Did you ever play the lava game as a kid?  The sub­ject came up again last night as we were steam clean­ing the car­pet for a house­guest this week­end.  It seems like every­one I talk to has played it, or at least some minor vari­ant.  Tech­ni­cally, I think the label “game” is less accu­rate than some­thing like “activ­ity,” but you prob­a­bly already have rec­ol­lec­tions of this “game” form­ing in your head, so you likely know what I mean.  The floor of the house is lava.  You then jump around between the sofa, loveseat, and var­i­ous other pieces of fur­ni­ture, try­ing to cre­atively get around with­out touch­ing the floor.  Even if there is a news­pa­per on the floor, it is some­how stout enough to repel the lava.  Just as card games have “house rules,” so does the lava game.  Some­times it is played at home on the fur­ni­ture.  Some­times it is played by friends at lunch time in the sand­box at school, jump­ing around between mon­key­bars, swings, and other play­ground equip­ment.  Some­times there is a per­son act­ing as a lava mon­ster, try­ing to pull peo­ple into the lava.  Regard­less of the locale or spe­cific sce­nario, every­one I encounter has played some form of “the floor is made of lava.”

Last night, it was fun to see the cats leap around, try­ing not to touch the (wet) floor.  To them, it was made of lava.

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Tagged as: cats, game, lava, lava game, lava monster