Childhood Story #3

Childhood Story #3

Hi everybody, Mary here.

So, here's to another Childhood Story, when I talk about my very silly childhood full of stories ! ***realises what she's done and laughs*** Anyway. This one is called That Time When I Was A PokéNerd. Because when I was a kid, like all the « cool kids » at school, I was obsessed with Pokémon. (if you hadn't noticed from the last Childhood Story)

That Time When I Was A PokéNerd

(and I gambled on it)

So, between the ages of seven and ten, this is what we would do : play a game of cards and marbles. There were two sides, the « keeper » with the cards and the « shooter » with the marbles. The keeper was against a little wall in our playground, waiting for some people to duel them. The shooter arrives with the marbles and asks the deal. The keeper tells the number of shots (one, two or three) and the distance (we had some lines near the place where we would run to tell us some distances of whatever) from where they would shoot.

The shooter shoots the marbles until one of these two exits : the first one is, the card agains the wall is down. The shooter takes back their marbles and take the card(s), and then leave. The second one is, the shooter misses all of their shots and then, the keeper not only keep their cards, but they also win the marbles. Once a kid feels like they have either enough cards or enough marbles, they change their roles from keeper to shooter and vice-versa.

To be honest, I was quite good at this game. (I had many legendary and other rare cards given to my little brother since, but I had more marbles.) One year, when my little brother was at our elementary school, the game had been banned because of some kids complaining about it to their parents, who thought it was dangerous. (Also, there had been some stealing among the kids so the cards and marbles were banned altogether.) But then, the game came back as soon as the situation came back to normal. And to be even more honest, when my little brother came up with the story of the ban, I was maybe a little bit more upset than him because, after all, it's a GAME. A game where you can win... or lose. I know I'm talking about kids and I was maybe a little bit too mature for my age, but when I was playing, I knew the consequences of playing. Winning, losing. Kids should be taught this these days.

Anyway. It was a fun game, like a child version of poker in my mind. We also had a trading cards corner where we would sort-of deal cards and it was also fun. Last but not least, as I am French, only the French cards would be « legal » for trade. Some people bringing English cards would be designated as « fakers » and having « illegal » cards when they were just English. Guess we should have taken some English classes to understand that, right ? But we were just kids having fun and that was the most important thing of all.

Anyway, that's it for this Childhood Story ! I hope that you enjoyed it and I'll see you very soon with another one !

And as usual, our last word : KIDNEYS !