I remember the excitement and anticipation of a visit to my grandparents house. It was knowing there would be treats to find in the kitchen and helping Granny cook amazing food for every meal. It meant sitting with Granny on the front porch watching the cars drive by and chasing lightening bugs at dusk and storing in a jar in her laundry room of the back porch. Granny would teach us how to play her favorite childhood game of Jacks. She was uncannily good at it. One summer when I was old enough, Popeye taught me how to play Gin Rummy and I beat him once, he said he let me win. And when it was cool enough outside we would play under the huge cave we carved out under a huge overgrown weeping tree that took over the spot in front of the old garage. It meant playing church in the basement. And if we were lucky enough to scare away the spiders and snakes we could spend some time in the barn pretending to be characters from The Little House and The Prairie.
What our visit did not include was sifting through a haul of plastic toys. Yes there was a small box of toys in the "front" room but it was simple. An incomplete tea set, paperdolls, some books, a game called Hungry Henry, a set of dominoes and a deck of cards is what I mostly remember. We did not need store bought toys to entertain us. It was simple and easy. We used our imagination, imagine that! We had to think about it and decide what to "play" and how to create "it". We created prairie homes in the barn, a cafe under the tree, a castle on the front porch and a church in the basement. We made "it" happen and it was magical.
So when the grandbabies come to California we create "it". A basket of shells becomes treasures from the mermaids castle in the ocean. The shells are lined up and sorted. They are sold and bartered. They become cookies and chips that we don't eat of course. We can count them and then recount them in Spanish. We hear the roar of the ocean when we put them up to our ears and that is really really special and enchanting. And this bag of shells kept us very busy off and on for 3 days. So remember you don't have to run to Target or order on Amazon before the grandchildren arrive. Look around the house and pull out the old Tupperware and such. The shells will be in the basket awaiting the next crew of grandbabies and we shall see what activities are prompted and created.
