Our Gang on North 25th Street
"Get Out and Play an Hour A Day" I love this new commercial. What a bunch of malarkey!
Back in the (never mind date) when I was a little girl, our gang would have had a temper tantrum if we could only go out and play an hour a day! This trip down my memory lane goes back to the games we played.
Keeping cool in the summer meant running through the sprinkler or playing dunk your head in a tub of water and see how long you could hold your breath. Before the days when the electric refrigerator was in wide-spread use, we had Ice Boxes to keep food cold. Periodically an Ice Truck would bring blocks of ice to replenish them. We loved to chase the truck down the street and grab pieces of ice from the back of the truck.
Snowball fights or sledding were activities during the winter months. If we wanted to go sledding, we had to make do by piling up the snow and making a small sled run or get someone to pull the sled. Once the street was snow packed and slick, we could run and do a belly flop on the sled. Sometimes there would be so much snow we could build a tunnel. Much to my chagrin, periodically Mom would call me home to warm up. As I would thaw it seemed like my whole body would tingle and burn. Mom would make me run cold water on my hands and feet. I would cry. Mom would swear I was not going outside to play again until spring.
During the hot summer months, we were allowed to stay outside well after dark. This was our chance to play many of our different versions of Hide and Go Seek. The term "Ollie, Ollie Ox in Free" rings in my mind although hard telling how it was spelled. This meant the person who was "It" had given up and everyone left hiding could come home free.
Stuck in the House
Of course there were times it was too cold or too hot to be outside. During the years when polio was a threat, naps were required in the hot afternoons. Double Yuk! Our favorite inside games were card games, Canasta, War, Slap Jack or Rummy. Bev had a monopoly set we could play all afternoon. Of course if it was just me and Mary Jo, we would play dress up.
Unorganized and Unsupervised
Adults did not provide our entertainment. Baseball and kick soccer were played in the streets. Luckily Dad would provide us with used equipment; no gloves, tennis shoes, etc. There were no umpires and our own rules applied. We generally played workup. I can't help but smile at the phrase, "Jinx, the cops!" This meant the police car had just turned onto our block and we had to scurry out of the street.
We could line up and play "Mother May I", "Red Light, Green Light" or draw a hop scotch on the sidewalk and play it with rocks. If we were lucky enough to have a set of jacks and ball, we would sit on the sidewalk and play so many different versions of jacks. Another favorite game was Jump Rope with two people turning the rope and others waiting their turn to jump the rope. Red hot peppers meant the turners went really fast. Or we had rhymes we said while one person jumped the rope. I always liked
- Down in the Meadow where the green grass grows. There sits Mary Ann as pretty as a rose.
Along came Jerry and kissed her on the nose. How many kisses did she get?
and the number of jumps you made without missing was the number of kisses.
Alone
I did know how to play by myself when the worst happened and none of the kids were around. Mom, the grandparents, aunts and uncles had provided me with quite a myriad of dolls and stuffed animals. That's when I could be the teacher and line them all up for instruction. This was before I went to school; however, Mom had taught me my numbers and the alphabet. Dad and Mom had read the same books to me so many times, I had them pretty well memorized so I could read to my dolls by the pictures.
Yes, we knew how to go out and play at least an hour a day.
