Dec. 01, 2001 - 21:25 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Mini Kingdom

I wonder, was it that way for all of us kids? For a lot of us the grown folks were insubstantial wraiths, mowing the lawn, hanging out laundry, gardening whereas we were the owners of that space called a back yard, tolerated and ignored the grownups if possible.

At least in Denver that is back yards they were called, the house fronted on the street and the backyard was bordered by the alley.

A back yard was owned exclusively by the kid of the house and adults were a nuisance to be borne. It was different where there was more than one kid at that home as they co-operatively owned the yard, by treaty, pact or understanding the back yard was amicably shared.

But for an only child the property was exclusively owned by that one.

A boy would create in his mind his empire, which became on an instant what he decided it was going to be for now. It could be his big city made of big cardboard boxes or using upside down boxes, one was his ship and the others manned by playmates or fantasy folk, it was his ship with a mast of board and a sail of whatever cloth he could find and he would sail the green, tropical seas as a pirate bold or his row boat with one by four oars going down the Mississippi with Tom Sawyer.

With a big box it could be used as a cowboy bunkhouse or a bank that could be held up by desperados using cap pistols. Several big boxes could be used to make a grand fort where the defense used soft rubber balls for the ammo to repel attackers.

Having friends to come over expanded the games and the accompanying fun. Many a battle was fought to the death amid lakes of blood with live corpses laying about. "Hey you're dead I just shot you !" Replied with, "No ya'din't ya' missed." When the friends had to leave, the game would continue using the vivid imagination of the young.

Usually there was at least one shady spot in the yard under a tree or a wall between the sun and the yard which could be used to while away the time, daydreaming, reading a book, whittling or wish buying from an old Sears Roebuck catalog. Sometimes there would be a spot in Dad's garden where a kid was allowed to dig, make little hills and roads for his Tootsie Toy cars.

Then at times it would be the arena where games popular at the time were played, with or without the opposite sex. Now if the back yard was the exclusive property of a girl or sisters, it was definitely a different ball game. A world peopled with Queens, Princesses, clad in fabulous finery made from some of Mom's old clothes, trains made of cast off curtains, tiaras made of wired together costume jewlery, mothers and babies, there would be baby doll tending, tea parties, play school and good fairies too. There would be a kitchen to make all kinds of tasty cloud castle dinners. There would once in a while be a brother or a guy sweet on one of the girls who would be drafted as the bread winner of the family, and would reluctantly sip imaginary tea from tiny cups and pretend to be having fun while his bodily muscles made a demand on his body for strong physical activity. If he had a good imagination he would create a bit of excitement by chasing imaginary robbers or fighting off attacking Indians and if boredom had him near dead he would chase the pretend offenders clear out of the neighborhood and not return that day.

Sometimes in that group of houses there would be awkward attempts by a boy to woo a girl, if he had attended too many yucky movies or read too many of his sister's books. The girls were way ahead of us boys in that department and caused our feet to stumble and tongues to tangle and our faces to break out red with embarassment. Most of us boys were giggle fodder for the wise women of our school.

But back yards comprised a whole country of its own peopled by us kids.

We truly had our Mini Kingdom . . . . . . .

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