Childhood Memories: Fun and Games

(Note: This series of ten blogs are intended primarily for my children and grandchildren and so may be of limited interest to others.)

I had lots of fun and played many games as a child. It always amazes me that the games we played as children seem to be the same games that other kids my age played all around the country at the same time. We had no interaction with each other, often came from different ethnic backgrounds, certainly had no access to modern social media and yet we played many of the same games.

Like so many others in the late 1920’s or early 30’s, I played Hide and Seek, I Spy, Draw a Magic Circle, Sheep Pour Down (where did that title come from?), Kick the Can and Red Rover. I played very few, if any, board games. Of course, being a Texan I played lots of straight dominoes, and early on learned to play Shoot the Moon and Texas 42. Old Maid seems to have always been around. I sat by my father (often falling on the floor next to him at wedding receptions and other celebrations) when he played the card game Scot, but I never learned it.

Softball was omnipresent as long as there were at least two of us. In school we always choose up sides, played at every recess and even competed against two near-by public schools (Walburg and Thrall), but not against the neighboring Catholic school. When the older kids in the church youth group (Walther League) played against other church groups I got to be “pig tail” which means I backed up the catchers as we had no backstop behind the catcher.

The holiday seasons, wedding receptions and birthday parties were much anticipated. At Easter we went out to the pasture and found the most beautiful wild flowers (especially Texas bluebonnets if they were already blooming) and decorated fancy Easter egg nests. On Easter morning these would be filled with Chocolate Easter eggs and a few single-color painted hard boiled eggs. We looked forward to weddings. The receptions were always in the country home of the bride. There was usually a lane that ran through a gated fence. At the entry little boys were allowed to “hold rope”. We stretched a rope across the lane and “demanded” a contribution from the arriving cars before we would lower the rope and let the car in. After all the guestsa had arrived the pennies and nickels (very, very rarely was there as much as a quarter) would be distributed. Of course the fewer boys (NEVER a girl) that participated the better the per boy yield. I was lucky. My father was always the wedding organist and was the local church school principal so I was usually permitted to be one of the rope bearers. Another good thing about those weddings was the wonderful Texas bar-b-que which was absolutely essential to the celebration. Then around midnight the chivaree players arrived. They banged on the plowshares, the kettledrums, the shovels and whatever else was around to make a din. Then they were served beer (homemade during Prohibition) with my dad singing a special humorous song for the bride, and then ending with a “midnight lunch”.

Rarely, but very special were the times when dad would finally give in to our perpetual pestering and tell us stories of “von alten” - old-times. Over and over we heard the yarns of the time he and his sister were afraid to complete their walk home from school because a pack of wolves got between them and home. Or the story of the afternoon riding of the calves and   his friend who got pitched off the calf right into the cow dung; Or the story of his grandmother who sat in her chicken coop in the dark all night with flashlight in one hand and a rifle in the other and confronted the “you bastard” who had been coming to steal her chickens!

So there was no television, no social media, no movies (for us), but I would not trade my childhood fun and games for any of the wonderful gadgets, theme parks or organized Little Leagues providing entertainment for my grandchildren today.