Five Question Challenge - Fun & Games

Julianna Smith, at 24/7 Family History Circle has challenged everyone to record the answers to five questions each week on a specific topic. The topic for Week #2 is Fun and Games.

• What was your favorite game when you were a child? Were you a board game enthusiast? A card shark? Or perhaps a kick-the-can kid?
• In our neighborhood we played a game that was a combination of kick the can, hide and seek and tag, played with two teams. Our front steps were the jail. We drove mom quite nuts but she knew where we were.
  
• Did you play any particular games with your family as a child? Easter egg hunts? Thanksgiving Day football games? Scavenger hunts? Charades?
• We had marathon sessions of Monopoly and RISK. When we were younger we played Crazy Eights "Grandma Burley style". Grandma Burley was my mother's best friend's mother. Most of us now know the game as UNO and my grandkids love to play.
  
• What were some fun places you visited as a child? Did your family go camping? Did you take family vacations? Was there a local destination that was a family favorite?
• We had an Apache pop-up camper and went lots of places in the Adirondacks and Vermont. My two favorite camp grounds were Half Moon Pond in Hubbardton, VT and Cranberry Lake in northern NY. At Half Moon Pond we always had a site right on the water and spent hours fishing. There were also side trips to visit marble quarries and ski resorts where we rode the gondolas up the mountains. At Cranberry Lake we could roam all over the huge camp ground and climb Bear Mountain.
  
• What activities did you do with family members? Did Grandma teach you to sew? Who taught you to cook? Did you go fishing with Grandpa? An uncle? Who coached your baseball team?
• My grandparents had a boat and would occasionally take us to Otisco Lake, where they once owned a camp. My grandmother had two sons, her third pregnancy ending in the stillborn birth of a girl. I was the first granddaughter, so I instantly became my grandmother's favorite and I spent many weekends at my grandparents home. I've always felt a bit guilty about the special time I had with my grandparents that my brother, sister and cousins didn't have. I went sledding on Woodland Reservoir with my cousins. My grandmother, who told me stories of skating on the Ottawa Canal and the Erie Canal attempted (without success) to teach me to ice skate.
  
• My mother taught me to sew and bake. Cooking I picked up as I went along.
  
• Did you enjoy watching professional sports? What was your favorite team? Do you have any special memories of sporting events?
• My grandfather would take us to hockey games at the state fair grounds and I used to love to watch them play. When we moved to Akron, John took me to a Buffalo Sabres game so I could see Wayne Gretzky play. The Buffalo fans were brutal and I was very uncomfortable in the stands. The sport is now too violent for my taste, both on and off the ice. I learned to like college basketball when I started dating John. Our wedding was planned around the S.U. basketball schedule. While living in Akron I loved to watch Curling on TV. I can no longer pick up the Canadian stations so I rarely get to watch. I would like to try me hand at it sometime.
  

Fun and Games in the 1930's - my mother's memories for week #2

Week #1
My School Memories
Mom's School Memories