The Games People Play...

...or more specifically, my brother and/or dad and I played.

We played all sorts of things just like any normal children would, but there are a few games that were maybe "different" than what others played and bring back some memories for me.

1) I remember playing hockey in the basement with my Dad and brother. There wasn't a lot of room and we played with a wiffle ball and it was always 2 on 1 and there was never any need for heavy padding. High sticking was never an issue since (a) we were very young and (b) a raised stick would almost certainly be rewarded with a shower of glass from 1 of the 3 bare lightbulbs illuminating our "rink".

2) Hall hockey, for lack of a better term, was a game that my dad and I played while my brother was still too young. We had a long hallway that ran almost the entire length of our house. The playing equipment was minimal. All that was required were two wooden rulers and a checker (wooden). Dad would lay in the living room or kitchen at one end and I would lay down in the bedroom at the other end of the hall. The only thing sticking out into the hallway was your head and arm. It was necessary to have all the doors shut down the hallway. The object, slap the "puck" with your ruler (stick) toward the opposing end in an attempt to get the puck by your opponent and hit the closet door at the end of the hallway. Any contact with the closet door by the puck was considered a goal. I don't know if it was the thrill of the game or the fact that it was just dad and me time or the fact that dad always made grape slush (essentially a homemade icee) after the game but playing this game is one of my earliest memories.

3) From the world of stange and weird make-believe...there was always the hurricane game. This wasn't as much a game as it was "play acting". Shut-up, I was young and at least I didn't have an imaginary friend to play it with. Being out on the farm, it was pretty open space and windy days were REALLY windy! On a beautiful windy fall day, my brother and I would pretend that we were caught up in a hurricane and one of us would get trapped in some horrible predicament and the other one would have to come to the rescue! Luckily we always made it back to some safe haven, just in the nick of time! We had some great made up story lines. I'm sure had Paramount known about them we'd be rich...okay...maybe not but we had fun anyway.

Next: The high school years...

(I may have to break the next post down into parts ... depending on what bits I decide to burden you with. I do however promise that I won't take 7 days to update it again! Thanks for being patient. I'm gonna try to at least get a post in every other day <weekends excluded>.)