Games of Our Childhood

My youngest grandson will be 9 next week.  We share the same birthday so, when I lived close, we shared theme parties of Winnie the Pooh, Dora & Diago, and Spiderman.  Terry has been having an email discussion about Birthday presents with his Mom.  She had mentioned that because baseball play offs were again that night,  our 10 year old grandson had run 27 laps, out side,  around the house in hopes it would make him run faster for his game.  They won, so I guess it worked.  The final game is tonight.

It gets more and more difficult to buy "things" for the boys.  They have all the games out now.  They each have a Nintendo DS and a bunch of games, Rock Band lives in the family room along with the Wii..  One has a real guitar and the other has drums.  They have the outdoor toys.  Powerwing scooters, bikes, snowboards, skate boards,   a full  cemented basketball court in their backyard.

What's a Nana to do?  I used to buy them matching clothes but I promised myself I had to stop doing that when they turned 10, which, one did in April.  (But they looked sooo cute in them.)

This was when they were 4 and 5.  Pa  makes sure they have been wearing University of Michigan apparel since birth. 
Now, too, I have to mail everything so I have to consider that.  So, it is becoming Gift Card time.  The 10 year old reader, Birthday boy, got Barnes & Noble.  Mom suggested the next be Target.  I'm not thrilled with gift cards, but I'm kind of stuck.

 I don't remember getting big birthday presents or any presents, but I'm sure I did.  I don't remember having Birthday celebrations.  Or even a cake, but, I must have.  I remember as a teen making my own cake.  At 9 and 10, I think I was still playing Candyland and later progressed to Life.   We never owned  Life.  I remember wanting it, but you just didn't go out and buy a game "for no reason".  Money was tight.  I played jacks,  jumped rope and collected marbles.  I did get my Barbie for Christmas when I was 10 and I still have her.   She is missing a pinkie finger because I let Daughter  # 1 play with her when she was little and teething evidently.

I remember getting Daughter #1 an Etch-a-Sketch for a Birthay or Christmas present at 7 years old.  She turned it around and over and finally asked, "How do you turn it on?"  I laughed because, funny as that is , she had one of the first hand held video games, that I'm aware of.  "Safari"  It was very basic.  3 skill levels of capture an animal in a cage.  slow - medium - fast.  That's it. 

 My daughter's childhood gifts ran the gamut of boom boxes, Cabbage Patch dolls, TVs for their bedrooms, VCRs and Cd players.  These were the first electronic children.  I know Daughter #2 had to have a Scientific Calculator in high school.  That thing was over $100.00 then, in 2000, and  probably $9.99 now. 

Makes me wonder what's next.