Kids today might find this hard to believe, but there really was a period in time when smartphones didn’t exist. But how did they entertain themselves?. How did they survive without instant and constant access to hilarious videos of cats being cats and people failing at stuff?
Well, actually, they managed just fine. Check out these vintage pictures of children enjoying themselves before mobile phones were invented to see what we mean. Compiled by Bored Panda, the list serves as an important reminder that all you really need to enjoy yourself is a little bit of imagination. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite!
#1 Girl Playing For Her Dog
#2 Children In A Manchester Street Find Their Own Enjoyment With The Aid Of A Rope And A Lamp Post, 1946 
#3 Children Playing «Push The Peanut», King’s Cross Street London, 1938 
#4 Best Friends 
#5 Girl Dancing In Front Of Her Teddy Bear, Paris, 1961 
#6 Two Little Kids Dancing On The Streets Of New York City, 1940s 
#7 Paul Remos, A Circus Strongman, Hoists His Son Up In The Air Using Only His Right Arm To Feed A Giraffe At The London Zoo, 1950s 
#8 Three Boys Are Fishing For Change During The Great Depression, New York, 1930 
#9 Even The Dog Gets A Go On This See-Saw, Northamptonshire 
#10 Kids Playing With Skippy Balls, London 
#11 Child Hung Up On A Clothing Rope, Paris 
#12 Two Girls Ride Sheep 
#13 Children Drawing With Chalk, Manchester, 1966 
#14 Kids Dancing In The Street, New York, 1964 
#15 Children Playing, New York, 1940s 
#16 A Young Boy Wearing An Indian Headdress Hides In A Coal Hole And Takes Aim With A Toy Pistol, London, 1954 
#17 Police Officer Playing With Children, Harlem, 1978 
#18 Two Boys Engrossed In Their Comic Books, Outside On The Street, 1952 
#19 Catching Rain 
#20 Ten-Year-Old Martin Witter Watches Two Snails Race In His Home In Lynwood, California, 1954 
#21 Nun Dancing With Children On Saint Patrick’s Day, Ireland, 1964 
#22 Girls On Swings 
#23 Tuba Players, New York, 1940s 
#24 Girls Doing Handstands, Southam Street, London, 1956 
#25 The Little Marilyn, Paris 1975 
#26 Children Playing With Paper Boats, Paris, 1950 
#27 This Girl From Finchley, North London, Shows No Fear Of Being Dropped By Her Two Friends As They Play, 1954 
#28 Young Daughters Of Air Raid Wardens In South-east London Practising First Aid With The Aid Of Their Dolls, 1940 
#29 A Group Of Children In The Middle Of A Haystack In A Field In Pawling, New York, Early 20th Century 
#30 Children Playing Marbles, Missouri, 1940s 
#31 Children Playing In Paris Under The Eiffel Tower 
#32 Russian Child Plays On Homemade Swing Made On A German Cannon Left Behind, 1944 
#33 Girl In Japan, 1958 
#34 Children Playing, Ribeira, Porto 
#35 Kids Keeping Cool In The Summer, New York, 1937 
#36 Children Leaping With Umbrella, 1963 
#37 Children Playing In The Housing Slums Of Gorbals District, South Bank Of The River Clyde, Glasgow, 1960s 
#38 The Little Parisian, 1952 
#39 Youngster Playing In Water From Fire Hydrant. Police Are Waging Campaign Against Indiscriminate Opening Of Hydrants Since It Reduces Water Pressure And Poses A Threat To Fire Fighters, New York, 1959 
#40 Children Fishing In Victoria Park, London, 1953 
#41 Children Singing In A Snow Cave, Niigata Prefecture, 1956 
#42 An Eye On The Street, Glasgow, 1968 
#43 Boys Skateboarding In Streets Of New York, 1960s 
#44 A Group Of Boys Aged Between 8 — 14 Out At Play 
#45 Girls Playing With Their Skirts On An Air Vent 
#46 Children Balance On Rail In South Dakota, 1959 
#47 A Us Soldier Helps Some Children With Their Skipping, England, 1944 
#48 Boys Riding The Rails After The Liberation Of Holland, 1945 
#49 Two Girls Swing On A Lampost, Manchester, 1965 
#50 Children Walking Rue Marcelin Berthelin Berthelot, Choisy Le Roi Mai, Paris, 1946 
