Miscellanea
AS WE REACH the end, there are some additional things one really should know, and here they are, in no particular order.
1. Skipping Stones. Find a rock as close to smooth, flat, and round as you can. Hold it flattest-side down, index finger curled around one edge, and throw it sidearm, low and parallel to the water, snapping the wrist at the last possible moment before you let go to give it some spin. The stone should hit the water at a low, 20 degree angle or so. Keep practicing till the stone bounces off the water a few times.
2. Steering a Sled. We’ll tell you here in case you do not know: it’s opposite to how you steer a bicycle or a car, and akin to a kayak or canoe. Lean left to go right. Lean right to go left.
3. Flying a Kite. Toss the kite into the wind, or run with the kite behind you until the wind catches it, then unhurriedly let the string out. If the kite swoops, pull on the string. Extra ribbons on the tail help to stabilize, and they are pretty too. Make sure there’s enough wind, then practice so the string in your hand feels like second nature.
4. Water Balloons. To fill, attach the mouth of the balloon to the water faucet (or use an adapter that comes with many packages of water balloons), and—this is key—keep the faucet on low so the water pressure doesn’t send the balloon into outer space. Once the water balloon smashes to the ground, clean up the colorful scraps, since when the fun’s over, the balloon remnants turn into trash.
5. Lanyards. Making lanyards (flat plastic thread box-stitched into a loop, bar, or creative shape) has been a treasured summertime activity. Lanyard strings were once extremely precious, and people who knew all the box stitch variations were popular and in high demand.
Nowadays, lanyard, or gimp, as some people call it, is more plentiful. It’s also more cheaply made, and doesn’t hold together as well when you cross it over in mysterious ways and pull it tight.
6. Cat’s Cradle. Now here’s an old-fashioned girl activity worth preserving. This two-person game of creating various figures with one string loop may actually be the oldest and most widely known game in the history of humanity.
Russians call it “the game of string,” and Chinese call it “catch cradle.” British geographer Alfred Wallace tried to teach the game to children in Borneo in the 1800s, only to have them show him new variations he had never seen. And Kenyan anthropologist Louis Leakey used it in the early 1900s to connect with African tribes.
It’s pretty much impossible to describe the intricate movements of cat’s cradle on paper without a lot of pictures. And it’s better to learn from someone in person anyway. So find a girl who knows and have her show you.
7. Ping-Pong. Forget nudging your parents for a horse; ask for a ping-pong table instead. Have a good supply of those air-filled white balls ready for when they lodge in the crevices between storage boxes that have been stacked high against the basement walls to make space for the ping-pong table. If you’re alone you can fold one of the table sides to vertical and push it against a wall to practice.
8. Harmonica. Invaluable for nights by the campfire when the embers are low, the camp songs are done, and nearly everyone has fallen asleep. Hold with your thumb and first finger. Blow breath into it, and draw it back through the holes. Experiment with sound. Flapping the other fingers up and down while you blow or draw will create a wavery vibrato.
9. Snowshoeing. The best sport for winter, because you don’t need a ski lift to get you up the hill. Just strap a pair of snowshoes on over your boots and head outdoors.
10. Temperature Conversions. To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 9, divide by 5, and add 32. To convert temperatures the other way, from Fahrenheit to Celsius, subtract 32, divide by 9, and multiply by 5.
11. Bicycle Wheelies. Whether yours is a tough mountain bike or a ladylike pastel blue number with tassels out the handlebars and a basket, you’ll want to know how to pop a wheelie.
Once you’re at speed, lean forward, hands grabbing the handlebars, and then shift your body weight slightly up and backward. That should be enough to lift the front wheel off the ground, whether you’re doing show-offs on the street in front of your house, or trying to get your bike over tree stumps on a rugged trail.
12. Handball. It sounds ridiculously boring but it’s not. Find a clean wall with no windows, or another flat surface, and bounce a pink rubber ball against it, open-handed. It’s the best way possible to discover what your hands can do, and to learn about angles of reflection. Play alone or with friends, rotating in when someone misses the ball.
13. Take Things Apart. Old televisions and fax machines, a cell phone that no longer works, or a computer that’s ten years out of date and living its final years in the back shed: no discarded machine should go undismantled. Teensy-tiny drivers and hex keys can unlock the smallest screws, so grab a hammer and whatever does the trick and see what’s inside. That’s how the world’s best engineers learned what they know.
14. Time Capsules. This girlhood of yours is filled with days to remember. Make a scrap-book if you like, but really, any old box will do—an antique tin, a shoebox, or a box hammered together from plywood and nails. Keep your mementos, letters, ticket stubs, the list of dreams scribbled on a napkin, a picture of your best friends, and the poem or phrase you thought up last night before bed. Stow this box of inspiration somewhere safe, keep adding to it, and don’t look at it for twenty years.
15. Words to Live By. Be brave and walk with confidence. And remember, in the words of Amelia Earhart, “Adventure is worthwhile in itself.”