Childhood Games

I often wonder how life for my kids will be growing up and most times I can't help but have that moment when I'm randomly smiling by myself thinking back to my childhood days.

You see I grew up in a township called Ngwelezane in KZN. We had no fence nor gate at home, our yard was literally shared with my neighbours from either side. I was the first one to go to a multiracial school in my *hood but soon as I got out of **malume's car, I'd throw my bag in the passage, quickly have some cornflakes and rush to go play with my friends who went to a school just down the road from my house. Yes, I played in my uniform and yes, I ate corn flakes because my mom would be at work and I'd rebel against our helper who would try shove a sandwich down my throat. Who would pick peanut butter and jam over Kellogs anyway?

The games we played were silly and didn't make sense, especially the lyrics. My two favourite were "By sure" and "My Jenny"...no, English-speaking people, do not be fooled by the titles, the English was just a front, let me demonstrate by sampling extracts of the songs:

1. "By sure" is a song we'd sing while playing, what my white friends called "Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker's man" and it went a little something like this:

"By sure I love you baby, the baby on the sun, the sun put the yona, the yona put the man, the man booray booraaay.."

**please kindly loosen face and clear confusion, there's no translation, and what that was suppose to mean remains a mystery**

2. "My Jenny" was a game we'd play where we would all circle "Jenny's mom" and sing a song asking where Jenny was (Jenny had gone missing). Anyway, after every round we'd stop and ask her "weh ma ka Jenny, uphi uJenny?" (Where is Jenny) till the final round where she'd tell us that Jenny is dead (tragically) and is now a ghost. At this point, Jenny's mom would run after us and the first person she'd catch would be the next Jenny's mom...Sounds like catches much?

My Jenny theme song:

"I want to see my Jenny, my Jenny, my Jenny...I want to see my Jenny, my Jen, Jen, Jen...weh ma ka Jenny, uphi uJenny?"

I've probably confuse the crap out of a lot of people but if you grew up in a township in KZN in the 90's you'll get it and drift off to Nostalgiaville like I just did.

The point I'm trying to make is, we're losing a lot of our past. I watch my little brother switching between playing consoles all day and watching movies or DSTV. I didn't have that growing up and wouldn't have had it any other way! The closest thing my older siblings and I had to a Play Station or XBox was those old school TV games with games like Pac Man, Battle Field, Contra, Street Fighter, Mario Bros, Tetris etc. And because my mom was convinced that TV games messed up the television, she bought us a small black and white TV to play on. Do you have any idea how boring Pac Man is without colour?? But, we played and we survived and it was fun. Oh, and don't even get me started on toys! While my best friends Lyndi and Lauren had proper Barbie dolls, I had those silly imitations with half a head of hair missing *weeps in memory of*

That was childhood for me. Playing outside all day, singing songs that didn't make sense, making mud pies, playing house with a 5 piece tea set that my mom had bought me which I had to share with all 200 of my friends, climbing trees and riding bicycles. Life was simple, and cheap and probably something my children will never understand. Oh! I feel old already! *grabs hair dye*

*hood = neighbourhood

** malume = uncle (the designated driver of the neighbourhood 'car pool')

xx
Zee