There are probably instructional videos for playing jacks and marbles, too.  Those might be very important, since our "child of the 80s" had no clue how to play the games of yore.
 
Jeffrey L. Boyer, RPA
Office of Archaeological Studies
P.O. Box 2087
Santa Fe, New Mexico  87504
tel: 505.827.6343
fax: 505.827.3904
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
"It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time."  --Terry Pratchett
 

________________________________

From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY on behalf of Carol Serr
Sent: Tue 11/1/2005 11:47 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: jacks and Chinese jump rope



Well, to annoy serious archy follks more...here's another personal
commentary post clogging your inbox instead of a serious one regarding
archaeological context.  Sorry.  I personally find this sharing of OUR
experiences fascinating....an anthropological study.

So Kris, we have "proof" boys played jacks...as I seemed to remember (it
didn't seem like a gendered toy, from my [vague] memory).

I had forgotten about Chinese jump rope!  Yes, we played that too, in
CA.  You could step ON the rope at times, very different than 'regular'
jump rope.  Wonder in which part of the US it started...and migrated?
Or perhaps, it grew out of various locations...
I guess we who used rubber bands were either inventive, or too poor to
buy the bungee cord version...or, maybe that wasn't on the market till
later.

On this site, it's promoted as a good workout.
http://www.liveandlearn.com/klutz/chinesejump.html

Found a site that included the game as one from the 1980s.  There is
currently an instructional video tape for it being sold!

>-----Original Message-----
>From: K. Kris Hirst [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 4:52 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: jacks and scrounging
>
>
>
>Strictly a jacks player, here, from central Illinois in the
>1960s. Also, we used to scrounge for rubber bands, braid them
>together and play some kind of weird stepping game version of
>jump rope at about the ankle height. I think we called it
>Chinese jump rope.
>
>K. Kris Hirst
>Guide for Archaeology @ About.com
>http://archaeology.about.com
>http://www.scribaltraditions.com
>http://www.wasteflake.com
>
>Quote of the Week:  "You have made so much out of your life in
>such a short time and your head is so beautifully shaped, I
>would consider it a great contribution to the history of your
>people if you would let us have your head when you depart for
>the Happy Hunting Ground." - Edgar Lee Hewett to Tsianina Blackstone
>http://archaeology.about.com/cs/quotes/qt/quote125.htm
>
>More quotes at:
>http://archaeology.about.com/od/quotations/
> **
>




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