War

  One of our favorite games to play with kids in the neighborhood was War.  I think our parents wanted us to play it, because it meant we had to go outside.  Our yards had a lot of trees and some hills and bushes, so we could hide behind them and pretend to shoot at the enemy.  There was actually no physical enemy, because we didn't have enough kids to have two teams, so we just used our imaginations.

 We used sticks for rifles, at first.  We learned to crawl on our bellies to avoid getting "shot" by the enemy.  Our wars were with the British, the Union army, or the Germans.  We were very good to sneak up on the enemy and defeat them.  We never lost a battle.  As time went on, our parents provided toy guns for us.  After all, the sticks would break.  I had a long musket that was wood and fired caps.  Another kid had a western style rifle that fired caps.  We all had six-shooter pistols.  Our concept of History wasn't important, as to what guns were used when.  We just had fun pretending.

 When the other kids weren't around, I would play with my plastic army men outside in the backyard.  They were from World War II.  I had Americans and Germans to play with.  Sometimes, I also had firecrackers to use as bombs and matches to use as flamethrowers. The Americans won most of the time, but they might sustain some casualties.  

 I also had a full-size G. I. Joe to play with.  He could be a regular Army man or a Marine.  It depended on the uniform of the day.  I could play with him inside the house, since he was only one guy.  I never thought to use him with the small plastic Army men as a giant versus the others.  That might have been cool.  One day, Joe's arm broke off.  He was jumping off of the bed and landed wrong.  That was the end of him.

 We also had toy guy with a parachute.  You could throw him up in the air, and he would float down into enemy territory.  That was fun, until he got caught in a tree, and we had to climb up to get him down.  A few times, we would pack his parachute wrong, and it wouldn't open.  He would plummet to his death.  Some of our war games were a little sadistic, but we had fun.