For Father's Day - #11 Family Home Evening

... Doral owned a number of vehicles in his lifetime ...

When we were a younger family (pre-teens) we played games every night.

An evening would begin with Doral laying on the floor, knees up, putting a child on his feet which were still on the floor, having that child lean back on his legs, then putting his arms on their shoulders and raising his legs, tossing that child back and forth over his head, then back again to his feet.

All of us who were too big for him to toss, would gather around, remembering that fun from our own childhood, pleading for just one try. I would be sure I was light enough for one last toss.

When our church came out with a Monday night programme called “Family Home Evening”, Doral wasn’t very happy. He thought every night should be family night and that is what he continued to do … no correlated programme for him.

... no vehicle more loved than one ready for the hunting season ...

When Doral would pull a quarter out of his pocket, we knew Hide the Quarter was about to begin.

He would give money to someone to hide while the rest of us where out of the room, lined up on the varathane-stained linoleum floor of the hallway.

We would enter the living room, look for the quarter and when we found it quietly sit down, so as not to give away its location.

Always someone would gasp when they saw it, or holler, or their body would tremble with the task of keeping the quarter’s location secrete.

When only one or maybe two people were left who hadn’t found it, all of us would call out warm, you’re getting warmer, hot, hotter, hottest – you are burning, or cool, getting colder if the person was moving away from the hidden spot. One of the more memorable places Doral might hide the quarter would be on the top of his bald head, or maybe on top of his ear if it was his turn to do the hiding. His other good choices were on the mantle, between the laces of his shoe, or best of all, held in his eye as if it were a monocle.

Then we played Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, lining chairs up between the couches, getting everyone into position, and then the knee and hand-clapping began. Sometimes we added in the other books of the New Testament, like Acts, Corinthians and Philippians, but that was too hard for the younger children, so when they played it was just Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and their was a numbering system, one, two, three ... that came after Maythew, Mark, Luke and Johnson.

Many of the games Doral played with us were about making alliances with each other. In this game we were quick to see if a long-time holder of Matthew spot could be displaced. We would throw the next turn quickly back to Matthew, so they had to look around the circle and see if they could find someone who might go out instead.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Corinthians … the names of the books were burned into my brain circuits.

Arta
(#11 of 15, to be continue)