Sitting here today with eight of my grandkids; I have had to think of things for them to do on this hot August day. I recalled many things I did as a child 50 years ago. Children don’t really seem to know how to play anymore.  They want to watch televison or be on the internet.  We live 20 miles from town or any swimming pools.   We do have a nearby creek there is nothing big enough to swim in and most of it is along property belonging to our neighbors who do not encourage children to come and play there.   

The children had helped my husband get in a couple loads of firewood for winter and were hot.  I do have a small wading kiddy pool but it is really too small for the older kids.   They were trying to find someway to get cool and wet and have some fun.   So I went out and sat on chair and turned on the nozzle on the hose to a fine mist spray and for an hour they totally enjoyed running through the misted spray and getting wet.    They laughed, squealed and just plain had fun.   As the day grew a bit cooler toward evening they played freeze and then posion tag.   Both games I remember playing as a child.

This brought back other things that when I was a child I used to do.   Today our society really does not give children the incentive to be creative or imaginative.    I remember getting out my brother’s trucks and playing with them building roads on a big dirt mound near our house.  Dad worked at a nearby sawmill so we had a lot of mill end pieces we could play with too and made little houses for a town.  

Other games we played with some of the other mill house children was Annie Over.  We took a good rubber or tennis ball and would throw it over the house and some of the kids would try and catch it.  If they did they would race to tag you on the side you were on and it was fun to do that.    We would also play “Swing the Statue”  This game was one in which one person was the swinger.  They would take each person by the arm or both arms and would swing them around in a circle and let go.   The person swung would try and balance and then keep whatever pose and be still like a statue this would go on until all the players were swung.   Then the person who was it the judge or swinger would go around and observe all the different statue poses and say what each looked like.  A person climbing a mountain.  An angel,  a ballerina or a dog, cat, etc.   The person they thought had the best pose would be the next swinger.   We would play this for hours.   

At night we often played “Moonlight, Starlight, hope to see a ghost tonight”  It was a hide and seek game we played when it was getting dark and in the moonlight.    We had terrific fun hiding in shadows and around the yard.   Of course there was hide and seek which is still a favorite among some today.   

We would also play “New Orleans”  or some called it “:What’s your Trade”   Two teams were formed and each side would take the players and work to make some sort of pantomine charade to do in front of the other team We would do this until the other team guessed our trade then would run fast to not be caught.

If caught we had to join our new team as they would chase after and tag us.   We often played cowboys and Indians and Cops and Robbers and of course dress up.   We climbed trees and explored culverts and played along irrigation ditches and small creeks.   Winter time we played fox and geese, built snowmen and snow forts and had snowball fights and went sledding and inside we played boad and card games, button button , hide the thimble and read books or listened to the radio and or sang songs and played piano, guitar and other musical instruments and we danced.

There were other games like London bridge and drop the handkerchief and musical chairs, Red light Green Light and Mother May I and Farmer in the Dell, Farmer in the Dell is a game where one person is in the middle a farmer who choses one of the circling children who sing “The Farmer in the Dell song a wife.  Then the wife chose’s a child, the child a nurse, the nurse a dog, the dog a cat, the cat a rat, the rat some cheese. the cheese a knife and the knife stands alone.   The knife then becomes the farmer and the game starts over..   Where we would have little songs we sang to go with the games.  Some of the older kids would play Red Rover and Capture the flag which could get quite fun.  In red rover each team had players and one side would call out to the other team,  Red rover, Red Rover, send Jackie right over.  Jackie would run as fast as he could and try and break through the strong arms linked together from the other team.  If he succeeded he could choose someone to capture and take home.  If not he became that teams captive.   

In Capture the flag each team had a captain and a colorful flag or piece of cloth.   They would each hide their flag and try and keep the opposing team from capturing their flag while trying to capture the opposing teams flag.  The team who was able to find and capture the other teams flag won the game.      You need at least six players for this game and for some of the others eight to nine players or more.  

With Dodge ball again there are two teams or else you get 2-4 ball throwers.   If by teams each team takes a side with a dividing line and a prison behind their lines.   A large rubber ball is thrown to try and hit members of the opposite team.  If they are hit they have to go behind prison lines of the team member who hit them.  Their team members then get to try and do the same with the other team.    If able they can also try and throw the ball to the captured prisioners  and a prisoner if he catches the ball can try and tag  one of the opposing team with a hit.  If he does then he sets all the prisoners free.   If not then the person who threw him/her the ball also goes to prison.   This goes on until one team finally has all the other team members out and win the gam.e   The other way to play is have 2-4 ball throwers.  Everyone gets in the circle except the ball throwers who throw to hit someone in the circle if hit they go out of the circle and sit down.  Until there is one last person left.   If a person inside the circle catches a ball he becomes a thrower and the person who tossed it goes into the circle.   This is what is known also as Prison ball.   

Of course there was the usual basket ball and baseball played in cow pastures and back yards and even football.   We often played flying dutchman another circle game.  Children used to get out and play, run, and jump they played jump rope games and sang songs along with them and four square and hopscotch.  

Today children find themselves being bored if they don’t have a Nintindo DS or game boy, or play station, or on the internet.  They don’t get enough exercise and quickly become bored if they cannot be entertained.   They have not learned to be imaginative or creative.

What are some games you played as a child.   Have you taught your children to play games or are they entertained by the media?   No wonder America is losing it’s way, it’s freedoms and it’s pride.   Children don’t play or think or  imagine or create or play make believe like we used to as children.   They are easily bored and want ready made entertainment in an instant. A flick of a switch and press of a button.  In some ways technology has robbed our children and our future.   

But there are some parents who still teach the simpler life and let their children play, dress up, make believe, and let them be creative.  They don’t undulate them with Nintindo’s and game boys and movies and everything ready made.  The give their children boxes and sticks and paper and crayons and pencils and ropes and they let them be children for as long as they can.   Because all to soon they will have to enter the adult world and grow up.