Playland

CHILD'S PLAY

 

School days were still so far away. I wanted them to come faster but, in the meantime,  Easterwood Park was waiting for me. 'Roz, let's go. We can get the bean bags before Shirley gets there.' And off we ran, hand in hand until I stumbled, skinned my knee, spit on my handkerchief to clean away the little blood' and ran on. Darn it. Ira got the bean bags before us but he let us play and when Shirley came we had 2 teams. Naturally, Roz and I were one, Shirley and Ira the other. We lost.

 

The sliding board beckoned as the sun wasn't high yet and we could fly down it without burning our tuches. The sand we landed in was cool so we built a few castles with our hands as we hadn't brought our buckets and shovels. In fact, we didn't like to bring them anymore as the other kids thought we were for babies.

 

A few swings were still empty.  Before there were none left, Roz and I each grabbed one and swung and swung. Both of us liked to break the rule and we would stand, bend, push ourselves higher, and higher, never falling off. That tired us out and we took a little rest under the big oak tree near Bentalou St.

 

I looked up to the blue, blue sky and saw Santa Claus. In front of him was a big dragon. This was as good as going to the movies as the dragon, right before my eyes, turned into a rabbit. Before I could even point the rabbit out to Roz it became a whale and the whale swam away. In its place was a devil with horns and chasing the devil was a big clown with a tall hat. Where did they come from? Where did they go?

 

The wind began to whistle. The clouds got darker and darker. Thunder started to rumble and Roz and I ran as fast as we could into the little supply house. Miss Glazer let us in, gave us crayons and paper to keep us busy until the storm passed. And when it had gone, the air smelled so clean, so good, Roz and I decided to walk home rather than skip. It was such a good morning.

 

And the sky movies were free!