Friday, November 9

Laps of my brain..

This is a 'Local'. He was just lying about on our path yesterday, in the garden, while the rain was briefly stopped, & the dogs were slumbering inside, unaware he was out. He might be a she, but I have no way of knowing. We usually have Blue Tongue Lizards come for the summer, but they didnt arrive last year. We have had some good heavy rain, most of last night, & today. More is forecast. It seems lovely to be having the rain, & these cooler days, at this time of year. The garden is almost visibly growing. I swear the dandelions that Gom mowed down yesterday morning, have sprung up to mock him!
Eeny Meeny...
Remember playing that game, as a child, to decide which choice to make? Or whose turn it would be, next.
Eeny Meeny Miney Moe. A Scottish friend used to play One Potato, two potato, with her sons. I had never heard of that one, until I met her. We also used to say Ink pink, pen & ink, etc. when we were at school.
Games children play, come & go over the years. I was around 10 or 11 when Hula Hoops first burst onto the market. What a huge craze they created. Everyone wanted one, & hours would be spent, out on the lawn in my case, trying to get that damn hoop to remain up around my waist for more than one or two rounds. Once mastered it was a matter of timing & balance. Do they still make them?
I remember knuckle bones, -which I think may be called 'Jacks'? in some countries. The first ones I ever met were the sheep knuckle bones. Real bones from real sheep knuckles. It seemed grim somehow, & then some enterprising toy maker thought to make them in plastic & there were metal ones too, which could be a little harsh on skinny little knuckles.
Marbles were also 'big' when I was in the Primary classes. What lovely colours they were! There were glass marbles, with lovely coloured centres, in very bright colours. Or the solid milky glass, with variegated colours. Then came the plastic marbles in all sorts of colours that looked rather like the shavings from pencil sharpenings, or little confetti bits. I loved all the colours. They were, of course, currency, & the games played were deadly serious, & woe betide anyone who welched on paying out after a loss. It was a lynching matter!!
I had a little dark haired boy friend, & he used to sit next to me on the mat. He would save his prettiest marbles for me, & give them to me, as we sat on the mat, waiting for story time. His name was Donald Kelly, & he had a wild Irish look to his rugged dark haired little face. He had a fierce older brother who had hair aflame, & piercing blue eyes, that frightened the life out of me. He also had a dark haired, dreamy sister, & another red haired brother. They were notorious for being 'tough'. Donald was never other than gentle & kind to me, & I just adored him at 7 years of age.
I never used the marbles I had for currency. I was no match for the boys or the girls, who played to win. I just loved the colours, & the form.
I still had Dark Donald's marbles for many years, tucked away in a little wooden box of old treasures. I have my old leather satchel from my last days at School. I have kept it all these years, & use it to store old papers, & small treasures. Once Gom asked my why there were two marbles in the box in the bottom of the satchel. They were Donald's gifts from long ago. I dont have them now, I suppose my kids got hold of them & lost them.
One thing I do have in the little box in the satchel, is a perfect tooth. It was knocked out of Gom's jaw, -who was Happy Young Publican Husband, then- by a flying cricket ball, that hit him fair in the mouth. The only reason I have it, is because he went back & found it, in the grass, & threatened to have it made into a pendant/necklace. I was so appalled I hid it from him, so he couldn't do anything so grotesque.
A trip to the hospital on the Sunday, it happened, resulted in permanent damage, because they didnt replace the tooth, or repair the damage. HYPH had to have his bottom teeth all removed 2 weeks later.
Our 'baby' was 6 months old when that happened. She will be 38 on Sunday. Sometimes it seems that can't be possible. Where the hell have all the years gone!
My beloved Nephew is 28 years old today. Happy Birthday, you big, lovely, man!
In the laps of my brain, I have been feeling little ripple shock waves.
I dont like to 'whine'- in fact, I am not. A biospy I had done, did not yield the result either I or the Doctor expected.The result was not cancer, but the type was one which apparently does turn cancerous. How curious. It was just vanity that prompted me to want it removed. Even the Doctor agreed, it was harmless. We were both surprised by the result. It is gone now, so good riddance. There is another curious factor, so that remains to be investigated, & of course, I keep wondering about it.
For some weird reason I have hives. Who, knows what that is about. I suppose I have to return to see about that, before I claw all the skin off patches of me!! Yes, I have creams, I have taken medication. Now it is elimination I suppose to try to find out what the trigger is. I am sick of being a "sicketty", as we used to say!! I think the answer is more laughter, ...that is what I need!
Thinking of tooth gnashing, groaning lame, humour laughter, we watched 'Evan Almighty' today. All I can say is, if you are looking for laughs....good luck. Just not my type of humour.
The secret life of your body! When we are young we take so much for granted. We are mainly, totally unaware of it all, just carry on living & working, playing. It is a surprise to find aches & pains. Like most humans, I believed, it is 'never going to happen to us'.
Why Oh Why !!!?!! Why Do We Have To Have Cricket!!!??!! It is an abomination!!
This lame excuse for a post is why I haven't - ...
Ottmar Liebert, Temple Dawn, ultravivid clouds. For Bluemountains Mary.
So soothing!

16 comments:

jeanette said...

Hi Meggie! You post beautiful picture on your blog! Seeing that lizard made me remember my visit to Australia (Perth,christmas 2003)... I had a really hard time with your BIG lizards and spiders:))
But not that hard that I won´t come back another time...

Granny J said...

