Rainy Days and Hopscotch

I walked the dog in the rain just now.
Well, not rain,
but enough mist that I had to carry an umbrella.
A small white umbrella with multi colored polka dots.

My neighbors already think I'm nuts,
so this will add to the fire.
I only walked him now,
because I gave him a bath when we got home!

As we walked around the block,
the house that is as far away from me on the circle I can get,
the one that is always decorated seasonally,
(I used to be that house when the kids were small,
I long to do that again, and tell myself
when there are grandbabies around I will),
lives a young woman who is always sitting by the front door
in a folding lawn chair,
talking on her cell phone,
who smiles and tells me I can put Chuck's poop bag in her garbage.
She has three kids, all under highschool age.
The little girl, I would guess is ten.
She is not allowed to play with the little girl across the street
unless they play in her yard.
Mom doesn't like the parents.

I looked down at the rainy sidewalk,
and smiled at the remains of a slightly crooked hopscotch board.

For a fleeting moment, I wanted to toss a stone and play.
My feet and wise mind told me to think again.

However I began thinking of hopscotch, my elementary school,
and rain.

There was an elaborate hopscotch board
painted behind the school in the playground.

It was huge and hard.
It had at least 30 numbered squares, and we all loved playing.
We would draw a regular board near the big one,
in case it was full up that day with children faster than we were.
I have looked and tried to remember how that board was drawn,
so I could share it with my kids.
No luck.
I wonder if it is still there.
I'll have to check when I go back to Pittsburgh some day.

Thinking of that playground started my brain to whirl with memories.
I remember playing Chinese jump rope.

Remember the one with the stretchy circle of a rope that two people
put on each ankle, then the third had to jump in and on and out of the circle,
each time the rope would get higher and higher
until the sequence was messed up.

We also were very good at double jump rope, with the songs that went with them.
Do children even play these games anymore?

This brought me to remember the circle monkey bars.
Not so much the bars as one particular friend.
The taunt "Martha Lou wears Winnie the Pooh"
sticks in my head.
Poor little girl!

I would pay anyone to make a pair of Winnie the Pooh underwear in my size!
Children are so mean.
Martha Lou became a Rochette in high school though.
One of the popular teens.
Her childhood taunts didn't get in her way,
or they helped her to get where she was.
I always remember her as being very nice, even in high school.

I got my first kiss hiding from the downpour of rain
in the "castle" of the play ground.

I remember swinging as high as we could on the swings,
then daring to jump off, even though we were strictly told not to
by the playground guardian.

I took tennis lessons in the summer at my elementary school courts.
It was so hot!

I remember a cake walk at the end of the school picnic. 
I won a goldfish.
I think everyone won a goldfish.
No one would be there during the summer to take care of them,
so this was the best prize.

I remember playing farmer in the dell in a big circle of my class,
in the front of the school.

I remember playing with the parachute in the gym.
How fascinated I was sitting under that colorful fabric,
just waiting for it to float down over me.

I remember playing some kind of ball, but we had to sit on scooters.
Do you remember those scooters?
Little square pieces of wood, no more than two inches off of the floor?

I remember going to the school on the weekends with my sister
and hitting tennis balls on the wall outside of the gym.
There were no windows on that big brick expanse.
We played until all of the balls were lost on top of the flat roof.

Bob, the old crossing guard, was there until after I ended High School
Such a sweet old man.

I remember having a party for my first grade teacher who had been out sick for months.
A girlfriend, Beth Mack and I, made up a skit, using the
All in the Family Theme song.
Why we ever chose this song, I have no idea...but it was fun!

We spent hours on a sign made up with copy paper.
Welcome Back Mrs. Hoffman...each letter on a separate page,
colored with flowers, and squiggles, taped all around the room.

I loved elementary school!
I love remembering.
I hope children today are making great memories!

I am blessed!