Figure 1.--Boys used to play more outdoors and largely unsupervised than is the case today. Sports for younger boys were not as important as is the case oday. Boys played war which was a kind of free play outdoor role playing game. I can't recall any rule-bsed games we played on our own. These games were mostly played at parties. Most of our play was unsupervised. We just did our thing and mom rarely gave much attention unless we were getting into trouble. We suspect the ame was true in France. This unidentifed by looks to have been phoographed in his park-like back yard, probably about 1960. He seems to be wearing his Cub shirt. Photographe: M. Simonet

Boys played war which was a kind of free play outdoor role playing game. I can't recll any rule-bsed games we played on our own. They were mostly played at parties. Most of our play was unsupervised. We just did our thing and mom rarely gave much attention unless we were getting into trouble. (Dad of course was at work except during the weekends.) Of course an important part of childhood is outdoor play. I can recall as a boy, most of what we played before sports took over as teens was free play games, basically role playing games like 'war' and 'cowboys and Indians.' I had a cowboy hat, cap pistol and gun belt for cowboys and Indians as well as a '45 for World War II affairs war games. As best we can tell, modern children are much more closely supervised and spend less time outdoors. We are not sure about French boys, but suspect something similar was going on. At leaat we see a lot of boys playing war during and after World War I. World War II may have been a little different both because of the huge losses during World War I and the fact France was defeated and occupied by the Germans (1940). Billes (marbles) was very popular, but today less so. Mothers tend to disapprove and children are now more closely supervised than ever before. In addition there are now all kinds of video games with war themes. These are especially popular with children and seem to have replaced the war games boys once played outdoors.

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Created: 12:42 AM 3/28/2020
Last updated: 7:47 AM 1/24/2025