What is your "swing"......your lark, your childlike romp?
Do you know that, as usual, when Fall arrived this year, I found myself walking on the sidewalk veering toward the biggest, crispest leaves so I could step on them and hear the CRUNCH!? It's true. I guess we never get too old for some things.
Nor do we want to. Right?
Z
35 comments:
Good thing that's a bus stop, as it would never pass muster as playground equipment for safety reasons. ;-)
The last few years my resurrected pleasure from childhood has been bicycles. The kids bought me one for my birthday ( the one size fits no one model from Walmart ) and I was instantly hooked. I'm on my second, better fit and mechanically superior, bike now and I've logged several thousand miles on every bike path, tow path, and rail trail in the area. I'm planning on a week long, across PA group ride for next fall. I'd probably be heading out now if it wasn't -2 with 8 inches of snow on the ground.
Today I made a dollhouse out of a shoebox with my youngest.
My favorite? Lying under the night sky, looking for shooting stars!
I'm waiting for someone to post some long comment that would be the equivalent of a blog post, if they had a blog, about some issue totally unrelated to this topic, in an effort to garner the attention of the many readers of this blog.
As for myself, as a child, I built things with Lincoln Logs, Legos, Erector sets, Tinkertoys.
I moved sand in a sandbox with toy trucks.
Today I design and build assembly eqipment for manufacturing and plow mine and the neighbors snow with my tractor.
I don't want to grow up.
Ed - Lincoln Logs were the best! and viburnum, I thought the same thing (don't break a hip!:) Keep jumping in the leaf pile Z.
Z - I also love the fall leaves.
We used to rake them and pile them up and burn them - that was before it was against the law.
I still have good memories about burning the leaves.
@Vib (and DaBlade): One of my Christmas memories was getting a brand new bike for Christmas.
A 26", not a "spyder" style.
Excitedly taking it out and down the sidewalk.
Hitting the ice on the sidewalk, falling and mangling the wheel with my foot somehow.
I've got my wife's "English Racer" from her childhood in the garage, and I'm restoring it for her.
We'll wait til spring.
Ah Montreal! I spent 15 years living there. The best city (in many ways) that I've lived in—excluding the fascist style politics of the province. Home of the Fairmount Bagel Bakery the best bagels I've ever tried, bar none.
Don\'t recall seeing any swings at the bus stops though. Must be something new to distract the people.
I remember pick-up sports.
Just grab your glove and head down to the park and join a game.
Pond hockey.
We worked things out on our own, didn't really bother to keep score.
Just played. It seems to be a thing of the past.
Oh, WOW, what fantastic comments, everybody! I loved reading these...
Viburnum, last time I rode I fell and broke my elbow; not a bad break, but a crack. I've not been on a bike in 16 years ;-( it's such good exercise, you're wise doing it. And fun!
Jen, I've never looked for shooting stars...how often do they happen?
Ed...so far, so good on the blog posts, huh? And they often mention some lib blogger; think that's an accident? :-)
So you're a BUILDER..terrific. I'd love to watch the snow plowed...have fun! You don't have to grow up!
DaBlade..I love to do it! Soon (but not TOO soon!), I'll look like Carol Burnett's "Mama" doing it and it'll look a tad pathetic! (not that I care that much) :-) I went to a high school dance recently; all the kids were asking me to dance with them but I KNEW "not a good look" to shake your booty in the way you did...I don't care HOW cool you still are in your head. SO, I joined in on the 'line dance' thing for 3 minutes; they were thrilled and I FINALLY had the good sense to STOP!
Waylon\; describe the perfect bagel. How the heck good CAN they get? And what do you like on yours? and toasted?
Ducky....I'm not sure why kids don't do that anymore;; probably a bunch of reasons.
Riding a bike is no different than riding a horse. Cowgirl up and get back on! ;-)
As for shooting stars, they can happen any time but you might get bored waiting. Meteor showers are more predictable. You just missed the first of the year (it peaked during daylight hours ) but here's the schedule for the rest of the year. Got a good spot to watch away from city lights?
http://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/
Ducky mentioned pickup sports.
We'd go house to house and ask kids to play. Or find and join.
The many reasons they don't now are xbox, playstation, cable, etc.
Waylon, I had a vendor stop by to dicuss a purchase and he had just left a bakery he was selling valves to.
He had in his trunk, a case of fresh Bay's bagels.
Oh they were good.
Ed, good point on the video stuff for kids, etc.
I also think it's because Moms aren't home to supervise kids outside....they weren't outside, but they knew where we were, etc.
Today, it's safer to have our poor kids glued to TV and video games...it's probably why my preschoolers where I do a 30 minute class every week are coming in (pardon the expression) DUMBER and less able to learn every SINGLE YEAR.
Also, kids don't HAVE to use their imaginations! Babies wet on their own, they talk on their own, they can't work problems out between good and bad guys because God forbid there's CONFLICT and (GASP!) a play GUN!..etc etc...
what the heck WOULD they do outside?
They're such slouches physically, they probably can't play basketball...etc.!!!
BY THE WAY: I've had too much experience this week with Auto Club, and I have to nominate its president for President of the United States..with VP being the VP of FedEx.
My GOSH, they know how to run a large company with tons of variables and personalities.........why can't OUR government? :-)
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/r/Rand-Paul-Summer-Break-101713.htm#.UshI__tdBkE
And there are some of us who take our 'swing of pleasure' and help others with it..what a GREAT pleasure this must give Rand Paul and isn't it interesting that we've not really heard of this till lately? I hadn't heard of it until today, had YOU?
Z, I take a blanket and pillow and get cozy while watching the stars. Seems like we see one streak across the sky every two or three minutes. It puts things in perspective, kind of like walking on the beach, looking out at the ocean...
