 Ms Kitty did have other friends besides Ivan and Lee. One was the plastic lizard, Tsvdo (Soo-dough.) who belonged to Lee's great Grand-daughters. She found it in the living-room one day and thought it was a real lizard and "caught" it and did a "cat'n mouse" game with it. When she finally realized it was only a toy, she realized how much fun it was to use her imagination and "play like" it was a real lizard. This was really a special happening for Ms Kitty as before she made friends with Ohmar, she didn't know how to play AT ALL! Lee remembers when she was a child, there weren't many store bought toys for the children and they really had to use their imagination. When they "played house", they used jar lids for plates, cans for cups and for the "meal" pebbles were used for beans, grass for salads or spinach, thin mud for gravy and they made mud pies. They'd say, "P'like [which meant 'play like'] these are beans." or , "P'like this is a pumpkin pie." And when they played "cars" they used match boxes or spools with a rubber band and a match-stick for cars.."P'like this is my red car." and they would use a piece of cardboard or a stick and "Plike" it was a grader, and grade the roads in the dirt, and build little houses along the road by using soil and perhaps cardboard or twigs for roofs. They build bridges over "p'like" rivers and build lakes and float little boats made from sometimes paper folded up to form a "boat" or a small board with a stick stuck in the middle for a mast.. It was fun to use ones imagination. When we played "Cops n'Robbers" or "Cowboys n'Indians" we had sticks for guns and bows and yelled 'BANG-BANG' or 'eck-eck-eck-eck ' to sound like a machine gun. I always got to be the Indian as I was known to be a breed. I didn't know there was anything bad about that. I was proud to be Indian. We used what we called 'bean shooters.' We would find a fork from a small limb and cut it out, attach a length of an old rubber inner tube on both forks and at the end of the inner-tube either a piece of leather from an old shoe or another piece of inner-tube to make the 'pocket.' It was great fun to 'target practice' by shooting tin cans. Like with anything else that starts out innocently, there were those who were bullies and would use them for the wrong purpose. Some, boys in particular, thought it was really macho to shoot at birds. I don't think so! It was, to me, OK to shoot animals for food but not for fun. Life is too precious.
 We also made rubber band guns using a board and a clothes pin. I can't get a good picture of it in my minds eye or I'd draw you one. Here is a scetch of the 'bean shooter.' Other names for it are 'pea shooters,' or 'sling shots.' I suppose there are yet other names, but that's all I know or can remember. Can YOU "p'like"? Share with us by entering your "p'like" in my guest book! I am interested in your ideas.
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