In my twilight years I remember very little of my childhood. I’m sure there are many impressions in my brain that came out of my childhood but very few vivid memories. Perhaps “making memories” for kids up to age eight or ten is a waste! (And if this is done in Disneyland or on an ocean cruise then it’s also a waste of money!) I could be wrong; perhaps some people do have vivid memories of their formative years.
One strong memory I have is playing with my sister Liz at about eight years old. the picture is that of the two of us on the floor playing Monopoly.
Liz and I were born in Vulcan, Alberta about one year apart. We grew up in this small town up until our late teens. We lived in four different houses. The first was the parsonage because our father was the minister of the Vulcan Church of Christ. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1935 – the year I was born. A few years later we moved to a house (about 3 or 4 blocks away) to a two-story house which I remember as being cream-coloured.
It seemed that the winters were very cold with lots of snow. It was on such a day we found ourselves on the floor playing games. The house had “central heating” in that the coal burning furnace in the basement had a large grate in the floor on the main level. This iron grate would be quite warm. Sitting on this grate would be the warmest place in the house. (Any place else would seem to be cold by comparison.)
The game of Monopoly usually took hours – and could extend into more than one day. Possibly we were home becase of sickness or even the school being closed.As we rolled the dice and moved from square to square we learned a lot of lessons. We learned that buying certain properties were better than other properties. We learned to save our money so that it could be used to invest wisely. Both liz and I used these principles in our lives. When I see kids and young people playing their games these days I can’t help but wonder what they are learning. It seems like what they’re learning is how to shoot people!