Play!

[mrissa]

As those of you who read novel_gazing already know, my folks brought missista home last night. She was mostly extremely good and glad to see us, but she threw a puppy tantrum when put to bed last night. Ah well; we'll settle in. And they say they can take her again whenever we want or need them to, so that's a good thing. I'm working on this whole "asking for help" thing. It's not always easy, but it seems to be generally worth it.

I'm still hip-deep in questions from the sleep-dep night on the 3rd: you people certainly can question! So here's another: someone asked what my favorite part of the playground was when I was little. Well, our playground had been constructed by the people in the neighborhood working together, so there was a giant wooden structure, mostly smoothed so as not to produce splinters. There was stuff to climb and a log bridge and a swinging balance log, and there were, oh, tire swings.

I loved tire swings.

In fact, I'm not at all sure the past tense is appropriate here. I haven't tried recently, but I suspect that if you loaded me on a tire swing today and spun it and pushed it, I would really enjoy myself. I have always liked spinny things, and spinny swoopy things are even better, and nothing beats a tire swing for that. The ones that hang so that the tire is parallel to the ground are the best, but the orthogonal ones will do in a pinch.

We also had monkeybars, which I liked even though my shoulders pop out at the drop of a hat, and I enjoyed the tornado slide and swings, and I used the merry-go-round for my own nefarious purposes. See...I liked spinny things, as I said, and I have always had a stomach of cast iron. And my dad liked to go play tennis and let me and my friends play on the playground sometimes, and then on the way home we would get an ice cream cone. So whenever a particular one of the other little girls I played with was a bully (which was often), I would angle to get taken to the playground, and then after Dad was done with his tennis game I would jump on the merry-go-round: "Push me, Daddy, push me!" Well, this other little girl was very keen on being almost a full year older than me and not letting me do anything she wouldn't do. So she would hop on, too. And I would laugh and throw my head back and say, "Faster, Daddy, faster!" And she wouldn't get off, because if I could take it, so could she. Except she couldn't: she would get off and throw up. And then Dad would take her home before the rest of us got our ice cream, because clearly her stomach was upset and she wouldn't enjoy it. And I would smile as we drove away from her house for our ice cream. Revenge is even sweeter when you can claim that your hands are clean.

I was...four years old, I think? markgritter claims that I was an evil, evil child. But my take on the subject is, she shouldn't have hit me. I'd been taught not to hit back, but nobody ever thought to teach me not to exploit other people's character flaws. I am, to this day, totally unrepentant.

Comments

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

Ouch! I think I am in agreement with Mark regarding this whole evil child thing. Goodness.

I heard just recently from an acquaintance of mine that she, as a middle-schooler, exploited some of her less-aware friends/peers by staging the adoption of a baby sister who was deaf, dumb, sensitive to light, etc. etc. She ended the staging by throwing the "baby" -- one of those life-like dolls -- down a flight of stairs "by accident."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You may imagine me repeating in my most stubborn tones:

She shouldn't have hit me. It's not nice to hit people, especially people who have been taught not to hit back.

One must do something. She could always simply have gotten off the merry-go-round. There were other things to play on.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

As my father would say, "some things in this world simply must be opposed, by whatever means are available." Good job. :)

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

Thankfully enough, my parents were ok with me defending myself / others. When in grade school, a week wouldn't go by that they weren't getting called for me fighting. However, I never started it and never got in trouble at school for it. Of course, that was a different era in schooling. I'd be kicked out now even though I didn't throw the first punch or second punches, I'm sure. In that regard, if C and I have children, I'm still taking the same approach, as a bully won't stop bullying unless you stand up to him. If my child ends up expelled for that, I'll darn well home school him.

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

or her. I don't particullarly care which sex child I end up with as long as it's only 1 :)

[greykev.livejournal.com]

You rock lady!

[(Anonymous)]

Well, M'ris, I'd be proud of that one too. And incidentally, I would find it very amusing if my child came up with something of that nature as well. It would be one of those moments where I would have to suppress a smile and give my best lecture on treating others nicely, but the smile would definitely be there. And I don't think it makes you evil, just practical. :) I mean, you should definitely avoid doing what your parents tell you not to do.

Heathah

[columbina.livejournal.com]

This is yet another reason why I adore the M'ris.

That may make me evil as well. So be it.

[landofnowhere]

I *loved* tire swings -- swings of all kinds, in general. :-) Our playground sounds similar to yours: it had a big wooden castle and a wooden maze with lots of passageways to crawl around and hide in. There was also a very nice area on one side of the castle that could be used as a stage with audience room which I and my friends used to put on plays (first of the small low-key kind, then more serious stuff). Oh, and there was a wooden car, whose main attraction for me was that I could hide under the hood and read there (I've been told people once looked for me for hours when I was hiding there.)

But the swings took the cake. Defintely the swings.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I didn't hide anywhere on public property. I hid in the front hall closet, which was scheduled to open to Narnia any minute now but never did, and I hid between the house and the front hedge. That hedge has been removed now (we moved out of that house when I was 9), and the front of that house looks naked and tacky and weird without it.