Two whole months of uninterrupted playtime. Yes, what a glorious period summer is for children — finally, without school, without homework, without having to wake up early!
Our childhood, in retrospect, was typical in most respects. Despite any pretense of ‘wanting to grow up quickly,’ I enjoyed playing as much as the next child would. And summertime was always a personal favorite.
When we were young, my family ushered in summer with a week-long games fest which culminated in the Fickle Finger of Fate Awards night coinciding with my Mother’s birthday in April. The ‘duels’ were mostly in the realm of board games as ‘athletic’ was never really a word we used to describe ourselves – in fact, I don’t remember my parents buying too much outdoorsy stuff until our youngest sister and brother (yes, perhaps the antithesis of our entire bunch) grew up.
Play money, mini mansions, title deeds, tiny hats, cars, shoes and what-not; tokens numbering from 1 to 99 drawn at random; lettered tiles scrambled and unscrambled; 5-letter words created vertically, horizontally and diagonally; colored pegs in infinite permutations and combinations; SORRY! – these were the details that colored our lives during those glorious, happy weeks.
Come awards night, my Mom would hand each winner chocolates and candies in colorful packets as we got up ‘on stage’ – our sturdy narra center table which has survived to this day despite our many abuses. Dad would sit on the sofa to watch and tease us in turn. Afterwards, we would sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to my Mom as Dad performed the ‘revered’ task of cutting the cake as geometrically equal as possible (a personal pride of his. 
) Yes, what a wonderful way to start our summer!
Of course they were never perfect times — our memories have yet to fade enough to gloss over the ‘riots’ created by sore losers, the irreverent gloating of triumphant winners, the hair-pulling, kicking and tugging, the ‘battle’ for the icing-laden cake corner. But strangely the recollections of those moments are the very ones that bring unmitigated laughter now that we have grown up.
As the sound of my neighbors’ children’s voices and laughter bring me back to those simpler times, I can only hope that they (and my baby, nieces, and nephews in their turn) make the most of their summers. Few moments will ever be able to parallel such carefree and happy times in one’s life.
April 27th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Faye,
Our FFF (Fickle Finger of Fate Awards) have given way to the Dr. FG David Award for Excellence in the Sciences and Mathematics at the PSHS. From frivolous to serious. From young to old. From summer of yore to the present summer of our existence without Den.
But such is life, as countless others before us have realized. If at all, let’s reach for a form of immortality, if such isn’t hubris but just a desire to have Den live as long as we’re able to, at least in memory.