Jul
18
Kids Games
July 18, 2007 |
Sitting outside Mae’s house in the village can be quite interesting. In a shady corner Luk Dik the mongrel of a dog, is doing his favourite activity, only second to chasing chickens into the hedge, and eating. And he is looking quite content dozing off in that little hole he has dug out to cool off in the wet sand,
Inside, Nan is cleaning floors, with her hip-hop music on full blast, while doing her dance with the broom. Hilarious to watch, but if I try to sneak a picture I will be dead in two seconds flat. That’s her exercise program.
Mae is chattering away in Khmer with the neighbour. The two ladies are enjoying their betel nuts, and I can hear the odd mention of the word farang drifting towards me. Yup, I am the topic of the day this morning as well.
The kids are farting about doing what kids do. Running in and out, grabbing a piece of fruit or whatever, and then scoot out again to find something to play with. They are very good at that, unlike kids at home, who, if you take away the TV and computer games don’t have a clue what to do. These kids know how to play!
They are out and about from early morning until the evening comes. And when the day is over, they are covered in dirt from top to bottom, with the odd battle wound to show for it. A scrubbed up knee and a torn t-shirt gets a stern but still humorous look from mama Nan. While I just sit there and chuckle to myself. Then I get out the first aid kid, patch them up, while Nan do her Yak-yak routine on the torn t-shirt.
I wen’t fishing with Heart the, seven year old who has taken to it like duck to water. Well, maybe becouse most of the time, when we go fishing, he is IN the water. There is a nice place by the river only 50 meters from the house. And I watched Heart as he carefully put the wriggling worm on his hook, cast out and plunk himself precariously on a tree stub that was partially overhanging the river. “He is going to fall in”, I was thinking. And voiced up to get his attention, and motion for him to get off that thing. When I thought better of it.
Heart, seconds before he fell in
The water is warm, he can swim, and there is no current. So I let him sit there, while making ready to jump in after him, by removing my mobile phone from my pockets. And sure enough, a yell, and splash. I took two strides and watched the little critter emerge from the water, fishing rod in hand, laughing his head off. So what to do? I simply jumped in myself, and we had a grand time having fun splashing about in the water, and having a good old fashioned mud fight to top it off.
By now it was getting late, so time to get back to Nan and dinner. So soaking wet, we pack up the fishing tackle and head for home, all covered in mud of course.
So when we shuffle into the yard, Nan takes one look at our grit covered faces and sheepish grins, and went:
“Ooooooeeeh!, have three boys for clean, you go shower now, then we eat!”
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Comments
6 Comments so far
We caused our children not to be able to play by themselves, all because of computers and a bazillion channels on TV. Did not realize what we were doing, now it’s part of society.
Look at what I’m doing at 7:00 AM on a nice morning, when I should be out in the yard already cutting the grass or washing the cars. It was not like this when I was a kid. There were bad guys to hunt down and capture.
Oh well, maybe tomorrow………
Yup, that was back when the woods behind the house where crawling with Indians and maybe even Germans, and there where Pirates in the bay, and if you climbed a tree and fell down, it was your own fault, and the owner of the property would not get sued. This was called an accident. Remember those? And if we wanted to go somewhere
we jumped on a bike and went there…provided we could get back by dinner time or there would be hell to pay… yeah I remember games. Good to see it again…
You’re right, that’s when there were woods behind the house. Woods where I went hunting with my Dad and my Grandpa. They are all gone now, all due to growth. You’re in a great place, hope it all works out so that you do not need that big city “fix”.
Yea Bowy, I remember when our parents didnt worry about us being gone on our bikes all day, BB gun and water balloon fights,climbing trees and building tree forts….Hunting and camping out, in the woods and at the beach.
That was one of the first things that I noticed when I went to Isaan,the kids playing and the LACK OF TV reminded me of when I was young.
Not to mention evening raids into Mr. Olsens strawberry patch, fire crackers, sling shots, and going down the hill on your snow sled at the speed of light, with no helmet or other body armour, and with a bit of luck, you would manage to stop before you hit the big road, but there was not much traffick, so no worries.
LOL in the winter, growing up on Long Island,NY. we used to grab onto cars bumpers at stop signs and skitch. We also used to go up to Old man Rals farm with some of the older guys from the neighbourhood and tie ropes to the bumpers of their trucks and have them pull us around the farm,useulaay at high speeds.