We didn’t play any video games as kids, my dad would have never allowed that. He’d probably call them ridiculous time wasters and find us something better to do with our time, that included some kind of work.

We did play card games sometimes in the evenings, in winter when the days were short and the dark was long. Winter also gives the farmer some reprieve from the go go go of farm life. We played Rummy and another game he called Holla (Halla?), I’m not sure of the exact name but dad said it came over with his parents from the old country. It involved playing as partners, not just individuals, which always seems to ramp up the competition.
Besides snakes and ladders and the odd game of checkers with the kids when they were small, I have not played many board games. Usually around the holidays we’ll gather for a game of Monopoly but it seems to get out of hand and someone ends up angry and quits.
When I first got an iPhone I was obsessed with Candy Crush, naturally. But that’s really about the only game I’ve tried other than Mahjong, which is a nice time waster.
I have fond memories of the games I played on the playground at school as a kid. Red Rover, Dodgeball and Cat’s Cradle. I loved hula hooping too. Once when I was probably nine or ten I set my mind to being placed in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest time hula hooping. I think I made it to about the 45 minute mark and quit to go eat supper. Of course we didn’t actually own a real hula hoop, it was the round plastic tubing from a duck blind, with the net removed. Worked well but the circumference was quite a bit larger than an actual hula hoop.
Leave a reply to Mr. B Cancel reply