Grownup tag

Many, many spring evenings ago, I ran outside with my brothers.

Neighborhood kids always gathered for tag. Tummies full from supper, we pounded the yard in tennis shoes, chased or chasing at top speed.

My cheeks flushed as wind whistled past. Pinkish red clouds adorned the western sky. Grass freshly mown smelled like freedom – school would soon end for the summer.

I chased Chrisser and Kirby from next door. Tim Woodhead, who lived on the other side of our house, caught me. I let my youngest brother get away.

Sometimes we switched from regular “Tag; you’re It,” to freeze tag, where you stood, immobile, til somebody who wasn’t It touched you.

In my favorite version, you escaped being frozen by dropping to the ground and calling out a cartoon character’s name.

“Scooby Doo!”

“Jonny Quest!”

“Underdog!”

“Mighty Mouse!”

I’ve learned that different sorts of tag games abound in this blogging dimension. Though we’d likely prefer a chase-and-drop game on someone’s lawn, the logistics might prove difficult.

So thanks, Sandy, for freeze-tagging me in order to learn ten interesting things. Persistence has dug these from my memory’s back yard:

1. I let go of an airplane strut and fell backward, as instructed, one afternoon when I was 25. After my parachute opened, a former Army paratrooper talked me down via the radio strapped to my chest. It was an awesome feeling, hanging in the sky. I told my mom about the adventure afterward (and I hope my children will wait to inform me of such escapades until safely through them!).

2. I often ate dinner and watched movies on a nuclear submarine, with Tim in Charleston, S.C., after we first were married. As a reactor operator, he had 24-hour duty every three days.

3. I won two tickets to a Moody Blues concert in Portland in 1986, for writing an essay about my significant other (that would be Tim).

4. In kindergarten and first grade, I convinced my neighborhood pals in Moore, Oklahoma, of the existence of alien creatures who disguised themselves as rocks. You had to check carefully to tell the difference between the aliens and ordinary stones; of course I could always recognize the dangerous beings lurking in the driveway! Their leader lived on the moon, a gigantic boulder-guy you could just see if you squinted right – look out, everyone, there he is!

5. I wrote full-length novels in grade school to pass the time. A few of my teachers read or had me read them to the class.

6. Although I’ve had my gal bladder, appendix, and other assorted organs removed, I can still consume several ounces of chocolate chips per day.

7. I’m extremely spider-phobic. My family has fun with me, utilizing black, plastic arachnids placed strategically around the house. But they do rescue me from real ones.

8. I raised a baby garter snake named Jafar, for whom I found I had strong maternal feelings. He grew up in a dry aquarium on our dining room counter, until his release out by our woodpile.

9. As a child I pretended I was a dog, in many adventuresome stories, acted out on all fours on our living room carpet. (Thanks, Mom, for the tolerance.)

10. Tim gave me a ride on his tricycle when he was six and I was two. Our parents had participated in each other’s weddings and have long been good friends. In recent years our folks all moved to our city. They’re out doing the town together on senior discounts.

Yay, I’m free! Now to chase down and tag ten more bloggers. I aim to name some not yet touched. Hope you have fun, too.

Sufferingsummer, Elixir, LeiselB, Desiree (since I see you often come out to play with Leisel), Bella Art Girl, Cineboy, Indieninja, Geni, Annette, Patti – you’re tagged, now. I’m going inside to find my jacket.