Seoul International Book Fair, Summer Vacation, Play, Memories

The vacation of elementary school has begun. Fortunately, ZOOM classes and school attendance once a week seem to have filled the first semester’s study. I was worried about children who had to wear masks during the day, but I’m glad to have a vacation without any accidents.

My granddaughter, who has never been able to go to an academy or travel during vacation as before, has to spend this summer vacation at home. My husband and I also changed our lifestyle for the child who left home with the mother who went to work in the morning and came back to the mother’s house.

My husband, who was an elementary school teacher, became a daily teacher during the child’s vacation and I became a friend of the child who played with the child. Unlike before, she is a conversation partner for a child who has to play with his mouth, not his body.

The house where the child’s laughter sounds lively. I come out with an old album and enjoy seeing my mother’s childhood pictures, and I like to look into her listing and diary.

Today, suddenly, I was curious about my grandmother’s childhood and asked her what she did when she was young.

Since studying is behind me and I was a player in playing, I listed a series of childhood games that I enjoyed playing as I prepared for today.

These are the games that I played with four older brothers.

Eating lotus rice in a room porridge. The child, who did not know what lotus rice was, was told in detail about lotus flowers blooming in the mud and savory lotus rice. The taste of lotus root, which was recovered from the mud that was filled up to the thighs, was also expressed realistically expressed.

I caught a rump in the same place. With the thunder we caught for play, Mother made us a delicious doenjang stew for dinner.

To catch and fry locusts. When you go out to the rice paddies, the fun of catching locusts running around… is the savory taste of locusts that catch grasshoppers, catch them full of empty bottles, and roast them, maybe you don’t know the taste.

Without knowing that the child’s forehead was wrinkled, I explained excitedly.

I couldn’t bear to talk about the frosting of beans in other people’s fields. Because I thought I should point out my brothers who had soot all over their faces as criminals and tell them what the bean field owner asked my mother to pay for the beans.

Ground-breaking. Autonomous. Rubber-banding. Ttakji-chigi. Bead-chigi-chigi-chigi. The horse-riding fight that used to hang out with the kids up there.

Earth and paper. Trees, everything in nature was our play.

The child who was listening to my story quietly says a word.

“Why did Grandma only play with dirty things?”

Children these days don’t know how to play. When I told them about threading and tombstone hitting, they said that they had already learned Korean traditional play subjects at school. I knew it was a kind of class, not a play.

My granddaughter’s friends came to play.

They are all children living in apartments, so they think my house, which is a detached house, is like a country house. Spending a day of vacation at a friend’s maternal home can also be a pleasant memory. Steamed corn and potatoes and rolled noodles into cool water kimchi.

Chicken and kimbap. Everyone eats well even if it’s not pizza.

The children who bowed politely after the meal and went upstairs are quiet.

The children were all absorbed in their play. A child who plays games. Contrary to what I thought would be children reading books, children playing with toys, children were spending time quietly looking for their favorite games. They are not like children.

Whether she didn’t seem to be a homebody during the vacation, she said she planned to go on a mudflat experience with some of her close friends’ families. Will they be able to play well in the mudflats?

Photos and videos that overshadow my worries arrived by e-mail.

Children running around with mud all over their bodies, giving each other mud massages on their faces, giggling. Lift out a large stone and hold the crab and the bronze with bare hands. Following the holes in the mudflats, holding on to something eagerly. The children’s pleasant laughter and chatter seemed to be heard all the way here.

All the children were crawling like crabs on the mudflats.

These days, children are playing dirtier than I am because they are playing in nature.