Do kids still do that?

By Audrey Kletscher Helbling

"You're it." If you were born before the days of computers, Nintendo, Game Boy
and other such entertaining inventions, you'll understand that phrase. Do kids
today? Do kids still chase each other in friendly games of tag and yell, "You're
it."

Such were the years of my childhood, when children actually used their
imaginations and interacted with each other. We played regular tag and freeze
tag; red rover (although I personally hated that game because I was a skinny
girl with toothpick arms); pump-pump-pull-away; starlight, moonlight (hope to
see the ghost tonight); jacks; hopscotch; and jump rope.

Perhaps it's the long overdue warm, sunny weather that has me thinking about
childhood games of some 40-plus years ago. Or perhaps a recent conversation with
a California author sparked the memories of my carefree youth.

Joanne Fluke, who grew up in Swanville, Mn., a town about the same size as my
hometown of Vesta (population once around 350), shared a story from her
childhood. She scripted plays which she and her friends performed each summer.
It was a way to earn money and to stay busy, she said. The Swanville town kids
even created backdrops from cardboard. "Do kids still do that (perform original
plays)?" she asked.

Good question, Joanne. I told her I didn't think so and then went on to explain
how my younger siblings and their cousins also put on plays for family. That
happened when the cousins from "the Cities" visited the farm. However, the cast
did not charge admission. Rather, audience members paid to leave the "theater."
Joanne and I laughed about that ingenious post-performance payment plan.

I would like to think that kids today are still as ingenious and
imaginative -- making backdrops from cardboard, freezing each other in games of tag
and searching for creative ways to make a little pocket change on a lazy summer
day.

Comments

[Mike Nistler]

Audrey,

Thanks for the blog about kids using imagination to come up with unique games and ways to play. Boy, does that bring back memories. My brothers and I would build tree houses out of nothing more than a few scraps of wood we found and a few bent nails. We'd fashion tents out of a piece of rope and an old blanket. We'd play outside from early morning to after dark, often times catching fireflies in jars or playing hide-and-seek in the alfalfa field. Oh, and we, too, put on plays, sort of. We'd get dressed up with the help of my older sister, Deb, who had an eye for costume design. Sometimes, we'd wait until Dad got home to take a picture of us. Sometimes, in the summer, we'd parade up and down the concrete sidewalk on our bikes. Great memories!