Friday, May 30, 2008

Weaponry

I bought my children water guns.

I'm sure some of you would Tsk! me rather loudly for equipping my innocent offspring with a tool of violence. But water guns are one of my few happy childhood memories. For brief hours each summer our family could shrug off our mantel of dysfunction and simply play together like a healthy family.

As children we had the full Super Soaker gear. We had tool belts to hold extra water cartridges and the biggest guns available in the early 90s. Everyone but Mom was equipped with a water gun that could shoot 50 feet or more.



My brother, sister and I stalked around the yards hiding from our dad. Like in other areas of life it was us against him.

I grew up in Missouri in which yards are real spaces for playing. Our front yard was 3 or 4 times bigger than the ones here in Salem. There were side yards that were the size of most back yards here. And the back yard might as well have been a park compared to Salem back yards. We would hide in the many bushes and nooks around the house with our neon green and hot pink water pistols. Being 7 and 10 years older than my siblings had some advantages like enough brain power for strategy and how to hide without laughing. I often would trick them into being a sacrificial lamb so I could run past my dad without get squirted.

We all ended up soaking, sopping wet after an hour of play.

Those are some of my best memories of childhood. While my childrens 5 for $4 water guns may not compare to the massive Super Soakers of today I think they had a lot of fun and its something we will do often, all summer long.

2 Comments:

Blogger Sam said...

My son owns an entire arsenal of Nerf guns. I'm not proud, but dammit, they'll make guns out of a banana if they are so inclined.

Victoria did one of those carnival games where you get 100 pellets to shoot out the red star. She tried twice and damn near did it. She gets her sharp shooting from me. :)

So, no tsk's from here. We're a shootin' family.

10:04 PM  
Blogger Megan said...

Sam- glad to hear it! My kids love guns for someone reason.

The other day this was overheard from Grey:
Pwew! Pwew! Oh, no I shot my hippo! Sorry hippo!

12:34 PM  

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