Mad Libs

I was working with a group of middle school boys this afternoon when I decided to try a Mad Lib with them.

Have you ever tried a Mad Lib?  One person asks the others in the group for different parts of speech. After they have collected a series nouns, adverbs, and adjectives, the words are plugged into the blank spaces of a story. As you can imagine, the story can become quite outrageous and hilarious. It's a fun way to practice vocabulary and parts of speech.

The Mad Lib books I had brought to school had originally belonged to my two sons. They liked to tuck a couple into their "bobby bags" (their name for their traveling tote bags.) On a long trip, I would hear the two boys in the very back of the van rattling off the most ridiculous words they could think of. And because they were boys, you could count on the occasional bathroom references.

I stopped and read a few of their stories after work today. I could hear their young voices talking and giggling together and I was suddenly filled with a longing for those days when we took trips to the mountains. Handing out licorice whips, or bags of fruit snacks. Stopping along a quiet road for an emergency bathroom break. Listening to the older son read aloud an Archie comic while his brother stared intently at the pictures. Eavesdropping when their conversations turned to school adventures and their struggles with teachers, or pesky girls.

The brothers are grown up, young men on the brink of new adventures.  But it is amazing that the simplest of things, like a Mad Lib story, can trigger such powerful memories. Precious memories of a time when two brothers shared a game and a licorice whip.