Timeless Games
Timeless Games
Although Bolzano boasts an abundance of green areas and playgrounds, children’s lives in the city today are undoubtedly less free than they were a few decades ago.
The time and space that children once enjoyed—even in urban centers—are certainly no longer the same. Adults' memories of childhood tend to be strikingly similar, regardless of their neighborhood or cultural background. The narrative is always the same: after lunch—once homework was done—kids would head to the courtyard and stay out until dinnertime.
Just like in the story told by Karl, who is now 70 years old:
“Our games were very simple, because just being outdoors with friends was enough. We’d run around, play cops and robbers, hide and seek, soccer, dodgeball, and ‘statues’ (what’s now probably known as ‘Red Light, Green Light’), and ride our bikes around the courtyards. I remember a game we played with bottle caps—we’d remove the rubber seal inside, cut out our favorite soccer players or cyclists from magazines, and place the pictures inside the caps. By forcefully dragging the cap edge along the pavement, we’d file down the ridges to make it smoother and help it glide further when thrown.”
One variation of the game was a mini-stage race like the Giro d’Italia: you’d set a start and finish line, and the cap-cyclist that crossed the finish line first after several flicks was crowned the champion!
“Another very popular game, even during and after the war, was called s-cianco in the Veneto dialect. You needed a stick about 50 cm long—usually just an old broomstick—and a smaller stick around 10 cm with sharpened ends. You’d place the small stick on the ground, hit one end to make it jump, and then strike it in mid-air to send it flying as far as possible. I also remember the days when we’d build forts in the courtyard using cardboard boxes from large appliances, which families were just starting to buy. When we got a bit older, during middle school, we were allowed to ride our bikes beyond the courtyard all the way to Castel Firmiano, where we’d hide and play among the ruins.”
Anni, now 73 and who grew up in Fiè allo Sciliar, recalls playing Tempelhüpfen, a game where you’d draw squares on the ground and jump through them on one foot without stepping on the lines or putting both feet down.
She also remembers playing Murmelspiel a lot: “We’d build marble tracks in the sand and try to complete the course by dropping the marble into the final hole.”
Other “forgotten” games include the telephone game (Flüsterspiel) and elastics (Gummiband hüpfen).
The first needed nothing but a line of children. The leader would whisper a difficult (or made-up) word to the first person in line, who would whisper it to the next, and so on. By the end, the word was usually hilariously distorted.
Gummiband hüpfen required a long elastic band, about 2 to 3 meters, tied at the ends. Two girls would stand inside the loop and stretch it with their legs, while a third would jump between, twist the elastic, and perform choreographed moves, forming dynamic shapes.
These timeless games, born from creativity and community, reflect a childhood rich in imagination and freedom—something increasingly rare in today’s urban life.
Image: Courtesy Thomas Rötting