Growing Up

I remember loving my childhood--absolutely loving my childhood--pretty much until puberty hit.  My dad built roads for a living back then, and it was pretty obvious when you'd look in our back yard.  We had the backyard that a kid dreams of:  there were piles of every kind of rock, dirt, clay, mud, sand--you name it--at all times in our yard.  I remember my brother burying me in the sand every single day after school and then going off and leaving me there lol.  God, he was such an ass.  I remember playing in wet cement if you can believe that.  I remember rock hills that seemed like they were 20 feet tall and so long that the neighborhood kids would all make trails up, down, and along the piles.  I honestly don't know how nobody broke a bone or a neck on those hills.  This was back before your best friend or neighbor would sue you for negligence if THEY did something stupid on YOUR property and got hurt.

One spring/summer, Dad had had this tremendous rock pile  in the back yard and, I guess, had dug it out little by little.  What's strange is that I remember it was kind of horseshoe shaped; it had been dug out in the center but still had these gigantic hills all around it in the shape of a horseshoe.  Well, I've already talked about Louisiana summer showers, and we had definitely had some then; because the middle of that horseshoe was at least six inches deep with water.  We rode our bikes all through that thing--up and down, across, in and out--it's such a vivid memory and must have been 25 years ago.

All of memories of childhood are of being outdoors in the afternoons.  I don't know why or how I became an "indoor" person when all of my childhood recollections are of being outside.  My parents bought two old houses and fixed them up for years; I remember that too.  I remember the builders pouring cement, Dad sawing cypress, all us kids painting walls, etc.

And our town felt so safe; it still is in a lot of ways.  I guess part of it was my childhood blissful ignorance.  I never knew fear or pain or anything.  Nowadays, it seems like the whole world's out to get you lol.  Or sue you for something.