I was always a tomboy...

From the Library of Congress American Memory. 
Girls roller skating in Central Park in 1942.

"I always was a tomboy and hated ruffles, ribbons and fancy clothes.  My favorite outfit was a pair of kakhi knickers and a boys shirt.  I practically lived in them the summer I was ten, much to the horror of my grandmom who loved to curl my hair in long Shirley Temple curls and dress me in pretty dresses with matching hair ribbons every afternoon.

Being a city kid, the back yard and front sidewalk was our playground.  We had no organized activities and made our own fun, making mud pies, building houses and forts and pirate ships from scraps of wood and old blankets in the back yard.

About 4 o'clock every afternoon, a bath and a clean dress transformed me back into the semblance of a girl.  Then we moved our play to the front steps and sidewalk.  In the spring we jumped rope and played ball.  With the heat of summer came jacks and paper dolls mostly on rainy afternoons and all the games of tag, red light, hide and seek, giant steps hop scotch and many many other games that kept up our imagination.

Fall was roller skating time from the moment we came home from school til dark.  A big treat was to go to the park to skate on a long smooth sidewalk without cracks and bumps.

In the winter we would pull each other on our sleds and make snowmen.  Also it was fun to walk along the top of the piles of snow by the curb where people cleared their sidewalks.

I relate these things to give you some idea of how we amused ourself before TV, organized sports, play grounds, camp and all the things kids have today."