Essay for Posterity

In school, G was assigned to write a composition about an interesting topic. He was supposed to talk to an elderly person about something they did as a child and then they were to repeat whatever it was themselves and write about the whole experience! What a neat idea! Great way to connect the past with the present and connect generations! Here is G's essay . . . 
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G.L.

Miss A

Composition 1

23 November, 2014

 
    On hearing the instructions for this assignment, I was very excited to consult my Grandpa Johnson for the needed information. He is a jovial man and, though in his 70’s, almost never has too little energy for a water balloon fight, a run through the airport, or a nature walk. As a child, he was a farm boy, which makes him perfect for this assignment, as he has plenty of stories about his childhood on the farm. He was very happy to have the opportunity to tell me the games he played as a farm boy.
    My Grandpa told me that many of the things they did for fun during the 1940’s -1950’s were closely related to work. For instance, though he caught frogs for fun, there was a restaurant that gave money to boys who would bring them frog legs. Thus, this was also work because he helped earn extra money for the family as he was having fun. However, he did do things for fun that were not work, as well. He rode horses (though, one time, he narrowly escaped being trodden down by an angry running horse and has hardly ridden them since), picked berries, rode his bicycle, played soft ball with rural schools, played “Antie Antie over”, and many other things.
    The game I particularly wish to speak about in this paper is a game called “kick the can”. “Kick the can” was played by many farm families, and even people who had never played it before had most likely heard of the game. The game was better with more people playing. The game was played by farm boys and girls at night on the farmland. To play the game, a milk can was the only necessary item, besides people. A person was chosen to be “it” and the person would close their eyes, put their foot on the can, and count to 100. The other people would run as fast as they could to hide, be it in a hay stack, a barn, the fields, a tree, some bushes. The only place they could not hide was indoors. The person chosen as “it” would try to find the other players in their hiding spots. When he found someone, he would try to tag the person. The player being chased would make a bee-line for the can and if they could kick it before “it” tagged him he would be “safe”. However, one did not need to be seen to kick the can, if a hiding player saw from his hiding spot that “it” had walked away from the can to find someone, the player could bolt to the can and kick it, making himself “safe”. The first person tagged would be “it” in the next round. Also, to make sure that there were no stalemates, “it” would not simply stand next to the can the entire game, where only a general rush of players could dislodge him.
    I played this game with my two brothers Ross and Carson ages 8 and 5, and my sister Annalina age 11.  We used a tiny aluminum can and, instead of playing at night, we played during the day time.  As we played, we found out that it was very tempting to simply stand next to the can which, though not fair, ensured victory. However, we did occasionally go looking for people, and in this I found a great advantage when I was not “it”. When “it” would go in search of a player, I would slip around and run to the can. However, when I reached the can, since “it” did not know I was there, I simply stood over the can, and I did not kick it. Then, I would wait for “it” to come back from his/her search and see me calmly standing over the very can he/she was trying to defend. I would watch their heart sink into their stomach with a look of “Oh great”. Finally, with a look of triumph and defiance I would kick the little aluminum can as hard as I could and would send it sailing through the air. This was always followed by a good laugh made both by “it” and myself.
    In conclusion, I have had a good time playing a very interesting and old game that my grandpa once played. However, I have also learned something about the idea of fun 60 to 70 years ago. I learned that people did work for fun which is not seen often today. I find this very interesting as I did not know almost anything about fun at that time in America’s past.