When I was a kid there was nothing more joyous than the last day of school
That last minute seemed like an eternity!
I swear the clock moved backward.
Then finally…
FREEDOM!
No more pencils, no more books!
Of course there was the required summer reading to do, but wasn't the last three hours of summer vacation enough time to read Stuart Little?
The summer spread out in front of me like a big picnic blanket
A little of this a little of that
Nothing to do but think about what I was going to do....
Noteworthy achievements like:
Digging the worlds biggest hole
Seeing how many circus peanuts I could fit into my mouth
Testing the duration of a thick piece of chalk by starting a line in my driveway and ending who knows where
Seeing if it were at all possible to do a 360 on my swing set
Making a tree house out of odds and ends around the yard
Finding out if I could somehow contact my dead pets from the great beyond
Making the world's longest dandelion chain
Ditto the gum wrapper chain
Unraveling a baseball to see what was in the middle
Listening to every record I owned at every rpm.
My summers were filled with endless quests for meaningful nothingness.
Today I am sitting on my porch and there is not a kid in sight.
No whooping and hollering.
No skateboards or bikes.
No scooters or trikes
The quest for the world's biggest hole has been "ditched" to make way for the quest for the world's greenest lawn
Clotheslines that used to serve as the world's biggest slingshots are frowned upon or downright banned in some neighborhoods
That's a shame
I feel like picking up a piece of chalk
And starting at the end of my driveway
Making a line.
Not caring about:
What the neighbors think
My back
How much lead may be in the chalk
What my ass looks like stooped over
I will not care that
this is not a team building exercise
It that it will not make me a well rounded individual
Not going to care
a whit that it won't help
my daughter
get into the college of her choice
Couldn't care less
that is not an activity approved
by professionals within the community
Not gonna give a hoot that
it's not something that's going to look good on my resume
I am on an endless quest for
meaningful nothingness
Hoping to find those perfect
summers of my youth
that have somehow gone missing
Get out your piece of chalk
Join me!
Rene
Okay, I'm an IE user. Let's see if this works.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite childhood pastimes was digging a small tunnel between our yard and the neighbors' and then leaving notes/gifts in it for each other. (Until the day I reached in and came out with a slug. Ewwww!)
Great job capturing the thoughts of every child (from our day).
ReplyDeleteI was forever riding my bicycle. I'd ride out of the driveway first thing, with no destination in mind. Somehow I'd manage to be gone til dinner time anyway. Sometimes I think I just rode in circles while I waited for the next adventure to present itself.
oh yes, I remember it well. Reading in the summertime was a joy for me, as a child, along with sleeping in late and playing with my friends. At night, I would take my bath, put my jammies on, and play with my paper dolls before going to bed.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened? We used to leave the house and not be back til dinner, maybe come in for a snack. Yeah, sometimes we got hurt but then we learned to be more careful. Our society is so fearful now, kids can't even jump on their bike without helmets and pads, if they are even allowed to ride without a parent in tow. That's just wrong. I wonder what kind of adults the children of today will be. Soft fearful marshmallows?
ReplyDeleteAhhh summer. We're going to the circus today! I'll be sure to try and see how many peanuts we can fit in our mouths!
ReplyDeleteGreat writing, as always!
I am TOTALLY with you! Grownups ruin all the fun. I loved summers off school!
ReplyDeletep.s. Thanks for stopping by the BF's blog! I will make sure the comment problem is fixed :).
Great post! Ah, childhood.
ReplyDeleteI have some chalk in my garage. I can't promise I won't worry about my backside stopping traffic, but I will enjoy the tire screeches. ;)
Thank you. As always. Your post has cheered me so much, and yes. am going to look for some chalk, and then go and find a swing.
ReplyDeleteRene, wow, incredble psot. i love this.
ReplyDelete"Testing the duration of a thick piece of chalk by starting a line in my driveway and ending who knows where."
--I had totally forgotten about that one childlike wonder in itself. so simple, serene and captivating in itself. YES, I too want to get out my chalk, well...err...buy a stick and do that myself. How wonderfully liberating testing the duration of a thick piece of chalk by starting a line in my driveway and ending who knows where.
This posts really speaks exactly to me today, and is a perfect compliment to what I happened to jsut post in fact. :)
It was a different time then, my toys were a bat, a ball, a glove, a football, a park swing, and my friends were my team and TV was something to do when it rained, and Mom calling you for dinner was just an interrupting break in the fun! It was a great time to be a kid!
ReplyDeleteLove this, because kids don't GET to be kids any more--too structured, too many lessons, too much supervision ... Isn't childhood supposed to be about having fun? At least during summer vacation? In theory, anyway.
ReplyDeleteThose meaningless nothings are the most important things..we should all the a piece of chalk to our roads!
ReplyDeleteI am glad you shared this poem today, Rene. I really enjoyed it. Ah, I remember the summers of my youth as well. Loved that last day of school & the first day afterwards when the endless summer stretched ahead. And, yes, I think we all must have had our summer dreams & our summer goals. Loved riding my bike freely, playing kick the can, playing outside after dark. And indeed so sad that in some areas one can't hang wash on lines anymore. Nothing coming from the dryer can approach the smell of fresh line-dried sheets or blouses. Sigh. I agree that sometimes we adults should spend some time with 'meaningful nothingness' just as we did when we were kids on those seemingly endless summer days!
ReplyDeleteAh the joyous time of childhood.. something which no one can ever forget :D
ReplyDeletexoxo
Love this... with you- piece of chalk ready!!
ReplyDelete:) the good old school days.................................miss them
ReplyDeleteAh, the quest for meaningful nothingness. You have evoked nostalgia in my heart for my own childhood pursuit of similar meaningful nothingness!
ReplyDeleteOh I love the thought of meaningful nothingness.. let's get that chalk and paint the roads.
ReplyDeleteOh. How. I. Love. This. Ab-so-freaking-lute-ly!!!!!!!!! You took me back to happy summers when I would ride my bike far out into the country, park it beside a hill, climb the hell, drink from a trough, find some cows, sing to them and have them follow me back down the hill, singing, to my bike........sigh. THOSE were fun days!
ReplyDeleteYes...
ReplyDeleteZQ
This is like a throwback. My favorite is the first day of school though.
ReplyDeleteBut summer - as a kid we are allowed to be free. Time to explore, learn something outside of the clasrooms. Ah, thanks for reminding me my childhood years
Yes those days are coming up again. How I wish I could stay home and play.
ReplyDelete