Games of Young and Old; Calling All Players, Out!

Going Full Circle: "What's old is young again, what was out is back in, the ___ is the new ___..." To which you, the reader, listener, having seen and heard these words here and elsewhere, thousands of times now, throughout the ages, regardless of your own age, respond with "blah, blah, blah" ("wah, wah, wah" if you prefer the alternate spelling, pronunciation, the words of Charlie Brown, who has pretty much passed the test of time) OR, boiled down by younger generations in an attempt, I guess, to "cut to the chase!" (foreshadowing, spoiler alert)...

"DUH!" As if it's obvious to you and should be to me by now, that even if you have read a minority representation of posts here, even at a surface, superficial level, among other ways I enjoy "fun and frolic" inside and out, recently through new "pandemic playgrounds" (8/31/20), include a play on words, word play. Sometimes involving, requiring just a "pivot" (common in many sports and now a word that has found its way into our daily usage, to the degree it may find itself banned by mis/over-use), or just a slight "Twist-er" (see where I'm going with this already?)...words, phrases, different pronunciations, syllabification (or here, it may be pronounced "silly-fication"), meanings, which collectively allow ME and YOU to go from here to there (or back and forth, if you prefer😃). Today, applied once and for ALL, to this final post on this mini-series, on the super-serious (even for the supercilious) subject of PLAY! A subject that necessarily involves games and their players, those that might be considered...

AGE-ED, Aged: Pronounced just a bit different, quite a different meaning, impact! depending on the audience to whom you are speaking, otherwise speaking about. While spelled exactly the same way, the two syllable "AGE-ED" usually denotes oldsters, or those who act accordingly, many of which find themselves in "homes for the elderly, the AGE-ED", or "Pensioners" (EU). Strongly associated with a few other words, including "BINGO!". But wait, you say, even this vintage game, normally reserved for those over the age of ? who are first found queuing (EU-ers), then gathering (at least pre-pandem times) in churches, other community centers putting out their time-tested talisman, is now being discovered, reimagined, by younger generations, with many new derivations, variations, even with high-tech dabbers (these, being invented by their parents to save on laundry and clean-up), which has evolved to a "Full Contact!" version. 

       The other version of this word relevant to the matter at hand, is a one syllable, quicker to pronounce form of aged as in "aged" as in "you sure are aging well..." as in vintage, a fine wine that has aged in a particular type of cask. Or a game which, while initially conceived, designed, and initially played by generations of yesteryear, have been flying off the store shelves, being re-discovered in attics throughout the land, perhaps in part due to pandemic circumstances, otherwise through osmosis; that is, caught up in the tide of retro-grading by more recent generations, of games we played with each other and just...played, as in record players (33,s, 45's, even 78's for the hypersonic among us). Opportunities to connect the versions of aged, their applications to the serious topic of PLAY! may have already occurred to you. If not, play around with it. Otherwise, we have been witnessing that games of old are new again, at least some new in the sense of newer versions, as in 2.0, 3.0, and so forth...those that have been...

Revived, Revised, Reprized: As in the new, updated version of "Musical Chairs", which parents and kids are participating in (some unknowingly), side by side, back to back, within and between (zoom?) rooms, as they switch chairs, roles, going from work to home while at home, virtual to live (schooling, that is), hour to hour, dawn to dusk. There's even "Gaming Chairs" now to enhance the experience, an update on "Easy Chairs" for adults, I suppose. Or, another game not requiring boards or game pieces, transcending space, time, and age, "Hide and Go Seek", which is what we have all been doing throughout the last few years within and between families, as we have been distancing, going into hiding, many times more than necessary. And, when we do venture out, we frequently do so wearing masks, hiding part of our countenance, making people guess our mood, if not our identity. Oh, and I would be negligent in this serious business if not mentioning one of the very first, simplest of games, invented when touching was first brought into the fold of our senses, now revised out of necessity of distancing via the use of lasers -- "TAG, you're IT!" If you don't think this is serious business that you haven't seen the movie of the same name, where five grown up children continue to compete in this touchy game (spanning over thirty years!) like there's no tomorrow. While many games in your own reverie don't require many, if any, moving parts, they do require parts that move as in...

Calling All Players, Out! As in the simplest, most innocent of questions, "Can you come out and play?" A question we begged from the porch which is now done via text, not just by necessity. While we learned to play by ourselves at an early age, most of the preferred games were enhanced by the presence of others, by players. So, where are they, where have they gone?! I found myself asking, exclaiming (thus, the combo of question/exclamation marks😕😖) following four consecutive nights, after walking four different routes through our neighborhood at about the same time when we, as children and then teens, would "go out and play" after dinner (termed "supper" at a few of my buddies' homes), prior to pre-bedtime rituals/TV programs as youngsters, eventually to include homework😔...the time we would enjoy some additional activity to that we enjoyed right after school...preceded in many instances by debates with our parents about "come in when it starts getting dark" which eventually, after they were installed in our neighborhood (a mixed blessing)..."Come in when the street lights come on..." To which we, in chorus, heard from every household on my street, "But isn't that why they put them in, so we could play ball under the lights?!" In any case, over these forementioned four nights, covering about 2.5 hours and approximately five miles, in the absence of any precipitation, I experienced an almost complete absence of potential players, having only come across two potential 'partners in crime' (or "cops and robbers", a common preoccupation in our younger years, very aerobic). And these two, accompanied by four legged companion, who might just protest if I tagged their owner or, even more ominously, declared them "Out!" Arguments about the latter and whether a player was "Cheating!" came to require the presence of yet another live body, in the form of a referee. Talk about shortages.