Fascination

The wonder in a child’s eyes is very misleading. Adults ooh and awe, but they forget that the child is really thinking things like, “wow, that’s so shiny- I wonder if I touch it what it will feel like and can I play with it without getting in trouble?” I can almost imagine little boys thinking, “I wonder what a fire cracker would do to that…”

Growing up with boys as playmates can be interesting and scary. I remember always playing war games and having to be the nurse. I also remember watching D.L. throw an M-80 at my uncle and blowing his tennis shoe in half. To this day he still brags that he had to duct tape his show back together because grandpa wouldn’t buy him a new pair until school started. (Let this be a warning to parents who think it’s ok to let kids play with firecrackers without supervision).

Playing with the boys was sometimes frightening but when they weren’t there it was so dull! I remember going into my uncle’s room snooping and looking around. I wanted to sit on his bed, so I picked up his penny jar to put it on the floor and accidentally dropped it. To this day he complains about that broken jar. I mean I tried to clean it up – just because I missed one small piece of glass…