We would like to offer the elderly residents of Białystok a sentimental journey into the past, during which they will remember the games and toys from their childhood. We want to show the younger generation how the Białystok residents used to have fun, as well as how they spent their free time, including the holiday time. We want to recall the times when the family, usually multi-generational, was of great importance in a child’s life, and when grandmothers and grandparents influenced the upbringing of the youngest. Together with you, we go back 60, 70, and in many cases even 100 years. It is a journey into the past, to the times when multi-generational families and neighbors naturally integrated with each other.
In the book, we grant voice to the people of Bialystok. They – the witnesses of history – are our guides in the world in which the ball and the bicycle (often assembled by oneself) were the greatest dream of a young man, and the free time was spent together with other children, many living in nearby houses.
In the second part of the publication, we present a guide to old backyard games. The inhabitants of Białystok helped us recreate them. We hope that it will become, like the whole book, an inspiration for the youngest to rediscover backyard games and enjoy being part of a group of peers with which you can explore their closer and further neighbourhood. We trust that the book will become a kind of platform for intergenerational understanding, common dialogue, bringing back the memories of older readers and the interest of younger readers, becoming a natural lesson about Białystok’s traditions and customs.
The publication is available at the Forum cinema’s box office (5 Legionowa St.) and Ludwik Zamenhof Center’s box office (19 Warszawska St.) for PLN 40.