So I finally stopped procrastinating and began reading The Book of Pook. I'm in the middle of the Fountain of Youth article, and a vivid childhood memory has just flared up. I'd like to share it. I guess you could say this is a decades-old field report.

I was 7, and lived in a small neighborhood in middle America with my father, mother, and 5-year-old brother. Across the street and one house to the right, there lived a family with two girls, also 7 and 5. They were the only children our age in the neighborhood, so we ended up playing with them quite a bit. And they had a Nintendo.

I should explain that my mother was very anti-videogame and -television for most of my childhood. Two hours of Saturday morning cartoons and the occasional family movie night were allowed, but otherwise my options for entertainment were reading and playing outdoors. BUT. I was allowed to play videogames at a friend's house. Cue 7-year-old me visiting the girls across the street A LOT.

Well, eventually the girls (their names were Brooke and Brittany, I seem to recall) seemed to realize I didn't really care to play with their tea set or dolls, and was far more interested in Duck Hunt and Super Mario. And so one day they exercised their rights as Strong Independent Women In Training to try to lay some domestic ground rules. This is the scene that played out:

Brooke: "We're not going to let you play Nintendo. We're going to play house instead."

7yo _whistler: "Nah, I'd rather play Duck Hunt. Gimme the controller."

Brittany: "No! Play house with us!"

7yo _whistler: "That sounds dumb. Turn on the Nintendo."

Brooke: "All you ever do is play Nintendo, you never play with us! We're tired of it. We're unhaaaaapy! Now play house or you can't play at all!"

7yo _whistler: shrugs "Okay. Later."

30 seconds later as I'm walking home, what do I hear behind me but the slapping of footsteps...

Brooke: "Okay! Come back! Okay! You can play Nintendo! Come baaaack!"

Many ducks were hunted that day. And the dog got shot a few times.

Fast forward a year or two. Puberty. I totally spazzed out over how cute Brooke was, started leaving secret love notes in her desk at school, and made a complete idiot of myself. Meanwhile, she was cuddling up to that jerk Scotty who kept stealing her chocolate milk.

I got over her eventually.