Childhood Games II: Fun with Paper

So I already went over the fun to be had with paper footballs, but that got me thinking about other paper fun we had when I was a kid. Now the projects that I detail below were by far the favorite origami projects of the time. Sure paper cranes that could "lay eggs" were cool and now I know "peaceful," and you can't overlook the paper balloon, but....

Poppers
Paper poppers, just called "poppers" where I lived, were a lot of fun, but could also get you in a lot of trouble at school if your timing was bad (i.e. you got caught in the act). At my school, we only made two varieties: the rectangle and the triangle popper. The triangle by far gave the best bang, but the rectangle was a good beginner's model. But don't take my word for it, get a piece of paper, and make your own; and then please leave comments about your results. (Click through the links in the text for instructions. Oh and you don't need a newspaper for the triangle popper, an 8.5x11 piece of paper works great!)


"Chinese" Throwing StarsWe all know that the "pirates" of the 80s were ninjas. As such, we all needed to have our supply of Chinese stars. You could fold in coins and tape them up for better balance, distance, and hitting power--which of course we did. My best friend growing up, Ryan J., who lived in the house behind mine would always have a group of us playing ninjas in his pitch black basement. We would have two sides and the object was to sneak out and attack each other's bases. I am surprised no one lost an eye from the many stars flying through the air. I did have my shorts (homemade "Jams" with a dinosaur print) ripped by Ryan, who thrust his wooden sword through a gap in between the stairs and water heater (boy am I lucky that he just snagged and ripped my shorts!!!). While I am on a tangent anyway, I will mention that our love of paper stars led many of us to make metal stars in metal shop in junior high school, which were of course banned even then. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to take metal shop. That said my friend Cedric R. did and I at least got to throw the star that he had made. He had no problem throwing the star into the wall at his home, making one inch gashes...I'm sure his parents were not thrilled, if they ever found out.

Fortune Tellers
Ok last, but not least, but definitely more girly...paper fortune tellers. We as kids were obsessed with who we liked and whether they liked us, how much money we would have when we grew up, etc.; and picking off flower petals for she loves me...she loves me not, just wasn't cutting it, especially for boys...as that would be crossing the line of girlishness...no offense. So here were the rules of the game, as cut/paste from the above link:

How to Play the Game:
*Hold the fortune teller and ask a friend to choose one of the colors shown.
*Spell out the chosen color by opening and closing the fortune teller, and stop.
*Have your friend choose one of the numbers that is shown. Count out that number by opening and closing the fortune teller, and stop.
*Again, have your friend choose a number, and repeat step 3.
*Have your friend choose one last number. Then open the flap beneath that number and read your friend's fortune!

You could/can make these into a simple yes/no/maybe magic 8 ball type "tool," or just put names of people you like, the possibilities were/are endless.


M.A.S.H (Mansion-Apartment-Shack-House)
Ok just one more, since we are on the topic of grade school fortune telling...besides this one requires no special paper folding skills. I know this was a girly game too, but remember I have a sister and girly things can be fun too. Anyway, you would take a piece of paper and would write out several categories and each category would have four selections. The first category: What type of house will you live in? was the only pre-selected category, which of course was: Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House. Other categories which you could make your own choices for included:

*What type of car will you drive?
*What type of job will you have?
*Where will you live (city/state/country/planet)?
*Who will you marry?
*How many children will you have?
After all the categories were filled in, a friend would start drawing a spiral away from your view, and you had to say when they should stop. Then like counting the rings of a tree, you would count how many rings were in the spiral and that would be the number used for selecting your future. Starting from the top, you would count through the selections and your future would be the one that you end on... for example if your number was eleven you would count through the house category to find out that you would be living in a shack. Fun and simple times!