Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Once when I was little...

As you can imagine, things are getting pretty busy around our office these days. I personally enjoy it when things get a little crazy. I'm not a huge fan of down time at work...it makes the day go by SO much slower. But besides the fact that I'm not bored, the other thing about this busy time I love is when people here at Grassroots start to get a little tired and delirious after hours and hours of Fun Fourth planning. They tend to start saying things without thinking them all the way through, which usually turns into a good laugh break for all of us.

Today, Peggy admitted to everyone that as a child she used to run through pesticide fog. Now for any of you that know Peggy, I'm sure you're thinking, "That explains a lot." However, the real story is that she remembered it as such a fun childhood memory. Running out of her house in her PJs to meet all the other neighborhood kids and chase down a truck blowing poison behind it. I certainly don't understand it. But it got me thinking about the ridiculous things I used to do as a kid because I just didn't know any better. If you don't know the truck is blowing out hazardous chemicals, why not chase it? If you don't know that people drown in the deep end of the pool, why not swim out there? There are certain sweet memories created only by being young and clueless about the nature of our scary world.

For example, when I was about eight and my little brother was six we decided to play hide and seek with our babysitter. Behind our garage was a compost heap. For those of you that don't know, a compost heap is a pile of decaying food. We figured that since it was pretty big and behind a large building, on top of the compost heap was the absolute best hiding place. After about ten minutes, when our babysitter hadn't even come close to finding us giggling on top of a heap of garbage, we figured we just about had the game won. Except all of the sudden my brother started getting real itchy. I looked over to see him covered in ants. Completely covered. He of course started screaming. I of course started laughing hysterically. And yelling, "Owen's got ants in his pants!" It is one of my very favorite childhood memories. To this day, my brother can still say to me, "Hey I think I feel some ants on me," and I will burst into fits of laughter. It was stupid and weird to hide on a compost heap, but we thought it was so much fun at the time.

And the sad thing about it is I would never think to do anything that dumb today. But I probably also haven't laughed that hard in a really long time. We used to make magic soup by pouring every spice in my parents' cabinet into a bowl with water. We tried to start a restaurant once by baking chocolate cake using only flour, water, and cocoa powder. That brown mess was stuck to the pan for weeks.

One of my favorite musicians James Morrison sings, "Got such a good feeling just from playing in the dirt, once when I was little." Sometimes we have to remember to live a little more like we did when we were kids. With few inhibitions and absolutely no rational fears.

I would love to hear about your favorite childhood pastime. It doesn't have to be funny, just anything that you remember fondly about being a kid. And if you are anything like me, who is still a little afraid to grow all the way up, come enjoy all the children's bands and activities we have planned for this year's Fun Fourth. You are never too old to play with bubbles or to color.

2 comments:

  1. Anyone growing up in Houston in the 60s completely understands the lure of the fogger truck!

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  2. You are correct it explains so much about Peggy!!

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