Backing away from the political/moral/theological/whatever topics for a moment. :)



So in one of the other random blogs I read, there was the following link: www.playmash.com. Online virtual MASH game. One of the forgotten gems of my childhood. I don't know how many hours I spent playing this on the long, looooong bus rides home. Funny how it completely erased itself from my memory. :)



For those staring blankly at me, I shall refresh your memory: MASH stands for "Mansion Apartment Shack House". You make some lists -- boys, cars, colors, kids, jobs, etc. Then pick a number (say, 7) and go through all the lists, crossing off every nth [7th] item, until one item remains in each list. Then all those together tell you your "future". ;)



This online version is pretty basic. According to it, I am going marry Joe, we will have 4 kids and live in a house in Rochester, and I'm going to be a web programmer and drive a green Corolla. Hehe. I think I could live with that. :)



Of course I did somewhat fix the results, since I put Joe in the boys column 4 times. :D (The fifth option was becoming a nun. Hehe. Not sure how that would have worked if I also ended up with a bunch of kids...) ;) On the bus you always played with a friend, one would be the writer for the one having her future told. And of course the one doing the writing would usually adhere strictly to the rules and not allow you to put the same boy's name in all five spots. ;) Also, the writer got to pick at least one nasty option for each category. So if you were really unlucky, you might end up marrying the grossest boy on the bus, living in a shack, and being a cafeteria lady. And then all your friends would laugh at you while you sat cursing destiny and insisting on playing again in order to get a new, better future. Since we all know that only the last one you get actually counts. ;)



We used to get pretty elaborate with it. In addition to the basic "boy house kids job car" we'd add on house color, honeymoon location, kids' names, husband's job, etc. In fifth or sixth grade I remember my friend tacking on "room", and "flavor of whipped cream". :P That was prior to my really having much of an idea about what "doing it" meant (she might have known, she had older sisters but I was a pretty sheltered kid). I just knew it was taboo and for that reason very funny. ;)



Who invents these things? No one knows where they started but they get passed down from one generation of kids to the next, evolving as they go. Silly paper games like this, and the one where you take your name and your beloved's, convert them to numbers, add things and cancel things until you end up with one number at the end which is supposed to tell you whether you're meant for each other. ;) And of course the folded-paper fortune tellers. And all the rhymes and hand-clapping games, "Down Down Baby" and "My Name Is" and millions of different incarnations of "Miss Suzie" (Miss Suzie had a steamboat... Miss Suzie had a baby... Miss Suzie WAS a baby... etc). Things I might permanently forget about if there weren't other blogs with links to remind me. :)



*plays the game again*



Hmm. Now I'm still married to Joe. :) But this time we have two kids and live in an apartment in South Buffalo, where I am a cafeteria lady and drive a yellow Taurus. Hehe.



Yeah I need to get back to work. ;) Reminiscing is fun though.