At school today, one of my first grade girls was babbling on about all the games she had played at recess. I was multi-tasking big time (as all teachers do) so I was just catching bits and pieces of what she was saying... "And then we played Star Wars...I was the princess Leia, I think...both boys and girls in our club...I always get to pick the game even though the boys get mad..." Just incessant first grade talk that I had almost successfully tuned out until I heard, "So we just played Civil War instead."

Upon hearing that little gem of information, I immediately stopped everything I was doing and asked her in all seriousness, though smirking on the inside, just what exactly was the Civil War game. And here it is folks: "Well, I pretend to be Clara Barton and my best friend pretends to be Louisa May Alcott. And then the boys are all soldiers, except one of them is General Lee. And then we take care of the wounded soldiers if they get hurt."

You know, and maybe it was just me, but when I was in first grade, I played complicated historical fiction games like "chase" and "freeze tag" at recess. I'm not even sure I knew what the Civil War was at that age! Oh, and just in case you didn't know (because I didn't) both Clara and Louisa were actual Civil War nurses.