The mere thought of being "quarantined at home for 14 days" brought me back to how my sister and I spent much of our childhood. We lived at least 15 minutes away from our school friends, and our mom was "not carting us around all day" to go play. If anyone could "pinch a penny", it was our mom, and that included saving gas in the car for important, necessary trips, certainly not playdates. We learned to entertain ourselves, by ourselves. Games such as checkers, Kismet, Yahtze, Clue, and card games like Rummy or Cribbage, or the "never ending" game of monopoly, were always options. We listened to music and impersonated Donny and Marie, giving concerts to our imaginary guests in our bedroom, complete with microphones and vocal harmony. We colored with crayons and colored pencils and made pictures from various forms of pasta and noodles, Elmer's glued on to cardboard. For some strange reason, a new box of crayons still makes me smile to this very day. Paint by numbers, make your own potholders, you name it we probably did it.We watched Bewitched's Endora make fun of "Derwood, or Duspin or Dobbin"...whichever his name was for the episode. We played in the basement, often at our ping pong table, or throwing darts at the dartboard. We had an old upright piano, and practicing for our piano lessons was also a regular activity. The long hallway between rooms in our little 3 bedroom ranch home became a bowling alley for our "bowling matches". I think I read my favorite book as a child "Baby Island" at least 10 times, as well as being a Trixie Belden and Sherlock Holmes fan. Puzzles, crossword puzzles, Scrabble, you name it, we played it. Oh, we had our own "Nintendo"...the very first basic version of "Pong". Sometimes our idea of fun was running across the lawn to my Dad's parents (our grandparents) house and eating cookies from our grandma's cookie bin and watching wrestling on tv with her. Grandma was a big fan of wrestling. Our time was also filled with cleaning chores all day on Saturday, and Wednesday afternoons. "You have to wipe down the sinks and counters, hoki, (Hoki was a stand alone carpet sweeper) and tidy up everything midweek you know" our mom would say. Dinner clean up and dishes were ours to do every night, unless we went out for dinner at Perkins after church on Saturday. At times I look back and think Mom was just trying to keep us busy and out of "trouble". I guess why I am sharing this, is that in the very near future we may have time we will be "quarantined", in some form or fashion at home with loved ones. We could take some of this time and use it to make some memories...playing games, doing crafts, enjoying playing make believe with our children. I-pads, tablets and video games will still be here long after the coronavirus is gone. Having the chance to make those noodle pictures, playing a 'never ending" game of Monopoly, or grabbing those play microphones and giving a concert with your child could be a positive thing that comes out of this current situation. Get out those 1000 piece puzzles and the old card table and chairs. Challenge your loved one to a ruthless game of Rummy. We can take this time and do good with it. Make some memories.
Blessings,
Brenda
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