Before kids had to have cell phones to text important stuff to one another on, we Neolithic children entertained ourselves with primitive toys, like Silly Putty. It came in an egg-shaped container, and you could stretch it, mold it, bounce it, or use it to pick up newsprint images with. What common toys of previous decades uncommon today do you recall?
As a child I had very few toys, so I know this subject very well, there's hardly anything at all, that we didn't turn into a toy...but already many were relatively free anyway..skipping ropes ( we used to use our mothers' washing line if we didn't have a shop bought rope with handles).. a little bit of chalk taken from the chalk mountain next to our house to play hopscotch all afternoon, and every playtime at school.. playing balls against the wall..5 jacks.. marbles for the boys.. making paper planes ..swapping scraps and tea cards.. my brothers making go karts out of old bits of wood and old pram wheels...
Leap frog Hand stands, and cartwheels... Doesn't come more low tech than that...and of course we loved the swing park too..and we had a park with a lake in it so we'd go and sail our paper boats and watch with envy at those who had proper boats.. I have a photo somewhere of me at the park when I was little..
<grumpy old voice>: "When I was a kid all I had to play with was a STICK and you didn't just go to the store and BUY a stick. Oh, no, I had to GROW my own stick! You kids today...….mumble, mumble mumble...…."
A whole stick..? You were Lucky......we had a splinter and we had to share it with 6 other kids , after they'd used it to chew on because they had no dinner...
^^^^^^^^ I think that all country boys had one of these. If they were really, really good with it, they could bring down a rabbit.
I remember Daddy making these for us. The spool came from Mama's sewing thread. The rubber was cut from a tire inner tube, I think. I helped the children make them for our Reading Program one summer. Of course, we didn't have inner tubes to cut up. I bought some strong rubber bands. You'd be surprised how far they can go and what obstacles they can climb over.
Comic Books! I remember, growing up, when my Brother took me along to his pal Arnold's house to trade comic books.
Anyone remember, or ever see one of these toys: I had one as a kid, and created some amazingly intricate designs. Called "Magic Designer".