#Fortune Telling

3 items

A folded paper fortune teller (cootie catcher), its flaps marked with numbers and patterned in pink and black
Trends 1880s–present

Paper Fortune Tellers

The folded-paper contraption you worked with your fingers to tell someone their future. Pick a color, pick a number, and under the last flap was your fate — who you'd marry, or something rude your friend had written. The classroom fortune-teller you could make out of a single square of notebook paper.

A Magic 8 Ball seen from above, showing the white 8 on its black shell
Toys 1950–present

Magic 8 Ball

A black ball filled with mysterious blue liquid promised to answer any question: yes, no, maybe, or "Ask again later." The Magic 8 Ball has been the same since 1950, which is why it was still the first place you looked when you needed an answer your crush wouldn't give you.

Placeholder illustration for the MASH pencil game
Trends 1980s–present (true origin unrecorded)

MASH

The pencil-and-paper fortune game that predicted your whole adult life in a few minutes: who you'd marry, what car you'd drive, how many kids you'd have, and — the joke of the whole thing — whether you'd end up in a Mansion, an Apartment, a Shack, or a House.