The Devil In The Dishes

There is something mysterious about children's games. Oh, not the ones with official rules laid out by the PE teacher, but the ones children create for themselves. Whether it be large groups on the playground or the smaller varieties carried out by just a few, they seem to emerge suddenly, fully fledged, from some shared consciousness.

Listening to my youngest describe his school recess brings this to mind. Some days  he and his friends play The Secret of the Apartment, in which spies try to plant a vial of rainbow gas in the space under the monkey bars.  Other days it's Lighthouse War, in which the teams launch imaginary cat bombs into enemy territory.

Rainbow gas? Cat bombs? Who comes up with this stuff? The kids shrug their shoulders. Who knows? It just happens.

As well I know. In my day we played Dead Drop, or Alien Abduction, or - for a whole 3 weeks in third grade - a nameless game in which the girls gathered keys for no discernable reason. It's not as if anyone told us to do so. It just happened.

Not long ago, I saw some kids building a flower-decorated stone circle out of playground rocks. It looked like some ancient magic they were making. Perhaps it's an impulse as old as humanity itself. As I said, mysterious.

Interestingly, some of these games have a macabre element as well. Fox and chickens, hide and seek, red light green light (called grandmother's footsteps in the UK ) can be pretty scary. Grandmother's footsteps was of course used to great effect as the inspiration for the weeping angels of Doctor Who fame. and a similar game called toca la pared turns up, most alarmingly, in The Orphanage.

Even our preferred version of hide and seek was extra grim. We called it "murder in the dark."

One of my favorite childhood books, The Thing at the Foot of the Bed, had a chapter called Ghost Games, and even though this was separate from the How To See Ghosts chapter, my cousins and I tended to mix them up and play them all with a ritualistic solemnity.

The game that intrigued me most was called The Devil in the Dishes. There's a chant that goes with it. The children, having been sent on an errand, hear a creepy sound and run home to mother, one at a time.

"The devil's in the dishes, chap, chap chapping"

The mother dismisses this with
"It's just your father's nightshirt, flap, flap flapping."

This continues until the mother finally comes out with the children to chase the devil.

This game appears to have originated in 19th century Ireland, which might have been long ago, but read enough "scariest thing that ever happened to you as a kid" tales on Reddit and you'll begin to see the pattern is familiar in the present day.

The adults might insist there is nothing out there, but there was, and the kids knew it all along. And the most haunting question is always, "why didn't they believe me?"

There are things the kids know that adults no longer understand.

Perhaps it's this that gives the mysterious quality to children's games. They are full of secret knowledge, intuitive knowledge of the world and how it works. As adults, having internalized the rules and regulations and how things are supposed to be, we forget. We lose touch, in many ways, with these age-old connections.

It might be something to think about, the next time you pass the playground.


The game at the top of the post is one my youngest invented, with an old gameboard, some ghost figurines and a bunch of foreign coins. The rules are malleable and arcane, but being it's ghosts, what else did you expect?

edit - here is a brilliant thread on Reddit about made up children's games..

The Twelvetide Fortune-Telling Method

There is an old legend that says your dreams on the twelve days of Christmas foretell what will happen to you in the twelve months of the coming year. At the suggestion of Liza Frank on twitter, some of us have written down our dreams of the last twelve nights. Here are mine.

(Sorry it's a bit long. It couldn't be helped. I dream a lot. )

Dream, December 25th -
Something about ballerinas, then talk of gravity. Some sort of test was happening on the moon. A fog. An illustration I recall from a childhood book about anxiety, saying "what if the moon falls?" Then back to gravity when I think, "what if death is like falling 150,000 stories?"

This was alarming enough to jolt me out of sleep.

As a prediction for January, it's interesting, because China has just landed a probe on the dark side of the moon. No word yet about the moon falling or my plunging 150,000 stories to my death. I'm  really hoping this part isn't accurate at all.

Dream, December 26th -
Down at the river - not the one nearby, some other, unknown river - I find a packet of hair color. Without much consideration or forethought, I decide to try it. It turns my hair a strange shade of amber, which for some reason elderly men find irresistibly attractive. My husband, however, is embarrassed to be seen with me.

