What types of games did they play in the 1950's?

Answer 1

In the 1950s we played outdoor games such as any type of game with a ball, jump rope, hide and seek and ringaleevio, hopscotch, bike riding, roller skating (steel wheels clamped to the shoes, hopefully someone had a key), tree climbing, some had swing sets or just tied ropes to trees to swing from, when the opportunity was available we could go swimming. In the winter we went sledding, tobogganing, ice skating or we built snowmen or snowforts, had snowball fights. In between these activities, we'd just hang out and chat, perhaps play stone school or twenty questions.

In the 1950s we spent most of our time out of doors, but when that wasn't possible, we played Board Games, card games, puzzles, and dominos. We also had toys of course, which type might depend on the age group. All the same kinds of toys kids today are familiar with like blocks, cars and trucks, stuffed animals, dolls, doll houses and associated things. We also had misc. things like coloring books, jacks, clay, marbles (I loved my marble collection), Slinkys (the metal ones), gyroscopes, kaleidoscopes, View Masters, Lincoln Logs, and Erector Sets. Our family was also big on Arts and Crafts like sewing, drawing or painting, playing records, wood working, and tinkering with things like old clocks and radios.

The biggest difference between the toys of today and the toys that we played with is that only a small number of our things were made of plastic. Today, when I see a kids room or cupboard full of toys, I have to mentally focus to understand what I'm looking at because it first looks like a mass of plastic colored objects that all have a similar look to them. One of the advantages of my childhood was that we had the opportunity to be exposed to such a variety of activities because each sibling, and neighbourhood kid had a different group of things from another and each different grouping of kids provided a different grouping of things to choose from.