Hop Scotch

Hop Scotch

I think if a few more children would realize the fun they could have playing this old street game, we would see less overly chubby kids around.

Hop Scotch was a game for both boys and girls

This was a favorite game of mine although I don't think I was great at playing it.

We had the ideal place to place to play as outside on the pavement ( here called the sidewalk= took me forever to get used to this American term) we had slabs of paving stone so it was very easy to get a piece of chalk and mark out the hopping squares. Stones and pebbles were all around so we were set. You could either play by yourself or with friends.

The idea of the game is to throw your pebble into square 1 and if it lands inside the square but not touching a line, you would hop up the squares, landing 2 feet then hop and land again till you get to the end where you then turn around and hot scotch back picking up your pebble as you pass it. If you step on a line or put a foot down when you shouldn't or fall over you lose your turn. If you complete it you get to throw again into square 2 and so on.

As I remember some of the kids were so good at it they could do the whole thing before it got to your turn which would make for a lot of grumbling from the ones waiting.

This is a very ancient game and supposedly was invented by the ancient Romans as a practice exercise to train their soldiers in complicated foot work. Some of their hopscotch courses were over a 100 feet long. The children of the time saw the soldiers practicing and so the evercise got copied and then traveled all over the ancient world.

So if you have some kids who don't know what to do give them a piece of chalk and let them play . They will have fun I know it!

Cat's cradle

Cat's cradle

Playing the game

So here's another game we played when I was young- Cat's cradle. All you need for this one is a long piece of yarn or string which you form into patterns over your fingers to make different kinds of “string figures”. They all have different names, like Jacob's ladder , Eiffel tower and my favorite, French Lace which was one of the most complicated but I did manage to do it once in a while.

This is a very old game which originally was thought to have started in the far East in China or Japan and then spread throughout the world much to the delight of children although I think again this was probably a girl's game rather than a boy's game.

Here is the cats cradle

It is often played with 2 people using one piece of string and each in turn takes it off the other players hands until you can't go any further.

I thought I would remember how to do it as I remember playing it a lot when I was about 10 or 11 but apart from the first figure, the cat's cradle I couldn't get any further.

Youtube to the rescue, I found this excellent video of 2 young girls showing you how to play and they were great !. Here it is if you want to have a go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAZhx5PKgl4

Paper Dolls

Paper Dolls

I thought for a while as it's summer that I'd write a few blogs about childhood games especially ones we used to see being played when I was growing up but rarely see now.It will make a change.

Today I was thinking about paper dolls. I guess it was because I grew up in a time of scarce resources in the 40s and 50s and there were few toys around and not much money to buy the ones that were appearing in the shops.

One of our favorite things to play with were paper dolls. These were dolls that were printed out on cardboard. You cut them out and then had a great time choosing the outfit and accessories they would wear. These all came in a fairly cheap book and were often given as a special treat to little girls. When you got one it would be kept as a favorite toy and the girls would play with them for hours. The clothes would be attached to the doll by paper tags that you bent over the edges of the doll. I remember sometimes the clothes wouldn't stay on very well. I also remember my sister Babs and I playing with them but she, being older and smarter, designed new dresses for her doll by drawing new outfits and painting or coloring them .I can't remember doing that and I was very envious of her as her dolls were always so much prettier than mine.

These paper dolls were so popular that there was even a pop song very popular at the time being played on the radio

You can hear it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RTzIi4e2CI

“The Mills Brother's” sing “ paper Doll.

If you are old enough I bet you even remember the words.

I looked up this game on the web and found out it has been delighting little girls for ages as it was started sometime in the 1800 in France , where else would a game with fashionable clothes get started. It then spread across Europe and also to the Americas. Paper was expensive at that time so often paper was recycled and paper dolls were made from pieces of cardboard and the dresses from old letters.

Now I think little girls get the real thing. I'm not sure you could buy a paper doll book anymore. I wonder if you can.

But it was a lot of fun making your own doll and dresses.

The Last of the Lilies

The Last of the Lilies

This is the last of the paintings of lilies and I kept meaning to do this one for a long time. When you paint in watercolor , it is best if you have 2 painitngs to paint at once as it seems you spend a lot of time waiting for sections to dry . So while I was painting the hibiscus , I was painting this one as well.

I quite like the colors on this one but the format on the paper was not good so I learn a little from each painting I do and hopefully remember that for the next one.It was also difficult to get the background dark enough to provide a good contrast.

No more lilies now till next Spring.

Fireworks on the 4th of July

Fireworks on the 4th of July

The Statue of Liberty reopens tomorrow after being repaired

I have to start by saying I am not really a fan of fireworks. I like the big professional displays and will “Ooh and Ahh” with the rest of the people but the fireworks lit off by just about anyone in various places, leave me cold and even angry sometimes.

