Context

My dad told me this story about a game that he played with his older brother as a part of their bedtime ritual when he was younger:

Dad: Ok, so, in our lifetime – shared lifetime – there’s been more of an awareness, of kids playing a game called “the floor is lava.” Like, there was a tv show, called the floor is lava, and people started talking about it, and actually, you know, whatever it was, 10 years ago, 12 years ago, we wrote – we: our little Marino family – wrote a story called “the mysterious floor” that’s essentially the floor is lava story in a new form.

Text

Dad: That came out of the fact that when I was growin’ up, my brother and I had bunk-beds in our room – we shared a room, we had bunk beds, and we had a little ritual. And the ritual was um, someone had to turn out the light, and I had the bottom bunk, so I- it was easier for me to go turn out the light, and then I would come back to the bed, but the game we played was was that our-our bunk-beds were a submarine, a submersible, and um, the minute you turned off the light, the-this was lava, but we called it yoan, which was a combination of the words yes and no for some reason *both chuckle* the minute you turned out the light, the yoan would start to rise, and so I had to hop back – I– there were apparently some yaon-proof, like little stones in the wa– in the yoan that didn’t get covered right away, so I had to hop back – hop on different rocks back into bed, and, um… before the yoan completely rose. And then it would rise and cover the submersible, and then we were, you know, all night long we were basically in a submersible underneath the yoan. But it wasn’t until… many many… many years later that I realized that there were… that lots of kids played some version of “the floor is lava” and that it was– it was like a thing, but, but again, I don–I can’t– I don’t have any recollection of anybody ever teaching us that game or telling us about it… or even playing the floor is lava with any of my other friends. It was just something that was– it was part of this night-time routine that my brother and I did that– that we kinda felt like we had made up and maybe we had, you know, absorbed from the culture. I don’t know. 

Interviewer: Did um… so the bunk-beds were the submersible, so you were safe in the bunk beds? 

Dad: Yeah, the-the bunk-beds had like– yeah, they sealed up like, like fully, you know, fully shielded up against yoan. Um, and… I think, you know, my brother was older, so he was like the captain of-of our submersible and then I– you know, I had some sort of yoaman’s job of like, i don’t know, ma-maybe I ran the engines or whatever like I– yeah. I was… you know, I was crew of our-of our submersible.

Interviewer: And you were safe in your bottom bunk…?

Dad: You were safe any– if you were on either b– you know, any… either of the two beds… maybe also on the ladder, I… we never really discussed that, but if, if you- I definitely had to get into bed, make it back to the bed to be- for us to put up the sh- I don’t know, close up the doors of the ship… You know, it was kinda sealable, the ship, so that it could be submersed in yoan for the night. It, you know, it could travel through the yoan too, like it would, it would sort of like, you know like-like a submarine, it could like explore different places and things like that. And I think we were able to see thro– even though the yoan, in my mind, even now is pretty opaque, and actually more of like a yellow color, for whatever reason, than a red, but the yoan w– you know… once we were fully submerged, we could see through the yoan as though it were, you know, a submarine under water. 

Anaylsis

This bedtime routine is a unique version of ‘the floor is lava’ game. It is interesting that my dad doesn’t remember learning this game from anyone else and did not know that it was a game people played until he was adult, but that is a common occurrence in folklore.

As my dad alluded to, it is likely that this game served as a way to get the young brothers into bed at night in a way that felt playful and fun. This behavior was also likely encouraged by their parents who appreciated a break from telling the wild kids to get back in bed