Julie Farrar: Bored Games Kids Play

?Sometimes the most exciting games require little more than space

School?s almost out for the summer.? I know that because the neighborhood grade school just held its field day at the park up the street.? For many of these kids, summer means computer camp, or summer school, or art camp, or circus camp, or 8 weeks of sleep-away camp in a place halfway across the country, or heading out of state to their family?s summer home someplace cooler and less humid.? The one thing that the kids in my community don?t do in the summer is get bored.? Are the only games they know digital and Hunger?

I remember summer boredom well when I was a kid.? As I recall, it didn?t kill me and didn?t cause my brain to deteriorate.? At least I think it didn?t.? Maybe I could have founded a multi-billion dollar technology start-up or had written a best-selling novel by age 25 if I had never been allowed to be bored.? But there it is.? My parents didn?t care enough for my future or safety because they left me to spend the summer sitting in a friend?s tree house reading Nancy Drew books or let me take off on my bike in the morning to ride all over town (without a helmet ? egads!) and not return until dinner.? Or I just sat around playing solitaire all day.

Summer boredom was great.? During the day my friends and I would be so bored we?d start peeking in the windows of empty houses or climbing into the loft of the one remaining barn in the area and make up stories of murderers and ghosts and criminals on the Most Wanted lists who clearly had taken up residence as evidenced by an abandoned hammer in the corner or a light bulb burning at night.

We were bored enough to sit in the driveway past midnight telling ghost stories about the crazed killers who escaped from insane asylums and were out to get all young lovers parked on country roads or teenage girls babysitting alone on a Friday night.? We were bored enough to play 20 rounds of the card game Slap Jack in the breezeway of our unairconditioned 60s ranch homes.? We were bored enough to play kick ball in the street until the complete darkness set in and the porch lights failed to illuminate our game.

I went to a morning music camp a couple of weeks each summer.? And I went to a week of Bible school when younger.? But for all my friends, the summer was the same.? Morning was reserved for doing our household chores.? We ate hot dogs and Campbell?s soup for lunch.? Then we started knocking on each other?s doors saying, ?What do you want to do?? I don?t know, what do you want to do??

Everyone likes to let loose on a hot summer afternoon

We had a bottomless well of games to play.? Games with cards.? Games with balls of all sizes.? Games with ropes.? Games that required no equipment at all, like Freeze Tag.? Or games that didn?t require anything more than a piece of chalk and small stone ? not even friends ? like Hopscotch.

I don?t much remember my kids playing games during their summers.? They did play cards.? However, as much as I wanted to resist it, I became one of those parents who started scouring the local papers in March for suitable summer programs.? Why?? Not because I thought it was better than sitting around being bored.? I did it because everyone else was, which meant no kids were around for most of the day (or evening, because of organized sports) for my kids to play with.? They were kids when dodge ball was discouraged because someone?s body or feelings might get hurt.? They were kids during the rise of the video screen.

Are childhood games a thing of the past?? Canadian writer Marijke Vroomen Durning has asked that question on her website Games We Used To Play. It grew out of a question about whether we are losing the art of play.? The site is a way to relive the games we remember and see if they connect with someone else. She asks readers to submit the games and their rules to the site, so pop on over and see if one of your favorites is there.?

As a post-script, last week a flyer came attached to an e-mail from my neighborhood association president.? Apparently there will be a family kickball night soon up at the park.? All adults and children welcome.? Yep, that?s the way things go now.? It would never occur to the kids on my street today to grab a big, red rubber ball and kick it around until dark.? Yet the parents do fondly remember their days of running the makeshift bases.? So they decided to organize and manufacture ?play? for their own children.

Something?s not right here.? Anyone for double-Dutch?

Do you think that the idea of play has disappeared from the youngest generation? What was your favorite game as a child? Share stories of your childhood summers in the comments box.

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