All the big cities it seems as well as Washington set up the lovely huge displays on July 4^th and even some larger towns and cities. Unfortunately for us our little town has an ordinance that let's people set off fireworks on their own property but it mustn't go on anyone else's land. Obviously this is an ordinance that can’t be controlled. We always end up with the ends of rockets in our yard. Every year for a couple of days before June 4^th ,then on June 4^th ,and then on and off for a week after June 4^th ,all around us we have bangs and the occasional zipping noise as a rocket fires off into the night. The dogs just hate it and so do I. It has nothing to do with celebrating July 4^th .I hate it on New Years Day, on kid's birthdays and the other times as well.

There is a good reason for this I think. When I was young the fireworks could be bought around Guy Fawkes day, a celebration in November in England. On that day bonfires would be lit and people would gather to sing songs, cheer on the Guy that was burning and throw , you have probably guessed it, Fireworks. I was young and it frightened me badly.

The only other experience I can remember was when my girl guide group had a firework party. I must have been about 12 at the time. We all brought fireworks and dropped them into a cardboard box and then the leader was going to set them off in an orderly way as the party got going. It just so happened that a spark from the very first one that was set off fell into the cardboard box and there was immediate action. It just exploded with so much noise and flaring lights and rockets going in all directions that it was a real miracle that no-one was hurt. We had all dived for cover as soon as the first bang went and kept our heads down for until darkness fell again. It was pretty scary I can tell you.

So I hope all the celebrations all go well tomorrow. I Hope people have a great time celebrating Independence Day . I hope we all have lots of good food to eat and friends to see and a good time. There will be lots of lovely parades,

That's the way it should be celebrated.

Happy Fourth everyone!!

"Fever" by Mary Beth Keane

"Fever" by Mary Beth Keane  

This was a compelling well written book about Typhoid Mary the first known asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever written in the form of a novel. I am sure it is based on a lot of research and the actual facts about this unfortunate Irish immigrant. The author gives a great picture of Mary and brings her trials and difficulties to life .

Mary comes to New York as a young girl in early 1900 and eventually becomes a great cook working in very upscale houses. She leaves behind a trail of disease and death wherever she goes without knowing she is doing so. When confronted with this by the public health authorities Mary will not accept the truth and is taken by the pubic health authorities and placed on North Brother Island in the middle of the East River in New York. She is kept there for over 2 decades all the time fighting for her just rights. On the island there is a hospital that treats all kinds of contageous diseases. She is given her own cottage to live in but all she wants to do is to get back to her own life and to cook. This she is forbidden to do.

The book is great to read although I felt lots of sympathy for Mary but it gives a good social commentary of those times.

Shiortly after reading the book I saw this site http://imgur.com/gallery/J7sv8/new which featured North Brother Island which had been abandoned for years and is a now a bird sanctuary. You can see a photo on the site of Mary's cottage.

A dowsing we will go,,,

A dowsing we will go,,,

Jo explaining the technique

When we visited with our friend Joe last week he showed us how to dowse.

Dowsing if you didn't know is the way some people are able to find hidden objects. It's a really old way to find water , precious gems, minerals erc.

Joe has studied this is some detail and because he lives out in the country and has occasionally had to find water and iron pipes lying under his yard has become very good at this very ancient art.

We needed to know how to do this because we also live in a preowned house and many of the wires and pipes are well hidden somewhere under the ground which causes problems as you can imagine if you have a water leak and don't know where all the pipes are located and therefore where to dig.

dowsing rods

So Joe set to and demonstrated how to dowse by holding a couple of wires .You walk slowly in a straight line with the sticks held loosely in each hand pointing straight forward. If you are directly over iron or a pipe or something hidden in the ground, the wires will come together and cross over each other all by themselves. I have no idea how it works but Joe showed us where he had dug up his yard and found iron pipes exactly where he had dowsed them to be.

Mike has a go

Then he gave both of us the wires to try and shall we say we had limited success. Maybe I was still trying to figure out in my mind “WHY?”

He kindly gave us a couple of wires and said “Try it when you get home”.

So a couple of days later, out we went into the front yard and first Mike walked over the area where he thought the water pipes might be. Limited success.

Then I tried and though I can't still believe it, the sticks crossed in both the places Mike had figured out where there should be pipes.

Of course we won't be exactly sure until Mike gets the shovel out and starts to dig. That will have to wait until the ground feel less like concrete or we get another water leak!! 

It was sure interesting to try.

Thanks Joe.