Tom and Huck

Maybe you had a neighborhood like mine with tons of kids zooming by on their bikes, climbing trees, playing hide and go seek running in bands throughout the neighborhood. Or maybe you didn't. It was somewhat reminiscent of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in the summertime, kids everywhere, running down to the beach, showing up at home with dirt smeared faces and torn clothes. And this is what I hoped for my children. When I first moved into my house almost five years ago I wasn't sure that there would be many children to play with although the street was perfect, tree lined, a brook at the bottom, a dead end street, quiet. This weekend turned into a Mark Twain book and I was ecstactic. All the children were out, the weather was warm and sunny, Reese and Mosey were thrown out of the house, as were all the other kids, bikes came out, sidewalk chalk, wagons, balls, kids zooming down the street on their bikes yelling to each other as they went, the younger ones pedaling as fast as they could to keep up. Everyone ended up at my house climbing on the swingset, making tons of noise, the screen door banged a thousand times as kids came in and out for drinks of water and bathroom breaks. Mosey scraped her knee so out came the lawn blanket and some quiet games for awhile, marbles and a building set, a couple of books and popsicles. And I smiled from the front porch with my coffee. This is what I wanted for my children, dirt on their faces, bandaides on their knees, strawberry popsicle juice dripping down their chins staining their shirts playing marbles on the blanket in the spring sun. All I needed now was some whitewash to start painting the fence, aaah, now that would be perfect.