I had the privilege of entertaining a nice group of fourth graders from Eunice Elementary recently as they toured the Depot Museum on a field trip. They were very well mannered and very inquisitive. It doesn’t happen very often, that students ask as many questions as these did.

And that’s what brings me to the point: a few were interested in the jump rope jingles in our toy display but the girls were very curious about paper dolls.

I explained that first you drew a picture of yourself on the back of a Big Chief pencil tablet, colored it, then cut it out. At home, you took out the old Sears Roebuck catalog, turned to the ladies dresses, laid your paper doll on one of the prettiest, traced her body form onto the dress, then proceeded to cut out your dolls latest fashion.

After that, my curiosity got the best of me and I started looking for paper dolls. There were none in the stores but I have an uncut book of Gilda Radner ones to keep me happy on a rainy day.

Then I got to wondering: do boys still play marbles? What about ‘kick the can’? Or, better yet, do they know how to make stilts out of tin cans? Have they ever walked on a pair of wooden stilts?

The visiting group was very interested in making a snaking chain out of old playing cards. Another wondered how hard it would be to make a three-cornered hat out of newpapers. Not very, I replied.

Remember dropping clothespins in a milk bottle? That would pose a problem today, as very few hang wet clothes on a clothesline to dry, thus no one knows what clothespins are. Which is o.k. because finding a glass milk bottle would be just as hard to explain.

And that brings up another facet of fun. Have you taken the time to teach the younger generation the various simple card games that we learned as kids? Bataille and Go Fish are some we still do around here.

Unfortunately, most of the crowd around here have gotten too old to play but the grand and great-grands are lining up behind them to take part.

T.V says our kids are too heavy and too lazy. I say they didn’t get that way without parental consent. The kids aren’t the ones buying the groceries and video games. Think about it.

But, with even the most trivial of activities, it’s always a lot more fun when kids learn something they never knew before. It has been said ‘a mind stretched to new dimensions by new thoughts can never go back to its’ old self’. Might be food for thought for some of us.

Jump rope, marbles,hopscotch-it all does a body good. Old bodies as well as young.

If you find yourself with a little spare time, teach a ‘young dog new tricks’. They have open minds and tons of energy. You just have to aim it in the right direction.

Paper dolls.

Georgie Manuel.

April 12,2009.