What I Did On My Summer Holidays - by Caine, Aged Nine

Could be a bit of a bummer, maybe, having to go with your dad to his auto parts business when you're on school holidays.  You might wanna go to the pool, or whatever else you do when you're nine and you're Caine.  But then, when you're nine and you're Caine, you just make up your fun on the spot.

'Cause what there is in Dad's auto parts shop are STACKS of cardboard boxes.  Stacks of 'em.  What better thing to do with them but make your very own cardboard arcade game?

And so you create one, and then you create another, and then suddenly you don't have an arcade game, you've got a whole bloody arcade!  You come up with an good entrance fee system - $1 for a couple of goes, or you can buy the Fun Pass for $2, and it's valid for a whole month and you get 500 - that's FIVE HUNDRED - rides.

That Fun Pass is awesome value.

And so you wait for visitors.  But it's not like your arcade's positioned in a highway or nothin'.  Customers are a bit thin on the ground, especially when so much of your dad's business is now done on eBay.

And so you get one customer.  But it's a pretty cool customer to have ...

Do you remember doing stuff like this when you were a kid?  I didn't make my own arcade out of cardboard, but I did make up my own advertising jingles and record them with my friend, on a cassette recorder (More than just the price is right at Warehouse Sales!)  My cousin and I invented an entire elaborate family who were all rich, gorgeous, and talented.  We sat at the dining table in Wantirna and drew girls, and made booklets.

I made a board game.  Its details are lost to time now, but I remember it had cards, like Chance and Community Chest in Monopoly.  I still have a hankering to make a board game.   Do people play board games anymore?

Creativity opens up the world.  Play is not sideline stuff.  Play keeps you grounded in your own body.  Playing makes you free and happy.

I really need to think about that board game ...