Imagination and pretend play go hand in hand. As a child I pretended and imagined like it was going out of style, much to the frustration of my elementary school teachers. I loved to dress up, act out scenarios, day dream about almost anything, and sometimes let those ideas get the best of me. Around the age of 8 or 9 I was introduced to scary TV programs (Tales from the Darkside, Fright Night, and The Twilight Zone). I was drawn to them, had to watch them, and then scared sleepless. My brothers laugh about watching me begin my long jump training at such a young age. We lived in a house where our three bedrooms faced a landing at the top of the stairs and we could see each other’s rooms. Dressed in  a long nightgown, prickly with static cling, I would stand at the doorway of my older brother’s room and begin the short run to my bedroom. As I passed my younger brother’s doorway my steps quickened, and as I stepped through my own doorway liftoff would occur, and I’d land safely on my bed. Immediately following the landing, covers would be pulled over my shoulders and an army of stuffed animals would be put in place around my neck (this would stop any vampire, of course). My main concern, vampires were secondary, was the little white monster under the bed. Luckily he never got me…

As we got a little older my brothers and I would play games together, one being war. At the time, our experiences were limited to television shows and stories from our uncles. One of the homes we lived in was in a rural area of southern Texas. It was surrounded by grapefruit and orange orchards, and not far away, a huge overgrown piece of land. The grass was so high you could be completely covered just by crouching down a little. We often used our fingers for guns and “Bang!!” to announce that we were shooting each other. Some how I was never able to shoot my older brother, no matter how close I was…he would say, “You missed me” and of course I believed him.

As my brothers and I got older, our pretend play dwindled and our creativity took new forms (we all draw and create things). One thing that never dwindled was the teasing I got from my brothers, especially about my nighttime long jump practices. I could never tease them enough to frustrate them, as they did me, so I had to use my imagination and come up with something else.

One Saturday morning, a couple of years later, my mom told me to get my younger brother up. It was still pretty dark in his room, I opened the door, called his name and told him mom wanted him to get up. Ten minutes later, he was still snuggled in bed. I slowly opened the door, crawled in and under his bed. I stayed there a minute, slowed my breathing, then reached up and gently grabbed hold of the corner of the sheet. I whispered his name and slightly tugged on the sheet. He rolled over, pulling the sheet with him. I took hold of the comforter and tugged on it as I slowly said his name in a raspy, high pitched voice. He stirred again, seeming to gain some consciousness. I tugged the comforter again and could tell that he had woken but was unsure what was going on. I took a breath, firmly pulled the comforter and loudly screeched his name as creepily as I could. He shrieked and jumped from his bed to the door, fumbled with the handle, then bolted up the stairs hollering all the way. Finally, a little payback.

Pretending is a way children make sense of their world and work out stressful situations. Imagination and creativity help adults relieve stress and reenergize (getting lost in a book, planning a trip, rearranging furniture). What are some ways you used imagination as a child? How do you use imagination now?