Games Kids Played During the Great Depression

Low-cost, imagination-driven fun:

No-Equipment Classics

• Tag, Hide-and-Seek, Red Rover, Kick the Can, Jump Rope, Marbles, Hopscotch, Red Light/Green Light, Simon Says.

Found/Makeshift Materials

• Fort building (blankets, boxes, branches).
• Stick games (races, swords, structures).
• Rock games (skipping, building, rock-paper-scissors).
• Invented stories & role-play.

Low-Cost Purchased

• Playing cards (many games).
• Occasional board game.
• Homemade dolls (fabric scraps).

Resourcefulness and creativity defined play — no batteries required.