Figure 1.--Here we see a girl with a Navy swabbie cap playing war with the boys. I do not recall the girls in our neigborhood ever taking the slightest interest in our games. They were busy with their dolls. And when they plau\yed outdoors it was mostly hop-skotch, jacks, or roller skating.

Cops and Robbers

I don't recall as a boy in the late 1940s and early50s playing cops and robberrs. We played war games. It was great outdoor summer fun. I am guessing that during the inter-war era that cops and robbers may have been popular given all the gangster films in the movies. The game often took oin the guise of gangsters and G-men -- G for Government. The gangster movies are too numerous to list and virtually defined the decade. This was the Depressioin era. Money for most kids was hard to come by, but you had to be really poor not to scrape up an occassional nickle. A few soda bottle reurns could get you there. And a nickle would get you in the Saturday matiunee--often a double feature with a cartoon and newsreel. Gangter and cowboy films were staplles. And if you managed to came up with a dime, you could add popcorn. There were also popular radio programs. 'The shadow' premiered in 1930 and 'Gangbusters' in 1936. I loved cowboy films and Hop-a-long Cassidy on the television. I don't recal, however, playing cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers with my friends. But the term cops and robbers in such a part of the vernacular, at least for my generation, that it must have been commonly played in thev1929s and 30s. Of course armament was important. And during the 30s not all boys had toy guns. Wooden or car board fascimilies could be fasgioned or even fingers pointed. One aithor described wooden gyns shooting cut up inner tubes. [Clemet and Reinier, p. 327.) That sounds more like a sling shot. Many memoirs deacribing boyhood in the 1930s mentiomn playing cops and robbers, but unfortunately do not go into detail about the game was played. An examole of a rural boyhood is a good example. [Richards] One thing about these games, including cops and robbers. They were not suppervised by adults, the action gane entirely from the boys' active little minds.

Cowboys and Indians

The mythology of both the cowboy and Indian are central to the American saga. There are in fact to sagas. The lone individual facing the untamed frontier with first his long rifle and later his six shooter. Then there was the nobel savage unsullied by Euopean civilization. It as the cowboy saga that had the greatest appeal. The two most important founders of the American Scouting movement dueld over these two images. The two principal presursor groups to the Boy Scouts of American (BSA) were Ernest Thompson Seton's Woodcraft Indians and Daniel Carter Beard's Sons of Daniel Boone which of course were associated with the pioneers. An American reader writes, "I remember as a boy being definitely of the pioneer/cowboy persuasion. My cap gun six-shooter, cowboy hat, and boots were among my most prized possessions--second only to my teddy. I remember my first confrontaion with "the authorities". It was first grade and I was all of 6 years old. I had worn my new Christmas cowboy boots, of which I was enormously proud, to school--and they made a defening noise in the hall. I was sent home with a note never to wear my cowboy boots to school again. Even before TV, I was riding along (using first my trusty riding horse a turned around the dining room chair) with six guns in hand. I clearly remember the Long Ranger on telivision. Once TV arrived it was Hoppy--Hopalong Cassidy. In the movies my favorite was Gene Autury. Roy Rogers was a distant fourth, but I did like Trigger. I also remember finally getting a BB gun at about age 10 which I loved to go on forays with in my cowboy hat, boots, and trusty six shooter. I never had an actual costume, but with the hat, a flannel shirt, six-shooters, leather belt and holsters, jeans, and cowboy boots made a rather convincing, if I say so myself, convincing cowboy. I also remember getting in to hot water one weekend when I targeted one of by uncle's cows with my BB gun." I remember reading a book by a Black author many years ago. I think it was James Baldwin, but am not sure. He remembers goung to the movies as a boy and always rooting for the cowboys until realizing "We were the Indians!". On a similar plane as a young teacher in South Carolina I remember mentioning to my students that a substantial portion of the cavalry soldiers were Blacks--known as the Buffolo soldiers by the Indians. My students didn't believe me at the time. (Television and movies until well into the 1970s never pictured Black cowboys or cavalary soldiers.)

War

War games were very popular after World War II. I had all soryts of war gear, including a helmet, belt webbing, a canteen, and back pack as well as toy guns. It was just another form mof cowboys and Indians. And as far as I can tell playing war into the 1960s continued yo be popular. Of course toy guns were an important part of playing war. I think that in the Vietnam era that anti-war monms bgan to put the kabash on war games and toy guns. Playing war was also discouraged by more intrusive paranting. I recall during the summer being turned loose after breakfast, shoeing up for linch, and thenm disappearing until dinner. Our parents took a minimal interest in our play activities as long as we didn't get into any trouble. In fact I think my mom liked getting me out of the house and out of her way.

Sources

Clemet, Priscilla Ferguson and Jacqueline S. Reinier. Boyhood in America: An Encyclopedia Volume 1 (ABC-CLIO: 2001), 845 p.

Richards, Roy Jr. Just a Country Boy: As Told to Tish Lynn (AuthorHouse; 2011), 132p.

Created: 7:48 AM 6/5/2019
Last updated: 12:52 AM 6/18/2020