I will never lose the magic of splashing in the water at the beach. It was big deal and an hour's slog to get there as a child. Now that I'm closer, summer and fall we go down to the beach all the time to walk through the edge of the surf.
Jen, I love that comparison to the ocean and walking on the beach...followed by
Baysider's comment.
Oh, yes, Baysider; as California girls, who didn't LOVE that splashing in the shallow water off LA's coast? I deprive myself too often; I'll get in the car and think "Go sit on the bluffs" but I'm busy. I've actually gone and done that maybe twice since I lost Mr. Z, who ADORED the bluffs and walked them nearly every day.
A regret I have is that I didn't want to go with him every single day, but.....it's not too bad a regret :-) And it was nice to get him home; reunions are always sweet~! It was usually time for some TV news, a cocktail and dinner.
To think we can sit on those green benches and just stare up and down the coast and think "I LIVE HERE"...But I often said to Mr. Z, who felt that about California, "it's not Paris." :-) I guess the grass can always be greener. I SWEAR there wasn't ONE DARNED DAY IN FOUR YEARS that I didn't think "man, I LOVE living here"...
EVERYBODY:
I'M IN CAPS SO YOU'LL HOPEFULLY NOTICE AND READ THIS.........
I HAVE A HOBBY I DENY ALL THE TIME. I DON'T WANT TO SAY WHAT IT IS BECAUSE I JUST DID SOME HOBBY WORK FOR A FRIEND WHO SOMETIMES READS THIS...DON'T WANT TO GIVE ANYTHING AWAY.
ANYWAY; I FORCED MYSELF TO DO THIS THING I RARELY DO (THO I'M PRETTY OKAY AT IT AND HAVE HAD SOME SUCCESS WITH IT) FOR THIS FRIEND.
I'M FINISHED...
AND THIS THING I DEPRIVED MYSELF WITH IS NOW HAUNTING ME. I FIND MYSELF MISSING IT. AT THE TIME, I SPENT SEVERAL HOURS WORKING ON THESE THINGS AND IT WAS GETTING TO BE TOO MUCH.........AND NOW I KNOW THIS WAS A GIFT TO ME...TELLING ME 'GET STARTED!'...YOU HAVE SAID FOR 10 YEARS YOU NEED SOMETHING TO KICK YOU IN THE BUTT AND GET YOU STARTED AGAIN...AND NOW YOU DID IT.
AND IT'S HAUNTING ME.
THE ONLY REASON I SHARE THIS WITH YOU IS THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING YOU'VE BEEN DENYING YOURSELF, TOO...A HOBBY, A TALENT, A LOVELY THING YOUR HEART ENJOYS.....AND YOU FIND YOURSELF AVOIDING IT. I DID~!
JUST START. DO SOMETHING. A LITTLE BIT. IT WORKS. I SWEAR!
I'M DOING THIS AGAIN SOON...AND VERY HAPPY ABOUT IT.
OH, AND TRY NOT TO PUT THE EQUIPMENT YOU NEED FOR THAT THING AWAY...THAT'S THE KISS OF DEATH TO CONTINUING WITH IT... PUSH IT TO THE SIDE SOMEWHERE ...WHERE IT'S EASY TO GET TO!
END OF LECTURE! xx
Funny that this makes PERFECT SENSE TO ME!!! Thanks, Z. Love to you! Xoxo
Jen, I am glad someone finds it pertinent and true :-)
I'll email you what I'm doing !!
Do you all know how many Americans we lost for Fallujah? it's now gone Al Qaeda ...we pulled out 2 years ago.
Good thing? Bad thing?
I'm not sure how I feel about it; unless my husband had died there fighting for it. Then I'd definitely know.
@Z:
"Do you all know how many Americans we lost for Fallujah?.."
Only because we didn't kill the dough boy imam who shot us the bird.
except that grieving young wives and aching mothers don't really care about the politics of it, do they
Z - "Do you all know how many Americans we lost for Fallujah?"
The number will always remain more than we needed to, because that number will always be more than zero.
We lost Fallujah?
How was it ever ours?
They look like a bunch of swingers to me.
Joe, I was waiting for someone to say that...and I wondered how many opened this post because of the title :-)!
Ducky, it's an expression. I'd have thought you knew that.
CI...no doubt about that..one is way too many.
So, what would you do now that this is happening in Iraq? I wonder about the Iraqis who do want freedom from Al Qaeda and who signed up and were trained by our people; I guess they're back to being scared again. First it was Saddam, now it's AQ.
re Fallujah; a little good news is that Iraqi police and military and tribesmen are fighting like hell against AQ.
I think that's really maybe even a little more than 'good' news...
Chasing girls (harmless these days) and working on and building things.
fallujah? When we went in the first time, we knew there were no one there but al queerda, we should have B52'd it and tossed them a few million to rebuild that slum, if we thought saving a mud hut in a slum was worth even a single American life. Instead we go house to house? Seems insane to me.
IMP, yeah, the imam could have been taken out with a sniper and blamed on the other side for that matter. I knew as soon as I saw that vermin we'd regret not killing him.
@Kid:
What ever happened to that neutron bomb that was supposed to leave buildings intact?
People are gossiping about Obama coming back to DC without Michelle....the WH meme is that she's stayed behind as a present from him, spending time with him for her birthday. I have less problem than some do with her staying behind; who wouldn't want to with the weather in DC??
But what irks me is that they're saying it's HIS PRESENT when I BELIEVE we are paying for it...??
If they both would have stayed there it would have been a PRESENT to all of us!
Ed, I believe it exists, but we'd never use it any more than we would a regular nuke eh?
Jon, that is FOR SURE....one way tickets, with our compliments!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MICHELLE......get the grass skirt out and STAY THERE :-)
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