the 12th Art: Water-Spewing Games

64 Arts

And it’s at this point I give the esteemed list-maker a sidelong glance as if to say ‘the hell?!’

That knee-jerk reaction aside, let’s think about this for a moment.

  • Water… water is good, it’s nice and cool and when we’re in the middle of a hot summer it prevents drought, cools our bodies and quenches our thirst. I’m good with water.
  • Games… games are fun, they provide entertainment value and can often get us moving. Movement is a good thing for our health. I’m good with games, too.
  • Spewing… Yeah, see, this is where you lose me. I mean, it has the word ‘ew’ right in there, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s icky; brings to mind spitting and other nasty habits. Nope, not good with spewing.

But don’t think I’m skipping out just yet!

Sure, the dictionary definitions of spew don’t really help (though the one about clay trimmings does put me in a more creative frame of mind), I’m going to take some of the less objectionable, roll them around in my head for a moment, and come up with projecting. Know what it reminds me of?

When you were a kid, did you ever play in the sprinklers on a hot day? Maybe you were a little better off and your family or neighbors had one of those toys that hooked up to the hose and sprayed water through little whipping tubes coming out of some alien-like head? Maybe your pleasures were simpler, just the spray of a hose, maybe during a car wash?

Drinking water straight from the hose. Letting in run a bit to get the sun-warmed stream out of the way of the cool, refreshing water from the pipes underground.

The smell of wet grass on a hot day–not dewy, not rainy, not fresh-cut, just green and clear and bright. The squeak of the blades under tiny, smooth, wet feet. The inevitable slips and slides (and the toy of the similar name). The shrieking at the sudden cold. The swimsuits that never completely dried all summer long.

4 thoughts on “the 12th Art: Water-Spewing Games

  1. Perfect capture of summer. We had the sprinkler and of course, the slip n slide, which I heard someone call recently, the slip n die. So appropriate. My girls are blessed enough to have a pool to swim in every day and it is so much fun to see them spend their days playing games and splashing about. It’s what summer’s made for.

  2. I agree with joann, above, you really captured the essence of summer water play! You brought all that childhood nostalgia right back. A few weeks ago we had an unusually warm day. I let me daughter and her friend play in the sprinkler and judging from their laughter and squeals of delight it was like they had been transported to Disneyland. Amazing! When I was a kid, we didn’t have a sprinkler (our climate on the CA Coast was too foggy to have a lawn). We just had a hose, that’s all. My brothers and I tried to make our own Slip-&-Slide out of garbage bags nailed into the ground. Imagine sliding down garbage bags that had been set down on top of pine needles and rocky soil (ouch!), and nails that frequently came loose. It didn’t discourage us from doing it more than once, however.

    Stopping by from SITS.

  3. As a mom trying to teach my son to spit so he can spit out toothpaste. Spewing sounds like his game.
    Stopping from SITS!

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