reviews of my childhood...

1 –2 –3 On Harold!
By Sam Bralley, 11th Jul 2010 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/ta6gm-07/
Posted in Wikinut>Writing>Essays

Remembrance of my childhood keep flashing before my eyes…

At dusk the kids would gather under the only street light for 'hoopi hide'...

The adults in the neighborhood didn't understand...

When it seemed the kids had lost this round, I had a plan...


At dusk the kids would gather under the only street light for 'hoopi hide'...

Almost any evening during the early fifties one could find a small band of children scurrying between the bushes and homes on Bay Street attempting to find the ideal hiding place. We were playing hoopi-hide. Later I found the universal name of the game was Hide ‘n Seek but to us kids, we always called it hoopi hide. Some were better at it than others, but it was always great fun and it wore us out so each could get a good night sleep.

We had our day time games and our night time games, but I think we all enjoyed hoopi hide the most, at least for the 5 to 10 age group of kids. Both boys and girls played but the boys were better at it ‘cause we could climb trees. Besides the girls would cry when they got caught first because they couldn’t hide as well as us boys. Harold Winters was the best, he was 10 and could climb so high in the trees that nobody could even see him.

The adults in the neighborhood didn't understand...

There was just one street light in the whole neighborhood and we used the telephone pole it was on for home base. That is until Mrs. Moore came out and told us we was going to have to quit running through her yard. She didn’t have no kids and was just an old widow lady that stayed to herself; that is until us kids would make her mad by hollerin’ and running through her yard. Shucks, every body took a short cut across her yard because she lived in the corner house and didn’t have a fence around her place.

Mom told me I needed to respect her wishes but I said, “…you don’t understand, mom. The telephone pole with the light on it is home base.” She just chuckled and went on ironing. I think she musta’ played hoopi hide too when she was a child.

We tried to move home base to Vincent’s dad’s car cause he always parked in the front and it was just across the street from Mrs. Moores’ and the car was a light color so it sorta reflected the light from the street light. That worked alright for a few days… until Vincent’s dad said we were going to have to find another home base because he didn’t like the dirty hand prints all over his shiny new car.

When it seemed the kids had lost this round, I had a plan...

Now, what were we going to do? Nobody wanted us kids to have any fun. Mrs. Moore didn’t want us playing in her yard, and Vincent’s dad wouldn’t let us use the back of his car for home base. But we kids wouldn’t be ‘out done’ by a bunch of adults. I ran and got the lid off our trashcan and laid it in the road under the street light. Since I was the last one caught last game, it was my place to be ‘it’. I sat on the lid and covering my eyes began counting “5 –10 –15 –20 –25 –30…” and as I counted I could hear the kids running in all directions. “ –85 –90 –95 a hundred, here I come ready or not.”

I caught Mary Blanch first, “ 1 -2 -3 on Mary”, I said. Next was JD, then Vincent, Gloria, Jackie Beller, Carol Guy, but where was Harold? I didn’t want to get to far from home base because Harold could run as fast as I did. Silence, then I heard a rustle, and little Billy Richards started crying just as I heard someone say, get outa’ my way. I looked and saw Harold staggering to keep his balance. He was trying to sneak around the car and had run over little Billy Richards on his way to tag ‘home-free’. I scampered back, placing my foot on the base just in time to yell. “1 –2 –3 on Harold.”