#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.

Illustration of a notebook page with a MASH game written on it, crossed-out choices and the counting spiral
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.