Mother Made

One of the privileges of age is thinking backwards in time to days now long gone that were once a vividly important present. What once seemed commonplace, we now recognize as unique. Such a time is represented in the memories I have of my childhood neighborhood. There were boys and girls I played with everyday and who were the center of my social life, that I haven’t seen in many years, as most were not members of my high school graduating class. My neighborhood gang doesn’t have a periodical reunion.

Recalling some of the games we played is a pleasure. In our yard was an old gnarled box elder tree, thick in trunk with humps and bumps, that made a perfect home base for games of hide and seek. Our gangs favorite version of hide and seek was “Mother Made.”

The person who was “it” leaned against the tree with their forearm covering their eyes while all the others gather round “its” back. One person drew a continuous circle with his or her finger on ’it’s back and slowly recited, “Mother made a chocolate pie, and someone stuck their finger in it.” At that point, one of the gang would stick their finger in the middle of the imaginary pie on “its” back. “It” would then have to guess who was the guilty person. If “it guessed correctly, whoever stuck a finger in the pie was “it.” If “it” was wrong, he or she was still “it.”

At that point, whoever was now “it.” had to again lean against the tree on their forearm with eyes closed and count to one hundred, while everybody else ran off and hid.

“It” could venture off of home base while searching for the others, but needed to return to the base before the person he or she spied. So, while venturing out to seek the others, when “it” saw someone hiding “it” called out the person‘s name, “ I spy Johnny!“ Then they both ran as fast as they could back to home. If the hider returned first, that person was home free. If the seeker returned home first, “it” said, “One, two, three on Johnny!” Then, Johnny was “it,” and all of the others could return. In fact, they were called in by yelling, “Ally, Ally, Outs-in-free! The gang all returned home free to start play all over again.

“Mother Made,” was a great game to play in the twilight hours of a summer evening when we children had the run of the neighborhood.