In the days before children’s attention was drawn to playing computer games and they had their faces buried in their cell phones, there were some pretty interesting youth games played. Growing up, some of my generation played many physical games that did also require some thinking and planning. During recess at school, games such as dodge ball, softball, Run Sheep Run and Red Rover were often played. At home, my sister and I would compete against each other with games such as Pick Up Sticks, Jacks and Marbles.

The Pick Up Sticks were either wood or plastic sticks that came in different colors. Each player picked out a color. The sticks were held and then let loose on a table top or floor, and most of the sticks when dropped were left on top of other sticks. It was the player’s job to take turns in trying to pick up the chosen colored sticks without messing up the other sticks. When removed each player got to keep their colored sticks and the one with the most sticks at the end of the game won. There was a black stick that could be picked up that could be used to help in picking up the colored ones. My sister and I had an extra challenge in this game as the floor where we mostly played was in the dining room that had linoleum flooring with patterns on it that were just like the colored pick up sticks.

Another game played was Jacks. This game was my favorite one. Each player usually had their own jacks, and small red rubber ball that were kept in a cloth sack with a draw string. The older Jack sacks contained metal jacks that in later years became plastic jacks. Usually each sack would contain 10 jacks and these jacks would be dropped onto a table top or floor. Each player would take their ball, give it a toss near to the jacks, and with their hand try to pick up a jack before the ball bounced. The player at the end of the game with the most jacks won. If the players became good at the game, the next round could require grabbing two jacks at a time, and sometimes it even got up to grabbing three before the ball bounced.

The game my sister and I learned to play while living in Stockton was taught to us by a neighbor boy. It was simply called Marbles but there was nothing simple about the game. Each player had their own marbles and it was understood if the Marble game being played was “Keepers,” the player literally got to keep the marbles that were knocked out of the circle as their own. Our large circle was usually drawn in the driveway dirt. If youngsters were classy and had a sidewalk, the circle could be drawn with chalk. The marbles were placed in an X pattern in the middle of the circle. Each player had their own “shooter” marble and each player had their own technique used in shooting the shooter marble out into the circle to try to knock a marble or marbles out of the circle. If the shooter marble remained in the circle and was knocked out of the circle by another player, the owner of the shooter was out of the game. At the end of the game, the player with the most marbles they had successfully knocked out of the circle won. Of course, the neighbor boy got mad when my sister or I would win.

I suspect there were many other childhood games that others can remember playing. These are just some I remember.