How I Played House Growing Up

I played house as a child in the Philippines without any toys.  No Fischer brand kitchen. No toy utensils. Nothing. My mother did not believe in buying us toys. She was both a health and neat freak.

I loved playing house like any child. So I used what I had.  

I used chairs to divide spaces into kitchen, living room and bedroom. They served as walls.

When we went to visit my Grandmother in Quezon City, I used our station wagon as the house.  I would lift the rear door that opened up into the spacious trunk. There I would serve my younger brothers leaves I picked in the garden as food and the larger ones as plates. They actually played along.

I called this our al fresco kind of dining. 

While living in my other grandmother's house which was in the same compound as the fish sauce factory she built, I would use wooden sawhorses that supported tables to be the foundation of my house.  To the chagrin of our Nanny, Lola May, I would use blankets to hang over the wooden sawhorses. And with that I then had my tent. Since the yard was all cemented, with hardly any garden, I might have used rocks for food. Come to think of it I might have taken real food from our kitchen.

As I reminisce, I could feel the joy I had entertaining my guests, my brothers, food I prepared from leaves and rocks. No fancy plastic Fischer stuff. Just what nature offered and I was very happy.