Missing 6

Today as I was perusing the internet for the something to quell my boredom I came across an article about a little girl in Stapleton, Colorado who is spending some of her summer days writing on the sidewalk with her chalk. Some of the residents in her neighborhood actually want to ban sidewalk chalk because it makes the area "less pleasant". I am completely outraged by this. In this same article was a link to a story about a neighborhood in Boston that wants to ban ice cream carts in the park. As you read the article it becomes clear that these parents (uptight trophy wives) don't actually want to deal with their children. One parent is quoted in the article by saying "I should not have to fight with my children every warm day on the playground just so someone can make a living!" This just made me want to scream "WHO THE F*CK ARE THESE PEOPLE?!?"

It made me remember my childhood days.......... When that hauntingly cheerful music would fill the air on a hot summer day you knew what to expect. The ice cream man. Some afternoons my parents would buy my sisters and I ice cream and on other days we would sit sullenly as the truck just continued on down the street. If we even thought about throwing a fit or fighting with them about it; we were punished. Not the flipping ice cream man. I don't even remember my parents running down the street and telling the ice cream not to come back because he made my parents life a living hell. But wait that was back in the days when people still took responsibility for their actions and the actions of their children. I'm about to miss the point of this post, but damn did it piss me off!!!!!! The only time I remember a person chasing down the ice cream man was at my older sister's graduation party and that was fall on the ground funny!!!

But anywho these stories about stealing youth made me reminisce about my childhood. And I can't tell you how much I would prefer to be that six year old little girl again, especially on hot days like today.

I remember actually waking up early not because I wanted too, but because I had actually slept all I needed to. The mornings were still cool and the breeze held the aroma of tree blossoms, pollen, and the unexpected. My hardest decision was whether or not I was going to the park to play or go to the pool. Sitting in the kitchen for breakfast full of energy that made me fidget restlessly as I counted down the seconds to my outdoor freedom. On my swing set I could be whomever, or whatever I wanted to be. Armed with chalk I could create in color the worlds I dreamed of. On really hot long days, we would set up the "poor mans" slip and slide in the yard. I promise a large blue tarp is a million times better than the slip'n'slide you can buy at Toys'R'Us. All three of us girls could go down at once. The endless adventures we spent had on our bikes, one of us ended one of those adventures in a pond. The tunnel of the unknown at the top of the street. Christine was the only one of us that was brave enough to go past the light in that tunnel. The day I snuck in and out of my neighbors garage because their cat had just birthed kittens and I couldn't stay away from them! The ice cream man and the limitless possibilities for a cool afternoon treat. My red cowboy boots. Climbing trees and screaming for my dad to get the ladder to get me down. The scary neighbors and the wonderful ones. Mrs. Burcar who lived behind us and let us eat to our hearts and stomachs content off her raspberry bushes. The weird neighbors that moved in a dug a pit in their yard to host a nude mud wrestling party. The apple throwing squirrels. Our landlord, Wes, who probably had a bigger imagination than I. Eating dinner on the porch and dessert at dusk. Listening to the sprinklers as I lay in bed just before the sandman paid a visit.

Oh how I miss 6!!!!!!!