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 days 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 too.
Grown-ups are ruining all of the fun!
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
Why
I will not care that this is not an important team building exercise or 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.
Could care less that is not an activity approved by professionals within the community.
I'm not gonna give a hoot that it isn't something that is 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 and join me!
Peace - Rene
For some reason, that I have not figured out, IE users are having tremendous difficulty posting comments. If you find you cannot and would like to comment on anything please do so at xenia6408@mypacks.net and I'll get back to you as soon as I am able...as always... you rock.
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13 comments:
Okay, I'm an IE user. Let's see if this works.
One 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).
I 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.
What 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?
Ahhh 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!
Great writing, as always!
I am TOTALLY with you! Grownups ruin all the fun. I loved summers off school!
p.s. Thanks for stopping by the BF's blog! I will make sure the comment problem is fixed :).
Great post! Ah, childhood.
I 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.
Rene, wow, incredble psot. i love this.
"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!
Love 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.
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