There was more to this dream but it's vague, something about cliff faces and river valleys and some plan of Trump's that doesn't work.

Prediction for February - avoid hair experimentation at all costs, as it will only lead to trouble. Also, Trump will probably make some plan that doesn't work.

Dream, December 27th -
I'm invited to the meeting of a book club in Los Angeles, but it turns out it's a book club for nudists and I'm the only one wearing clothes.  At first I'm like, "FFS, all these naked people" but then there's an earthquake and I'm trapped in the building with them. And they're naked. It's all very awkward.

Prediction for March: God only knows. Something about seeing people's vulnerability? Being trapped in a situation where I have to confront my own awkward feelings? The book we were meant to be discussing was about military strategy, I think, so that just makes it even more confusing.

Dream, December 28th -
My son and I are walking down the road when we meet our new mail carrier, James "Bobo" Faye from Finding Bigfoot. He greets us very cheerfully and hands us each a copy of Reader's Digest.

Later, I'm wandering around a resort or conference center when I come across former US. Labor Secretary Robert Reich in one of the rooms. He tells me, much to my surprise, that he's secretly been in love with me for years.

Prediction for April: I haven't the foggiest idea what mail carrier Bobo could represent, but my son interprets it as meaning that I will be given something by a person I know, but who doesn't know me.

Robert Reich possibly represents finding some meaningful labor or purpose in life that has always been there, but without my realizing an aptitude for it yet.

Dream, December 29th-
There is a carnival in a town somewhere, nothing elaborate, rather small and cheap. I don't recall entering a raffle there, but I'm told I've won and will receive two prizes. The first prize is a silver monstrance with a leaf design. The second prize is a very old and rare recording of Berber music from Morocco. I'm ushered into a room full of rare and valuable music to claim my prize, and I'm amazed by the beauty and quality of the artwork there.

Prediction for May:
This one is tricky. Perhaps something that seems unprepossessing will turn out to have important spiritual or cultural value. Perhaps something valuable will be gained by sheer luck or chance.

Dream, December 30th -
In waking life, there are two arched gateways in my town that are several miles apart. In my dream, however, these gateways have become two sides of the same gate, as if the distance between them has disappeared. It's a little eerie, as if this suddenly appearing shortcut violates the laws of physics. Nevertheless, I pass through it on my way somewhere. I find a small shop where I ask for a cup of hot tea. They say they don't have any, but I tell them they do, they just don't realize it. I find the tea and get my drink for free.

Prediction for June:  This may foretell a move. As for the tea - it could mean something unexpected will be found, but then again I can't overlook the fact that my name begins with the letter T. Finding myself, perhaps? Well, one can hope.

Dream, December 31st-
Wandering through a museum with Albert Einstein. There was a flute on display, and I say to Einstein, "I never could have played the flute, too many notes above the staff."

(This is true, as I always struggled with reading those treble clef notes in piano lessons, but I hadn't thought about it in many, many years. )

Prediction for July: Pretty stymied by this one. Something to do with math problems? Musical notation may be more like a language, but I did struggle with sheet music as if it were numbers. Why else would I have been talking to Albert Einstein, of all people?

I'm not too keen on this theory, really, so here's hoping this means there will be some new discovery about the physics of sound instead.

Dream, January 1st -
Floating dream. I was floating on a giant frisbee-type craft, out of my back yard and heading northeast. Suddenly I discover a walled estate I hadn't even known was there. I drop in for a look. It turns out to belong to Richard Branson. I float away on my frisbee again (not wanting to get caught trespassing) and observe some creepy farmhouses. These farmhouses are unsettling so I make my way to a pretty town, where I nosed around until some lady turned up and was very annoyed at my snooping.

Prediction for August: this was more of a quasi-OBE type experience than a regular dream, so not sure it counts. There was a hint of something troubling behind it, though, so if it means anything, it might be a forewarning of problems in that month.

Dream, January 2nd -
Only vague, shadowy dreams this night, nothing my memory could hold.

