Once Upon a Time: True Stories of an Aspiring Writer

5: Imagine-Nation

I NEVER WATCHED MUCH TV.

Some Sesame Street, of course. The occasional Playhouse Disney show like Allegra's Window,  Bear in the Big Blue House, and so on, mostly when I was in preschool. Some Clifford in the morning and Arthur after school a bit later on. Movies weren't too frequent, either. Mostly I watched Disney tapes. 

I found ways to pass the time, preferring worlds of my own creation. Here are a few of the time-wasters I've come up with over the earlier years of my life and how to play them. They come in a few categories.

SITUATIONAL GAMES I PLAYED (SOMETIMES WITH FRIENDS OR FAMILY) AND HOW TO PLAY THEM

THE DUCKING GAME 
All we needed was a car and willing participants. These were usually grandparents.

All we did was duck  whenever we passed under a traffic light. Otherwise, we might bump our heads! (This is where it helps to have the participants be willing to play along and say something like, "Oh, I thought I felt my head bonk against something a little!") Most important, though, was to say "duck duck duck duck duck!" until the traffic light threat passed.

Sometimes they pretended to be confused. Grandpa in particular often said, "goose goose goose!" 

One time I tried to correct him. "When we go under the light, you have to say 'duck,' Grandpa," I said. We came to the next traffic light. "Duck, Grandpa! Duck, Grandpa!" And so on. 

Kelly was sometimes bored with the duck part and suggested everyone get a free pass where everyone said an animal noise of their choice. I disagreed, but grandparents being grandparents, they gave her a turn. Depending on the length of the drive, we might have had 3 free passes. 

The Ducking Game eventually became forgotten (we would later spend drives taking turns adding a sentence to a story about the four of us, while wondering what crazy sentence Grandpa would come up with next). But for a time in my life, it was a great highlight, one that was nearly forgotten until I sat down to write. 

FURBY LOVERS' BASKETBALL 
Anybody can enjoy this game because unlike what the name says, it has nothing to do with those creepy Furbies. Christine and I needed a name for our new indoor recess game, and this one sufficed because, well, we both used to love Furbies in first grade. It wasn't wrong. 

All we did was take turns shooting three shots at a basketball hoop. Points were awarded accordingly and the winner was whoever had the most points at the end of recess.

If the ball goes straight in= one point

If the ball hits the painted square on the backboard around the hoop before going in= 2 points

If the ball circles the rim before going in= 3 points.

COIN TOSS
On Fridays, our school offered after-school clubs. From robotics to stamping to art, I tried many things over the years. At dismissal, we would wait in the gym until our respective activity leaders came down to get their group. 

Christine and I both partook in fifth grade, and we needed a time-waster until it was time to head off to our respective activity. Here is what we did:

We loved the Microsoft Office Assistant characters, which you'll hear about later.  Short version: these were animated characters in programs like Word that popped up to help you after you pressed F1. So we made a game with them: on a sheet of looseleaf paper, we wrote the names of characters all over surrounded by a circle, like Clippit or Rocky or Merlin. We colored in the circles.