih$se: top and then stretch the string
out, pick Up the spinning top and make the top walk
Toady houses—What is that? In the summer up and down the string by raising and lowering the
time, every child went barefoot. lie would pile ends of the string; Another performance was to
damp dirt on one foot, pack the dirt hard, carefully reach down and scoop the spinning top up w ith the
pidl his foot out and leave a toady house. If he was hand, letting it continue to spin in the palm ot your
lucky, a toad frog might be found in the frog house hand ;
the next day. ' •
''NWilliam.T^iimble-toe, he w as a good fisherm an,
Paper dolls—Not the store bought ones, but paper.' and :\vhat else?
dolls cut from the old Sears Roebuck Catalog or
mother’s old magazines.' ‘. Marbles was the name of the game! There were
more ways to play marbles than there were ways
to skin a cat. Do you remember taw, agate, shooter,
I Iopseoteh —One little jffi&e.of broken glass and
squares drawn in the dirt could give hours of fun plinking, squeegees, fudging, fun and for keeps.
for 1 to 3 players. v Playing for fun meant ju st that. Each player kep
his own marbles at the end of the game. Keeps was
gambling. You gambled your marbles against the
Pea shooters—using Cliinaberries.
other guy’s or gal’s. Many a child w as sent to the
wood shed for playing keeps. Trading came into the
“I Jail Over”—playing this with a homemade bean
game too. You were alw ays swapping one ot your
bag.
marbles for a prettier taw or agate. Marbles \ s c t l
kept in a Bull Durham (tobacco) sack m the pocket
Pitching horseshoes—still a universal and well
liked game. Today’s version differs somewhat from of your overalls. Every little boy (and som etim es
girls) had patches on the knees of his overalls, w on
the one played by yesterdays children. The
out from shooting marbles. Hours o f f u n u i u ,
horseshoes and posts used were not the sporting
endless pleasure were received from a httle roun 1
gixxls store variety of today. The posts were any old
piece of glass that sold for less than one cent each.
pieces of metal pipe that could be found. The shoes
Marbles as a game have gone the way of'the penn>
were the real thing, right off the horse. They were
found in the road or acquired from a blacksm ith all day sucker, and the son-of-a-gun at Christmas.
shop.