A long, long time ago, in 1958, my godmother was born! Christine Wong grew up with her siblings in Malaysia. To our bewilderment, her and her siblings didn’t have computers or television 😯 . Her neighborhood was a mix of Indian, Malaysian, and Chinese children who spent much of their time outside. My godmother’s family conditions were poor, so her parents couldn’t afford games or toys.

  “We used to chase chickens to pluck their feathers so we could make the feather balls to kick around.” The feather ball is similar to the american hacky sack game. “You used to chase and pluck chickens?!” It sounds pretty fun, actually.

“We climbed tress and made kites and paper dolls. You know the cans, like the Campbell cans? We would attach string to that for the telephone game, but the girls would also turn cans into high heel shoes and walk around in them.”

She also played marbles, a game where you drew a circle on the floor and placed 10 marbles inside. Using your finger, you would flick the marble outside to try to knock it out. “We made jump ropes out of rubber bands because we couldn’t buy a real one.”

Before screens were widely used, it allowed for a more creative hands on childhood/lifestyle that technology nowadays takes away. There is a great surge of creativity when things aren’t simply handed to you and you have to work with what you have.