Nature brings a boy in tune
My parents bought me a swing set, mini sliding board, and a bizarre sled contraption in the backyard. The sled was a small open platform that your butt just barely fit; the wheels would lock into a metal track. So you’d lift this sled (weighing half as much as I), climb three steps, lock it into the track, get on, then try and push it forward using your hips and butt. You were rewarded with a 5 second ride, that didn’t even last as long as reading this paragraph.
However, our backyard was shade-deficient.. In later years, my father openly admitted he hated trees. Trees shed leaves ‘everywhere’, placing intolerable stress on his body to use a rake. The front trees came with the house. Backyard was the owners’ decision. So you’d play and sweat. Friends came and never stayed long.
A few feet away from my swing was THE FIELD. Open, virgin ground as long as the entire block and three blocks deep. Near my end of the field was a circular patch of tall trees and a path that ran through it–made, no doubt, by trailblazers from the 1950’s who had now moved on to become warriors fighting against Communism. The back of the field was a straight line of scrubs and the nastiest sticker bushes east of the Mississippi. No sounds emanated, except birds’ songs and the rustling of underbrush when the wind blew. Rabbits and groundhogs were common. One long-lived groundhog gained the nickname ‘Watcher of the Skies’ in the 70’s for constantly standing on his back legs, surveying his realm. In the fall, you would be startled by the squawks of mating pheasants–their tail feathers were a good source of ‘show and tell’ material.
Standing there looking at the grasses and trees, tasting the silence, I must have thought I’d received the keys to the other half of the sky. Picture those wonderful moments at the start of Silverado or The Last Emperor where the vista envelops you. Not only did the field host endless games of army/spy or hide and seek, but I would walk solo through the weeds and sit in trees’ shade as often as I could. The silence and breezes filled me with calm and peace. In the circular patch was a huge rock that was very flat and made a great place to hang.
Next time: Other young cast members!