We would create maps and come up with names for the streets. My maps always had Flower St - our mum used to live in Flower St in Bulls when she taught there and I thought it was such a cool name.
We had at least one pack of the Happy Families card game. My brother took us well beyond just playing the game. We'd have flicks (he would flick the cards and see what Mr, Mrs, Master or Miss crossed the finish line first) and throws. I couldn't do flicks but was okay with throws though sometimes the cards would end up well off the racecourse.
One of my favourite activities was high jump. We would thread a stick of bamboo through two old chairs with woven backs. As I was taller than him at the time I would usually win. Ditto running in the swimming pool.
Cricket was great as we had a substantial macrocarpa hedge for the wicketkeeper. When I was bowling I would call myself Helen Hadlee and was dismayed to later learn the bowling great's wife was called Karen, not Helen. Hitting a six was frustrating for the bowler, not just for the boost to the batter's runs tally but because you had to go find the ball in the paddock, often atop a cow pat.
There was no deuce in Lacy tennis. We'd come up with creative juices such as raspberry or pineapple. I was always Tracy Austin.
My brother would create a farm on our lounge floor and you had to be super careful where you walked. He had some plastic farm animals and vehicles but I remember playing cards for fences, preserving seals for electric fences and cotton reels for something I now can't remember - we are talking 40 years ago!
My grandparents had built me a dolls' house. I loved it but Pop was always embarrassed about it as there wasn't a staircase, windows or doors. I didn't care and would spend hours mucking around with the furniture and dolls. I remember spray painting a used pineapple tin white and declaring it was a spa pool for the dolls. Ah, the height of sophistication. Gran made all the bedding and dolls' clothes.
I also loved coming up with menus in French; pommes de terre sounds so much more appetising than potatoes.
When it came to snacks, salt and vinegar chips were divided into two bowls and the other kid would choose. Sharing a Moro bar was even more scientific. The cutter would use a ruler or blade of a knife to work out where the halfway mark was.
At the back of our house was an old garden shed with a horseshoe hanging on the door. We named it Horseshoe Hut and I inducted my friends into the Horseshoe Hut Club. It was hardly a salubrious hideaway so most of our horseshoe-hutting was in our imaginations.
Imagination - the best thing to have these school holidays.