What did children do before video games?

By Edit Vetter (83 years old) my grandmother

Edited By Adam York

A tale of years gone by when video games did not exist! Magical worlds for children and the things they do when school is out and summer begins.

Years ago as children we had to be creative, make our own fun, and rely on imagination. I remember beautiful fields of daisies and black-eyed Susan's that seemed endless on lazy summer days. We had fun making daisy chains from the flowers in the field. We made beautiful chain arrangements that were given to our mothers. My mother loved the flowers, to her every daisy chain was a beautiful centerpiece made with love.

I believe nearly every mother in the neighborhood received beautiful arrangements of violets, black-eyed Susan's, dandelions, and daisies.

The summer brought plenty of things to do besides playing amongst the flowering fields. We had plenty of woods to walk, talk and have fun. We made camps from tree branches built along the creek bed where we would swim and fish. Occasionally, we feasted on fire roasted hot dogs and potatoes carefully cooked on crackling fire at the waters edge. After we had our fill of feasting and campfire singing we would venture out and build paths packed with dirt having clothespins for guide rails. Our paths, to us, were adventurous roads leading to anywhere we could imagine. One rainy summer we had a tent, purchased by my favorite uncle, where we gathered to play games. Card games were common and Canasta, my favorite, was played more than any other.

Besides flowering fields, wooded walks and feasting fires we also had pony rides and fireflies. Pony carts, pulled by my favorite gentle black pony called Blackie. All the children loved Blackie because of the gentle rides on cool summer evenings or windy summer days. Summer nights brought us beautiful glowing lights built by capturing fireflies carefully placed in little glass jars with holed lids. We loved gathering the fireflies and placing grass inside to keep them comfortable. After we finished collecting fireflies the evening sky seemed peppered with twinkling stars and by then, it was time to play "kick the can". We played "kick the can", similar to "hide and seek", until our parents would call us in for the evening. When our parents gave the evening cry twenty or more kids would leave our front yard scattering into the evening.

Summer fun in the country was a memorable time in my life and neighborhood. Our neighborhood was filled with children that all knew each other and went to the same school. We all grew up together, looking out for each other and occasionally an argument or two would crop up only to disappear by summers end. Summer was filled with more than we could do; we tried hard to do it all. As summer days grew shorter everyone knew that school was just around the corner. We were disappointed to see summer fade, but oddly enough, we looked forward to school. Perhaps, our three-room schoolhouse was filled with speeches of summer adventures and happy thoughts of summers to come.