Answering the Call

For whatever reason, N has been fixated on this game that he once played about two years ago called Blongo Ball (BB). It goes by many other names, but the idea is essentially the same - you toss a rope with two golf balls attached at each end and try to get it to wrap around some bars. I think the high end versions use hard wood and are painted nicely, but the poor man’s version would use PVC piping.

Whatever be the case, he wouldn’t let it go, and has been talking non-stop about it. We looked it up on the Web, and they were a bit pricey, around the $60-70 range. This is not the end of the world, but we were concerned that it might fall into the category of obsession turned to disinterest, with him losing interest in it after a few days, leaving us with an expensive piece of junk that takes up space. This has happened in the past, and in all fairness, this behavior is the province of both children and parents alike.

I took a look at the game and thought that we could make it ourselves, but wasn’t sure about the cost of raw materials. At some point, it costs just as much as something made in China, though there is some satisfaction in doing it yourself, especially when you’re a kid. Then there was the decision to use either wood or PVC. I then employed my standard MO of trying to ignore it in the hopes that it would go away, but no such luck. N was unrelenting, and to his credit, he doesn’t ask for a lot of things.

So we headed over to Home Depot and picked up the supplies. The PVC turned out to be fairly cheap, though this is specific to HD. The cost of pipes and joints is about double at other places. We got out of there with $10 in supplies to make one unit, then about $10 in golf balls. You could save money on the balls if you just get used plain white ones, but we wanted color. You have to have some fun with it. We found a box of bright yellow ones (15 balls) for about $10. Total cost was now at $20.

We then went home and once again, I put the pipes in the barn and figured that I would get to it when I had time, but N was having none of it. He kept asking me when we’d do it, and he’s such a sweet kid, you can’t ignore his pleas. I broke the hacksaw and cut the pieces to size, and then had N assemble the thing. He did a great job, and before you knew it, we had a BB structure.

Next, we drilled holes into the balls and ran some rope through them, and voila, BB City. N was thrilled, as were all of us, and I have to confess, it’s a fun game, but the best thing is that N put it together, and could take pride in this fact. Plus, now he has what he wanted, though to be complete, we need different colored balls to make it interesting. One step at a time, however.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.