Dotty Parker

at home with bellyrub

Since BellyRub moved away to Ohio, it's more difficult for me to get in contact with him right when an idea strikes. Today I had a remnant of a thread of a quote he liked to tell me. I never remembered saying it, but when that happens, it can be a good indicator that I did.

(For example, a friend, Mike, was talking and laughing with me and said, "Are you stupid? Or do you just look funny?" I laughed and laughed, saying, "That's funny! Who said that?" So Mike informed me, "You did, like a minute ago.")

I knew it had to do with old-fashioned games. I have here beside me Kate Greenaway's Book of Games. It is a lovely book with no copyright date that I can find but is certainly a reproduction of an old book. Miss Greenaway did a whole boatload of stuff.

Someone who didn't sign her name gave the book to us in 1983; she wrote inside the cover "To the Parker Children." Little did she know that this was going to be cause for much snickering.

So BellyRub called me back with the scoop on what I was forgetting: BellyRub and I were talking one day when we were wise and adorable children about how much more complicated games have gotten. He was remarking on the amazing power that coffee cans once had. You pop some rope through them and you've got a whole day of stomping around on stilts.

We both nodded sagely; it was now my turn to make a relevant comment on the state of games in our backyard. I said, "Let's play 1800s! I've got a hoop! Let's roll it!"

This has made BellyRub laugh for years. I don't know what happened next since I don't remember saying it, but I'm pretty sure that, in real life, I had no such hoop. Nevertheless, it becomes more and more funny as time marches onward, marching, perhaps, in a way that would suggest it is rolling a hoop.

kate greenaway

I thought I'd share the sweet, sweet joy of some of Kate Greenaway's work with you.

Here is a game entitled, "Hoops"
Hoops
Every child knows, or ought to know, the pleasure of bowling a hoop. What a nice ring there is about it, when on a fine frosty day the juvenile members of the family all turn out with hoops and race along the road.

And idyllic image is evoked until a person realizes that the damn hoops get so cold and the kids get so excited and sweaty that when they pick up their hoop, it sticks to their hands and they have to call the fire department to release them from the frozen hell!

The Angler and the Fish
The players each take the name of a fish; one is blindfolded and stands in the middle of the room singing: "Little fish that come out of the sea, eat the fly that here you see," and he throws out a long string attached to which is an imaginary bait. One of the players, all of whom have in the meantime been moving round the fisher, seizes the line. The fisher has then to guess which fish pulls; if he guesses wrongly, the fish drops the line and they move round as before; if rightly, he must describe his fish-nature, and is then blindfolded in his turn, while the late angler joins the moving players.
It's a weird game. I described it to BellyRub and explained that the most confusing part was the bit about the "fish-nature". I said, "Does it mean that it wants to know its habits and stuff or what it looks like? What's the deal?"

I hear in my ear, "I'm a lake trout. I'm shy, I like to eat shiny things, and I live in 100 feet of water."

It's the shiny things part the kills me. I think that's the new saying.

At Christmas this year, we will say, "I like to eat shiny things. Let's roll them!"

Posted by dotty at October 27, 2003 10:38 PM