--- Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > And the cousins I saw the most often growing up were > actually second > cousins, and they didn't have very many toys at all > that I remember (but > the youngest was at least 3 years older than I was), > but they were > really good at finding stuff outside to play with, > and the oldest once > made a swing for my sister and myself, out of a > board and a length of > rope, and tied it to a tree limb, and that was > *really* cool. So, as > far as my cousins went, the ones with the least > stuff (especially the > least Barbie stuff) seemed to have the most fun. > (But they had more > dogs than any of the rest of my cousins, and a > better place for riding > bikes, and a beach very close to their house, where > they could get into wet seaweed fights....)
A teacher friend and I have discussed how it seems that many children today have to be "entertained" instead of making up their own toys/stories/games, and how scheduled/regimented their days seem in comparison to ours-of-then. Marbles, colored pencils, pebbles from the beach all 'stood in' for whatever we needed for the game-of-the-day: jungle animals, soldiers, spaceships. Tree-shadow meant forest, direct sunlight was prairie, fences were mountains or rivers (except when one had *real* forest with boulders and creeks to play in!)... Maybe it was more a case of "making do" with what we had, because certainly having a genuine leather bullwhip that your grandfather had shown you how to "crack!" made playing Round-Up or Tarzan much more fun. :D Debbi who never had 'Barbie envy,' but did covet a richer friend's model horse 'herd'... ;) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
