I was thinking the other day about why I enjoy acting so much. It took me a while, but then I realized-- it's because I get to play Pretend. And it's socially acceptable! And not only do I get to play socially-acceptable Pretend, but people are PAYING to watch me do so! Come on, that's pretty freaking awesome.
I loved playing Pretend as a kid. And I was pretty freaking good at it, if I say so myself. My best friend, Kellie, and I had numerous, elaborate pretend games. They're some of my favorite memories of my childhood.
Some days we would be princesses at finishing school, balancing books on our heads and working our way through a random etiquette book she had.
Other days we would line up plastic chairs, and we'd be on the Hogwarts express, wearing graduation robes and eating Hostess cupcakes/pumpkin pasties. We'd make rhyming potion that consisted of apples and caramel sauce that necessitated that we talk in rhyme for the rest of the day. For some reason the easiest thing to rhyme were insults. Exact quote: "Don't insult me, you . . . pot of pee!"
Other days we were pokemon. I was always Vulpix and Kellie was usually Eevee. We would fight in an arena made of furniture.
Some days we were babies, sneaking her baby sister's bottles and filling them with juice. We'd arrange her wing chairs to look like a bassinet and sit in it, garbling baby talk for hours.
Quite a few times we were detectives. We would hide in her hall closet for hours, trying to listen in on important conversations. I think the most interesting thing we overheard was, "Robbie, will you take the trash out, please?". Our most involved 'case' was The Case of The Melted Crayons. We found a baggie of melted crayons in the street and tried to figure out how, exactly, they got that way. After a few days, we begrudgingly admitted that they probably melted because it was 100 degrees and sunny.
One day we decided we were going to live in her bathroom and never come back out. We grabbed a bag of apples for rations and a couple of books of mad libs. We were kicked out when her brother really had to pee about an hour later.
Other games included our being twins, mermaids, or keeping an eye on dolls that came to life when we weren't looking. Evil dolls.
Those were the days.
What do you guys miss from your childhood? If you played Pretend, what were some of your favorite games?
I am so grateful for all our princess balance classes. I'm sure I would be a klutz without them! And I'm still a little depressed about The Case of the Melted Crayons. I mean is one true mystery too much to ask? Our's could hardly make a Mary-Kate and Ashley novel.
ReplyDeleteThe other day rob and I were talking about what it would be like if Pokemon cards became our currency.
ReplyDelete"No I will not take your evolved evee even if its mint. I'm asking a holographic charazrad, firm"
"Oh...wait......you have a special edition mew-two?...throw in your evee and you're on."
Shopping would be so much more fun
I remember in like 4th gradeish, me and my friend Holly found this pine cone with a weird stem that somewhat resembled a pipe which would use to pretend to be old men or something, referring to ourselves as "Pa-gramps" I believe. That pine cone pipe was the first of many "treasures" we found lying around the playground that we would use in various scenarios. We kept it all in a plastic grocery bag we found and hid that bag in a random bush to play with the following recesses. Unfortunately I think a custodian or some tree-hugger kid found it and threw it away, and that was that.
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