Neighborhood Friends and Games for Every Season

The neighbor kids we played the most with were Margie Britz, Kent and Carolyn Reichenberg, and Pat and Marilyn McFarland. Next to my sisters, Margie Britz was my best friend. We loved to play dress-ups, paper-dolls, school, and house. In the evening, before there was TV, the family would sit around the radio and listen to The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, and The Shadow. While she ironed, Mom listened to a soap opera called My Gal Sal. When I was ten years old, we received a black and white TV from Iris and Bill. Some favorite shows were: Lassie, Boston Blackie, Groucho Marx, The Millionaire, I Love Lucy, My Little Margie, Andy’s Gang, Ed Sullivan, The Mickey Mouse Club, Loretta Young Theater, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, Captain Video, Rudy Kazootie, (I actually had the phony screen you put on the TV to draw on) Sky King, The Texaco Hour, Your Hit Parade, and Howdy Doody. In the summer, we spent a lot of time at Riverside Park swimming. Before you could go into the pool, a staff person would check in between each toe for athlete’s foot. After swimming, we would go upstairs and get a Popsicle then wait for Daddy on the bench out front. We’d catch lightening bugs and put them in jars with holes punched in the lid. We use to have lemonade stands out front by the tiger lilies. The neighborhood kids would play jump rope by the hours in the street out by the Reichenberg’s house. There were unending games of War going on, especially in the summer. Other favorite card games were Old Maid and Go Fish. The big kids would make “treasure hunts” for the little kids— which usually ended with the treasure of Popsicles in the freezer. We would play on the back porch when it rained, driving everyone nuts singing, “It’s raining. It’s pouring. The old man is snoring. He went to bed and bumped his head, and couldn’t get up in the morning.” In our front yard we’d play: Spud, Tag, Statues, Simon Says, and Who’s The Prettiest? At grade school, we’d play Jacks in the long hallway on the lower level. At night, we’d play a scary game called One O’clock And The Ghost Isn’t Here. A group of neighbor kids would gather on someone’s porch on a very dark summer night. Someone is chosen to be “it.” That kid hides somewhere and the rest of the group, hanging on to each other for dear life cuz they are scared of the dark and someone’s chasing them, walks slowly around the house. While walking they chant, “One o’clock and the ghost isn’t here. Two o’clock and ghost isn’t here. Three o’clock and ghost isn’t here.” In my head I hear us chanting and each number gets louder and louder until the person who is “it” decides the time is right to run out from his hiding place and chase the group. Everyone desperately runs for the porch, because it’s “safe.” If someone is caught, they’re the next person who is “it.” In the wintertime, there would be Fox and Geese and making angels in the snow. We’d go sledding in the woods and then trudge home to thaw out by sitting on the register in the living room and drinking cocoa. I really thought Jack Frost made those pretty patterns on the windows in winter. In the fall we would rake up the leaves and jump in them. That wonderful smell of burning leaves was always in the air. On Halloween, unlike today, we could go anywhere to Trick or Treat without an adult with us. We use to “soap” car windows if someone gave us an apple. I liked getting popcorn balls. Quiet games were Jacks, Cat’s Cradle, and Cootie, or reading my favorite book, Little House in Big Woods. Or, we would lie on blankets under fresh-smelling sheets billowing on the line, trying to see shapes in the clouds. The boys played marbles and Mumbelty Peg , a scary game with knives. Remember how we wanted to order those Sea Monkeys out of the back of comic books? Sometimes, in the summer, Mom would let us put on our swimsuits and play out in the rain. However, we were always warned of the dangers of “Night Air.” One time, when we were quite young, a bunch of us were sitting in the plum tree in the Reichenberg’s back yard. Ruth and John were butchering chickens. I know this can’t be right, but I seem to remember them hanging the chickens on the clothesline, pulling down their necks and chopping them off. The chickens would run around with their heads off and we would all shriek. We use to steal kohlrabi out of the Reichenberg’s garden to eat. Looked like little space ships. Mrs. Britz grew beautiful gladiolas and made delicious chocolate cakes.