A few years back when I was still a little boy,hide-and-seek seemed to be the most enjoyable game there was. My brother,  my cousin sister and I would spend hours just playing this game almost everyday. Hide-and-seek seems to hold a certain fascination for little children. Even today I still play it with my youngest sister who is eight years old. There is always the suspense of looking for someone hidden followed by the inveitable squeals of laughter at being discovered. It is pure clean fun.

             We used to hide under beds, behind cupboards, up on trees and even inside drains. No place seemed too dirty. Sometimes we really soiled our clothes and thus received scolding from our mother, but still persisted, much to her dismay.

         In those younger days, when we grew tired of playing hide-and-seek, we would change to “catching”. This was a much more energetic game where my older brother usually caught the rest of us when it was his turn to do the catching. The youngest of my sisters at that  time would have great difficulty trying to catch us. Owing to the discrepancy in size and speed, the quicker one always won, leaving  the slower one disappointed. So this game was not very popular  with us.

      Nowadays the games I play are no longer those I played as a child. Hide-and-seek and catching do not have the great appeal they had before. However I realize that these childhood games were necessary for me to develop my muscles and coordination before I could take more demanding games. For that I am thankful that I had played them.