Trip Down Memory Lane Pt. 2- The two magic words.

After my last "puke", I got a really good response from people that loved the memories that I dug up for them.  I have a lot of memories and I like being able to put them down on here before I'm too old to remember them, which isn't that far away. 

Well since the last topic, I got to thinking deeper about the whole childhood play thing.  I got to thinking about what the difference with kids are today.  Why do they seem to play so different than we did when we were children?  I think there are several factors to that answer, but I also feel that it comes down to two little words that we would use as children just before the playtime would get AWESOME.  We would be sitting there and looking for something to do, and someone in the group would spout out these two wonderful words that would take your time together to a whole different level.  What would they say?  What was the secret to all of life unanswered questions?  What two words could possibly be so strong that they would eat up the rest of the day for us children full of fun and adventure?  Here they are folks. . . .the two magic words. . . .

"Let's Pretend. . . ."


Oh my goodness could those words change the course of your day.  You could be just running around aimlessly, which we did a lot by the way, and one of you would say, "Hey!!!  Let's pretend that we are cops and we have to go find the bad guys in the woods."  We would all get that little gleam in our eyes as the wheels started turning.  Who was I going to be.  The tough, angry cop that would take no gruff from anyone? The smart, friendly cop that would look for the clues and report my findings to the rest of the officers?  Or, even better, was I really a cop that was a BAD GUY?  I would help them discover the clues and then at the last moment, reveal that it was really me then run off laughing into the woods as they would make chase.

Then, once that scenario was finished, we would be huffing and puffing from the chase, and we would look at each other like, "What's next?"  So again, one of us would say, "Okay.  Now let's pretend that we are army men.  You guys are the Germans, and we will be the Americans!" (Cause I wasn't no Commie)  We would give them a head start to go out into the woods to hide.  We would yell, "We'll count to 100.  GO!!!"  Then we would begin our count as they took off.  The counting would always go like this:

  "1,2,3,4,7,10,14,17,20,21,23,28,30,32,39,40,47,49,50,55,57,60,62,66,69,70,74,75,77,80,89,90,91,93,

100!!!!!!!!!!"

Just to let some of you know the tricks of the count.  You would ALWAYS yell out the main numbers like, 10, 20, 30, etc. because that let the enemy know that you were counting.  Plus, it gave them a warning as to how soon you were going to unleash God's wrath upon them.  

Now two things could happen during the counting stage.  One -  They could run off and once you got to 100, you would head out after them, or. . . One of the German commies would only go a little way out so they could hear you counting.  COMMIE PIG!!!!   Then once they heard your counting infractions, they would make it known to their team.   "HEY!!!!  You're not counting right.  OLLY, OLLY, OXEN, FREE!!!  They are cheating."  Then everyone would come stumbling back and you would have to start the whole count thing again.  It was so hard NOT to cheat when chasing those Germans.  *sigh*  So then once the game would finally begin, we would go on the hunt for those Commies. 

Now you might ask, and maybe your aren't but I'm going to tell you anyways, just what were we using for guns?  Well, just about any object can be used as long as it resembled a gun in ANY shape or form.  Now a few of our friends had the luxury of actually having a couple of toy guns in their possession, those were the popular ones of the group during army time.  They would usually let one or two of us borrow one of them and that was ONLY if you were on their team.  A friend of mine had the coolest WWII toy rifle and that made all of us jealous and envious of him.  I wanted that rifle SO bad, but alas, it never came true.  Dang you Santa Clause!!! 

Now if you were one of the unlucky ones that didn't get a real, fake gun, then you had to make do with what ever you could find.  Sticks was usually the chosen item.  If you could find the perfectly shaped stick, you were in Heaven.  The perfect bend in the limb, the perfect fit in your hand, and just the right size made it fit for duty.  So once all of us 12 year old boys were "armed", we were ready for the battle to end all battles.  Well at least until tomorrow when we would do it all over again.

What were the rules?  Simple.  Find an enemy and point your stick at them and go. . . "BANG, BANG,BANG.   I got you!!!"  Then your enemy would have to not do anything but lay down for 10 seconds before they would magically come back to life and get back in the action.  Of course, you had already run off in search of more enemies to kill Rambo style.  How did we determine the winner?   I have NO earthly idea.  We just would play all day.  No need to keep score, no need to count the kills, just shot and die, rise from the dead and do it again and again.  That's what made pretend time so awesome.  We used our imagination over and over and it made it real to us.  Now sometimes we would go all out with "Let's pretend wartime".  We would dress in full camo, paint our faces in camo paint, and take canteens and food out in the woods so we could play the entire day and not have to be bothered with reality. 

That is exactly what made pretend time so great.  We escaped reality into a world of imagination and we made it real.  We were hunters, heroes, villains, soldiers, cowboys, monsters, and anything else our little minds could muster.   I think that is what is missing with the kids today.  There is roughly NOTHING that is left to their imagination anymore.  They have video games, computer games, hand held games, TV, movies, and the Internet that can show them ANYTHING they want to see.  They don't need to imagine it, they just need to know what website they need to go to find it.  I think that's what is truly sad today.  You put kids together in a room and pretty soon they are talking about what latest video game they just got, what movie they just saw, or what website they are addicted to.  There is no use for imagination.

Well I, for one, still hold on to my imagination.  I can remember simpler times when all it took to have a good time was our minds.  We didn't need electronics, we didn't need computers, and if we watched a cool movie we would run outside and act it out.  Can someone say Star Wars?  I loved pretending I was Princess Leia. . . . Um. . . .Just kidding.  I was just seeing if you were paying attention.

So once again I hope I was able to stir up another memory in one or two of you and take you back to a time when you remember those two magic words that would begin a day of adventure.  Close your eyes and think back to a time when you were surrounded by your friends and someone said. . . . .

"Let's Pretend. . . . "



Smile!!!