There are two reasons for this. The 1st reason is
boring and I’ll give it no more than 3 sentences...
1. The
anti-depressants that the doctor gave me just before Mum died did what they had
to do and got me through the horrible bits but they also kidnapped my brain.
2. Last week I
decided to get my brain back so I stopped taking the pills.
3. Yes, yes, I now
know that you’re not supposed to come off pills just like that and that I
should have cut them in half, taken them every other day and all that sort of
thing, but I didn’t and now it’s too late and I feel dizzy.
There! Let that be the end of the discussion! I shall move
swiftly on...
I loved all your comments this week about the skipping and
ball games and, what with that pill incident that we’re not supposed to be
discussing, I got to thinking about all those twizzling, twirling games we
used to play.
I really did have an old fashioned spinning top and I loved to
play with it but I much preferred to spin myself. A favourite game was to cross
arms, hold a friend’s hands tightly and spin round until we dropped. Then we’d
lie on the ground and watch the sky slowly moving, vortex style. I don’t know
why we did it but I’m guessing that kids are still doing it and always will.
There were lots of gentler circle games that we played in
the playground. Did I say gentler? ‘The Farmer’s in his Den’ was anything but
gentle. It was also just a tad middle-class and sexist now I come to think
about it. The farmer (always a boy) stood in the middle of the circle and the
rest of us would walk round holding hands and singing,
The farmer’s in his den
The farmer’s in his den
Eee, eye, addy, oh
The farmer’s in his den
Next he chose a wife (a girl of course) ...
Then the wife wanted a child (usually a girl) ...
And the child wanted a nurse (a girl again) ...
Finally the nurse wanted a dog. This could be either a girl
or a boy but, for reasons that I never understood, I was often that dog. This
was not good because the final verse went...
We all pat the dog
We all pat the dog
Eee, eye, addy, oh
We all pat the dog
And ‘patting’ meant beating the back of the poor unfortunate
‘dog’ until a teacher came to rescue her (me!)
As the years went on the games changed but still I had this need
to make myself dizzy. My favourite fairground ride was The Waltzers. The ride
spun one way and the seat spun the other. I’d ride it again and again. What was
I thinking of?
I put it all down to the recklessness of youth. Now please excuse
me while I go and lie down in a darkened room... *sigh*
