One of my favorite game as a child was “trompo” or “whipping top”, which consists of throwing the “trompo” and having it spin on the floor. Because of its shape, a trompo spins on its axis and swirls around its conic tip which is usually made of iron or steel. A trompo uses a string wrapped around it to get the necessary spin. The player must roll the cord around the trompo from the metallic tip up.
Another game was “Mata chola.” To make “chola”, you have to get a pair of used socks, combine the two so that one is inside another, then fill the socks with sand stockings wrapped in cotton wool in order to obtain a small ball of cotton-coated sand, this special ball is called chola, that is tied to a post with a long string, this game is played with two or more players, two players are placed facing each other, one of them hits the ball and that makes it wind up on the pole, the other player hits the “chola” counterclockwise, at last the game finishes when a player get to wrap the chola around the pole based on hits. “Mata chola” literally is “kill the chola” (a woman from a poor village).
The other kind of games is individual games, when I was a child I used to collect “chapas” (bottle caps, small circular pieces of metal), then I started to count. I used to separate them in group of fives, tens, twenties, etc (I think at that time I developed my ability to count). When I had already collected many bottle caps, I hit each bottle cap with a hammer in order to obtain a small circular plane piece of metal. After that I picked up a hammer and a nail to perforate two holes in the middle of the bottle cap, then with a long string I passed through two holes, then I spun the cap a lot. I pulled hard to obtain bottle cap spins with a high velocity. I picked up a piece of paper to divide it, into two small parts, it was wonderful for me as a child.
Other times I used to collect milk cans. I built a small pyramid of cans with a ball. I tried to bring down the pyramid of cans. The game ended when each can was laid out, in other case you had to build again the pyramids and the game would start again.
In the neighborhood where I used to live there were many children of the same age and I used to play late in the street.
[After you picked up the piece of paper, what did you do with it? It seems to me that in order to cut it in two, it would have to be in tension. One of your hands was busy spinning the cap and string, leaving only one hand to hold the paper – but then how would the paper be in tension? I’m guessing you either had someone else hold the paper, or you held it down with some sort of weight or clamp.]
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