Candy land board games
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Children could stay home and play inside. The fear, however unfounded, was that polio germs contaminated the traditional outdoor and public play spaces of childhood.
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CANDY LAND BOARD GAMES FREE
As historians have observed, the fear of polio in the late 1940s and early 1950s curtailed children’s free play. A combination of popular superstitions and a lack of medical knowledge about the means of transmission led to the suspicion that polio might lurk anywhere, from the water in public swimming pools to the sweet creaminess of ice cream cones bought at the corner shop. As a result, Kawash outlines, Candy Land became a good way to pass the time:īut among all the possible reasons parents purchased Candy Land, one particular appeal was directly related to the historical context of anxieties and fears surrounding polio: Candy Land offered parents a reassuring alternative to the dangers lurking outside the house. In an article in the Journal of Play (pdf here), candy historian Samira Kawash argued that parents didn’t want their kids playing outdoors or interacting with too many other kids. That line? Most likely, it’s intended to depict a brace used by those kids by polio.Īnd while most children - and therefore, most customers - weren’t in polio wards, the fear of the disease was still probably responsible for Candy Land’s initial success. And if you look closely at the boy pictured, there’s a line running down the outside of his right leg. The first commercial version of the game came out the next year you can see the game board above (via the National Toy Hall of Fame). Friends encouraged her to shop the design to game manufacturers, and Milton Bradley ended up purchasing the rights. And unlike the challenges of physical therapy, movement in Candy Land is so effortless, it’s literally all one can do.” And the game proved popular in Abbott’s ward. It simulates a leisurely stroll instead of the studied rigor of therapeutic exercise. As the Atlantic put it, “in theme and execution, the game functions as a mobility fantasy. The children seemed to enjoy this game - in the very least, it was a nice reprieve from hours of doing nothing. One of those games was nothing more than a winding path sketched out on butcher paper, which is to say the precursor to Candy Land. Per the National Toy Hall of Fame, Abbott “sought to invent pastimes for children who were recuperating,” developing all sorts of games and activities for them during their hour or two of free time. While recuperating at a hospital in San Diego, California, Abbott decided to engage with the children in the ward.
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In 1948, a teacher named Eleanor Abbott was one of the many who fell ill with polio. Boredom was not just a way of life, but also seen as a key element to their survival and long-term health. Over 3,000 of those people died and another 20,000 - mostly children - were left with some degree of paralysis.” Many hospitals set up polio wards to help those afflicted, and in many of those wards, children were instructed to stay in bed (or in iron lungs, as seen here) for most of the day. In 1952 alone, as previously noted in these pages, “roughly 58,000 new cases of polio were reported across the United States. Until Jonas Salk developed a polio vaccine in 1955, the disease ravaged communities in the U.S. There’s little reason to play it unless you are very little or very, very bored. (As a parent of formerly-young children, this had the added advantage of ensuring that the child in question would be certain to win the game, and quickly, but that is another story.)Īs a result, once children are old enough for virtually any other activity, Candy Land becomes very boring. In fact, the outcome is predetermined the pre-shuffled deck of cards one draws from dictates the outcome entirely. It’s a super-simple game with virtually no nuance Candy Land requires no reading skills, almost no counting skills, and has no strategy whatsoever. Good for ages three and up, it’s the gateway to the board gaming world for almost everyone, selling north of a million copies a year.
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If you’ve ever played a board game, chances are, you’ve played Candy Land.