Sometimes nostalgic things are best left forgotten.

Tuesday was Computer Lab Day, the best day of the week.

Mrs Henson's fourth grade class would line up, single file, and march down to the end of the hallway.

We would shuffle into the computer classroom and take our seats at the colourful max. Typically, we would spend the first half of class learning the names of hardware parts, followed by an educational spelling or math game.

There were rare occasions where we had the entire hour to ourselves, free to play the games we wanted.

Most of my classmates spent their time traversing the Oregon Trail, rolling the round in Bugdom, or racing cars and cavemen.

The game I played was not very popular. In fact, I think I was the only one who played it,

mainly because it was incredibly simple and somewhat childish, as if fourth graders had the right to call anything childish.

It was called Shop till you Drop.

The whole premise was to go through different stores in a shopping mall and collect the little trinkets before the mannequins caught you.

It was set in the first person and your score would increase as you picked up teddy bears clothing items

shoes etc all worth varying amounts of points the mannequins all stood in silly

poses like a ballerina dancer or a guy flex in it.

They would slowly move towards you if you spent too long in a store,

and you would have to maneuver around them to reach items worth more points.

The goal was to get to the mall entrance

with at least a thousand points and not have any of the mannequins touch you.

I never got to the end.

As easy as it was to get the points, I was always caught making a break for the door.

Every time I would hold down the arkey to run for the entrance and a mannequin would come out of nowhere and block my way.

It was always the same one, a male figure in a black suit tipping his top hat towards me.

His other hand outstretched, palm face up, and he was bent over in a graceful bow.

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