Kick the Can and the Mother of All Water Fights (by Marlene)

The best part of summer (excepting the years we camped at Maquan Pond) was staying up all night playing kick the can - hide and seek with a portable (kickable) goals.

I remember one night, playing down at Grammie's house (next door to Nessarella's Farm Stand). We talked Dad into joining the game. Now Dad was a great playmate - When he was in the mood. But ordinarily, he was happier suppying us with an empty beer can than in joining the horseplay. And this particular night, he wanted to finish the game and be done with it as quickly as possible. So he vollunteered to be 'IT', counted to 100, picked up the can and tucked it into his back pocket. He walked around the yard, finding each of us and touching the can in his pocket while calling us by name. Eric, ever the advocate of fair play, quickly and loudly proclaimed, "NO FAIRS! NO FAIRS! THAT'S CHEATING!!!!!

So now, Laurie was alerted to the nature of the game, and she decided to supply justice. She began following Dad, with her ninja-like abilties, and at 'the opportune moment', she ran up behind Dad and kicked the can right out of his pocket. As I recall, that ended the game and Dad decided it was time to go home and 'put the kids to bed.'


But the most awesome night of kick the can also happened to be the only time I've ever seen Nenna intimidated - or been her partner in crime. I had called a personal 'time out' to go into the house and use the bathroom. Just as I reached the top of the stairs, I met up with Mom coming out of the bathroom with Debbie's potty chair pot in her hand. She grinned at me and said, "Watch this."

I followed her into my bedroom where she walked over to the window and told me to open the screen. Down below, I saw Laurie hiding between the house and the tall patch of Pampas Grass. Mom reached her hand out the window, leaned through the window herself and called, "Oh Laurie."

Laurie looked up and saw Mom with pot in hand an instant before she felt the warm water flowing down her back and soaking into her clothing. She had no way to know that Mom had indeed washed the pot and filled it with clean, warm water. She assumed the worst and screached in protest - probably the only time I've ever heard Laurie screach!

Within seconds, all the neighborhood friends had come out of hiding and were conferencing at the lamp post (goals). Within minutes, they had all dissappeared to their own homes and reappeared, armed with various water pistols and squirt bottles. They boldly entered the kitchen and counter-attacked this deranged woman we called Mom. By the time the water fight ended, Mom was hiding under her bed (can you imagine?) By the time Henry came home from work around 2 in the morning, Mom had finished mopping up the foot of water that had innundated the kitchen floor, but she couldn't disguise the fact that all the vinyl tiles had become unstuck and would never cover the floor again. Mom was contrite and never initiated another mob scene. Henry was pissed, but fortunately, that skilled carpenter was always happy to show off his skills and prove to Mom how much he loved her by repairing and improving the house as an on-going hobby.