Catholics & Catholicism

Question:

Whenever anyone wanted to have a game of armies (i.e, if a bunch of boys wanted to have a game of armies), they did so by employing a rather curious series of tactics. Obviously I’m a bit pissed, but this doesn’t necesssarily detract from the validity of…what I’m going on about. Right? OK. So…where was I? I recall. What they done was, they formed a small core of…well, I suppose…War Adherents (oh Christ, I think I understand the current international situation now). These CA’s would proceed to run up and down the schoolyard (beyond the confines of the same schoolyard, these huge, fuckoff dumper trucks would be constantly ferrying betwixt Other Destinations and Abernant, the colliery up the road). Anyhow, it was actually funny as fuck, because the CA contingent would almost reasonably drone out "WHO WANTS A GAME OF ARRRR…MIES?". Thing is, whoever wasn’t a girl [I got the feeling that the girls had a strange supernatural sort of understanding of when such a gender-excluding undertaking was going to happen, so generally they seemed to get out of the way and nestled in out-of-the-way corners] had a tendency to be inextricably "tagged" by the evolutionary CA. So, really it was a draft which you couldn’t really avoid. To be honest, none of the boys who got ensared in the resultant increasingly growing chain of militant boys really had a chance of registering whichever ethical difficulty that they might individually have with the whole thing. To be tagged by the Chain, was to be Involuntarily Drafted! To think of it now, I reckon the most fun was in the initial stages where the Recruitment was going on; trying to avoid that inexorable process was actually a lot more fun than the actual Staged War itself. Basically when everyone in the whole place who didn’t wear a skirt had been skewered like a fly upon the famed paper, there was the other process of how many teams there were (it depended upon who ruled whichever areas of the school chiz), and basically, whoever figured upon the protection of whichever gang leader, chose that gang leader as whichever evil / neutral / nominally "good" army. All I can recall beyond that was an awful lot of rather crap impressions of people trying to be stealthy, tonnes of "Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh! You’re dead!". Trouble was, having lost all hope of individuality during the conscription process, there were certain folks, including me, who insisted in coming out with sheer shite like, "Jokin’ like, I only got injured…so, I’ve crept up behind you and shot you in the back like, bach!" Anyone with similar memories? Even similar sea anamenones? The Ramones even? Anything? OTS — Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.525 / Virus Database: 322 – Release Date: 09/10/2003

Response:

I don’t recall anything on that level of organization, but my I had a friend back then and we both seemed to be interested in making war on someone. Seems like we could cobble together a rag-tag band of guerillas but nothing more, and now there’s paintball guns and all kinds of cool shit for a real mock war.  (Oxymoron.)  By puberty all the other boys were only into sports, but my friend and a few other oddballs had no interest in that crap, but maintained some sort of interest in warfare.  Those paintball guns would have been pretty handy back then… "HumungousFungusAmongUs" <omega.po…@ntlworld.com> wrote in message

news:bmsdi0$pslgm$1@ID-73971.news.uni-berlin.de… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Whenever anyone wanted to have a game of armies (i.e, if a bunch of boys > wanted to have a game of armies), they did so by employing a rather curious > series of tactics. Obviously I’m a bit pissed, but this doesn’t necesssarily > detract from the validity of…what I’m going on about. Right? OK. > So…where was I? I recall. > What they done was, they formed a small core of…well, I suppose…War > Adherents (oh Christ, I think I understand the current international > situation now). These CA’s would proceed to run up and down the schoolyard > (beyond the confines of the same schoolyard, these huge, fuckoff dumper > trucks would be constantly ferrying betwixt Other Destinations and Abernant, > the colliery up the road). Anyhow, it was actually funny as fuck, because > the CA contingent would almost reasonably drone out "WHO WANTS A GAME OF > ARRRR…MIES?". Thing is, whoever wasn’t a girl [I got the feeling that the > girls had a strange supernatural sort of understanding of when such a > gender-excluding undertaking was going to happen, so generally they seemed > to get out of the way and nestled in out-of-the-way corners] had a tendency > to be inextricably "tagged" by the evolutionary CA. So, really it was a > draft which you couldn’t really avoid. To be honest, none of the boys who > got ensared in the resultant increasingly growing chain of militant boys > really had a chance of registering whichever ethical difficulty that they > might individually have with the whole thing. To be tagged by the Chain, was > to be Involuntarily Drafted! To think of it now, I reckon the most fun was > in the initial stages where the Recruitment was going on; trying to avoid > that inexorable process was actually a lot more fun than the actual Staged > War itself. Basically when everyone in the whole place who didn’t wear a > skirt had been skewered like a fly upon the famed paper, there was the other > process of how many teams there were (it depended upon who ruled whichever > areas of the school chiz), and basically, whoever figured upon the > protection of whichever gang leader, chose that gang leader as whichever > evil / neutral / nominally "good" army. > All I can recall beyond that was an awful lot of rather crap impressions of > people trying to be stealthy, tonnes of "Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh! You’re dead!". > Trouble was, having lost all hope of individuality during the conscription > process, there were certain folks, including me, who insisted in coming out > with sheer shite like, "Jokin’ like, I only got injured…so, I’ve crept up > behind you and shot you in the back like, bach!" > Anyone with similar memories? Even similar sea anamenones? The Ramones even? > Anything? > OTS > — > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.525 / Virus Database: 322 – Release Date: 09/10/2003

