Childhood Playtime

As a child of the 1970's I remember playing…

1. Barbies – My sister and I made houses, for our barbies, out of cardboard boxes and furniture out of egg cartons. My sister also sewed her own Barbie clothes.

2. Husker Du – my siblings and I played this memory game for many hours. (Obviously, the Nintendo had not been invented yet!)

3. Chess. I have a brother-in-law who was really into chess – he even read books about it. He taught us how to play.

4. Mud Pies. My sister and I made "pies" out of the mud in our back yard and baked them in the sun on pieces of scrap wood. Back then, I thought it would have been great to own one of those easy bake ovens; but, my parents didn't see the need to buy a lot of toys. They were right. We really didn't need those toys. We learned to be creative and use the things that were available to make our own fun.

5. Kites. We bought kits with paper and strings to make traditional diamond shaped kites. Then we would fly them in the school yard across the street from our house.

6. Freeze Tag. We played games like freeze tag for hours. (Do kids even know what Freeze Tag is now?)

7. Rook – card game. This was mostly an adults game but when I begged to play they let me play the left overs – they called them the "kitty" cards. (I liked the idea of being the "kitty" so it worked.)

8. Coloring Books and Crayons – Drawing and writing poems and stories was probably my favorite childhood past times. My mother didn't buy a lot of toys but she made sure there was plenty of crayons, pencils, coloring books, and blank paper in our home.

What do you remember playing as a child? Add your list to our comments for a chance to win our weekly drawing.