Reminiscent of Days Past

Today was one of those days when Em and I dusted off all the old stories and funny things that we've remembered over and over again. A "Do You Remember" day. And I've been thinking about all the stories we didn't even bring up, too.

"Do you remember how we used to sit down by the fire pit and just talk for hours?"

"Do you remember when Copper got your rag-doll and chewed it up while we chased him all over the pasture?"

"Do you remember climbing Saddle Mountain?" (How could I forget? That was only last May, remember? ;P)

"Do you remember playing "Skippy-P Ranch" when we were little? I was Ben the ranch hand, Cait was always the farmer and you were always the cow."

"Do you remember making stick horses with paper heads? Mine was always the first to rip."

"I remember roller skating in the garage and then slamming into the old mattress we propped up against the wall."

"Oh yeah! And then we'd play "Town" with the recyclables, all the juice and milk jugs and cereal boxes."

"Do you remember spelunking in the garage? Chris would tie a rope from one wall to the other, then we'd pull ourselves across. And that was spelunking."

"Do you remember curling up in the laundry baskets, piling clothes on top of each other and the shoving the basket down the stairs?"

"Or we'd zip up in a sleeping bag and slide down the stairs."

We have lots of those stories.

About 99 percent of our games involved horses, pioneers, ranches, farms, jockeys, bandits and animals in general.

Our dolls didn't have tea parties. They rode horses across the prairies, chasing bank robbers, or they hunted buried treasure, or on one occasion they went on a mountain rescue. And to this day, we girls have a running joke (an inside joke) about "back pains," from that rescue.

Wind breakers became jockey silks, jump ropes became harnesses, lassos and bridles.

We ourselves became wild horses, both rider and mount in competitions, or possibly a steer in the county fair. I was best at roping and calf-wrestling (though neither of the girls really appreciated my expertise in wrestling them to the ground), no one could beat Cait at barrel racing and Em was champion of the buckin' bronco competition.

Of course, when friend Corina came to play, it all switched to dogs, and when went to her house we played dress-up.

Some how, I always ended up being the nanny in such games, while the other two were the fine ladies or spoiled kids.

And then we'd become gymnasts, executing flips, cartwheels, somersaults and hand-stands on their mat.

Just don't ask me to do any "Russian break-dancing".

And then there were the more, ah, wild days with two good friends of ours.

You must remember that during those times, I was no older than ten.

We had big plans to turn their little shed (roughly 10x14 ft.) into a stable for miniature ponies, start our own pet rescue, save the Bengal tigers, etc... Our institutions were too numerous to recall. There was the American Girl club, the Neopet club (for those of you who knew that, before we became aware of the darker side of it), the GO club (Girls Only, of course, which was for all of our athletic aspirations), Pony Pals, Saddle Club, the Beanie Baby club, etc... etc...

Cait and Karis were alternately President and Vice President, I was always secretary/treasurer (I still have our minutes to this day!) and Em and Hannah fought a battle royal for the honorable position of janitor.

Playing Indians was never much fun, because Cait and dear friend Karis always joined forces as the Cherokee tribe, and even Em, dear friend Hannah and I combined as the brave Nez Perce tribe could not defeat them.

Our tribes' "horses" were bicycles. If you hadn't brought your bike, then you got the one from our friends' garage that didn't have a chain (or maybe it did have a chain and it just didn't work).

It was much more entertaining to put beanie babies onto the blades of the bedroom ceiling fan and turn it on.

Chickens really did fly!

Or on a rainy day we would play "Poncho fairies", a very amusing and innocent diversion in which you put on a poncho, scrunching down until the poncho concealed all of you except your face and arms, and ta-da! you were a poncho fairy!

There are so many more stories I could tell, but it would take a book to tell them (hey, that's not a bad idea! -wink-) Hope you got as good of a laugh as we still get. ;P