I have the most fond memories of going to my grandma’s place – well it was my grandparents’ home, but she was the woman who ran the household, made sure all the kids were fed, and was the glue of the family.
She lived down the street from us, and my parents would drop me and my sister off at their place so they could go off to work. My grandma would bring us to school, picks us up from school, feed us a tasty afternoon snack, and then let us play until our parents picked us up. My two cousins were around the same age as me too, so it was the 4 of us hanging out and growing up together.
It was so much fun. It was a humble home, didn’t really have many toys, but we always found something to occupy our time. We loved to make up games and use the furniture to setup obstacle courses. We’d crawl under the dining table. We would turn the folding tables on their sides and pretend they were cars. We would make ample use of the sofa pillows and blankets and create forts. Or we’d use pens/paper to entertain ourselves for hours. We would draw or make things out of paper and scissors, and use up all her tape!
We didn’t have much technology – there was a TV in the living room that we’d watch cartoons on – Animaniacs, Sailor Moon, Power Rangers, or whatever was on. They had the best shows back then! The TV would overheat and she’d tell us to turn it off and go do something else instead.
There was a small backyard with fruit trees and a grass area for running around in. We’d make up games, play on our little bicycles, play water games in the summer, or kick the ball around.
I smile as I look back on all these memories – playing and using our imagination. Anything was possible with those pillows and people to play along with.
A couple distinct things stand out:
We loved our grandma’s spaghetti. It was always exciting when that was the afternoon snack.
We enjoyed watching the Teletubbies and even created our own Teletubby club, where each of us were a Teletubby. I was LaLa, the yellow happy go-lucky one! We also had our own Teletubby newsletter complete with “news” and puzzles and other cute clipart images – whatever was available on the Create-a-card software we used.
We dedicated two blank notebooks to each of our grandparents and would each add a page to the notebook. For example, we’d add a drawing or glue in something. Then when the pages would all get filled, we wanted to gift it to them. We never finished it, so we never gave it to them, but we’re pretty sure they already saw it when they would clean up each day lol.
On occasion, she’d take us to McDonald’s, which we loved because of the food and the ball pit.
We would also play “school” to mimic our teachers and teach my little cousin. Looking back, maybe that’s when I started to like teaching! It’s so funny to find early traces of our current selves in our childhood.
All in all, I am so grateful for this time in my life when I had time to play. Life got much busier as I got older. I started doing more activities and running from extracurricular to extracurricular. Unfortunately, there seems to be less time to play for adults, but I’m realizing how much fun it is and how necessary it is for my soul. So I’m trying to make more blank spaces in my life to imagine and create things! Who knows what can come from it? Perhaps the best part is to have no expectation at all about any result, and just let things unfold.
Was there a specific place you remember your imagination developing?
A SURPRISE
WRITING THE BOOK
At each paint night, they promote a local artist and a local nonprofit. That night, an artist named Cristal Chen (