#51 German Kids Flying A Kite Made Of Worthless Money During Hyperinflation, 1923 
#52 Children Playing With A Bike Wheel, Palermo, 1971 
#53 Children Playing With Stacks Of Hyperinflated Currency During The Weimar Republic, 1922 
#54 Girls Playing, Barcelona, 1958 
#55 Two Children Have Great Fun Hanging Upside Down Off A Low Rail In Stockport, 1966 
#56 Kids Play With Boxes 
#57 Children Looking At Billboard Adds, New York, 1950s 
#58 Girls Playing Hopscotch In The Street, New York, 1947 
#59 Two Girls Playing In Sydney Slums, Mainly Surry Hills, Woolloomooloo, Redfern, 1949 
#60 Youngsters Play In Harlem Street In The 1920’s 
#61 Young Boys Swinging From A Lamp Post In The Midst Of Rubble Left By A Bombing Raid On London During The Blitz, 1940
#62 Kids Play In The Street, New York, 1900s 
#63 Two Girls Play With Their Tricycles, 1920s 
#64 London Children Wear Their Gas Masks As They Skip In The Park At Their Temporary Homes On The South Coast Of England, 1940 
#65 Children Playing A Game Of Leap-frog In A Street In Harlem, New York, 1935 
#66 Girls Peeping 
#67 German Kids Playing On A Panther Tank Turret Following The Fall Of Berlin, 1945 
#68 Children Playing On Waste Ground, Middlesbrough, England, 1976 
#69 Children Climbing Walls, Amsterdam, 1964 
#71 Kids Playing On Rue Edmond-Flamand, Paris, 1952#70 Children Playing With Toy Guns, Rome, 1951 
#72 Kids Play In A Fort, New York 
#73 Children In Swansea Make The Most Of This Climbing Frame, 1939 
#74 Girls Playing, Italy, 1954 
#75 Two Boys Playing At Water’s Edge With Toy Sailboat, 1930 
#76 Fifteen Children Enjoy A Ride In London’s Bloomsbury 
#77 Children Peeping Through The Window 
#78 Boy Climbing A Pole, Paris 
#79 Children Playing In An Area Of Bomb-damaged Wasteground In Stepney, In The East End Of London, 9th March 1946 
#80 Girls Jump Rope In Zennor Road, London, 1960s 
#81 Children Playing, New York, 1940s 
#82 Pupils Walking On Rue De Rivoli, Paris, 1978 
#83 Kids Playing In A Fire Hydrant, New York, 1954 
#84 A View Of Children Playing Hopscotch In The Street In Spanish Harlem, 1965 
#85 Children Playing With Sleigh In The Snow, Oxford, 1903
#86 Young Boys Playing Stickball In Vacant Lot Next To An Apartment Building, New York, 1947 
#87 Kids Splashing Water, New York, 1942 
#88 Children Balancing On A Wall, France, 1949 
#89 Three Children Playing Golf With Clubs Made Of Sticks, 1905 
#90 Two Young Girls Play A Campbell Soup Kid Doll, New York, 1912 
#91 Children Playing At The Berlin Wall Near Bernauer Strasse. The Three Boys Are Climbing Up The Wall And Moving Along A Barbed Wire Fence Alongside The Wall Hand By Hand, 1963 
#92 Children Playing Cricket In A London Street, With The Wicket Drawn On A Lamppost, 1930 
#93 Girls’ Playground, Harriet Island, 1905 
#94 Children Play In The Gutter In The Southern Section Of The Bronx During The Great Depression, New York, 1936 
#95 Boys Posing For A Photo 
#96 Children Playing In London’s Bethnal Green Area, 1949-52 
#97 A Group Of German Children Playing War, 1915 
#98 Playing Cricket On Wasteground In Manchester, 1970
#99 Children Play In Slum Housing Area In Hulme, Manchester, 1946
#100 Kindergarten Children Playing With Plasticine, 1910
#101 Children Playing In The Streets, Paris 
#102 These Young Neapolitans Like The Danger Of The Strictly-forbidden Practise Of Hanging Onto The Backs Of Street Cars, 1948 
#103 Group Of Gleichen Boys Playing In Rubber Tires, Alberta, 1920s 
#104 Girl Playing Stickball, New York, 1947 
#105 Kids Play During Recess In School 
#106 Game At A Girls’ Orphanage, Naples, 1948 
#107 Brooklyn Boy Gang, New York, 1946 
#108 Young Boys Hitch A Ride, London, 1941 
#109 Children In A Street, Paris, 1953
#110 Kids Playing In Water After Busting A Hydrant, New York, 1953
