Luzerne County Memories

Luzerne County Memories

Part 7

Part 7:

* Recreation in the Patch

* Recreation in Town

RECREATION IN THE PATCH

I have been asked to write about how folks spent their leisure in the 30's. Some folks would like to know how their parents and grandparents relaxed. I want to specify that this is mining patch living and not town living.

The men from two Italian families started to dig a court for bocci. The men from the patch didn't know anything about the game, but they knew how to use a shovel and soon the court was constructed. The Italian men soon taught them the game, and they spent many hours enjoying it.

We also played softball in a field behind the patch. We never had enough people for two teams so we played scrub. It was a game where everyone had a chance to bat until he was put out. The pitcher would replace him in the batting order.

We had a basketball hoop and backstop on the light pole in the middle of the patch. There were no age limitations, and the older men played basketball with the younger.

There was a picnic table in left field of the baseball diamond where the older men would enjoy playing cards and have a few beers. They "chipped in" to buy a keg of beer for their good time. There was an age restriction, and they wouldn't let the younger kids near. Today, it's the kids who have the keg of beer and won't let the older folks near.

In winter, Jack Campbell and I would go sledding on the hill in front of the house. Deep ruts and protruding stones would not permit the use of sleds because the runners would snap. We used an old piece of sheet iron from the colliery as a toboggan. It worked real well.

Some men had woodworking as a hobby. My father would take me to visit his cousin who loved to make lawn ornaments and knick-knacks for the house. Mick, his cousin, worked in a shed in his backyard. I noticed there were a couple of jars of coins on the shelf. When I asked my father about them, he told me that Mick had been a breaker boy and was illiterate and could not "count money." Mick may have been illiterate, but he could do wonders with wood.

The ladies always seemed to have more to occupy their leisure time (when they had it). My sisters did embroidery and made lace by tatting. On the other hand, my mother used to crochet and quilt. She had all sizes of crocheting needles which she used to make lace for handkerchiefs, pillowcases, armchair decoration, etc. She saved old clothing and cut the garments in strips which she sewed together end to end. She rolled the long strips into balls and set them aside. When she had enough balls of goods, she crocheted round or oval shaped throw rugs.

When she began moving furniture out of our front room, one knew she was getting ready to set up the quilting frame. The frame consisted of four pieces of wood about eight feet long with pieces of cloth attached. She used clamps to make a square of the wooden strips. She would pin a colorful sheet to the strips, put a layer of cotton and then the quilt face. She had various names for the faces (i.e., Dutch girl, Dutch boy, colonial lady, starburst, etc.). She would trace patterns with pencil on the face and then proceed to quilt. Other friends would come to help because it was a time to quilt, talk and have a lunch. A social time. Mom was persnickety about the work and always checked it when the helpers left. If the stitches were too long or too far apart, she would pick them out and then stay up late or rise early the next morning to replace them before the folks came back. She didn't want to hurt their feelings.

I used the empty spools to make creepers. I would cut nicks in the flanges, insert a rubber band through the hole, anchor the rubber band on one side with a piece of "timber" match, put the rubber band through a piece of paraffin and over a whole timber match. After winding it up, it was placed on the table and it crept along. I made many for my friends in school, but the teacher always confiscated them. I think he had a used creeper lot in his hometown.

When winter set it, the family sat around the kitchen table and played games such as dominoes, Chinese checkers, pinochle, different kinds of rummy or other games.

Used inner tubes were always a source of entertainment for me. I have already written how we made slingshots and used them to break bottles which we floated in the black creek. I also made rubber guns. We would take a piece of the end of an orange crate, put a nail in the bottomside for a trigger, put a piece of broken clothes pin on the end and hold it in place with two rubber bands from the inner tube. The gun was loaded by placing a folded end of the rubber band between the clothes pin and the piece of wood and extending it out to the end of the "gun." It never hurt anyone if you shot it at them, so we played Cowboys and Indians...oops...sorry...Cowboys and Native Americans.

We also used the rubber bands to put around our school books. It held them in place real well when we carried them home or to school.

Then, finally, there was the radio. The kids programs came on just about supper time. Programs like Dick Tracy or Little Orphan Annie. There were several more. They advertised breakfast cereal and urged the kids to buy it so they could get a secret decoding ring by sending in a boxtop and ten cents.

There were a lot of real good radio shows in those days...

