Down the Bay: Making Your Own Fun
Posted on April 10, 2024 by Rachel Hines
Growing up Down the Bay, kids learned to make their own fun. They gathered to play games like kickball, four-square, and even their own game, top ball! With a little imagination, anything could become a toy. Many people shared memories of inventing toys and games in interviews for the
Clauzell McCovey
鈥淸U]ntil they called us in the house you know we鈥檒l stay out there and play top ball. What we would do, we would get like a broomstick or a mop handle 鈥� and we would get these tops鈥� and go out in front of her store or in that area, in that block and we would pitch these bottle caps to us. And tried to hit 鈥榚m with a broomstick and like I said we鈥檇 be out there late, sometimes late at night and we鈥檇 hit them tops. My brother, Hank Aaron, Amos Otis, all them guys learned how to do that with those bottle caps.鈥濃�� Clauzell McCovey, 2023
Chinaberry seeds illustrated by Cass Bakotic.
Leonard Stiell
鈥淯sed to have chinaberry trees鈥� That was today鈥檚 version of paintball鈥�.They kind of grew鈥攖he cane grew up in the neighborhood, and we鈥檇 go cut down a cane and make your popgun.鈥�
Denise Davenporte McAdory
鈥淚 remember making a doll out of a 7-Up bottle. You know, you would go and somebody had some bamboo, and you would take the鈥攚e called it 鈥渉air鈥濃�攐ff the bamboo and stick it inside the bottle, and that was our doll.鈥�
Children playing outside a house Down the Bay. Photo courtesy of Mobile Housing Board Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of 麻豆直播 Alabama.
Anna Watson
鈥淗ave you heard of four-square? That鈥檚 with that same ball, and you bounce it from square to square, and you try to keep it going. And don鈥檛 forget when you were younger. Hide and seek; we did all that.鈥�-Anna Watson, 2023
Learn more in our exhibit, Growing Up Down the Bay on display at the Ben May Library from April 26 鈥� May 31, 2024.