what i did for fun as a kid

milk carton crate forts and tennis ball wars - so it was my elder brother and i against my eldest brother and little sister in a game of war. we set milk crates up as forts about 5 feet apart and then try to pelt each other with tennis balls. the danger came when a ball got caught in no-man's land and someone had to go get it. the rule was that there was a truce until the person had 1 foot on the ground on their side of their fort, then it was open season. we developed a tactic of diving back behind our fort ... that's how we broke the dog's leg, my brother landed on him. great memory of a lot of fun and the occasional welt.

neighbourhood baseball - we had loads of guys in our neighbourhood and we had this big open field behind my house. i was always a small kid so i got used to the fastballs of all the bigger guys just by getting out there and taking some cuts. baseball is now my favourite game.

Home Run Derby - the public school where my dad taught had these grates over boarded up windows on their basement floors in one section of the school. those grates were PERFECT for a strike zone when you're less than 5 feet tall. that way 2 guys could play baseball and there'd be no need for an umpire and no arguments, if you hit metal that was a strike. you could even add an outfielder and play a full game. if your hit landed on the pavement it was a single, if you reached the dirt or the grass you get a double and if you can hit the tree in center field you'd have yourself a homer. i'd still be willing to play this game as an adult if anyone's interested.

neighbourhood street hockey - what Canadian doesn't play street hockey. you don't know anything until you learn how to play a bounce off a curb and break to the inside for your well deserved rebound.

X games bicycle behaviour - this was well before there was such a thing as the X games ... and there was no way that i'd be able to anything close to the insanely stupid things i see them doing nowadays. we'd build little ramps and go over them on our bikes. we really weren't more than a few inches off the ground so aren't i just the little daredevil eh?

watch tv - when there are 4 kids in a house sometimes you had to fight for control of the tube. i was into Hogan's Heroes, Gilligan's Island, Gunsmoke and MASH at various times over the years.

wrestle - my younger sister, my older brother and i would all try to take on our eldest brother. we'd lose. he'd pin the 2 small ones under a leg each and then he'd have both arms to deal with my older brother. after we were defeated he'd force us to make him peanut butter and jam sandwiches. good times.

Trivial Pursuit - my wife now thinks its the height of geekdom but i used to play Trivial Pursuit by myself. i'd play all 6 pieces and i'd look to see what colour would come out on top over the course of a couple hours. yeah, i guess i was a bit of a lonely kid sometimes.

odds and evens - we used to flip hockey cards as the form of grade 4 gambling. never risk your best cards though, only ones you already had a double of. i suppose it was just as easy to trade cards but this was a lot more fun. a few years later i developed a game for when i had nothing to do where i would flip a coin to play out an entire 7 game series for 16 teams for the hockey playoffs. of course i was trying my best to get my Toronto Maple Leafs a Stanley Cup.

flipping quarters off your elbow - i remember stacking 40 quarters on an extended elbow and then snapping your arm down so that you caught all the quarters in your hand. i DEFY you to do better than 40, if you can then you must have catcher mitt hands.

if i think of more maybe i'll throw down a Part II