Some were: Mr. Keene (tracer of lost persons), Gang Busters, The Shadow, Mystery Theater, Jack Benny, Major Bowes, Dr. I.Q., Ed (the Texaco Fire Chief) Wynn, Fibber McGee and Molly, Joe (Ya wanna buy a duck) Penner, The National Barn Dance, etc. (too many to list).

RECREATION IN TOWN

As my wife and I take our daily walk across town, we never see hopscotch diagrams on the sidewalks. Years ago, every other sidewalk had a diagram on it. There were different diagrams for different games. Sometimes, the girls would bounce a ball in the blocks and at other times, they would skip on one foot and push along a rock into each square. You could tell the girl whose father worked in the mines because she had a chunk of chalk instead of a stick. Of course, if one didn't have a piece of chalk, a piece of coal would do nicely.

Girls also jumped or skipped rope. Two girls would twirl the rope and the others would jump through the loops. Jacks was also a popular game and one could see the girls kneeling on the sidewalk, bouncing a ball and grabbing the specified number of jacks.

Both boys and girls skated. However, most of the sidewalks were uneven because they were slabs of slate. The skaters would congregate in the park or on newly constructed sidewalks around constructed buildings to enjoy this activity. The kids would fasten the skates to their shoes by clamping the front and tightening them with a skate key. Frequently, the skate would come loose sending the skater sprawling.

As some listers mentioned, there were those of us who fastened the skates to a homemade scooter. I didn't have an orange crate, so I used two dynamite boxes nailed together to form a "T" and it worked out well.

The neighborhood schoolyard was dirt without such things as slides or swings. The girls continued to play the previously mentioned games, but the boys played marbles, handball or pitched picture cards. There were two types of marbles, aggies or miggies. (At least, that is what we called them.) The aggies were glass and came in a variety of colors and designs. Miggies were made of clay.

To play aggies, a large circle was made in dirt and each boy contributed to the pot. Each boy had a shooter which was a larger aggie. The object was to shoot the larger marble with your thumb and attempt to knock the other marbles out of the ring. The shooter kept the marbles he knocked out of the ring.

Miggies was played by putting the miggies in a hole. The hole was made by sticking the heel of your shoe in the ground and turning until a hole appeared. Each player pitched his miggies toward the hole and then proceeded to put his hand on the ground behind the miggies and propelling it toward the hole by flipping it with his thumb. The boy who put the last miggie in the hole, won the pot.

Today, baseball cards are popular but in those days there were baseball cards, other sports cards, wild west cards and war cards which included WWI aviation cards. One got the card by paying a penny for a pack of gum which included the card. To play, one boy challenged another and proceeded to flip the card. If the card landed face up and your opponent matched it, he won. If he didn't match it, you won.

Another card game consisted of holding the cards against the side of the school building and allowing them to flutter to the ground. Your opponent and you alternated dropping the cards. When the pot got large enough, the person who dropped the card and it touched another, won the pot. (At the time, we didn't realize it was gambling.)

The handball mentioned above was a form of baseball. A rubber ball was used (not a sponge ball) and it was batted with one's fist. The rules of baseball applied except that one could throw the ball at a runner running between bases. Older and bigger boys delighted in punishing younger boys by running up close to the baserunner and throwing the ball as hard as he could. There were a lot of red welts on some

backs, but it was part of the game.

Many times, after school, the word would be passed that the kids on our street were playing baseball against the kids on the next street. We used cast off equipment from the church baseball league which meant taped bats and taped baseballs. Everyone shared the cast off equipment which included gloves. There was never any adult supervision as there is today. Today, as we drive by the little league field, we see manicured grass, a fence surrounding the field which includes billboards, dugouts and a refreshment stand. Mostly, there are no kids playing. When they do, they are all wearing uniforms, using the best equipment and being supervised by adults. I think, we had more fun with our pick-up games.

We played touch football in the streets because there was very little traffic. The main streets were brick and had curb stones. The side streets on which we played were high crowned and oiled with cobblestone ditches on either side. We rarely played tackle football out in the field because of tearing our clothes. Clothing was hard to come by and was treated with care.

If we didn't have a football, we used a sock stuffed with rags. At times, we used an empty evaporated milk can since the ends were intact. Folks made two holes in one end and used the can as a cream pitcher at the table.

After dark, we met under the corner street light and played games such as: kick the can, kick the ricket (which was very similar), release, or hide and go seek. If our parents didn't impose an earlier curfew, we waited until old colliery number 7 blew it's whistle at 9 o'clock. That was the town's curfew and that put an end to all activities.

Oh, oh, I just heard the whistle. Gotta go.

On to page 8 of Luzerne County Memories.