SMALL BEGINNINGS

Just thinking . . .

 

                   about when we were kids in a more or less techno-free world and we played wonderful, imaginative games. Do you think the games children play are indicative of their long term vocations?

 

A lot of children do have favourite games that are early expressions of their adult careers. For example, children who love playing doctors and nurses with their dolls may well become doctors or nurses. Kids who line up their siblings and play schools may become teachers. And so on.

 

My sister Arlene loved making mud pies under our big old Queenslander. 

We were just a couple of kids making mud pies but Under the House was a cool, magic world where the sun slanted between the battens and spread golden stripes onto the sweet-smelling moist black earth. It was quiet, with just the twitter of birds outside in the garden and the occasional strident burst of cicadas shrilling. We would mould the dirt into elaborate cakes and pies, usually decorated with flowers and leaves. Arlene created magnificent decorations with those flowers. 

I would soon tire of playing with mud and go upstairs, wash my hands and read or write a poem. I’d sit on the end of the veranda on the weathered boards and gaze into the glossy leaves of the huge old magnolia tree until ideas crystallised. 

I sent my poems to the children’s page of the Telegraph and was incredibly excited when they were published and I was paid, I think it was five shillings per poem. That was a lot of money in those days, when you could buy an ice cream for a few pennies (about the equivalent of a few cents.)

When I ‘grew up’, I continued to write and graduated to films, then books and other bits and pieces. 

My sister never tired of playing with mud or flowers. She extended her talents to create an intricate system of dams and waterways with the always-running hose (in those pre-water-restriction days) displaying the effectiveness of her engineering..

One day Arlene was happily playing when our usually gentle mother yelled, “Arlene, turn that hose off and come here!” Mum was shaking with anger and horror. “Arlene, you’ll have to STOP running the hose under the house,” she said, eyes dilated with disbelief. “The stump under the front door has SUNK and the door won’t close! We’ll have to PAY to have it fixed.” So that was the end of the waterways. 

Arlene with her mud pie experience grew up to become a potter whose beautiful bowls and vases decorate many of our friends’ houses. Her flowers evolved into her becoming a wedding florist. She did not become an engineer but passed that baton to her son who is a mechanical engineer.

 

One of our joint favourite games was dressing our cardboard dolls (changing their clothes as many times as possible) and taking them into make-believe situations. We would dress them for an occasion and, with accompanying facial expressions and voices, I’d narrate their adventures. Arlene was so fascinated by the dolls and their exploits that she flatly refused to go to sleep at night until I’d told her the next instalment of their lives. 

When I grew up, I continued to put on accents and pull faces. I became a speech and drama teacher! (We writers usually need to do another job as well!) With my love of literature, acting and young people, it never ceased to amaze me I was being paid to do something I enjoyed so much. 

 

So . . . what was your favourite game? Has it developed into your adult career or have new paths opened for you? I’d love to hear.