I was just outside at six A.M. doing some stargazing when I realized just how magical everything seems in the dark hour before dawn when everything is quietest and you have the whole world to yourself. Even the cold haze surrounding the streetlights seems alive and the full moon seems garishly, impossibly, absurdly bright. Night has always been special too me since I was little. I always used to make a habit of staying up all night on friday nights to read and be ready for cartoons in the mornings. I’d have the whole house to myself like I owned it and I was free to be with my own thoughts. I rather miss that along with playing hide and seek in the evenings darting in and out between the row of pine trees in the backyard. I wanna find a bunch of people who still indulge in play.
“Backward, turn backward, Oh Time in your flight…” Would that we could. Your imagery is engaging, I can’t wait to see what other posters come up with. My recollections, some of which are very citified, street games like Deadman, stickball, Buck-buck; Mom and Pop candy stores; sitting out on the front step in nice weather[along with all the other neighbors]; waiting for the latest comic books to go on sale at Joe London’s,;the best banana splits from Vito’s; going down the Lakes, and many more lost in the mists of time. This trip down memory lane puts me in mind of an original Twilight Zone about a group of seniors wanting to feel yound and vital again, by playing a beloved childhood game. One of the more touching of Serling’s output. Guess I really can’t enjoy these things again, except in my vivid memories, and thank og for those. Much obliged for the opportunity to take up the things of a child.
I have only recently rediscovered the joys of predawn. I have always loved night too, but my lifestyle has made me change my bedtime. But oh the mornings! Sometimes I walk in the brisk cool, looking at all the sleeping houses, sometimes greeted by other early risers. You can hear everything! The sprinkler a block away, the wind in the trees, the chirping of a sleepy bird.
I, too, remember childhood games like hide and seek, and various forms of tag. Freeze Tag comes to mind! We had an overgrown bayou behind our house, and explored its jungle many, many times.
I had a great childhood.
Oh, yeah, **quiltguy, ** just wanted to say that I loved that episode!