Response:

In my Primary school (St Peters Roman Catholic in Marlow) the boys used to link arms and form chains that whip-trawled the playground going (you’ll like this) "Ollie ollie in for [insert name of game, lengthened if nec, to the minimum three syllables required for the two-tone sing-song effect]" I never understood why it was always Ollie ollie in for whatever, but one day some Older Boy claimed annoyance at this new-fangled alteration where it used to be the curter "all in for marbles/conkers/soccer etc" so really, it would seem "Ollie" is an extension of "all", what? I don’t remember what the girls did in such cases, I just vaguely have this idea there was a sort of climbing frame in one corner of the playground with a couple of horizontal metal bars. The girls seemed to like nothing more than hanging upside down from these metal bars like monkeys, or bats. In fact from a young age I think my mental definition of "girl" was pretty much that: "like boy, only longer hair and hangs upside down". In the final year at Primary there was a game called Kiss-chase where the boys had to chase the girls and, in the event of catching one, kiss her. It might have worked better if all the boys in the school hadn’t invariably gone after the same girl. Her name IIRC was Eunice Boyle. Personally I preferred marbles. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -"HumungousFungusAmongUs" <omega.po…@ntlworld.com> wrote in message <news:bmsdi0$pslgm$1@ID-73971.news.uni-berlin.de>… > Whenever anyone wanted to have a game of armies (i.e, if a bunch of boys > wanted to have a game of armies), they did so by employing a rather curious > series of tactics. Obviously I’m a bit pissed, but this doesn’t necesssarily > detract from the validity of…what I’m going on about. Right? OK. > So…where was I? I recall. > What they done was, they formed a small core of…well, I suppose…War > Adherents (oh Christ, I think I understand the current international > situation now). These CA’s would proceed to run up and down the schoolyard > (beyond the confines of the same schoolyard, these huge, fuckoff dumper > trucks would be constantly ferrying betwixt Other Destinations and Abernant, > the colliery up the road). Anyhow, it was actually funny as fuck, because > the CA contingent would almost reasonably drone out "WHO WANTS A GAME OF > ARRRR…MIES?". Thing is, whoever wasn’t a girl [I got the feeling that the > girls had a strange supernatural sort of understanding of when such a > gender-excluding undertaking was going to happen, so generally they seemed > to get out of the way and nestled in out-of-the-way corners] had a tendency > to be inextricably "tagged" by the evolutionary CA. So, really it was a > draft which you couldn’t really avoid. To be honest, none of the boys who > got ensared in the resultant increasingly growing chain of militant boys > really had a chance of registering whichever ethical difficulty that they > might individually have with the whole thing. To be tagged by the Chain, was > to be Involuntarily Drafted! To think of it now, I reckon the most fun was > in the initial stages where the Recruitment was going on; trying to avoid > that inexorable process was actually a lot more fun than the actual Staged > War itself. Basically when everyone in the whole place who didn’t wear a > skirt had been skewered like a fly upon the famed paper, there was the other > process of how many teams there were (it depended upon who ruled whichever > areas of the school chiz), and basically, whoever figured upon the > protection of whichever gang leader, chose that gang leader as whichever > evil / neutral / nominally "good" army. > All I can recall beyond that was an awful lot of rather crap impressions of > people trying to be stealthy, tonnes of "Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh! You’re dead!". > Trouble was, having lost all hope of individuality during the conscription > process, there were certain folks, including me, who insisted in coming out > with sheer shite like, "Jokin’ like, I only got injured…so, I’ve crept up > behind you and shot you in the back like, bach!" > Anyone with similar memories? Even similar sea anamenones? The Ramones even? > Anything? > OTS > — > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.525 / Virus Database: 322 – Release Date: 09/10/2003

Response:

