Sometime over the summer, I was driving and listening to the radio, when I heard the DJs talking about favorite childhood memories. They put the question out to their listening audience for people to call in: what is your favorite memory from childhood?
I kind of spaced out after that, but it got me thinking about my favorite childhood memories. The first thing that sprang to my mind was a game of sorts that my brothers and sister and I used to play. Around Christmas time mom would decorate the house for the holidays and winter gear would emerge from storage. Part of the decorations included greenery and lights wrapped around the banister in the hallway.
Now when it's cold and nasty out as it gets during Midwestern winters, kids tend to go just a little stir crazy. This was before video games, computers, and 100+ channels had become part of family life, so my siblings and I became very good at entertaining ourselves. We came up with this game where you had to crawl down the stairs head-first. We did this during other times of the year too, but it was more fun at Christmastime because of the lights.
During winter we also added another element. Going back to the winter gear... Since my dad works in agriculture, we had an unending supply of feed jackets (Pioneer and SuperSweet) lying around the house. One jacket in particular was this enormous (either XL or XXL) red jacket that was way too big for anyone in the house. We would stick our legs through the arms, zip the coat up, and wear them as pants. Because they were massive, we would then stuff the body of the coat with blankets and put another coat on top and zipped that up as well.
The result? We were enormous when we wore the stuffed coats, and in our kid world, it was the funniest thing ever. We were like little Sumo wrestlers. Then we would combine the hilarity of our "fat suit" with the fun of going head first down the stairs. The coats made the stair game all the more exciting since the stairs were uncarpeted and the jackets were made from a slick fabric. I'd imagine it made our game a bit more dangerous too.
I realize that our game was really silly and certainly not very politically correct, but we had endless fun playing it.
When my sister was out visiting in late July, I mentioned the radio show and the DJ's question. Before I even had a chance to say what my favorite memory was, she blurted out that her favorite one was the fat suit/stairs game. I love that we share the same favorite memory. It was such a simple, ridiculous game, but shouldn't childhood be simple and just a little ridiculous at times?
So now I ask you: what is your favorite memory from childhood?
1 comment:
What a wonderful holiday we had this year!
1) Of course the stairs and the fat suits! I remember the fun of sliding down the stairs. I was rarely brave enough to go down headfirst though!
2) One winter when I was probably 9 or 10 we had a great deal of snow and the most amazing drifts. There was a snow "hallow" under a tree that was either growing sideways or partially fallen in the windbreak. I would just sit in the hallow and listen to the quiet; sheltered from the wind by the snow. The next winter I went back looking for the tree and it had completely fallen to the ground. My snow haven was gone.
3) Every Sunday when we were growing up dad would watch football and fall a sleep on the couch. Usually the living room would be darkened by grandma's quilts thrown over the curtain rods (or at least that is how I remember it. When I was quite little, probably under 5, I would crawl up on the couch with dad and fall asleep. I remember the sounds of the game and the security of the couch.
4)I was a very girly girl as a child. I loved to play with dolls, dress up, house, etc. One time mom and I had a tea party in the kitchen. We used my pink and blue tea set. I remember we were having "tea and crumpets". I think we were actually sipping on kool-aid and nibbling on soda crackers :)
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