Sunday Scribbles: The Wees Get in Trouble, Often

When we were wee, oh dear, did our imaginations run wild. By brother, sister and I were nothing less then renegades in the play realm, complete with superpower skills in making up new games, rules, and ideas! As I go back, delve down and deep into my memory…so deep they live in the belly of history I can remember a world all our own – a world so innocent we seemed to have a shield around us protecting us from ourselves because, you see, as I look back I wonder how we ever got away with half the things we did.

Yard Darts, remember the game? The rules were simple. There are two teams, one team had yellow darts the other team had red. These darts were on steroids, heavy enough to hold flight in the air and gigantic. The aim was to throw the darts one at a time aiming for a plastic hollahoop type ring a distance away. The more darts that made it in the circle, the more points your team gained. The adults in my family loved this game bringing them out whenever there was a party. While the darts were retired to the garage, my brother and sister and I got a wonderful idea. Wouldn’t it be fun if one of us ran between the trees while the other two threw the yard darts at them? I mean come on, fun right? This was dodge ball meets Fear Factor and we had a blast to say the least. Never got hurt, nope. Did more damage to each other making mud pies.

Then there was the water game. My brother, sister and I came up with Ride’em horsey. Take a standard oversized inner tube and sit on it while floating placidly in the water. This game is for two people at a time, while the third person watches to make sure the riders don’t get too close to the edge. We thought ahead. Each person on the tube sits directly across from each other, putting one foot firmly under the butt of the other person. Now each rider simply starts a rocking, and a rocking, then a rocking some more and like a rodeo horse bucking and thrashing, the tube goes up higher and higher. The end goal is to flip the tube, your counterpart being thrusted off into the air while yelping and screaming "Yeehaw!" If this happens, you’re the winner. Please note, this game is best played in the absence of the parental units, preferably with the supervision of a babysitter who believes you when you say “Oh, Mom & Dad let’s us play this all the time.”

Then there were the chores. I grew up with a huge yard in the city. It took hours to rake leaves, a chore handed down to us kids the second we had the motor skills to do it. It took even longer when we had to stop and fight the evil in the universe with our handy-dandy rake swords. Side note, I was Han Solo. Once, Dad bought us a leaf blower, thinking this would make our task a little easier and faster. For us, this was like going from Jedi Swords to laser guns. Remember the yard dart game we made up? Now picture the person running from tree to tree while the other person shoots Smarty candies from the leaf blower at them. Halloween was a good time to stock up on projectile candy.

Dusting in the house became towel snapping fun as we perfected our twist and snap techniques. And cooking usually ended up with one of us being Julia Childs, while another was the cook from the Muppets, and the third was the Creolle cook guy from TV, complete with “I done did that.” I admit, we fought over who got to be Chief from the Muppets!

We three little wees, were wonderful companions as children. There were game boards, and coloring books, and cards, and games that were made up on the spot. With a piece of string, a straw and gum, we could make ourselves a world of trouble. I will leave you with one more story from the time when we were wee.

My sister and I shared a room growing up, bunk beds our sleeping abodes. My sister, the older one, slept on the top bunk, while I slept below. One time, while my Dad was in the kitchen cooking, we got a great idea. Wouldn’t it be fun if we took the bed railings and slid down them into the closet? See, the closet would offer a cushioned stop. It was great fun, complete with “wees” all the way down. Of course they were quiet “wees” because deep down, we knew we were doing something we shouldn’t be doing. We simply used the loophole that no one told us we couldn’t do it…seeing that we hadn’t made it up yet. Well, at some point we got the brilliant idea for all three of us to slide down at once. If you’re a parent, you probably know the end of this story…as soon as we hit the middle of our ride “CRACK” went the rail and we plummeted down. I remember Dad yelling “What was that?” We three wee’s mustering as much innocence in our voices as we could in a hot second simultaneously responded “Nothing!” The ending to this story was Dad coming into our room catching us trying to duct tape the rails with the biggest grin on our faces.

I love duct Tape!

And yes, even after reviewing my childhhood I want three kids. I've watched childbirth, changed diapers, sat up all night with a crying baby...I think three is ideal to keep each other occupied while growing up!