5 magical kid-hood games that we thought held all of life’s answers

For this week’s #TBT I thought we’d go back in time and reminisce about all things we thought held the answers to LIFE when we were kids. (In the interest of full disclosure, please understand that I’m an adult woman who always announces being a Virgo – that’s a Virgo trait – who just came into possession of this book:)

So maybe I took these things wayyyyy more seriously as a kid than any of the other kids. That said, my child-self was convinced that the following items and games held the secrets to the universe and my future soul. Let’s take a look in the rearview mirror and reminisce about the wonder that was these very magical items. They knew everything.

1. Oujia Boards

When we had questions — especially in middle school — the first place my friends and I turned was the Ouija board. We asked it important questions like “does _____ have a crush on me?” and “when will I get my period?” and “am I ever gonna get boobs?” (Okay, those last two questions were specifically me and the Ouija board did not come up with the correct answers which were: “in 8th grade” and “eventually, in college.”)

We loved this thing even though we all totally knew Michelle was controlling it and it didn’t mean anything and why did she want David to like her anyway?! We watched a lot of Now and Then and The Craft and though we loved their séances, those seemed much scarier and harder to set up so a Ouija board was a good option.

2. Magic 8 Ball

The lamer cousin to the Ouija board was of course, the Magic 8 Ball. It was fun because of the simplicity and you could ask a ton of questions but of course most of the time the answers were . . .  not so useful. Also, it gets really hard to think of ways to ask about your life in yes or no questions after a while.

3. MASH

The ultimate in figuring out who you’d end up with, MASH was all the rage at sleepovers. I am also here to tell you that this game is STILL fun to play with your high school friends when you’re adults. (As long as you only use people from high school, natch.)

MASH felt like going to an actual fortuneteller. Well, it felt like going to a fortuneteller if you REALLY BELIEVE in fortunetellers. I was CONVINCED Derek and I would live in a mansion and drive a blue BMW and have 10 kids, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT MASH TOLD ME!

4. Cootie Catcher

A cootie catcher or, “you know, that paper fortune teller thingy” was the most fun to do at lunch. Of course the only downside was the amount of planning that had to go into it. Surely, now they must make pre-printed ones?! Because, let me tell you, I usually ran out of steam midway through making one of these suckers and started re-using phrases. #oops

5. Pop Tabs

Now let’s play a game called “was my middle school the only place that did this?”: now, I mostly drank Snapples at lunch but on the occasion that we had cans of soda we’d immediately play pop tabs. You’d bend the tab back and forth on the can saying the alphabet on each bend and whatever letter it broke off on was the letter of the person who liked you! Then we’d display them on our sneakers or wrists or whatever if we got a good letter.

I thought that this was the voice of the heavens coming down to me and promising my crush would propose. Heavy stuff.

(Bob’s Burgers ouija pic , MASH pic , cootie catcher gif via, pop tabs pic via)