Heather Robinson
GSAT EXAM RESULTS are now out and many children will find themselves looking for things to occupy themselves in the next eight weeks. My memories of my childhood take me back to Negril and Little London in Westmoreland. Those were the days when there was no television to watch and two radio stations to listen to. So you read a book, listened to the radio or found other things to do.
Water provides an excellent source of relaxation, and many are the good memories that I have walking along the seven-mile stretch of beach in Negril. In those days, what is now called the Norman Manley Boulevard was just being built, and access to areas like Bloody Bay could be a bit tedious. At times it appeared that as children we had an entire stretch of beach to ourselves, and when that was too far to get to, we simply walked about one hundred yards to the nearest beach called Old Wharf.
SPLASHING WATER
Once in the crystal clear sea we would play a game of splashing water. Facing each other, we would start to gently splash the water, and gradually increase the tempo until your palms burned from the friction caused from water and skin coming into contact. The sea also provided an excellent place to eat mangoes and guineps as there was no danger of staining clothes in the water.
We also played hopscotch, jacks and cards. These games could occupy many hours of our time, in between which you had to sweep up almond leaves, catch a chicken for dinner and collect eggs from hens' nests. Anyone who has had to catch a chicken for dinner knows how long the process can take, and how exhausted one can be at the end of that exercise.
Negril also provided an opportunity to play 'tee-ta-toe'(tic-tac-toe) and box. I assume most children know how to play tee-ta-toe with pen and paper or with each of the two players having three men each. But what is box? Dots are marked on a sheet of plain paper about half an inch apart. So if one used ruled paper, one can simply mark the dots along the line for the entire page. In my day we used a leaf from an exercise book. Having covered the page with dots the game is ready to begin.
The aim is to make a four-sided box. This is accomplished by each player drawing a line between two dots. As the game progresses and more lines are drawn, opportunities become available to make a complete box. Once you have scored by making a box, you place your initial inside the box. An additional play (line) is granted once the player has made a box. Obviously, the player with the most boxes wins.
EASY AND QUICK GAME
'Picture, nuh picture' was an easy and quick game played with a minimum of two players using a book with a fair amount of pictorial representations. Players took turns calling out 'picture, nuh picture', while the other players responded 'yes picture' or 'no picture' at which point the book is opened.
Other games played included 'Boy, girl, place, animal, thing' which is now marketed as 'Scattegories', marbles, Red Light, hide and seek and last lick. These games helped to prepare us for life, as we learnt to accept defeat and victory, mindful of the fact that there would be many tomorrows, with opportunities to play and win or lose again. There was no war in the games we played. They taught us tolerance and patience. There was no point in arguing about results. We only lived for the opportunity to play again, tomorrow.
Heather Robinson is Life Underwriter and former Member of Parliament.
