Whack a Mole – Home Version

Whack a MoleOne sunny summer afternoon when I was thirteen or fourteen I was hanging out in the yard in shorts and bare feet when my Dad hurried up to me with a spade in his hand.

A spade. You know, one of those shovels with the short handles and flat edge, the kind my Dad always uses but I don’t have enough muscle to get into the dirt so I always have to use a pointy-blade shovel?

Yeah, one of those.

“Amy! There’s a mole in the garage!” he said as he handed me the spade.

“I’m going to chase him out – you stand here around the corner here and whack him as he runs by.”

Does anyone else see the problem here?

I stared at him in horror – I can’t even begin to explain how much I did NOT want to hit a mole with a shovel spade.

“Whack him real hard.”

My mind was reeling… What if I missed and he ran at my bare feet? What if I hit him and hurt him? Worse – what if I KILLED him?! I imagined a mole, fur streaked with gore, lurching blindly toward me.

No way. I am so not doing this.

“Um, Dad? I can’t hit a mole with a shovel.”

“Sure you can! You just..” he pantomimed bopping an imaginary mole on the head with the spade. “BOP!”

Seriously, I am SO not doing this.

 

I don’t remember the rest of the story – if Dad chased the mole toward me and I gave a halfhearted attempt to whack him, or if Dad let me off the hook and dealt with the mole on his own – but we’ve laughed at the story ever since.

 

Hmmm… That gets me thinking… Dad’s birthday is in March… Maybe he needs a new game… 😉
Whack a Mole Game

Amy Sue

Photo credits: Mole by beeki. Used by Public Domain Dedication. Game photo from Amazon.

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