“We count only blue cars. Skip the cracks, in the street
and ask many questions, like children often do…”
Counting blue cars by Dishwalla

My siblings and I used to play this game while waiting for our mom to come home from work. We’d sit by our dilapidated apartment’s windows and look out for vehicles with our chosen colors. The two-story rented apartment which was built of concrete in the ground floor and wood in the second floor was nestled right smack in the corner of two busy streets; one is a main thoroughfare. Every second especially during rush hours, there’d be all sorts of vehicles passing by. Heavy trucks would cause minor earthquakes in our apartment. Scary but we got used to it after many years of living there.

And then the noise! There’d be blaring, honking, screeching of tires, sirens from ambulance or fire trucks, the rowdy giggles or high-pitched voices of teen students crossing the streets and the tragic sound of accidents or death; our corner was full of action each day. You’d never know what will happen. It was a good spot to be for our improvised entertainment!

Anyway back to our game. One of my sisters would tell us “Pick a color!” I’d always choose blue but I couldn’t remember now if it ever brought me luck. After everyone has chosen their colors, we would start watching alertly out of our windows for vehicles that matched the colors we picked. The one who had the highest number wins. That kept us busy for an hour till we get dizzy watching the zooming vehicles.