In the Catholic Children’s Treasure Box, there are many charming and imaginative stories, games, and fancies. The series, originally magazines for children, by the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic were published starting in the 1950s. As other reviewers have noted, there are nostalgic elements that delight and some that will mystify or disturb the modern reader.
One recurring feature is entitled “How would you play if you had no toys or games or books?” In an era that finds more children with personal i-Pads and the growing societal expectation that they will be plugged in (the children, not the i-Pads) while in public, few thought experiments could be so quaint. It’s not clear who was involved in writing the many stories and features, but it’s wonderful to imagine nuns reminiscing about their childhood games.
Throughout the series “How would you play…?” there is a tantalizing sense of excitement. Somehow in the face of soul-crushing boredom, strict expectations, and a total lack of playthings, children had such a wonderful time. There are instances of children being confined to bed with illness, or a young girl visiting her ill and tired mother in the hospital. Without entertainment, they found hours of fun activity with oddments found among the linens of the sick room.
Other children were banished outside every day for the landlady’s nap, a ritual that is wonderfully antiquated—landlady today would be scrolling her smartphone and we don’t allow kids outside alone anymore. The children on the days they forgot toys would play rivers, constructing imagined waterways to leap over with increasing difficulty.
There is also, of course, the making of houses in the sand or with chalk, an activity that imaginative children are still drawn to. The imaginative play of Alice McLerran’s “Roxaboxen,” capturing how her mother in her own childhood, is universal. Or at least it should be.
If children are shuttle from organized, supervised activity to the next, plugged into i-Pads and smartphones in between, there is no opportunity to invent games out of sheer, relentless boredom. The stories of children’s games featured in the Treasure Box are, like all children’s games, very particular. The details of exactly how the game would be set up and carried out matter immensely. And those little particulars are what make the remembering all the sweeter.
As so often happens in life, the very times and situations that seemed the most miserable and meaningless somehow become the most rich and wonderful in remembering. At least they can be if we can invent wonderful ways to fill our time.
