unusal games or play you liked as a child

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One thing I liked was to take a mirror that was hanging in the hallway (it was about 16 inches square) and hold it so that it was pointed up at the ceiling. Then I would look down into it and walk around the house feeling like I was walking upside down on the ceiling. It was really fun! Happily, no one in my family noticed or minded because they are all Aspie.

I used to play a game called "stoop ball" where one would throw a small, hard rubber ball on a spot between stairs on a stoop (stairs which lead up into a person's residence, especially on the East coast of the US). "Stoop" comes from a Dutch word.

If the ball went across the street as a result of that throw, it was a home run; if it went into the street (between the sidewalks) without hitting any cars, it was a triple. If it hit any cars, we ran for our lives (the "batter" was out). If the ball bounced twice before it was caught, it was a double; once, it was a single. If caught on the fly, you were out.

I also played punchball, and was quite good at it. I stunk at baseball, though!

I think I spent more time reading encyclopedias, organizing things, watching ants, and exploring in the backyard than playing, honestly.

I'd take apart ANYTHING I could get my hands on. I'd do it to see how it worked, and would keep any parts I found interesting.

When I was in my mid teens, for fun my friend and I would say from memory how many parts (screws, all moving parts, rotating driveline parts, ect) of various RC cars.

For example:

K- how many moving parts are in an Ofna 9.5 buggy?
Me- Standard 9.5, or 9.5MBX?
K-MBX
Me- Pull start, or bump box?
K- Pull start.
Me- (thinks about it and answers)

I loved this game! I could see the whole buggy in my head and could just count the screws I "saw".

Me and my brother made a game called "The Boat Game". We would gather up our favorite stuffed animals and pretend we were on a ship in a fierce thunderstorm.

Another thing we made is a game where we would tie wires and chords to clothing hangers and scatter stuffed animals on the floor. We would use the hangers to "fish" for them. My brother was always much better at it than I was.

One summer I decided I was a Cherokee or something and found a special stick that was perfectly suited to the task and spent the daylight hours trying to dig an irrigation system to water my imaginary corn, beans, and squash, etc. I got lost in it. I had a very large field and it's really hard to get the slope just right so the water will go where you want, especially using a big stick.

When I was very small, one of my grandmothers had a set of World Book encyclopedias, which were quite old and obsolete at the time - this was the early 60s and they were probably published in the 40s or earlier, but even before I could read, I would sit for hours, flipping pages and looking at the photos and paintings, especially of animals, where they would have page after page of different breeds of dogs and such.

Then when I was an adolescent, my family got our own set of new ones, along with a complete set of 'Childcraft' encyclopedias for kids, with all kinds of DIY projects and science experiments you could do with household objects. I remember being endlessly fascinated with their descriptions of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the pictures of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Colossus of Rhodes.

Good times.

When I was in 7th grade, I used to pretend to be Oohkee Kenookee, a Neanderthal Man. I carried around a stick, which I said was my spear, and I would go into supermarkets and spear canned foods, saying I was hunting for my dinner.

I also used to like to play Archaeologist, and pretend to dig for fossils.

I used to play board games by myself as more than one person. And not just simple ones like Connect 4 or whatever. Stuff like Monopoly and Risk. And often as 3-5 players. I could compartmentalize into separate players and strategies to win, and act independently of the other "Players".

-I used to invite my cousin over and sometimes we'd play a game where I would draw a picture of something while he described it to me -such as draw a person with a big nose, glasses, a funny hat, etc. , and then he'd draw a picture while I described what to put in it, and then we'd show each others' drawing and enjoy the different styles and get some laughs.

-One time I read in a Ramona book about when she would play "brick factory" with a friend. Only they were crushing up a bunch of old bricks with rocks instead of making them. I played the game outdoors with a friend only we didn't have bricks so instead we played "rock factory". It sound even more silly, wrecking rocks with more rocks in a pretend factory. Kind of like on the Flintstones!

-I used to sometimes tell a silly story and draw an illustration while I telling it. One was about a big house where the family had gone out somewhere and then space aliens landed and started exploring it and caused all kinds of trouble fooling around with the appliances and then they flooded everything by leaving the sink and bathtub running and I think one of them tried to flush himself down the toilet. Of course, it wasn't as funny to the family when they came back to see their house wrecked and the aliens left in fear.

-I loved to take small plastic dolls and figures to places like the beach or the woods and have them go through all kinds of adventures where everything is gigantic. A tidal pool would be a lake, a pile of snow with a hole in it would be a cave, tall grass would be a jungle. Oh how I wish I could play that way still! Maybe I can if there's no one around, but it's not the same.

Yeah, as soon as I realized there was such a thing as a book it was like I found a crack rock. No need for stim toys or games when I have something to read. That was more than adequate to stimulate me. And when it started to feel like I couldn't get enough I took up speed reading.

Haha.

One of my favorite plays was also the "mirror walking". It was so fun to "walk on the ceiling". My family members were wondering why I do something like that and why is it so fun for me but they didn't care much. I was the only child so they got noone to compare me with.

I also liked to hang to a willow tree and swing on the ropes. Some other child were also doing it but they were pretending they are Tarzan, I was just swinging for the feel of flying. I liked to jump off a regular swing for the same reason.

There was also a play that pissed off my grandma a lot. I was throwing water filled bags out of the window (she lived on 4th floor) and watching how they splash when they hit the ground. She was always telling me "You will fall off! And stop throwing those things, you might hit someone down there!". "I am careful, grandma. And I make sure there is noone there before I throw. See? Someone is coming now so I wait till they pass." - I answered and keep playing.

I also liked to watch English Cartoon-Network (note - I live in Poland and I started to learn English when I was 12 so it was impossible for me to know the English language at that time). My grandma was asking me if I understand anything and I didn't have a clue why she thinks I wouldn't. I mean - of course, I didn't understand most of the words but according to the action I could easily guess what they said. It was especially true with my favorite cartoon, the "Beetlejuice". "Bijodzus" (that I used to call Beetlejuice) was usually acting literally as his friend said. For example he was "losing his head" when she said about it. Why wouldn't I understand that? BTW, I guess it is the way how I learned how to understand the idioms. The cartoon teached me that a sentence can have a double meaning.

Oh and I was sometimes making a huge spiderweb of wool spreading all over my room. It really got the shape a real spider could make. Adults had no idea how I - a child -am able to create something so complicated. But I didn't see anything complicated in it. That was just some tangled wool.

They are ALL aspies?Sh**,your lucky.

My sister and I used to play the Pop Pop game. We'd stand on the lawn and pull each other back and fourth five times and one of us would fall saying, "Pop, pop pop pop, pop!" We took turns being the one who fell to the ground. My dad complained about it at the dinner table one evening.

I remember when I was about 6 I found a patch of dry ash on the grass in the school playground, and I walked around in it, sort of kicking it as I walked, making clouds of dust fill the air around me, and I was pretending I was a steam train. It was great fun. But that finished when one day a dinner lady walked up to me and told me off for making my shoes and legs all dirty, so I didn't play that game any more. I did want to play with the other girls in my class but all they wanted to play was horses every single play time, which I thought was boring.

O-M-G I did the EXACT same game..EXACTLY.....LOL