Yesterday I read an article about the popular board game, Monopoly, on Reader’s Digest, and recalled a childhood experience.
A classmate had brought his Monopoly board game to school on a Friday, and I fell in love with the game. As much as I wanted to have one for my own, I did not come from a well-off family and I knew that we could not afford the expensive toy. So I didn’t even ask my parents to buy me one.
Instead, I took a folder and drew my own version of monopoly on it. Money cut out from my dad’s used bondpapers, movers and properties chiseled out of firewood, and some dice from an old game completed the game board.
I was just as happy to play my makeshift monopoly with fellow underprivileged friends at home as I was playing the real deal with my rich classmates.
My favorite and most expensive toys were a couple of Barbie dolls that my parents gave me for Christmas when I was eight years old. They lasted till the rest of my childhood. I loved to play with them and about five other cheaper made-in-China plastic dolls well into my early high school years.
As usual, lack of money prevented me from buying additional clothes and accessories for my toys, so I rooted through my mother’s sewing kit and my old clothes and made outfits for my girls with my own hands. My favorites were the ruffled tube dresses I fashioned out of the backs of those silk panties that were so popular in the old days.
Can I add these to my resume under the category innovative and creative?