Speaking of children's games -- I've been somewhat appalled by the adults who coopt children's games & paint standardized hopscotch layouts and such on the cement at schools here in the states. My experience as a kid was that what you might call kids' culture was properly passed down from child to child, with no input from adults. I think that the grown-ups ruin this interesting little sidelight on our changing cultures!

meggie said...

Hi, Nice to meet you Jeanette, thanks for visiting!
Granny J, I agree about the hopscotch layouts- they were such fun, with their off square layouts, & wobbly bits.
I think adults spoil a lot of sponteneity of childhood these days. I have loved your 2 recent posts!

Joyce said...

Every school gym in this country has a big stack of hula hoops. There are tons of games you can play with the kids using them, none of them involving swinging them around your waist. Lucky for that because I never did master that trick. I think that most of the toys we see on TV (and we are being flooded at this Xmas season) are not interesting at all to kids. There is nothing to DO, just watch them. Sheep's knuckles are much better!

Digitalgran said...

I enjoyed your post so much Meggie, brought back so many happy memories. I'm so glad you had that biopsy before anything nasty came out of it and I hope you find what is causing the hives soon.

Mike said...

A few weeks ago my wife was out digging around in the garden and I was standing there talking to her. I looked down at the pile of dirt and saw a beautiful marble laying there. It's hard to say how long it has been there since, to my knowledge, none of my kids played with them.

When I saw that marble I started remembering all the good times I used to have playing with them when I was a kid. I don't even recall seeing them in stores anymore. Maybe they don't even make them now.

Joni said...

Interesting little lizard, we don't have many of those here. Even though I don't play marbles and never did I have a whole coffee can of them. I too enjoy looking at the colors.

Ian Lidster said...

I wrote a column a few years ago about how children never seem to play marbles these days. My wife of the day wa an elementary teacher and she confirmed my thoughts.

For us, in the first muddy days of spring, out would come the marbles, and lunchtimes at school saw legions of kids hunkered down at the ground working on developing their thirst for later gambling.

Envied were the kids with rich boozer fathers who were able to haul their marbles around in purple and yellow Crown Royal Rye bags.

I guess kids today are either too organized or obsessed with video games to follow such time-honoured playtime pursuits.

Thimbleanna said...

Aaack! Meggie! You must post a warning before those critter pictures LOL! How big is that thing -- he looks pretty big! Weren't those old games wonderful? My favorite was jacks -- I could play that by the hour. Glad your nasty little thing is gone. Hives are a mystery. We have bouts of them here too sometimes with one of the boys. Never can figure out what causes them. Have a good weekend!

ancient one said...

My sister was the best marble player I knew. She'd take a few to school each day and come home with pockets full. I never could shoot marbles. Mine wouldn't even go across the ring... But my sister.. she was better than the boys she played with...LOL

Oh and be glad you already got that one that could have been... don't worry about that any more... Hope your hives clear up soon..

Linda G. said...

I had a tin of lovely marbles won for me in fifth grade by a boy named Donald! We called him Donny though..
Sheep's knuckles! I never knew. We did have the starlike metal jacks and that's what I played. I got some for the Granddaughters a few years ago, but they weren't interested for long.
I think TV and elctronic games have taken the ingenuity out of children. It's sad.

Tanya said...

I seem to forget the endings so Eeeny meeny and One Potato Two potato. I can only get the first verse. In Japan it is "zui zui zukorobashi..." But I forget the end to that too.

Ali Honey said...

It's a Skink, Meggie. They love the warmth of the sun. Don't pull his tail though as it will come off and he / she will have to grow another.

I still have marbles in the cupboard( ha ha ) and Yes you can still buy them.
I just loved (and was good at) hoola hoops and knuckle bones. I got DH to make me 2 out of black flexible pipe a couple of years ago, but I'm not as good at it now ...maybe one has to keep practising.
I guess it's cause I used to teach kids that all the childhood games stayed with me.
What about tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor etc. that's another one.

Mary said...

Thank you for the lovely music Meggie - he is one of my favourites too.

Knuckes we played with the coloured plastic ones. My kids have marbles but don't know the rules and as I never played marbles I can't teach them.

Yes hula hoops still exist as others have said. Skipping ropes were hugely popular (as in the long ones that took two girls to twirl) and ELASTICS were huge too, Two girls with a piece of elastic tied together and around their ankles (knees then thighs) in and out of which you would jump in a specific order. - Over over in out - I adored that game.

You have just not been feeling yourself for a while now have you - I am going to steal that sicketty word...

hugs to you...

Fairlie - www.feetonforeignlands.com said...

We did one potato, two potatoes too...but my parents are Scottish, so maybe I got it from them?

And I was also a big fan of the elastics! Every girl in my class had her own 'elastic' and we'd dye them in various foodstuffs to differentiate. Mine was done in beetroot juice and was a lovely pink.

Hope all goes well with your result still to come.

Lucy said...

We did eeny-meeny-miny-mo, the politically incorrect version, in my family, but then at school it was usually one-potato. It always began with the call 'spuds out!', which meant put out both fists to be counted, the good thing about this was you got two chances before being eliminated. It was usually to choose who was 'it' for tag. I think I enjoyed it more than the actual game that followed, and often it wasn't completed before playtime was over anyway!
We saw lots of lizards like that in NSW last year; some particularly fine ones at the Buddhist temple of Nan Tien ouside Woollangong, near where my brother lives. Lizards don't bother me at all, spiders and snakes are another matter...