Found, appropriately enough, on the always excellent Found Objects are these pictures from the 1965 Crackerjack Book of Games. Pictures on that site, yes, but no text to go with them. Fortunately, though, I’ve been able to dig out some of the game instructions. 1965 was a very different time.
The Microwave Game
Here’s a fun activity for all you kids whose fathers are working with one of those new-fangled industrial microwave ovens in use at all the civic cremation zones. With a friend, or if/when you don’t have a friend any longer then against the clock, see how long you can withstand the intense heat inside these miracles of modern technology. Once you’re good enough why not see whose skin can form the largest blister before it explodes and the agony of tearing skin and exposed flesh to the electromagnetic radiation becomes too much for any juvenile human to bear?
The Tower Of Power
You’ll need building blocks to construct towers for this game so why not pop down to Woolworths and pick up a bargain bag of Woolworths Own Brand Cups ‘N’ Discs with your earnings from scarecrowing? Gather around a table with your best friends and race against one another to build a monument that stretches towards Heaven. The winner is the first person to become filled with the Power of God and finds him or herself compelled to yell Halleluia!. Extra points if the power causes your opponents’ towers to collapse.
Mind Control
Here’s a game that’s both relaxing and rewarding! Can you use your telekinetic powers to get a marble to roll out of a cup and up a piece of wood? You’ll need all your powers of concentration for this but if you succeed then get your mother or father to give the local government psychic warfare recruiting offices a call and get ready for a life of intrigue and riches beyond your wildest dreams!
Old Billy
Old Billy is the classic family game of make-believe and dress-up brought into the sixties with a way to win! Ask your parents for permission to use their copies of The National White Person when they’ve finished memorising it for the day and dress yourself up as that boozy rascal of a tramp, Old Billy. You’ll need to stay out overnight, probably down by the canal, but if you can return home without being set alight then you win a point and it’s time for your brother or sister to see if they can do the same. Who will get the highest score?
Super Sense
When Britain begins its conquest of Asia in the next decade it’s going to need super soldiers and one of the best ways you can be sure of getting selected for the front line is by training your super senses now in the great guessing game of Super Sense! One player is the Sense Setter whose job it is to challenge the other players to test their senses of smell, taste, sight, touch, demonwalk, and hearing. Who can sniff out a European eyeball from amongst those confiscated from the Burmese by our wonderful Border Sentinels? Can any of your friends recognise a leper by touch? Who will be the first to hear a flower die?
Chemical Roulette
With just some strips of card and a box of Junior Chemoterrorist (available in all good Boots pharmacies) you can enjoy a great game with an ever-decreasing circle of friends that combines excitement and extreme danger. Mix up the doused card strips and then take turns to join them one strip at a time. Maybe nothing will happen at all. But maybe, just maybe, you’ll set off the chain reaction that sees you losing your face or, worse, damaging some of mother’s favourite furniture! The winner is the last person with hands.
Scrambled Atoms
A game for two or more players and all you’ll need is some crockery from the kitchen (ask mother) and as many pellets of uranium as you can lay your hands on. Each player balances a plate on his or her head with the same number of radioactive pellets on top. Take the pellets off one at a time without smashing the plate or losing the ability to form coherent thoughts. When all the pellets are off you get a point. Start over again and repeat until everyone’s out then count up the points to find a winner. Good luck!
Recent Comments