Starting to Learn
We learned a lot by listening. Back in my Queens home, I got to know the sound of a bus stopping at the corner. Whenever I heard the garbage truck come by, I'd run to the window, grab the sill, and stretch up to watch. I recognized the sound of the knife-sharpener's gong, and the clopping of the mounted patrolmen's horses' hooves.
For many of us, the familiar "white noise" of traffic was punctuated by the chugging and shrill whistles of steam locomotives, especially on hot summer nights when the windows were open. La Guardia gave us intermittent aircraft noise, and there soon would be much more of that. A second New York airport, commonly called Idlewild, began operating in 1948.
1949 Fisher-Price Merry Mutt
ebay.com
Once we were old enough to attempt walking, some well-intentioned family friend gave our parents a pull toy. Pull toys inevitably made the same noise - loud clicks, or xylophone notes - over and over. And over. We drove our parents crazy as soon as we learned how to multitask (i.e., by walking and pulling at the same time), and the more noise we made, the happier we were.
We watched bigger kids play outside, and were eager to be old enough to join them. It made a difference if you lived on a street that didn't curve. Straight streets let kids see if a car was coming, and it was easier for our parents to spot us if we wandered down the street a house or two. Being able to see corner-to-corner gave us a sense of belonging - it was "our block."
Outside, games like tag or hide-and-seek were played by boys and girls together; games with equipment seemed more like sports, and they usually were single-gender.
Pink rubber balls (often called Spaldeens, after Spalding, who manufactured the best ones) gave us the most fun per ounce of anything we owned. Kids played catch, or they put a bottle cap on a sidewalk groove, stood on opposite sides, and bounced a ball to each other, counting who hit the target most often.
Girls would steadily bounce a ball, lifting a knee over it each time before it bounced back. "A, my name is Alice..." they'd begin, trying to reach the end of the alphabet without stopping.
Gramco Jump Rope
toyhalloffame.org
Boys used Spaldeens for stickball and handball. Or, a boy could throw one hard against his home's front steps, so that it bounced back as a pop-up or a fly ball for his buddies to catch. A variant of catch was tossing the ball diagonally up on our home's slanted roof, so that it rolled or bounced down to a buddy waiting at the other end of the yard. The sidewalk was the place for potsy, and for simple rope jumping. Driveways were a good choice when two girls stood apart and kept a rope going, their friends taking turns jumping in. They chanted rhymes, for fun, and also to help maintain the rhythmic motion of the rope.
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