Games of the Past

We all reminisce at times. We salivate over our favorite candy that we enjoyed as a kid or remember shows we watched on television that are no longer.

We wish we could bring them back.

I have had fun from time to time bringing back old games from my childhood so that I can teach them to my girls and they can also enjoy them.  Let’s see if they don’t kick start your own memories a little bit.

Do you remember M.A.S.H.? C’mon. Most of us played it in school. We’d get some paper and fold it until we could number it, put our favorite states (or countries), the names of boys we liked in school, and then MASH (which stood for mansion, apartment, shack, or house.) We would then have our friend pick a number and proceed to open and close our paper game until we’d landed on how many kids they would have, who they would marry, and where they would live. A novel game – but one that amused us to no end.

Snap. Have you ever played snap? It’s a card game that is sort of like war with a regular deck of cards but it had animal faces on it. You’d dole out the cards evenly and each turn yours over at the same time. When you happened to turn over the same card your opponent had, you’d yell “SNAP!” Whoever said it first would get the other person’s cards that had been laid out until one person ends up left with no cards.  I LOVED this game and played it tirelessly.

Paper Football – You’d make a little football out of paper (the shape of a triangle) and tape it up and shoot it with your finger across a table back and forth at each other trying not to make it go off the table all together. I’m sure there were more rules and more of a point to this game, but that’s all I can remember.

Bloody Knuckles. We used to have those thick hair combs with a long handle.  Everyone would have them in their back pocket. (I know – dating myself here!) But we’d pull them out and someone would extend their hand, knuckles outward. We’d lay the comb on their hands and try to flip it over and slap them before they could pull their hand away. Of course, if you didn’t get your hand pulled away quick enough, you would get slapped and after many times your knuckles would be hurting pretty good!

String Games. There were so many. But cats in the cradle is the one I recall the most.

Marbles. I never got into marbles much, but my dad played marbles as a kid and had a big marble collection. I know children in third world countries are more familiar with marbles too.

Jacks. A great time killer to see how fast you are at trying to scoop up jacks before the ball lands on the ground!

Those are just a few I remember. How about you? What are some of your favorite childhood games? Have you played them with your kids?  Many things will be lost if we don’t pass them on to the next generation. Not only that, it’s a lot of fun to relive what gave us happy moments as a kid – and our children get a big kick out of it as well.

So have some fun, dig deep into your memories, pull out the paper, string, or marbles – and go for it.