Pa-tooie

With sticks for weaponry, and Surplice, our pet basset hound, as a fellow soldier, my sisters and I ran through the fields as rival armies. Though we had plenty of fun hiding behind the deserted chicken coop or in the uncut hay, our favorite part was army crawling. Libby was the best at it, but even Surplice shuffled along on her belly. When it came time to attack, we got one little detail wrong. Because unlike little boys, we were unaware of the traditional shooting sound effects ‘bang’ and ‘pow’. Instead, when our imaginary pistols fired, we’d shout “pa-tooie! pa-tooie!”