Prediction for September: heck if I know. Total mystery.

Dream, January 3rd -
A series of dressing rooms or changing rooms as if in a clothing store, with velvet curtains on rings. I was trying on various clothes, but there were no mirrors so I couldn't see how they looked. This place reminded me of my mother's old shop (which was a bakery, not a clothing store, so that was odd.)

Dream ended when I was woken by the doorbell, which hadn't really rung, according to other people in the house. Strictly a dream doorbell.

Prediction for October: trying to make changes or improvements to the self or surroundings, but perhaps not having the self-awareness to judge how well it's working.

Dream, January 4th -
It began in a muddle about traffic, which I think was just clearing out the stresses of the day. It then resolved into the dream of the burning coal I wrote about here, which was so haunting I thought it deserved a post of its own. To reiterate-

"last night I dreamed of a man who had a young girl who worked for him. Each night he had her carry a burning coal from one room to another in a little silver box. She did as she was told, but what she didn't know was that this was part of a love spell he was casting on her, and therefore she was helping to cast a spell on herself."

This dream ended when I was woken by the dream doorbell again. Second time in as many days. I wonder if this happens because the dream is moving into an area the psyche does not want to deal with.

Prediction for November: beware of seduction, or having your strength used against you. No matter how appealing it sounds or how dutiful you might be.

Dream, January 5th -
A certain member of a message board I'm on had hidden his posts throughout the forums in treasure-hunt style, leaving clues as to where to find the next one. (I'm assuming the search function in this dream was very poor indeed.) The final post was actually outside the message board, in this sort of cyber-reality we had to break though to find it.

The point was to leave a reply, proving your bravery and cleverness at having found it, but when I got there, I found I was simply too tired to care.

Nearby, I found one of those hide-a-key thingies that looks like a rock, which was much more interesting. Inside were many keys of all shapes and sizes. A few were gold, but most were silver. There was something exciting and hopeful about this find. Notably, this is the third appearance of silver in these twelvetide dreams.

Prediction for December - Given that this particular person is an aggressive flirt, I take it as another warning about seduction, and also to avoid being drawn into psychological games. The appearance of the keys might mean understanding or gaining access to something previously closed to me.

Dream, January 6th.
At a tropical beach resort with my family. We're eating coconuts and living the life, when suddenly a figure in a black leather coat runs by, unnoticed by many. It's the ninth Doctor, as played by Christopher Eccleston. This is a surprise. He asks me for directions to the exit, then thanks me and keeps running. I think, well, if the Doctor is here, you know something hugely important must be happening. At the same time, I had no doubt that the Doctor would take care of it.

Prediction for January: no idea, but it was comforting dream. The knowledge that someone would come along and save us all.

...

So that's that, and I'll be keeping one gimlet eye on this post throughout the year to see how it plays out.

Last Night I Dreamt Of A Man...

He had a young girl who worked for him, and every night he had her carry a burning coal from one room to another in a little silver box. She did as she was told, but what she didn't know was that this was part of a love spell he was casting on her, and therefore she was helping to cast a spell on herself.

Very intriguing.

I'm put in the mind of another dream I had years ago in Victoria, about a local minister who had a box of fire buried beneath his church. No one else knew it was there, except the minister (and me, the dreamer, of course.) I could see it there, burning underground in its little silver chest.

I don't know the connection - or at least not yet. I have the feeling I will one day, though.

The Year Of The Peacock

I've decided that my style aesthetic for 2019 will be "winsome yet independent main character in British telefilm circa 1990's"

Seriously, I've spent many late nights watching these movies and I think I've got the look down. Though obviously I'm more a Serena Scott Thomas than a Tara Fitzgerald.

Now all I need is the charming village and the quaint (but realistically unaffordable) antique-filled cottage to go with it.

Last Splash

I was hoping 2018 would provide one last lovely sunset before it was over, and happily, my wish was granted. Now if only 2019 will be so lucky...

(Also, 90 posts in 2018, how awesome is that! I never thought I'd be able to post that often, and fingers crossed that my energy level will let me keep up this pace. )