Second time

Well, the first try seemed to be acceptable, so here goes again.

As time goes by, which it does, whether we like it or not, kids games change. My dad threw tops, and since nobody today knows what that is, I'll explain, to the best of my memory. The tops were wood cone shapes with the point of a two pointed sharp nail sticking out of the pointed end. They would wrap a strong string around the top, starting at the small end, and wind it around until they got near the top. They had tied a loop in the end of the string, which they put around their middle finger, and then threw the top to the ground and yanking up on the string set the top spinning.

Then the next boy would throw his top at the one spinning on the ground
trying to split the first top with the nail in his top. Then the next boy would throw. I have tried to throw these tops, but never at another top. Some times the string would catch on the top and when you yanked on it, and the top came flying back at you.

But one thing my dad never showed me was how to spin the dice out on a blanket so that the numbers he had up, stayed up. He never mentioned this skill but, one time when he came back from a company trip to Butte he gave back all the expense money the company had advanced him, and when questioned how he had not spent the expense money on the hotel and meals, he said there was a dice game, and he didn't need the company money.

He grew up in Misouri, and was in the infantry overseas in France in the trenches in WW1.

When WW2 started he told us boys to go into the Navy. You could get killed anywhere, but at least you had a clean place to sleep. We took his advice and all four of went into the Navy, and luckily we all came back alive.