Vivid Memories
Not really a meme, though stolen from oath_of_feanor. Interestingly, I had already been contemplaing almost exactly this post.
Mostly because I remember how I used to spend my time as a kid. In elementary and middle school, hanging out with the neighborhood kids- every nice day it was get home from school, play outside until dinnertime, go home. I keep thinking of this because I think about how much time I spend on front of a computer these days. Not that that's entirely new- I remember one day sitting at my C128 for 14 hours, spending the entire time on the phone with my friend Seth, as we both played through the same gold box game. I had the computer in the room in the basement that used to be my father's studio, with a TV off to the side. It's funny, there are songs in particular that will always call to mind that setup because they were on heavy MTV rotation at the time. Rod Stewart's "Downtown Train" calls to mind some weird zeppelin game I used to play; Roxette's "Dangerous" is at least that setup, if not any particular game. Maybe Might and Magic II.
But outside, there was an elementary school across the street from my house, and behind it was a little swamp we used to explore, or we'd play hide and seek in my mom's large yard. Or soccer, with up to 4 goals, a game we called "hippo" because it reminded us of hungry hungry hippo when we'd play it that way- everyone was his own team with his own goal, you got a point if you were scored on, low score wins, you can only use your hands if you are within 3 feet of your goal. My goal was always the chimney, which I think annoyed my mom a bit, but not too much.
I kind of feel like even if I wanted to do something like that now in my old age, I can't so well- where I live now is just too _urban_. Even the parks around here are too small. I think this is why I've had a sudden greatly increased interest in hiking and camping. Well, part of why anyway.
This is supposed to be vivid memories, though. It somehow turned into rambling.
Sledding at the hill across the street from my house. I haven't gone sledding in decades. Sometimes we'd have the hill to ourselves, sometimes parents would drive their kids in from miles around and it would be crowded with people we'd never see again.
Skateboarding around the tennis court with tracer guns. Man that was fun.
Bicycle tag. Dumbest idea ever, and somehow no one got hurt... It was tag played across the entire neighborhood on bikes. Yes, you had to physically tag someone to get them. Yes, we did. And no one died.
Back when I first moved into the neighborhood the first person I met was AJ. We used to get together and play infocom games. We had a game we'd play in the back yard that involved bouncing the ball back and forth, and if you didn't catch it the other person got a point, but the rule was that you couldn't bounce it such that it was hard to catch. It was like a cooperative game but where you got points if the other person screwed up. I'm not really sure now why we found this at all interesting. We also used to make "radio shows" on a tape deck- talk a bit, dub a song onto the blank tape, and so forth. Man, I hope he doesn't still have any of those.
I guess this post should have had the subject line "vivid memories, age 8-13" but what the hell. :)
Mostly because I remember how I used to spend my time as a kid. In elementary and middle school, hanging out with the neighborhood kids- every nice day it was get home from school, play outside until dinnertime, go home. I keep thinking of this because I think about how much time I spend on front of a computer these days. Not that that's entirely new- I remember one day sitting at my C128 for 14 hours, spending the entire time on the phone with my friend Seth, as we both played through the same gold box game. I had the computer in the room in the basement that used to be my father's studio, with a TV off to the side. It's funny, there are songs in particular that will always call to mind that setup because they were on heavy MTV rotation at the time. Rod Stewart's "Downtown Train" calls to mind some weird zeppelin game I used to play; Roxette's "Dangerous" is at least that setup, if not any particular game. Maybe Might and Magic II.
But outside, there was an elementary school across the street from my house, and behind it was a little swamp we used to explore, or we'd play hide and seek in my mom's large yard. Or soccer, with up to 4 goals, a game we called "hippo" because it reminded us of hungry hungry hippo when we'd play it that way- everyone was his own team with his own goal, you got a point if you were scored on, low score wins, you can only use your hands if you are within 3 feet of your goal. My goal was always the chimney, which I think annoyed my mom a bit, but not too much.
I kind of feel like even if I wanted to do something like that now in my old age, I can't so well- where I live now is just too _urban_. Even the parks around here are too small. I think this is why I've had a sudden greatly increased interest in hiking and camping. Well, part of why anyway.
This is supposed to be vivid memories, though. It somehow turned into rambling.
Sledding at the hill across the street from my house. I haven't gone sledding in decades. Sometimes we'd have the hill to ourselves, sometimes parents would drive their kids in from miles around and it would be crowded with people we'd never see again.
Skateboarding around the tennis court with tracer guns. Man that was fun.
Bicycle tag. Dumbest idea ever, and somehow no one got hurt... It was tag played across the entire neighborhood on bikes. Yes, you had to physically tag someone to get them. Yes, we did. And no one died.
Back when I first moved into the neighborhood the first person I met was AJ. We used to get together and play infocom games. We had a game we'd play in the back yard that involved bouncing the ball back and forth, and if you didn't catch it the other person got a point, but the rule was that you couldn't bounce it such that it was hard to catch. It was like a cooperative game but where you got points if the other person screwed up. I'm not really sure now why we found this at all interesting. We also used to make "radio shows" on a tape deck- talk a bit, dub a song onto the blank tape, and so forth. Man, I hope he doesn't still have any of those.
I guess this post should have had the subject line "vivid memories, age 8-13" but what the hell. :)