My Nana had six children of her own and truly loved and found joy being around all children. I always felt cherished by her when I saw the love on her face as I walked through her door.
She loved to make card houses with us. I remember her lovingly teaching me how to stand a card on it's side and carefully balance each additional card against the last. This was pure magic to my young eyes, which saw these as real houses. I would assign a room to each little open spot that I saw. Jumping rope, drawing with chalk on her driveway to make a hopscotch, and playing jacks were a few of the other games she enjoyed playing with us.
I loved to help my Nana with her wash, hanging the laundry smelling the clean smell of the clothes flying in the wind was bliss, we would make a mad dash and run through the hanging sheets, and hide under the tent made from the blankets hanging above, when the laundry was done Nana and I would collect the clothespins and make a game out of trying to get them to drop into a bucket.
My family and I attended an old-fashioned toy demonstration. Seeing the clothespins and tin, I was transported back to many happy memories of Summer days in the grass playing this sweet game with my Nana.
Now, set the bucket on the grass, stand up over the bucket, hold the clothespin at your nose and.....DROP!
The children had so much fun experiencing each one of these simple wooden toys.
My sons enjoyed a game of toss, throwing a wooden hoop over a wooden stick that the other was holding.
All of the children enjoyed a primitive stick game. It involved holding a wooden stick, which they would use to strike at a wooden hoop that would be chased after as it rolled along in the fields.
My daughter was mesmerized by a beautiful wooden top that she spun ever so carefully, waiting and watching to see how long she could get the top to spin.
It was wonderful to see the joy in their play. Another favorite old fashioned game that was shown in this demonstration was Marble games. My oldest son has a mounting collection of beautiful, swirly, colorful, marbles of all sizes. We play many games with them that were passed along to us by my father, who treasured them when he was a boy.
What games do you remember as a child? What games have you kept alive from years past in your household?
