When I look at all the toys, books, electronic gadgets, and travel opportunities that kids have today, I marvel at how little we had, but I’m also amazed at how much fun we had with “nothing.”
We only got something similar to toys at Christmastime, and before long, those small, inexpensive gifts were no longer “playable.” So after the excitement of the annual holiday season wore off, and after we could find no trace of a Christmas toy, we turned our attention to other things. I do recall that at one time, my oldest brother had a bicycle, but I think once the tire blew out and he didn’t have a pump to blow it back up, that was it for his bicycle riding.
Now, what did we do and play with? Some of our games, play things and activities were sane…some strange. We rolled car casings (tires), played games like bingo, jacks & ball, hop scotch, Chinese checkers, tic-tac-toe, hide and seek, read books we’d checked out from the school library, walked as far and as much as we could, roamed the woods looking for new territory or creepy crawly things, visited our neighbors and watched their TV, went to Grandma’s, spent time at the cousins’ house, played “house” and “church,” climbed trees (I didn’t…I was too scared), but my tomboy sister did, we rested from the hot summer sun under the largest shade tree we could find. Actually, sitting on the porch or relaxing under a tree was considered activities, and I guess in a way, they are. You are doing something…you’re doing “nothing.”
Then, sometimes, when Dad had some extra gas in the car, he would take us for a ride to visit his parents who lived up in the “black land” – his old homestead. We had to travel by car, because it was too far away to walk. But all of our toys, games, activities, and outings were fun. And, then, of course, we went to church, school, and always to work. We didn’t have a lot of toys and material things, but the things we had and the things we did kept up busy – and happy