Childhood Memories-How did we Play?-by Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

Childhood Memories-How did we play?-By Marilyn Merle Ruesch Schneider (written approx. 1988)

Story Key: I=Marilyn Ruesch Schneider,  Mother=Lenore McFarlane Ruesch

There was a lady in the neighborhood who liked to gather up all the children and put on plays.  She lived around the corner .  They were out of doors with a sheet for a curtain.  One play was about a flower garden with bees, butterflies and flowers.  I was a flower.  I remember thinking it was a dumb play, but I didn't want to be left out either.

Ann was my best friend.  We played hop scotch, jump rope, and kick the can with the whole neighborhood.  One day nobody would play with me, so I went home crying.  My mother spent the rest of the day with me.  We made some doll clothes out of little scraps of fabric--on my letter toy singer sewing machine.  We sat by the window and I could see the children playing.  I remember thinking "Ha, ha--I don't need you!".

We played lots of paper dolls.  We drew our own dolls and clothes and colored and cut them. We spent hours making up stories about them.  When I was 12, I secretly played with paper dolls and story book dolls with my friend Merlyn.  We knew we were too old for it.

When we went to Utah which was every summer-I played with my cousin Sharon.  Her grandma and my grandma lived next door to each other.  We made hollyhock dolls and played with them.  We thought they were gorgeous.  We liked to play in Grandma's rock garden. 

I always got a childhood diseases like chicken pox or measles while I was there.  But we would "sneak" and play through the fence.  When I got whooping cough the City quarantined us with  big sign on the house.  No one could come inside or even leave our hour unless they had already had the disease.  That was a hard summer!