PASTIMES FROM PAST TIMES

From the book I never wrote comes three of the things we did to pass our liesure time away. Long before the advent of the hi-tech toys the kids of today have at their disposal, a kid had to make do with his imagination. Did you ever make a
"Ginny Spinner?" Get one of your dad's large overcoat buttons, pass some of mom's sewing thread through the opposing buttons, and pull on each end. If the button is big enough, it will spin with very high speed and might even "buzz" for you. The "cork wool" illustrated above was basically for the girls, but we boys had to admit that they were fun. That's a wooden cotton spool you see in my drawing. There are four small brads placed outside the center hole on the spool. Then, some of mom's wool from her knitting basket, and by threading over one brad, the next, etc., you get a braided pigtail of wool out the bottom of the spool. If you stayed with this pleasant pastime, you might succeed in making an oval rug! Last, but far from least, is the venerable "pea shooter." We bought them for ten cents at McEwan's store. The pea shooter was a hollow tin tube with a wooden mouthpiece on one end. Over to Kuser's Woods to one of the many wild cherry trees, harvest a pocketfull of 1/4" green wild cherries, and you have your arsenal. The pea shooter could get a kid expelled from Kuser School.