Freedom to Play: We Made Our Own Fun

WE KNEW HOW TO HAVE FUN

WE KNEW HOW TO HAVE FUN Henry Barone, the son of Italian immigrants, grew up in Toronto during the 1920s and 1930s. Sports and social activities dominated our free time. Many of the local service clubs such as the YMCA, Lions, Knights of Columbus , and other church organizations, sponsored youth clubs that organized hockey, basketball, volleyball, and baseball games and other community activities for youngsters. Hockey was played on outdoor rinks, but while popular with players it had few fans. Only the hot-blooded would stand ankle deep in snow to cheer their favorite teams to victory. Players wore anything available in the way of warm clothing. Shin pads and knee pads were magazines stuffed under heavy woolen socks. Shoulder pads consisted of daily newspapers with holes cut large enough to put one’s head through. Head gear and gloves were heavy woollen toques and thick gloves covered by leather mitts. Competing service clubs generally provided sweaters on loan. Six players and three alternates made up a hockey team, and it was not unusual for a shorthanded team to request an opposing coach to loan them a player in order to complete the game. The cost for children to attend the Saturday matinee at the neighbourhood theatre was an astonishing six cents which usually included a bag of sticky, gooey candies or broken biscuits compliments of a nearby biscuit factory. (Adults were charged twenty-five cents.) To attend a children’s Saturday matinee was 109 an experience one would not quickly forget. It wasn’t uncommon to see the screen being bombarded and splattered with over ripe fruit or sprayed with the contents of a Coke or Ginger Ale bottle (Pepsi Cola and 7-Up made their debut much later), not to mention that some mushy food may splatter your head and shoulders. Yes, even fish and chips made its grand appearance. Reason enough why the major theatres guardedly watched students as they entered. Adults were compelled to accompany children to the Saturday Matinee and that responsible adult had to be at least sixteen years old. Cowboys and Indians was a Saturday ritual after the matinee show. The Indians’ bows were made from discarded barrel staves from a nearby barrel company. Corset laces substituted for bow strings. The remainder of the corset would be used as body protection from flying arrows. As a youngster there were many inventive games to play. Most street games required a minimum of equipment. To name a few: Kick the Can, Reliev’O, Sidewalk Tennis, Tap the Ice Box, Buck-Buck, Duck the Rock (I didn’t, and this necessitated a trip to Children’s Hospital for six stitches to close the wound on my head), Warble, One Strike and You’re Out, Puck and Stick, Beat the Paddle, Chestnut Knockers, Spin the Hoop, Cross the Road Tag, plus a few DARE games. An orange box case with a couple of roller skates attached converted it into a scooter. Any kid who had a pair of roller skates made sure not to leave them on the porch overnight. Wheels from discarded carriages were nailed on the sides of apple boxes. Box car racing on Macadamized [paved] streets were noisy events. Teasing girls who were skipping rope was a must, as was disrupting their hopscotch games. The sight of a bike-riding policemen scattered us in all directions . Bikes were licensed at fifty cents a year. Horse-drawn fire reels were redundant, and the majority of Fire Stations had motorized Fire Engines. The clank, clank, clanking of the fire engines out on call attracted all youngsters within hearing distance. The Depression years changed our lifestyle. Churches converted their basements and small gathering rooms into playschools during the day and recreational gatherings in the evenings. One day a week was set aside for youth social activi110 Freedom to Play ties and a night or two for basketball and volleyball. Saturday nights we gathered at one of the homes for “come-as-you-are” or pajama parties—all strictly monitored by parents. A banana party was a big attraction at our home. The menu consisted of banana fritters, banana sandwiches, banana cookies, banana cakes, banana pies, banana fries, and finally thin slices of the banana stock dipped in a batter and pan fried. It was so successful it sparked a series of fruit parties. Fortunately, a few of our friends’ families operated fruit stores. The Depression...