Kibbutz life – #003 – Toys and games while growing up
Posted by hupo on Friday 16 March 2007
You notice my numbering? I have made it possible to get to 9,999 posts on this subject !!
Now this is being optimistic, or masochistic, depends who is saying it 
But to continue the Kibbutz saga….. Like I said, we didn’t have any toys, but we didn’t even know this as we had the whole of nature to play with. Our favourite game was soccer, or else! Those who didn’t love the game, or were no good at it, were excommunicated!! Children’s world can be very cruel, but I was fortunate enough in two ways. First I was pretty good at soccer and second, I was a tall child and that put off anyone who liked to get his way through physical persuasion !
Our toys were sticks and stones, wires, rubber tubes, tins, rope and planks of wood. I remember all these natural toys with a warm feeling. The games we played were self invented out of neccesity and today I wish I had recorded all these games, as they were so much fun.
I had my personal games too. They were mostly imagination-based. I could lie down in the grass for hours looking through the “jungle” from ground level. I could lose myself in there, and often did. The adventures I had in that imaginary land filled my time so much. I was never bored. A little stone would turn into a dog while a small rock would be a dynasoure. Blocks of wood were the transport I rode around in. I even used live players in my games. Such were caterpillers and spiders, wasps and other creepy-crawlies. Everything was quite. That was the unique way my fantasy land “spoke” to me. Silence was so strong. It was real loud!
Some of our games were not so much fun. Such was the pinching competition where we were split into two teams. The rules were simple: we pinch each other till one gives up. The winning team is the one with the last person to survive all thaht pinching. We had a lot of explainng to do when the grownups asked us about the black and blue marks.
I don’t think they ever found out.
Soccer was the favourite, like I said. It was a cruek game for us. If you didn’t play well, you would get your batteries charged by the other kids stoning you! Yes, it was the dark side of our childhood. I remember my soccer boots were worn out after a time and the “powers that be” decided that was through neglect. I was bigger than the guys who were doing the stoning so they didn’t do that to me. They were afraid, as cowerds usually are. They found a more effecient way. I was kicked off the time. No one was alloed to have anything to do with me. Not even talk to me. The silent treatment was very effective. I remember wishing they would just hit me like they did to the other, smaller kids.
Don’t get the wrong impression though. I had agood childhood and this was just something we had to endure. The silent treatment lasted a day or two, sometimes more and at one time it lasted 3-4 months!! But usualy I was “in”.
The highlight of our activities was when we played against our parents, who by then were growing their bellies. This gave us a good chance of winning and when we did, it was celebrations all day!!!
One thing I never mentioned. Girls were a no-no! We didn’t play with them, didn’t speak with them and were very concious of their “invisability” in our lives….. If a girl talked to a boy, he would never live it down! Did we miss something? Well, the birds and the bees is something we learned about at a much later time in our lives.
To be continued . . . . . . .
