Although 45 years have passed since I've played the game, I still recognize a good hopscotch marker when I see one. A small ball-chain works best – and I should know, as the hopscotch champ of Linda Vista Elementary School in 1965.
I was also skilled at jacks, thanks to a neighbor lady who taught me to play. Margaret was in her fifties and I was probably seven when she invited me into her home for my first lesson.
Surprisingly, she was an outstanding jacks player. I watched in awe as she demonstrated her mastery of Pigs in the Pen, Around the World, and the difficult Double Bounce. I stumbled with my Onesies. After several months of cookies and coaching on Margaret's rumpus room floor, I could finally take her down – or at least she let me think I could.
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Back at school, when the recess bell rang, restless children bolted from their classrooms in all directions to be first in line for tether ball or foursquare. Some of the girls jumped rope, twirled on the monkey bars or played Cat's Cradle, while the boys traded baseball cards or divided into teams for basketball. Out in the field, kids played Red Rover, tag and football.
No matter the activity, chants of "one potato two potato" usually determined who would be "it". Meanwhile, I eyed the competition with my jacks in one pocket and my hopscotch marker in the other, always ready to defend my title.
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Chinese jump ropes, Duncan Yo-Yo's, and Hula Hoops all had their moments of popularity on San Lorenzo school playgrounds in the 1960s. However, give me the perfect hopscotch chain or a set of shiny new jacks and I'm back in the day, on the blacktop at Linda Vista Elementary School, looking to take someone down.
