This is Brok's fault, 'cause he reminded me...
When I was a kid we used to play this game called "The Floor Is Lava". Someone would yell "the floor is lava!" and immediately you'd have to jump onto furniture and get around the room or house without touching the floor. My mother liked to say it was to exercise my imagination, but looking back, it was just 'cause we were poor, so all I had WAS my imagination.
Me: "Hey Mum, I'm bored... can we get that new Nintendo system?"
Mum: "The floor is lava, kids!"
Us: "AAAAGH!" [jumps]
...
And when I was a kid - I used to play the B-52s really loudly whilst I jumped around. Don't ask why. But I'd just put the tape on automatic-switch-sides and listen to it over and over again until Mum made me go play outside.
I also used to make tents out of blankets and chairs. I miss that.
June 10 2006, 04:47:40 UTC 5 years ago
...i cant believe i only just remembered all of that. Weird. I also did the blankets-and-chairs thing. Or my brother and i would push two sofas face to face and hold wrestling matches on them. Whenever i played outside i would either scramble up to the highest possible point in the nearest tree, or build tiny cities out of sticks and stones, and dig little rivers and canals and lakes for them and fill them using the garden hose. I never destroyed them though, some would stay intact for weeks.
Then i started going to school, and my childhood was forever ruined. Le sigh.
June 10 2006, 05:22:33 UTC 5 years ago
My favourite thing ever though was being Harriet the Spy. I kept a notebook, climbed trees and wrote about what I saw up there. :-D
June 10 2006, 05:37:01 UTC 5 years ago
June 10 2006, 15:03:01 UTC 5 years ago
June 10 2006, 05:01:58 UTC 5 years ago
It had rooms. One for me to sleep and be the lookout. Another for my little cousin to sleep and be the OTHER lookout. And another for the KY-OH-TEAZE [sic]. We were bank robbers. My little sister (age 15, I'm 19) was making quesidillas, and we stole her cheese and hit it with the ky-owe-teaze. Then we stole my cat from my sister and turned it into a ky-owe-tea.
I'd babysit forever to keep myself young.
June 10 2006, 05:15:30 UTC 5 years ago
I also used to love to play post office. We had this toy that I am searching desperately for. We also had a huge matteress with two slots in it. I wrote letters that looked like:
June 10 2006, 08:53:06 UTC 5 years ago
..........ISN'T IT SAD THAT TODAY CHILDREN HAVE ELECTRONICS TO ENTERTAIN THEMSELVES! Each of you have an experience that involved creative thought and having read your journals for a long time----each of you are intelligent, possibly brilliant!
Perhaps economic deprevation is a positive thing. Those with more economic opportunities don't always have the opportunity to explore the depth of creative exploration brought on by necessity.
June 10 2006, 10:01:41 UTC 5 years ago
June 10 2006, 10:02:29 UTC 5 years ago
Was it even intentional, or did you just hit on a similiar joke by chance?
June 10 2006, 17:00:06 UTC 5 years ago
(I'm serious. No clue.)
June 10 2006, 17:25:51 UTC 5 years ago
June 10 2006, 13:11:04 UTC 5 years ago
June 10 2006, 17:09:04 UTC 5 years ago
June 10 2006, 16:12:51 UTC 5 years ago
when I come to visit-
we could totally make a pillow/blanket fort. :)June 10 2006, 17:09:16 UTC 5 years ago
Re: when I come to visit-
OMG YEAHJune 10 2006, 17:50:43 UTC 5 years ago
Like they say, buy a kid a $300 toy, and they'll spend hours playing with the box it came in.
June 11 2006, 17:43:04 UTC 5 years ago
presents
Parents: "well Ryan, do you either want a nintendo, or that surgery on your cat?"me: "my cat!"
Parents: "Well, crap, we allready bought you the nintendo."
me: "cries."
June 12 2006, 15:42:21 UTC 5 years ago
And the floor is lava is everyone's favorite game as a kid.