Know the difference between a tiddly and a wink? Seven-year-old Laura Morgan of Elmhurst does, thanks to a day of game-playing last weekend at the Elmhurst Historical Museum.
The museum`s Games Galore open house attracted young and old alike. Laura and other youngsters were introduced to vintage games such as Chinese checkers, tiddlywinks and pickup sticks. Adults relived childhood memories and found some old friends in the boxes and game boards set up throughout the building.
Karen Marz, the museum`s program director, was obviously pleased with the result.
”I don`t know who`s having more fun today,” Marz said, smiling, ”the adults or the kids.”
The day of indoor fun was planned by Marz and the museum staff to coincide with the current ”Play It Again” exhibit, running to mid-February in the first floor gallery. The show features decades of favorite toys.
”That`s the joy of what`s going on today,” Marz said. ”It`s nice to sit and do something together, where moms and dads, kids and grandparents can share their experiences and have fun.”
But volunteer Dagmar Harper, herself a grandmother, had a little homework to do before the program began.
”In my doddering old age, I had to relearn how to play jacks,” confided Harper, who went on to demonstrate a quick wrist and nimble fingers.
”My childhood isn`t over yet, Harper said laughing as she deftly snatched one, two, up to five jacks in one bounce of the ball.
”I did it!” Harper declared, thrusting up her hand with a tight fist in celebration.
Exactly the same reaction was displayed upstairs by young Laura Morgan, who, after snapping tiddlywinks all over like popcorn, landed not one, but two in a small bucket.
”I did it,” said Laura. ”I could sit here all day.”
And now, as the new self-proclaimed tiddlywink champ, Laura is qualified to tell you: The bigger disc is the tiddly; the small ones are the winks.
