Hush Hush. Keep it down now, voices carry.

Ok. I'll confess. Long ago, I naively thought I invented this game.

About 17 or 18 years back, I was babysitting two of my nieces. They are about 15 months apart in age and like most of the kids in the family, they could talk your ear off. My mother claims we were all vaccinated with phonograph needles.

( FYI: Many years ago, a phonograph was what one would use to listen to records. A record was what music was recorded on before CDs. Yes, this means that I am old.)

Anyway, after an hour or so, I challenged them to make as little noise as possible with, Ta Daaaaah, "The Quiet Game."


The Quiet Game is where you refrain from speaking for as long as you are able. The last one to make a sound wins.


It didn't take but 2 minutes, tops, to get a winner. K3 kept raising her hand to ask for a time-out in the game so she could say something. The remarkable thing about that evening and playing the quiet game was that K2 didn't talk at all for the next 4 hours. FOUR WHOLE HOURS. No matter how hard I tried to trick her into speaking. I was truly impressed. (She still is the family record holder to this date. No one has ever come close.)

Now, all these years later, I'm quite aware that many, many people use this technique to restore some order and maintain some peace and most importantly, QUIET, if only for a few moments in their noisy lives. Surprisingly, it even works for ~K~.



Quaker's Meeting has begun
No more laughing, no more fun
If you show your teeth or tongue,
You have to pay a forfeit.