The cost of athletic equipment and shortage of commercial toys forced young people to improvise and create their own fun as many have said. Trudy Hotson recalls her father saving the bladder of an animal that he had just butchered. After washing the bladder, it was easily inflated to a ball that could be used in childrens' games. Elastics were used in various creative ways. Using wood, a clothes pin and an elastic band enabled the construction of a sling shot. Using scrounged lumber and a couple of cans created walking stilts.
Don Nicholson has a fond recollection of the games that teens played on school property during lunch hours. Using small pen knives, the boys drew a circle with a diameter of about three feet on the ground. The goal of the game was to stand with one's back to the circle, and then toss the knife over your shoulder so that the knife landed within the boundaries of the circle with the blade in the ground.
Jock Ferguson recalls using tree branches that resembled a hockey stick and a can filled with ice as a hockey puck.
Charlie Rankin has commented on the improvised chewing gum that he remembers as a child. One would collect the sap from a spruce tree and after putting the sap into his mouth and chewing it, it had the same taste and texture as store bought gum.
Outdoor facilities. There were a few homes and public buildings that were connected to the municpal water system, but most buildings and homes were not. Thus outhouses were common during the 1930s and the 1940s. The infamous "honey wagon" (which was used in a number of unpublishable pranks instigated by teenagers) was used to dispose of the waste. By the early 1950s most homes were connected to the municpal water supply system and outhouses were no longer used in town. Picture provided by Charlie Rankin
