“This jumping rope belonged to an elderly antique collector who lived in Curaçao for many years”, one of the participants told us. “He didn’t have any heirs on the island and donated his entire collection to a second-hand shop before he passed away. Around the same time I had started collecting antique toys. When I saw the rope in the shop I thought it would be perfect for my collection.”

“After I had bought it I realized that this jumping rope had never been used! I never used it myself either since it was a collection piece. As a kid I had done a lot of jump roping but never with a rope that looked anything like this one. The ropes I used in my youth didn’t even have handles, they were just plain ropes. I played all types of children’s games. I especially loved playing hopscotch, which we called dyompo futu in Sranan Tongo, because my parents were from Surinam.”

“Another game that I liked very much is the one where you wrap a thread around your fingers creating patterns that get ever more complicated until everything is tangled up and you have to start all over again. I also played the typical children’s games like hide and seek and marble games. All in all I had a great childhood.”