I talked to Greg today. He told me that Richard reminded him about the "Fun Fountain" the had when they were kids. It was a clown sprinkler with a hat that shot up into the air. When they ran through the sprinkler, the hat would start to fall and then as soon as they were through the water, the water would lift the hat again and it would rise toward the sky. Sounds like fun, right?
Well, our little darlings always seemed to find alternate uses for so many things! What they discovered about the sprinkler is that if they turned the clown upside down, the concentrated spray would dig great holes in the ground. Their father was less than delighted with their creativity!
Memories about the sprinkler led Greg to memories of the "basket ball hoop" that hung on the tree in the back yard. I think it was an orange hoop - no net, that they found somewhere and nailed to the tree. Under the hoop, they put a mini-trampoline - which led to "dunking" contests. Greg, Richard, Alex, Matt and I don't remember who else (Greg H. maybe?) spent the summer running, jumping and dunking basketballs in that hoop. Scott was little, but I'm sure that somehow he was involved in the basketball summer, too.
It was amazing to watch the things they came up with to entertain themselves. I remember a lot of laughter, lots of friends around, busy summers. I know this sounds dangerously like "back in the OLDEN days, when Richard, Greg, and Scott were kids... *sigh*
It's true, though (yup... I couldn't just leave it alone). Toys didn't have lights and sounds to entice and entertain. They were just toys - toys that encouraged creativity - toys that needed lots of "kid input". Blah... blah... blah! I'm old (as if we had any doubt)! Okay... I'm done.
I'm off to remember...
No comments:
Post a Comment