Freedom to Play: We Made Our Own Fun

WE ALWAYS FOUND SOMETHING TO DO

he was going home with me. The man says I coaxed him home, but I didn’t and he is very cross over it. I was one of four boys that acted as pallbearers for a little girl, five years old, that died of erysipelas last week. She, with her two little brothers, younger than herself, and father and mother came home from Alberta a month or so ago, to spend the winter with her mother’s parents and this little one was called home. Her parents were reconciled, and said “God’s will be done, and it is best.” I think as Apple Blossom does that the most interesting letters are those in which members describe their homes. In my next I will tell you of my home, my brothers and sisters, and my work at home and at school, and last, but not least, my pets, especially the two dogs. I think I have done very well, as far as quantity goes, but how about quality? So will close, wishing all a Happy New year. WE ALWAYS FOUND SOMETHING TO DO When R.B. (Bert) Green was growing up in Newfoundland, amenities were few, services were limited, and life was hard, but children still found time to play. I am 87 years old, and am thinking about my life when I was growing up in a Newfoundland fishing village. We were let out of school at 4 p.m. It was then my job to chop off, or saw off, the wood, as our house was heated completely by wood stoves. I did the chopping or sawing, and my two sisters— a little younger than I—carried the wood into the house until the wood-box by the stove was piled high with it. It was also my task to bring buckets of water from the nearby brook and fill the water barrel in the porch. If there was any time left between then and the evening meal, we’d go, in winter, coasting out on the hill, or skating on the nearby frozen marsh, or, in spring and fall, play outdoor games with neighbouring children, such as “Hide and Go Seek,” or “Rounders” or other games of our own invention. Go Outside and Play 51 In the evenings our time was occupied until bed time, by doing our school homework, and we had lots of it, such as going through our reading lesson, learning spelling, and a section known as “useful knowledge,” perhaps memorizing some verses of a poem, and even do an essay. After I was about ten, I had a book on hand to read after the lessons were done, eg, a Horatio Alger—and soon graduated to Zane Grey. Sometimes, of course, we got our parents or grand-parents (who lived with us) to tell us stories of their boyhood and girlhood. Some of these activities were carried over into Saturdays also. In early September we could go “in over the hills” (crown-land outside the village) and pick berries. The boys often went into the woods snaring rabbits, or just for a ramble. The girls were somewhat more restricted than the boys, as they had to assist with the household chores—cleaning the floors, peeling the potatoes, etc. On one occasion when I was about ten I laid aside my masculine dignity and volunteered to help my two sisters scrub the kitchen floor. They were puzzled to know what had “come over” their brother, but readily accepted the offer, and it has remained the never-to-be-forgotten event. In spring the rabbit catching was replaced by trouting in the nearby streams and small lakes. This, of course, was also a male activity, although on one occasion I took my little sister (ten years my junior) along with me and taught her how to fish for trout. She caught twelve, while I caught six! In summer also we still went trouting—and swimming and berry picking, and occasionally played the outdoor games mentioned above. We also helped our parents in their regular work. They were sea-fishermen, and the boys took part in catching the fish and in the process of “curing the fish,” that is, salting it and afterwards washing it and drying it on raised platforms known as “flakes.” In the hay-making season all the children took part in spreading the grass that had been cut with a scythe, tossing it over to dry, and then finally each taking his...