Thinking of the Olympics games in Torino being refered to as the "Torino Games" makes me think of the gawd-awful trips my sister and I took cross country during the many times the Air Force re-located our family. Those trips cross country involved my Dad's 1970 Ford Torino Wagon:

Five days riding in that hot car (Dad disconnected the air conditioner to save gas milage, or so he thought). We'd pass away the time playing games in the car as we drove.

When I say "we," I mean my younger sister Susan and I.

We played all the bingos--Licence plate bingo, billboard bingo, and all the alphabet variants of those as well. You know the one, where I'd take the passenger side of the road andmy sister would take the driver's side and we'd see who can get a billboard for every letter of the alphabet first. Alpha-bits cereal, then Bumblebee Tuna, then Charleston Chew--you get the idea.

These were our Torino games...or at least the games in the Torino.

Sue would be anxious to start the minute Dad pulled away from the dusty KOA Kampground. I usually was unavailable the first 200 miles or so, because I was busy reading the comics I had purchased the night before at the gift shop. All the KOA's had these re-packaged three packs of comics--three Marvels or three DC's packaged together. I remember having JLA 101, Superboy 189 and Detective Comics 428 all in one bag. I also had Avengers #101 (Harlan Ellison script in comic form, no less), Conan #20 and some Captain America where he fought the Scorpion, and Falcon didn't have wings yet.

The KOA three packs were the bomb, and I got to buy two at every stop. By the time we got to Tuscon, I was a full-fledged comic book geek.

My parents encouraged the game playing to keep our minds off the heat, and we'd play all the games we could think of. There was only one that eventually got vetoed. It was called the Sandwich Game. It was a memory game and my sister and I each have pretty good memories.

It worked like this. I would start and say " I have two slices of bread."
My sister then replies, " I have two slices of bread, with baloney."
Then I would say: " I have two slices of bread, with baloney and pickles."
Then she'd say: "I have two slices of bread, with baloney, pickles and cheese."
I'd come back with: "I have two slices of bread, with baloney, pickles, cheese and ketchup."

This would go on and on for miles and miles. Knowing what I know about how annoying two kids can be, I totally understand the fact that my Dad nearly lost his mind somewhere in New Mexico and pulled over, veins popping form his skull to yell:

" YOU DON'T HAVE ANY BALONEY! YOU DON'T HAVE ANY CHEESE AND YOU DON'T HAVE ANY GOD-DAMNED KETCHUP. YOU AIN'T EVEN GOT ANY BREAD, SO SIT THERE AND BE QUIET FOR THE NEXT 100 MILES. YOUR BOTH GROUNDED FROM TALKING!!!!"

That was the end of the Torino Games.

Posted by wayneb at February 17, 2006 02:03 PM