Being the youngest in the family I couldn’t wait to grow
up and do what the older kids did. I always had to go to bed earlier, just when
the fun seemed to be starting! What did they do after I went to bed?
Sometimes my older sister would be nice enough to tell me.
(Oftentimes she wouldn’t tell me because SHE was the older sister and she
wanted to make sure I remembered that!) Sometimes if she was in a good mood and
I was still awake when she came to bed she’d tell me. Sometimes I’d sneak out
of bed and peer out the window. I quickly learned if you kept the lights off in
your room you could see out but they couldn’t see you! Our bedroom was on the
corner in the front of the house so I only had a partial view of the side yard,
not really good enough to get the full scoop. But enough to tell…
I could hear their screams and sometimes be lucky enough to
see a random neighbor or one of our own race down the side of our “football
field” sized yard. Well, when you’re a kid it seemed like it was the size of a
football field. It was long and rectangular with no trees to mess up the center
field. It was the perfect field actually.
So perfect that we had the best backyard in all of the neighborhood.
That’s one reason the kids always came to our yard to play.
As darkness fell the big kids all congregated in our
backyard. It seemed like there were swarms of them. If I was still taking a
bath I could hear them from the bathroom window. I would do my best to listen.
No splashing in the tub now! This was time to eavesdrop and find out their
secrets. They were forming teams. Sometimes it was “us” vs “them” (we had
enough kids in our family for an entire team) or sometimes it was “boys” vs “girls”
or other times, just random teams.
Once the teams were settled there was some whispering (darn
it, I couldn’t hear!), then they’d all split up. What came next? I couldn’t
see! I was stuck in the tub and the window was too high to see out. I had to
rely on their sounds. When you’re deprived of your view, sounds become more
important I quickly discovered. I got really good at listening.
Never fail it seemed like the knock would come on the door
for me to move on out of the tub and on to bed just when it was getting good!
The screams started and haphazard lights emerged in the sky. What were they
doing??? I’d race to my room and peak out the corner window. Oops, forgot to
turn the light off! If they spotted me
they’d clam up. Gotta take cover! Turn off the lights! In a few stolen moments
before I had to climb into bed I’d crane my neck to figure it out.
Then finally the day came, I was old enough! I had graduated
into “big kid-dom!” I could stay up late and play with the big kids! Now the mysteries
of the universe would be revealed! This would be the BEST summer ever!
