In honor of Family History Month, your challenge is to answer five questions from each Weekly Planner topic–or make up five of your own if you’d like. This week’s topic is fun and games. Here are some questions to get you started:
- What was your favorite game when you were a child? Were you a board game enthusiast? A card shark? Or perhaps a kick-the-can kid?
- Did you play any particular games with your family as a child? Easter egg hunts? Thanksgiving Day football games? Scavenger hunts? Charades?
- What were some fun places you visited as a child? Did your family go camping? Did you take family vacations? Was there a local destination that was a family favorite?
- What activities did you do with family members? Did Grandma teach you to sew? Who taught you to cook? Did you go fishing with Grandpa? An uncle? Who coached your baseball team?
- Did you enjoy watching professional sports? What was your favorite team? Do you have any special memories of sporting events?
Feel free to share your memories in the Comments section of the blog; or, if you have a blog, post a link to your responses. Your memories may help spark the memories of other readers who had similar experiences. For more interesting questions, see TheRememberingSite.org.
Previous challenges:
I’ll kick this week’s newsletter off with my memories.
1.) What was your favorite game when you were a child? Were you a board game enthusiast? A card shark? Or perhaps a kick-the-can kid?
Definitely a “Kick-the-can” kid, although I also remember one summer when a friend and I had a marathon game of monopoly. I also loved card games and one of my fondest memories was of my Aunt Chula teaching me how to play Canasta. One of these days I need to refresh my memory on the rules so I can teach it to my daughter.
2.) Did you play any particular games with your family as a child? Easter egg hunts? Thanksgiving Day football games? Scavenger hunts? Charades?
I remember playing the license plate game when we were on our annual vacation trip (the one where you had to find a license plate from every state). We also did an Easter egg game where we’d put clues in those plastic eggs, with each clue leading to the next egg and eventually a prize at the end. When we get together at my parents’ house at Easter, all of the grandkids still enjoy this game.
When we visited cousins in New Jersey, our favorite game was flashlight tag. We’d all team up and run around with flashlights at night, trying to find other teams before they found us. Lots of laughter and lots of fun!
3.) What were some fun places you visited as a child? Did your family go camping? Did you take family vacations? Was there a local destination that was a family favorite?
Every year we took a vacation, either out east to see cousins in New York or west to Texas to see cousins in El Paso. I used to help my dad pack the car and learned from the best. My husband still marvels at how much I can cram into the trunk. 😉
4.) What activities did you do with family members? Did Grandma teach you to sew? Who taught you to cook? Did you go fishing with Grandpa? An uncle? Who coached your baseball team?
My grandmother taught me how to embroider, knit, and crochet, and my mom taught me how to cook and sew. I remember loving to hear stories from my grandma too. When she would come to visit, we would pull out the globe and she would tell me about all the places she had visited.
Grandpa Pyburn taught me how to swim when we visited him in Texas. He was a member of Skyriders swimming pool in El Paso and going there with him was one of the big thrills of our trip to Texas. I remember watching people go off the high dive there and always marvelled at the courage they had to go up so high and jump. I was (and still am) petrified of heights!
5.) Did you enjoy watching professional sports? What was your favorite team? Do you have any special memories of sporting events?
I remember having the mumps in the summer of 1969 and watching the Cubs every day while I was sick. Been a die-hard Cub fan ever since. (Yes, it’s been a rough week for me watching them get eliminated in the playoffs last night! Sob, sob!)
But football has always been my favorite sporting event. My dad and his dad would sit and watch the games and I loved to watch with them. They explained all the rules to me and I used to try to call the penalties before they said what it was on TV. I would be so proud when I got it right.
Bowl games were a big deal too. Dad went to Notre Dame, so when they were in a bowl game, my sisters and I decorated signs and put on our own half time show.
Lots of fun memories, and I love how each memory prompts another. If you haven’t tried this exercise yet, give it a shot. You’ll be surprised at how the words just pour out when your memory is jogged a bit.
Have a great week!
Juliana
One of the games we played as a family was fox and goose, we even played this game in the winter out in the snow.
My siblings and I made up a lot of games, and made variations on other games, especially softball.
Here’s my blog post
My blog post is at http://randysmusings.blogspot.com/2007/10/fun-and-games-when-i-was-boy.html
This was fun!
My grandmother was the sports fan in the family. She was a die hard Yankees fan, which did not go over with me, the Red Sox fan. She took my brother and me to a Red Sox game in Fenway when we were kids. We rode the train from Gloucester to Boston. She also used to let me stay up late to watch the Celtics play the Lakers in LA long before basketball playoff games were in prime time. We would sit there watching Bob Cousy and the “Jones Boys”, hoping Elgin Baylor would foul out. Great times.
http://destinationaustinfamily.blogspot.com/2007/10/weekly-planner-five-questions-about-fun.html
What was your favorite game when you were a child? Were you a board game enthusiast? A card shark? Or perhaps a kick-the-can kid?
I adored board games as a kid, being the geeky nerdy type. I loved Monopoly but I could never get my brother to play. One game I remember was Masterpiece – remember that one? It was some weird art auction game. This was fun for me and I would later go on to pursue a degree in Art History. Who knew?
Did you play any particular games with your family as a child? Easter egg hunts? Thanksgiving Day football games? Scavenger hunts? Charades?
Nothing really organized in such a manner. Our family was small with just my mother, my brother and me. But with 41 first cousins on my mother’s side, all within 5-10 years of my age, we had no trouble playing games like Kick the Can, Hide and Go Seek, Red Light Green Light, and of course, House.
What were some fun places you visited as a child? Did your family go camping? Did you take family vacations? Was there a local destination that was a family favorite?
I grew up in a resort area of Upstate New York – the Borscht Belt – and it was a beautiful part of the country. And we really couldn’t afford many vacations. There are three that I do remember – all driving trips: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Washington, DC and Niagara Falls, New York.
What activities did you do with family members? Did Grandma teach you to sew? Who taught you to cook? Did you go fishing with Grandpa? An uncle? Who coached your baseball team?
When I didn’t have my nose in a book, I was making sure that the house ran smoothly – cooking dinner, helping with the cleaning, etc. My mother taught me how to cook and I’ve started a tribute blog to this aspect of our lives together: And I Helped!
Did you enjoy watching professional sports? What was your favorite team? Do you have any special memories of sporting events?
Even as a kid I knew even watching professional sports was not for me – one of those early gay indicators I guess. Nowadays if I even feigned interest in any organized sports, they would take my Gay Card away from me.