As a child I lived on a one-block street with over thirty other kids (it was a mostly Catholic street) and an empty lot at one end. There were endless games of hide and seek, kick-the-can, mother may I, red rover, tag, three feet over Germany, baby in the air, and wolfie wolf what time is it. Girls playing as a group played hop scotch, jacks, clapping games, jump rope, Chinese jump rope - with the rubber bands - and double Dutch jump rope.

My old china, who turned 72 on Friday, regales me with stories of his childhood games which included capture the flag and the aforementioned milk bottle and dog sh*t pranks. They also tied neighbors' front and back doors closed, using the neighbor's clothesline, of course. There were also a lot of high jinks involving dressing in black and darkening faces with burnt cork to evade capture by the bicycle-riding constable. His stories make growing up in the thirties sound so much more exciting than growing up in the fifties. Still, wouldn't it be fun to run around barefoot some summer evening, carefree and laughing, catching fireflies in a jar?

Thanks for the memories, Reen