Toys
I've been surfing the web - some of my favorite sites - www.stuckinthe70s.com (Stuck in the 70s) and www.theimaginaryworld.com (The Imaginary World) - take me back to my childhood days of the 60s into the teen years of the 70s. Got me thinking about some of the toys I had. Does anyone remember the Parker Brothers Game "Booby Trap"? If that thing was sold today you can bet there would be lawsuits all over the place! It was a game where the top part of the board was where you put all these different colored and different sized round wooden pieces. They were pushed to the top by this kamikaze like spring loaded wooden piece. The object was to not be the person whose fingers got smashed when you took out a wooden piece. Talk about dangerous to small children (not to mention their parents!), animals, and anything else!
Another toy that got lots of attention in the early 70s were those Klackers. Two (basically fiberglass) balls on strings. The object was to "klack" them together (kind of like paddle ball or something you did yourself when everyone else was grounded or you were snowed in). They were recalled (I don't think they called it that back then) - because they were known to smash into millions of flying shards sending kids to the emergency rooms with cuts in their eyes, etc.
Some of my favorite board games back then included "Sorry" - got that one for my birthday one year. Seemed every time my niece, nephew & I played it (they were only a few years younger than me) - we were always sending my niece back to the "home" square. She got so frustrated I bet she never played it again! We also played "Battleship" - there were no lights, sounds, or talking computer chips. Just red and white pegs and your own strategy. I hated Monopoly because I'd always play with people who were lucky enough to always have the right amount of money to buy Park Place and Boardwalk and then take us for the rest of our money afer they put hotels on them. Plus it took forever to play. Card games we played - "Kings Corners" - it was just as popular with us kids back then as "Texas Hold'em" is to all kinds of card players today. We also played this one game called "Spit" (and no we didn't actually spit when we played) - it was a very fast "slap 'em" kind of game. Almost like "Slap Jack". Most of the time we made up our own games - at school we had one called "Red Ant". There were 5 of us the first day we started playing and the entire 4th grade the next day. The "object" was one person was the "Red Ant" and tried to tag people into being the next "Red Ant". We had circles painted on our playground - I think they were for some PE game - anyway - if you wanted to be safe, you had to get into one of two circles. Imagine over 100 kids in two circles? It was kind of lame. And the whole reason we started this ridiculous game was because we couldn't get on the hopscotch board or the monkey bars because there were already too many people playing. So we started a game that lasted about one week until everyone figured out it was pretty stupid.
Hopscotch - man that takes me back. In 5th grade my two friends and I made up a bunch of stupid rules to keep other kids from working their way into our hopscotch space. You had to have a "brown" rock. You had to have a "teeny" rock. You couldn't have blue on. And on and on. It wasn't until years later that I realized how bad I felt for keeping other kids from playing. But there were only 4 hopscotch places & 50 girls who wanted to play!
Jump rope - there's always one person who can't jump as good as everyone else - they usually became "official" rope holders. The other end was tied to something. Anyone remember any good jump rope rhymes - because for the life of me I can't. Chinese jump rope - that's probably not very PC - but that's what we called it back then. It looked like a bungee cord all in one piece (circle). Two people started it around their ankles while a third person jumped/danced in it. Then the cord went to the knees, then the hips, then the stomach, then the arms - I don't remember much about that as I wasn't a very good Chinese jump roper. I'm just not that coordinated!
Another toy that got lots of attention in the early 70s were those Klackers. Two (basically fiberglass) balls on strings. The object was to "klack" them together (kind of like paddle ball or something you did yourself when everyone else was grounded or you were snowed in). They were recalled (I don't think they called it that back then) - because they were known to smash into millions of flying shards sending kids to the emergency rooms with cuts in their eyes, etc.
Some of my favorite board games back then included "Sorry" - got that one for my birthday one year. Seemed every time my niece, nephew & I played it (they were only a few years younger than me) - we were always sending my niece back to the "home" square. She got so frustrated I bet she never played it again! We also played "Battleship" - there were no lights, sounds, or talking computer chips. Just red and white pegs and your own strategy. I hated Monopoly because I'd always play with people who were lucky enough to always have the right amount of money to buy Park Place and Boardwalk and then take us for the rest of our money afer they put hotels on them. Plus it took forever to play. Card games we played - "Kings Corners" - it was just as popular with us kids back then as "Texas Hold'em" is to all kinds of card players today. We also played this one game called "Spit" (and no we didn't actually spit when we played) - it was a very fast "slap 'em" kind of game. Almost like "Slap Jack". Most of the time we made up our own games - at school we had one called "Red Ant". There were 5 of us the first day we started playing and the entire 4th grade the next day. The "object" was one person was the "Red Ant" and tried to tag people into being the next "Red Ant". We had circles painted on our playground - I think they were for some PE game - anyway - if you wanted to be safe, you had to get into one of two circles. Imagine over 100 kids in two circles? It was kind of lame. And the whole reason we started this ridiculous game was because we couldn't get on the hopscotch board or the monkey bars because there were already too many people playing. So we started a game that lasted about one week until everyone figured out it was pretty stupid.
Hopscotch - man that takes me back. In 5th grade my two friends and I made up a bunch of stupid rules to keep other kids from working their way into our hopscotch space. You had to have a "brown" rock. You had to have a "teeny" rock. You couldn't have blue on. And on and on. It wasn't until years later that I realized how bad I felt for keeping other kids from playing. But there were only 4 hopscotch places & 50 girls who wanted to play!
Jump rope - there's always one person who can't jump as good as everyone else - they usually became "official" rope holders. The other end was tied to something. Anyone remember any good jump rope rhymes - because for the life of me I can't. Chinese jump rope - that's probably not very PC - but that's what we called it back then. It looked like a bungee cord all in one piece (circle). Two people started it around their ankles while a third person jumped/danced in it. Then the cord went to the knees, then the hips, then the stomach, then the arms - I don't remember much about that as I wasn't a very good Chinese jump roper. I'm just not that coordinated!
posted by wendy @ Thursday, January 27, 2005
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