GAMES AND PLAYS POPULAR AMONG

GENERATIONS

Grandparents

Our grandparents remind their childhood as a time relatively difficult for the reason that it was the time following the Second World War. They had to produce their own toys and they often needed adults’ help. They sewed dolls and balls and curved pipes by themselves. They had to produce their own dolls’ prams and wooden cars. Girls made wreaths of plants. While our grandparents were taking care of cows and geese, they used to play games connected with singing like: „We’re building bridges”, „Sycamore”, „An old bear is sleeping fast”, which were popular then. The following games were also popular: pick-a-stick, draughts, countries and cities. People used to play with coins and stones. They also played: dodgeball, hop-scotch, catch, a type of baseball named in Poland „Palant”, seek-and-hide and blind man’s buff. There were also ohter plays: drawing in the sand with a stick, creating patterns by means of pouring colourful sand, a game named „kolarzówka” (rolling stove-lids with a stick. In the evenigns they used to tell stories together with their parents (eg. about ghosts) and to sing songs.

Playing with coins

A player puts a coin at the edge of a table. He leans down, blows on the coin and tries to make it move. The nest step belongs to the opposite player, who makes use of a different coin. The opposite player tries to blow on his coin in such a way, that his coin covers the first player’s coin. If such a situation happens, he takes both coins, gets a point and a new game is started. The player who who takes more coins or gets more points wins.

Composition

Our grandparents used to make compositions of stones, glasses, sticks and flowers etc. and of other things of this kind. They created in this way mosaics and pictures of various kinds. They picked up long blades of grass and made dolls.

We’re building bridgesChildren are standing next to each other and are holding their hands in the air. They create a bridge in this way. Each child does its best to go under this „bridge”. They have no much time. They have to manage to go under the bride while the other children are saying the following poem: „We’re building bridges for a village headman, We let a thousand horses go and one of them we’re going to catch. A Polish version is much shorter, of course. The child who doesn’t manage to go within a given period of time, has to give a forfeit and after the game he has to buy it out.

Making toys

Our grandparents made toys with their own hands. Boys created vehicles, fireworks or soldiers. Girls sewed dolls of various pieces of clothing on their own. They learned to knit and to embroider. In winter they produced their own skates and skis.

Parents

People who are nowadays about 40 used to play with their parents: they used to play boardgames and various games in the air. They told stories, sang songs and read fairy tales before sleeping. TV series of those times (e.g. „Four Armoured and a Dog”) were an inspiration to many backyard games. We should emphasise a fact that children of those times had a lot of freedom. Parents willingly agreed their children to spend a lot of their free time outside. Children of those times used to play the following: plays – domino, tiddlywinks, draughts, chess, ludo, cards, countries and cities, Chinese whispers, thematic games –army, home, American Indians, four armoured, a shop, a cinema (displaying slides), at tailor’s (sewing clothes for toys), other activities – throwing a knife, playing caps (a race in a room), a catapult, beater volleyball, contortions on a beater, playing jump rope games, Polish baseball ( called in Poland Palant), hockey, skates, sled, bicycle, seek-and-hide. 

Pick-a-stick

Players spill sticks on a table and later on they have to take one spill in such a way that other sticks do not move. If a player manages to take one and other sticks don’t move, the same player goes on trying. If a player makes another stick move, he loses a turn.

LineChildren drew a chalk line on the ground. They went back and threw a coin towards the line. The one who managed to throw the closest to the line won.

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