When Great Aunt Dorothy used to ask, "What's your favorite subject?" my sisters and I always answered politely ("reading" or "science"), as we smirked at one another beneath her line of sight and, below audibility level, hissed the true answer, "Recess!"

Recess was great. In elementary school, we built snow forts and re-enacted space-alien attacks; in middle school, we jumped rope and played keep-away.

"You had recess in middle school?" my incredulous seventh-grader interrupts.