It’s about that time of year, the time of year every kid waited all winter for. Classrooms and chalkdust and mathematics were all endured for this. The days got longer, and sweatier, and Ma Noodle loved it. The kids would get out of the house, out of her hair, and into dirtpiles, down into sewer drains, and up into trees until twilight and darkness fell on our little town.

We’d break out our plastic guns. These weren’t the namby-pamby ones with neon orange tips at the end. These were the real deal – the kind that could be mistaken for an actual weapon. The kind that you’d see yourself brandishing as a S.W.A.T. team mistakenly filled you full of holes, thinking you were a junior high vigilante. Uzis and Stormtrooper Rifles that whined as their trigger batteries died. I particularly loved Han Solo’s pistol (based upon the German Mauser C96).

So strange that in my youth, I spent so many summers playing “Guns” with this guy:

And now, on a different field of battle, we have the best time running around with make-believe weaponry, though we’re miles apart.  Of course, now the problem is the adult responsibilities that we might be avoiding as we play. And the exercise. You can’t stay a skinny kid when you’re munching down snacks and sitting on your can – all the while your alter ego is running (constantly) and jumping and shooting and dying (constantly).

You can call it Arrested Development if you like.  We’re hanging onto whatever fragments of freedom that we can carry with us from our childhood, that’s not as distant as it sometimes appears.  Growing up is funny that way.  We can forget how, with our time here being so short, how young we still really are.

1. Gamer’s Spat (Part II)
2. New Laser Guns for TF2! Combat Film by Benny Gunn
3. Gamer’s Spat
4. Pad’s Faves: Bonesaw Action Shot
5. Are Violent Video Games Preparing Kids For The Apocalypse?