This week, Carole asked us to think back to childhood and share a list of games we played.
1. Dolls. There are no rules to this game, but I loved playing with my dolls. Paper dolls, soft dolls, anything dolls, and I was in.
2. TV shows. The four or five youngest of us in my neighborhood liked to re-inact our favorite tv shows. Land of the Lost was a big favorite, as was Charlie's Angels.
3. Spit. My oldest sister and I played this by the hour, and I still love a good game of spit.
4. Reading catalogs. Is that a game? Well, even if not, I certainly spent many, many hours poring over the Enchanted Dollhouse catalog.
5. Hide and Go Seek. I loved that thrill of hiding out. I was not so keen on being the seeker.
6. Field. Again, not really a game, but a big part of my childhood. We had a huge field across the stream behind our house that developers had started to dig up, but then stopped. We played endlessly on the huge mounds of dirt and explored the area for hours on end. As a young teenager, I borrowed my older sister's skis and learned to cross-country ski there.
7. Monopoly. As the youngest of five kids, I often had to beg for siblings to play with me. This was one of my faves.
8. Dress up. I had a rich fantasy life, even as a child. I liked to listen to my records and tapes of fairy tales and dress up and dream. On the back of this picture, my mom wrote that my gram had made the hat, and I wouldn't take it off for anything~not even bath time!
9. Tree climbing. Well, there was only tree I really liked to climb, and I was pretty adept at doing so with a book in tow. I felt so free and secure on my favorite branch.
10. Monkey bars. We just called the contraption, which would probably never be sold today, "the bars". It was red. It folded in half. It could easily tumble down or pinch a kid's fingers. But, man, did my sisters and I spend hours flipping around that thing, playing at being gymnasts.
It seems like there were a hundred other games and things I loved to do to occupy my time as a kid. How about you? What was your favorite game as a child?
Oh man, I loved Land of the Lost!!
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT seek out Land of the Lost to watch an episode or two for the memories. Leave those memories as they are. And say, “Thank You for saving my memories, Annie” because it does not hold up. Ask me how I know.
My cousin and I used to play games of War (the card game) with 3 decks of cards that would last for days. Monopoly was a biggie. And we used to play 31 with Grandpa. There was a summer of Bridge and another of Cribbage. Do 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles count? All played at my grandparent’s lake cabin with no TV and no running water. 🙂
Reading everyone’s list is a trip back into childhood! We never stopped playing games, indoors or out. Great list!
Never, ever go back and relive your childhood television loves. It always ends up horribly. “Land of the Lost” wouldn’t stand up to the test of time. Annie gave some sage words of advice a few comments ago.
I used to play a game called “Witchy-Witch” with my friends when I was little. It’s beyond complicated, but it involved a witch kidnapping children (don’t they all) and then a frazzled mother going through all sorts of trials and tribulations to get them back. Even weirder, there is a children’s book called “Heckedy Peg” that bears an eerie resemblance to the game . . . only it’s based on a French folk tale. Odd, no?
Operation & Hungry Hippo… along with the game of Life and Mousetrap… those were how I spent childhood snow days!!
MY favorite was OLD MAID , the card game. I still love it
I have SO enjoyed everyone’s lists today…and yours brought back great memories of the made-up games I’d play with my brother and sister when we were camping. thanks!
I used to pore over catalogs, too! I’d send away for vacation brochures, too – there was always something arriving in the mailbox. 🙂
OMG that wasn’t the list I expected to see and the photos are just so perfect. You had great fashion sense even then!
I loved my dolls, too. I still have the dollhouse my grandmother gave me for Christmas when I was 5 years old…it’s in my almost-2-year-old daughter’s room now, and I’m waiting for her to be old enough to appreciate it before we pull it out of the corner!
I also loved the monkey bars, and doing flips on the pull-up bars, but that’s also how I broke my arm in 2nd grade, a few weeks before Christmas, when Santa brought me my first 2-wheeler bicycle. Damn those bars! I was tortured for months until my arm healed and I could ride my new bike.
Also, totally with you on the catalog thing. I still do that, actually, just for fun. I earmark things and never buy them. Just like I did when I was a kid 😉
I know it’s been a week but I saw this list and had to respond! OMG, did we ever play cards! My dad didn’t do much with us, but he did play cards with us. And when you mentioned spit, that brought up a lot of memories. We also would play rummy 500 and speed (I actually think it’s the same as spit). Dad likes to play one on one and we would have tournaments with my brother and sister, to see who would play the winner. He still does this with my kids. A family gin tournament that he still always wins! I swear The man can count cards!
Out in the neighborhood, a very large group of us would play a block or 2 wide game of Ditch. During the day and at night with flashlights. Basically big kid hide and seek that could go on for hours! Summer fun in Chicago with no worries!