In Mother's things was this little memory box for me, containing the Tiddley Winks cup and game pieces, my jacks, and the keys to tighten my roller skates, plus a wheel from my skates.I got Tiddley Winks game for Christmas the year I was in the 4th grade - the roller skates was 2nd grade, as were the jacks. Two of these items resulted in lots of physical activity, although the only place the roller skates could be used was on the sidewalks at school. Jacks was an eye-hand coordination game - Tiddley Winks just required skill to put the discs in the cup. Our games were simple, but perhaps better for us than some of today's computer-type games. I loved the name Mother gave me on the little box.
3 comments:
Liz, I think you need to tell the story of the jacks that you told me on the phone this morning. These childhood treasures are all very familiar to me, which means you were a good sister and shared with your little sister.
The story about the jacks is a rather painful one. We had so very little as children - although we seldom noticed the lack. I was in the second grade in 1942 - the middle of World War II. Metal was very scarce, but somehow, Mother found jacks for me as a gift, and she made a little bag to hold my jacks along with the requisite little ball. We spent many hours playing with them at home and at school. One of the girls in my class was envious of my jacks, and one day, she came to me with two quarters, which was a small fortune to me, asking to buy my jacks. I told her "no" in no uncertain terms, and didn't think anything more about it. A couple of days later, someone knocked on the door of our second grade room, and Miss Carroll, the teacher was gone for a bit, then came back and called me out into the hall. There were two women there, one the mother of the girl who had tried to buy my jacks. The teacher left, and the two women proceeded to accuse me of taking the quarters and not giving the girl the jacks. I cried - it was terribly upsetting - and insisted that wasn't so. I can't remember everything that happened, but I certainly was afraid, and couldn't believe I was being accused of something I didn't do. Anyway, I still had the jacks - I'm not sure I ever told Mother the whole story, because it was so humiliating. Thank goodness our children are better protected in our schools these days - I don't think that something like that would happen to a child at school today.
What a great box full of memories for you. I wish I had been more of a keeper of little treasures like Mother was. It is good to remember the happier things - unkind experiences probably are the basis for helping us to be kinder as adults. I agree, in today's world, Miss Carroll would not leave you to fight the battle alone and the meeting would have been held in the principal's office with plenty of witnesses. That wasn't fair - such is life!
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