Miss Mary Mack

For whatever reason this morning my mind jumped back to the playground at Jefferson Elementary school and sitting on the ground in a circle with my friends clapping out a rhythm to Miss Mary Mack. 

You know her, she’s the one with all the buttons down her back?

Yeah, I couldn’t really remember anything else about the rhyme either, so when I got to work, I googled Miss Mary Mack.

Memo to me:  don’t do that again because you get the blue screen of naughty!  Yikes!!!  But, if you do the search as hand clap rhymes, by golly it pops up!

So now I have the whole rhyme, plus I have a bunch of other playground memories popping around in my head. 

• On the swingset locking legs and then twisting the swings up tight and letting it unwind in a crazy, dizzy spin until we’d almost puke.  
• Hopscotch outside the fourth grade rooms.
• Ice skating in the winter time.  
• Freeze tag on the flat below the hill.
• Rolling down the hill, again almost puking from the vertigo.  

I don’t know why my mind went there today.  Maybe the long, cold, miserable winter and spring is wearing me down, and I need a play date.

Since spring is taking it’s own sweet time to make an appearance in my neighborhood this year, I went looking for it online last night.  I just googled “spring mountain lake” and brought up all the images. 

Oh my!  I spent an enjoyable half hour scrolling through pictures of places I’ve never seen but would love to visit in person.  At the time, I just reveled in seeing something that didn’t have snow in it. 

Maybe it’s because we spent two weekends in a row with Cubby who keeps us young at heart, so I went tripping down memory lane as a reaction. 

Her newest thing is if she wants something that you have, she’ll say “I really love [insert object].”  As in, “Gramma, I really love your tablet.”  Which, translated, means she wants my tablet so she can play games. 

Or, “Grampa, I really love those dilly beans.”  Translated:  Give me some dilly beans right now and keep them coming. 

The last time she was here it was very nice out and the house warmed up to the point I dragged out some capris to wear.  As I was walking past her, she said to me, “Gramma I really love your tattoo.” 

Okay, sister, you are not getting my tattoo or one of your own!!

After she left, I got to thinking what we could do this summer when she visits.  So I went back to Google--seriously, what did we do before Google?--and search for backyard kids games.  Millions of ideas, but the ones that looked like the most fun were the things with repurposed pool noodles. 

Like an obstacle course:

Or a bowling alley:

Or a sprinkler:

Or a giant Kerplunk game:

Apparently I have reverted to my childhood because yesterday at Hy-Vee as I was working all day I had the theme to Sesame Street in my head.  What’s up with that?!

I guess I’d rather act younger than my age and come off as silly than act older than my age and come off as dead. 

Now, in the spirit of elementary school and childhood, I think it’s time for milk and cookies and then a nap.  Who’s with me?