BURYING YOUR DAD IN THE LEAVES - There are a lot of fun things to do with your dad growing up. There are countless tea parties (dress up included), playing dollhouse, and skiing as you get older. But one of my favourite things to do with my dad when I was little was burying him in the fall leaves. My father would walk over to the park with my sisters and I, who would hold him like a prisoner under the sphere of bars where normal children would climb and hang upside down. Not us. We weren’t interested in climbing or hanging upside down so that our breakfast would make its way back out. We wanted to play ‘monster.’ To play this game, you needed to take your father into the centre of the sphere and bury him under all the fall leaves. October is the perfect time to play this game, as many of the red, orange and yellow leaves have already started to fall from the trees. There’s an endless supply with which to bury. You place him on his back and begin to bury him until you cannot see him anymore. Once there is not a trace of him to be found, it’s time for you and your siblings to run and hide before the monster wakes up and tries to get you.
You’ve got about thirty mississippis to find the perfect hiding spot and settle in quietly (without giggling). This is the hard part. While you try to remain motionless, you hear him start to emerge from the leaves, while he grunts like a monster and starts to walk around the playground like a zombie with arms stretched out in front of him. You hear his footsteps getting closer and you bite your tongue so you don’t burst out laughing. You see your big sisters running towards home base, and wait for just the right moment before you make a break for it, and run your butt home to the big yellow slide, squealing and giggling.
Burying your dad in the leaves CHANGES EVERYTHING!