The Adventures of LitBoy: Bill Brent's Blog

Depression Era Party Style Entertainment

You don't need to spend money or go out to have fun on a tight budget! Some group activities are fun for all ages in any era. Here are some examples from the 1930s, expanded somewhat to make the list a bit more contemporary. It seems that we have nearly forgotten about some of these pastimes!

- Indoor games: Board Games, Cards, Checkers, Chess ...

- Outdoor games: Horseshoes, Croquet, Volleyball ...

- Home grown: brew (bottle your own beer; it's incredibly cheap!), or smoke (can you grow your own tobacco or herbal substitute?), or morning grind (I live in Hawaii, a great coffee and tea growing region)

- Music: make your own (play an instrument and sing), play your music collection for each other, or turn on the radio or Internet (listener supported public broadcasting still has some great programming. Plus, there's loads of diverse Internet content from abroad -- broaden your musical perspective!)

- Small potluck: Everybody shares and trades their favorite foods (this can include swapping recipes too)

- More entertainment: make your own fun via story telling and telling jokes. As a bonus, this is a way to teach kids oral history, how to tell a story, how to tell a joke, and provides ways to get over the fear of speaking in public.

There are many benefits to live contact that we cannot achieve over the Internet, no matter how sophisticated our online technology becomes, and no matter how many online forums or social networking sites we can join. Enjoy the power of spontaneity! Get a hug! All of these forms of fun and in person interaction help to build community, face to face and in real time.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2009.09.08, 5:55 p.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is the brainchild of writer Bill Brent. If you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation in support of my work. You can send money via PayPal to info [!at] litboy [DOT] com, or better still, use Revolution Money Exchange. Unlike PayPal, RME pays me 100% of your donation. It's quick and easy!


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Keywords for this post: save money, low cost recreation, fun on a shoestring budget, Depression era fun builds community

Examples of Folly

Quite often, what was one generation's version of folly turns out to be counted among its most coveted artifacts, and the most prized acquisitions of future generations. "Junk" so often becomes a hand-me-down, or something that is highly decorative or even useful once the mainstream culture catches up to the milieu from which it sprang forth. I'm thinking of cheesy garage band or surf music instruments -- like the Teisco electric guitar or the Farfisa Compact combo organ.

Here's a contemporary example (up to the minute, even):

Crocheted penises on exhibit

(NOTE: "folly" and "phallus" are descended from the same root word.)

Any other examples? Thoughts on this one?

—Bill

[NOTE: This is copied from a thread I started at http://litboy.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=692511%3ATopic%3A12 . If you want to join an ongoing group devoted to discussing purposeful folly, you can go to http://litboy.ning.com and sign up.]

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

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