Well!
The summer in Michigan I drove a Good Humor ice cream truck I approached every customer as if I were The Good Humor man. Being on and playful every block I drove, from East Detroit all the way to St. Clair Shores. Was I living a pun? Better than living a lie, I guess. I was held up and robbed, my truck was attacked — but still I remained in a goodly humor. Best as I could, despite all.
The above Pun Passage is from a book published in 1901 called, “Twentieth Century Etiquette, An Up-To-Date Book For Polite Society” by Annie Randall White. http://www.amazon.com/Twentieth-century-etiquette-up-date/dp/B00088XFZQ
I think puns give us another opportunity to present words in a fun way in conversation. Especially when talking with younger folk. Puns are one shout out at creating a space for kids to join in and play.
I asked the Dalai Lama why Buddhists giggle so much and he said what I like about laughter is when people laugh they can have new ideas. Because creativity is allied to relaxation and that’s allied to play. John Cleese
“Engine Engine Number 9
Going down Chicago line
If the train runs off the track
Do you want your money back?”
Do you remember this? Was it a mantra chanted only amongst us kids in the Midwest? Because there, in the heart of northwest Detroit, it was known. Many a game featured it up top, to kickoff the backyard activity.
Words like this, employed to pick-and-choose fellow humans for our social games go deep. What’s more social than choosing up sides or more important to learn than, Who goes next? Who’s going now? Taking turns prepared kids for the exchange involved in conversing. Wherever our choice landed was followed by the question: Do you want your money back?
Whomever that fickle finger of fate* pointed to, then responded: “Yes” or “No.” And counting off each syllable, “N…O…” landed you from person to person. All to see who gets picked to go next, to play, to speak, to run and hide or seek.
As we live, so do we sing.
Allen Lomax
The chanting of songs as the social media of its day, greasing the wheels of the circle as we included and excluded each other by simply counting. (NOTE TO those still suffering from APLS— Always Picked Last Syndrome –you might consult the “Left Out” series of tomes.)
Thinking back, which friend came up with those chants?
How are schoolyard expressions invented?
My favorite got recited during every touch football tilt. Before you were allowed to rush the quarterback you had to chant:
“One Mississippi, two Mississippi…”
or
“One dog, two dog three dog…”
Or
“One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand…”
Sometimes we’d go as high as ten Mississippis!
Think about that. It’s not like years later, when adults sit and try to come up with an idea. Kids are constantly creating. Ideas never stop flowing. The creativity flows from play, the ideas from creating. Kids don’t sit and think, Darn it I need a new idea. Children are constantly discovering them. It seems to have been so easy then, but so difficult to come up with brilliance like that as adults. Who plays like that anymore?
Speaking of play and players, former footballer for the NY Giants, Michael Strahan has a new book out called “Wake Up Happy.”
http://www.amazon.com/Wake-Up-Happy-Dream-Transforming/dp/1476775680
The great guru Paul Sills of Second City once told us in class, “When you watch children play, the engaging harmony you see is very close to faith.”
This line came to me in a dream one night: There is so much love in the love of play.
Back Pocket Banter (Things a folk journalist introduces to the conversation)
Are there songs you recall from school playgrounds while growing up?
What kind of games did you play as a child?
Play any games with family members in the car? * *
What’s the best family trip you ever went on?
Where would you like to drive today if we could go anywhere?
BONUS!
Discuss your favorite kind of car, your favorite thing in the car, favorite radio station, or songs to sing along the road.
What do you imagine it would be like to ride in a driverless car? Would you want to take a nap during the commute?
If you could change the traffic laws, what rule would you have?
Tell a story you would like to tell in a car, or one that you heard in a car.
* Fickle Finger of Fate refers to the “Laugh In” a comedy TV show (dates TK)
** “I spy something….” (adding the color of a house, street sign, cloud)
Link to a folk journalist with 4th graders, asking about their latest literary achievements.
It is not what is said that is important; it is what has been received.
Christabel Burniston, British pioneer in oral communication
