Good morning, everyone,
This photograph shows the three of us before my sister was born. 😊 We would be about 18 months, 2½ and 5 years old.
An early game my elder brother played with me and my younger brother when we were toddlers, was a game aptly named “Boo!” My younger brother and I would hide under the same bed each time and my elder brother would come along acting as if he didn’t know we were there. Then we would jump out at him and shout “Boo.” He would then do a mock shocked exclamation and do a dramatic fall, and it would have us in stitches and we’d ask him to do it again and again. It was such a simple game, but we enjoyed it so much.
As we grew older, we knew we had to keep quiet, so this developed into hide and seek. Our house had ample places for us to run and hide and was a favourite pass time, especially on days we couldn’t go outside.
We deployed tactics to fool a sibling. We would open a door loudly, to make out we were in a particular part of the house and then stealthily travel to a different place. Sometimes we could wait for ages, which would allow time for thoughts to wander, or to listen intently and survey the immediate area. I would hear a distant noise of a sibling being found, or the seeker trying to climb the stairs without making them creek. Then everything would be still and quiet again. I would then watch the specks of dust caught in the sun shaft from a window. I was fascinated as they floated in and out of the beam, before suddenly being propelled into a frenzy, when a draught entered the room from a distant opened door, or from a child rushing into the room. The silence would then be disturbed too, and all wandering thoughts would vanish as quickly as the specks of dust from the sun-light.