Hehehehe:):) Your description of it makes it come to life:). Fun:). Most I remember of our games of the kind was that it always ended up with soemoen saying they too wanted to be leader, then the next one sayoing "me too!!", where we woudl end up calling on a boss, the other the chief, the next one the commandant, etc, so that everyone had their childhoodly-correct title distributed in all equity, wth everyone feeling they were equals. As for the game, it ended up one where there really was always too mnay chiefs and no indians;-), where we woudl invent the next thing to play and do the same thing all over again:). See what we did when we grew up? All that politically correct rubbish…:) Anyway. To make sure there were ""indians"", I’d volunteer and make the role so out of character, everyone then wanted to be an ""indian"", which turned out to be way more fun:), cause the second someone volunteered to be a "chief", we’d have a good rebellion, and strip the chief of his imaginative feathers/decorations/medals of honnor:):), tell him/her he was now dead, and leave him/her in the corner until he’she figured out he’she would rather be an ""indian"":) Another childhood game I remember we played was when mom would wash and wax the dining room floors. To see them chairs in the corridor always gave us the idea of playing bus. At forst, we played each week that whoever was the bus driver was a bad driver. If he turned left, which was known by how the driver would lean to the left:), we’d all do the same, and even pretend flying out the window, holding on to the bumper, whatever, having a hysterical ball:). Until one day I played driver again, and once everyone sat down, pretended to drive in a straight line a few seconds, really sow, then mimmicked puttign on the hand brakes and declared "Terminal! Everyone gets off!". Heheheeh:). Of course, there were protests. My sisters moaning it was no game, that they refused to "get off the bus". Where I then woudl become the mad driver needing to get them off as if his life depended on it, pulling them by the arm and dragging them "off the bus"" while the next one already shouted "Me too! Me too! Drag me off the bus!!" in loud laughter:). I was a pain in the butt to my poor sibblings when playing games:). They woudl try and do the same thing as I had done, the next time, but by then I already had come up wiht another idea:). For instance, once they played the driver that decalred "everyone off the bus", contrary to them, I;d go, as a passenger "We will NOT be thrown out. We paid for this ride, did we not?? Let’s kick the DRIVER off the bus!", which meant pushing whoever was the driver off the limits defining the ""bus"", i.e. beyind the two rows of chairs. My two younger sisters hated me for coming up with those ideasall the time that changed the game on them:), and stopped talking to me when they became teens:). One of them talked to me again last summer for the first time in a decade and a half. The other, well, I have not heard from her in ages, and learned that a friend of mine works with her. The friend had not even a clue she was my sister, as we have a different family name (she is married). When she learne,d she later mentioned knowing me to her, even if I had told her to not bother with that at all. I then heard from the friend that called me to say that "your sister says she does not know you, that she disowned you a long time ago". That much for political correctedness and for "power to the bus riders, not drivers"LOL:). I guess she just had this unsatisfied urge to play "terminal, everyone off the bus" in real life, since she never quite could make it as she wanted inthe kids game . Pfft. Baaaaad, bad, bad Chloe:) Thank God, I coudo play all those gameds again with kiddo:), who fast would find ways to chnage the role around and be creative with them as he pleased, instead of resenting creativity:). C – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -"HumungousFungusAmongUs" (omega.po…@ntlworld.com) writes: > Whenever anyone wanted to have a game of armies (i.e, if a bunch of boys > wanted to have a game of armies), they did so by employing a rather curious > series of tactics. Obviously I’m a bit pissed, but this doesn’t necesssarily > detract from the validity of…what I’m going on about. Right? OK. > So…where was I? I recall. > What they done was, they formed a small core of…well, I suppose…War > Adherents (oh Christ, I think I understand the current international > situation now). These CA’s would proceed to run up and down the schoolyard > (beyond the confines of the same schoolyard, these huge, fuckoff dumper > trucks would be constantly ferrying betwixt Other Destinations and Abernant, > the colliery up the road). Anyhow, it was actually funny as fuck, because > the CA contingent would almost reasonably drone out "WHO WANTS A GAME OF > ARRRR…MIES?". Thing is, whoever wasn’t a girl [I got the feeling that the > girls had a strange supernatural sort of understanding of when such a > gender-excluding undertaking was going to happen, so generally they seemed > to get out of the way and nestled in out-of-the-way corners] had a tendency > to be inextricably "tagged" by the evolutionary CA. So, really it was a > draft which you couldn’t really avoid. To be honest, none of the boys who > got ensared in the resultant increasingly growing chain of militant boys > really had a chance of registering whichever ethical difficulty that they > might individually have with the whole thing. To be tagged by the Chain, was > to be Involuntarily Drafted! To think of it now, I reckon the most fun was > in the initial stages where the Recruitment was going on; trying to avoid > that inexorable process was actually a lot more fun than the actual Staged > War itself. Basically when everyone in the whole place who didn’t wear a > skirt had been skewered like a fly upon the famed paper, there was the other > process of how many teams there were (it depended upon who ruled whichever > areas of the school chiz), and basically, whoever figured upon the > protection of whichever gang leader, chose that gang leader as whichever > evil / neutral / nominally "good" army. > All I can recall beyond that was an awful lot of rather crap impressions of > people trying to be stealthy, tonnes of "Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh! You’re dead!". > Trouble was, having lost all hope of individuality during the conscription > process, there were certain folks, including me, who insisted in coming out > with sheer shite like, "Jokin’ like, I only got injured…so, I’ve crept up > behind you and shot you in the back like, bach!" > Anyone with similar memories? Even similar sea anamenones? The Ramones even? > Anything? > OTS > — > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.525 / Virus Database: 322 – Release Date: 09/10/2003

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Response: