In A NutshellXXIII

In a Nutshell

A place set aside to answer 201 autobiographical questions
from a mother for her daughter. This may take awhile...join us if you like.

23. Games I liked to play as a child and youth were.

Outdoors, I grew from hide 'n' seek, hop scotch, jacks, jump rope, cowboys and Indians, through horses and rocket ships to baseball, volley ball, and tennis. After I got hit in the face by a baseball (which broke my glasses and got glass in my eye which had to be removed by an optometrist), those ball games were less attractive. I could never again face a ball coming at me without needing to duck.

Indoor games were for cold weather or night or when you were sick. We played Parcheesi, checkers, Chinese checkers, go fish, canasta, Monopoly, and sometimes poker.

I have to admit that I never was a real game person -- I much preferred to do my own thing. To explore and swing and ride my bike and skate outdoors, to read and talk to friends indoors. I used to make doll clothes, when I was about six. I remember cutting up a man's sock to make a two piece bathing suit for my doll.

I also remember when I was six, playing with Maria and Lupe a game where we would run up and down the road yelling, "Ay, Cisco!" "Ay, Pancho" which was based on the Cisco Kid, a radio program we all loved.

There was the famous croquet games that resulted in my hitting Forrest over the head with my racket because he was cheating.

Later, when Richard and Julie were little, we played all sorts of board games. It was how I taught them math skills -- in the beginning, they had to count the pips on a die and then count that number of moves, and then repeat with the other die. But, very soon they would throw the dice and add them in their heads. Then we made it interesting. Sometimes they had to subtract the smaller number from the larger (a game can last a long time when throwing a six and a four results in moving two squares instead of ten) and eventually they had to multiply the dice by each other. Yahtzee dice could be used and then they had to take the color of the highest die they had thrown to decide what the mathematical operation was and go from there. But, all of that was when they were little, not me.