Freedom to Play: We Made Our Own Fun

GAMES OF WAR

A SKATING PARTY Pathfinders, Free Press Prairie Farmer January 16, 1924 Gwyneth Davies (13) Heart Lake, Alta. Dear Pathfinders, We live by a small lake called Heart lake, so I can have many a pleasant skate. We had a skating party here this fall. There were 19 people present. We skated until 11, then we had lunch and played games till 4. I have no brothers or sisters, I am 13 and in grade eight. I ride to school on a pony; his name is Tipperary. I can crochet, knit and embroider. I also like to read. I would like to hear from any girls my own age. Wishing the members a prosperous new year. GAMES OF WAR Fred Greaves recalls his wartime childhood in Vancouver. I entered Grade 1 at Vancouver’s Cecil Rhodes School in 1939, right at the start of World War II. It was a fear-filled time. As a little boy I became acquainted with constant air-raid drills, the buying of 25 cent war stamps, rationing, the ARP (Air Raid Precaution) with constant blackouts and the fearful notion that the walls had ears. The war spilled over into our games. We built cities out of cardboard boxes and had air raids on them. We made wooden guns of the type used in the war. We knew all the types of planes used by both sides because we collected them from the backs of Player’s cigarette packages. The climate of the times seemed to determine the nature of the games we played. The distrust and violence engendered by war was reflected in the competitive (often violent) ways in which the games were played. In our war games we use slingshots and BB guns and at times people got really hurt. Racism was very much alive. Race-based stories abounded. I remember a Chinese gentleman wanted to buy my dog. My 128 Freedom to Play friends said he wanted to use it for meat, and I believed them. The Jewish boys were always targeted. We would make fun of them, often not knowing why. One day in about grade 3 or 4 all the Japanese boys and girls in my class were no longer there. We were told they had gone back to Japan—which was a blatant lie. The by-products of war were everywhere and many of our games took on this flavor. The Saturday afternoon movies always contained the newsreels and some of the footage was terrible in its brutality. The radio programs I listened to each afternoon were all violent, i.e., Terry and the Pirates (the pirates were the Japanese), Superman fighting global conquest, The Green Hornet, The Shadow, and so on. It is interesting that sex played very little part in our world and drugs played no part in either elementary or secondary grades. But to repeat, our games and interpersonal relationships were quite violent. Cigarette smoking was very common. Hobbies usually centred on collecting and trading, i.e., marbles, pictures of airplanes and warships from the back of Player’s cigarette packages, and building models again of war ships and planes. During the high school years the in thing was to join the cadets. Playing Is Playing Games 129 Child in toy airplane, 1920 (Frank Leonard Collection, Vancouver Public Library, Special Collections [12626]). Games Played by Elementary School Boys (1939-49) Cut the Pie: You played against an opponent. The circle was cut in half. You tossed a coin for who would go first. Player A would throw down his knife and if it stuck blade first in player B’s semicircle, a radius was drawn through the knife. Player A continued until his knife did not stick in the ground. Then player B would continue. You always threw from whatever sector you had left. You could use one foot. The game ended when your opponent’s sector was so small he could no longer stand in it. Pom-Pom Polaway [Pullaway]: This game consisted of 2 teams. One stationed at one end of the field and one in the middle. The aim was for the team at the end of the field to run the gauntlet to the other end of the field without being brought down by the kids in the centre. If you were caught and wrestled to the ground you joined the team in the centre. The winner was the last boy...