childhood games
4:47 p.m. x 2003-08-27
I came across something on this site that will help me get through these writing funks. Thanks LeAnn for giving me the link to begin with.
I'm going to take these slips from the website that are meant to help kids write in their journals and I'm going to use them to write in mine. That way my diary won't be so lonely all the time.
So, here's the first try:
When you were a child, what games did you play in your house or neighborhood?
Well, we did the usual thing where we played hide and go seek, and we played board games on rainy days like Candyland. (nobody can forget candyland.)
There were other board games from back then too, like this one that I don't think they sell anymore. Basically, you pushed down on this globe thing in the middle and it rolled the dice for you so you could move around the board. I had fun just pushing the thing and making the noise from it. It all came to an end when I took it in the tub with me, though, and the cardboard bottom got wet.
Also, we did things like "What time is it Mr Fox?" and "Duck, duck, goose."
My favorite is the one that we made up, though. I was an only child back then so this was something that my neighbors and I came up with. My dad would pull the car out of the garage and we'd run back and forth, around the house, through the front then the back of the garage, and every time we went past each other, we yelled "Let a rip!"
Well, this shows how screwed up I was even then, for one thing. Yes, my mother taught me that phrase, and yes, she actually said "Let 'er rip!" meaning "Let a fart." but I didn't care and neither did Teresa, Tracy, or Stacy.
I remember when we first got old enough to start playing these games, Stacy was still pretty little. She's two years younger than I am, so if I started school at age 5, she was only 3.. Teresa was one year older than me, and that was her sister. Tracy was the neighbor on the other side of them and she was two years older than I was. Therefore, when they were ready to play these games, and I was finally ready to play without crying because I was little and came in last, Stacy was at that point. I used to hate racing against her in any way because she was so damn slow and we had to let her win. I used to try to con them into sending her home any way I could. Later, when she got older, Stacy and I became best friends for a couple of years but once I went onto second stage elementary school and she was in first stage, we kinda drifted apart because we only saw each other after school and that was limited with dinner times and family outings and other friends, you get the point.
I drive by the old neighborhood from time to time. My old house is the same as it was back then on the outside, except that the trim is white now instead of brown and he took out the flower bed that was next to the front door. Teresa and stacy's parents did a lot of work to their house over the years and it doesn't look anything like it did back then. It's the same shape but it's a different color and the landscaping has come a long way from the few bushes they had in front of the picture window. I haven't seen any of them in years and the last time I saw Chris (the mom) I did my thing where I look the other way. I think she saw me but she did the same thing.
She was a major gossip when it came to my mom and later my stepmom, and they just plain didn't like my dad because he was more or less a hick. I think it kind of carried over onto their perception of me, and I think they're snobby, but I still have dreams that the wind is flying past us and my little legs are going as fast as they'll carry me while we play let a rip, then stop to eat steak off the grill, pick veggies from the garden, and take a dip in the pool or a run through the sprinkler.