When I came across a 100-year-old paper dining room play set in the National Museum of Play’s collections recently, the paper dog begging beside the table got me to thinking about the dogs in my life. When I was a child, there always seemed to be a dog waiting patiently every night a few steps from our dinner table, too. Dogs also played a role beyond dinnertime. Living in a small, rural hamlet, my few nearby friends weren’t always available […]
The Old Fishing (and Swimming) Hole
The late Thomas Kinkade said of his 2003 rendering The Old Fishing Hole, “Perhaps the best thing about childhood is what we make of it in our memories. I suppose that in the living there were good times and bad, but in the memory, it’s the good times that live on with a certain radiance.”
Growing up in farm country, my friends and I spent many a hot summer day around, or in, a nearby pond or the brook down back. […]
Free Play, Back in the Day
As kids, we would sometimes say, as a mean joke, “He’s so dumb, he forgot how to play!” We thought it was funny then—as 10 year olds. But it’s hardly a laughing matter, then or now. The worry today comes with the knowledge that more and more kids aren’t learning how to appreciate free play—the type without rules or structure.
In the 1990s, researchers began to investigate Nature Deficit Disorder—the pattern of children becoming disconnected from the natural world by indoor […]
Back in the Day: Early Television for Kids
“Plunk yer magic Twanger, Froggy!” Back in the early 1950s, these magic words enabled that impudent rubber frog known professionally as Froggy the Gremlin to suddenly appear out of nowhere on The Buster Brown Show. Materializing in a puff of smoke and uttering his famous “Hiya kids; Hiya, Hiya!” greeting, Froggy’s subsequent antics and smart aleck remarks visibly annoyed the show’s host, a jolly fellow known to all as Smilin’ Ed McConnell, but always delighted the kids gathered in the […]
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Musick Has Charms to Sooth a Savage Breast
Music is one of the first forms of play we engage in as infants, noted The Strong’s Vice President for Play Studies, Scott G. Eberle, in his American Journal of Play article, “Playing with the Multiple Intelligences: How Play Helps Them Grow.” Music plays a critical role in our development. Our subsequent education practically depends upon it. And, in my experience, so does our health and happiness.
As babies, music can either stimulate or lull us. As we grow, we come […]
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Gridiron Memories
Yes, it’s that time of year again. Football teams all across the country are well into their fall schedules with countless fans flocking to see their favorite clashes, anticipating the season’s end with that American tradition—the Super Bowl.
Though I played both football and baseball in high school, I have to admit that football was my first love. Back in 1963 (which seems like a hundred years ago now), I was like any other kid, moving into high school and up […]
Happiness Is a Good Vacation
Vacationing has a long tradition for working folks the world over. Most of us look forward each year to taking any break(s) we may have earned from the routines of everyday living. We all anticipate and welcome regular periods of relaxation during which we say to ourselves, “I’m on vacation now, and I will do only things that make me happy. Besides, I need a break.”
As I started looking into this topic, I learned that a formal concept called the […]
Play and the Core of Happiness
Jennifer Giambrone’s blog Nostalgia: It’s Good For You! told us about the importance of preserving memories. Our good memories remind us that we have value, that we are happy (or, at least, can be), and that life does in fact have meaning. In Once Upon a Time, I tried to convey much the same thing—that the time we spend playing as children can be crucial to our later ability to manage aspects of our adulthood successfully. A core of happiness […]
Playing with Living Pictures: Clockwork Tableaux
Imagine that it’s January 1896. To your dismay, you find yourself stuck at your aunt’s house one particularly dreary winter day with absolutely nothing to do.
Your aunt’s parlor is cold, with the wind whistling in through the single-pane windows and the wood fire barely taking an edge off the chill. Even worse, there’s nothing to entertain you. You don’t play the piano and radio, television, and the Internet don’t exist—there’s not even a cat to play with. Your aunt fetches […]
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