Years of summer children running barefoot free in the dusty roads ‘till dusk, and the horn of the night train calls them home~
When we were walking at Crescent Beach last weekend we came around the path and there was this engraved rock, sitting right next to the path. A poignant quote, one that I can’t find the author to, it tweaks my heart strings.
It makes me wonder…..was your childhood like the quote above, running barefoot free and unencumbered for hours? Did you roam through woods, and streets until parents whistled the kids home for dinner.
We never returned until the street lights came on late at night, and no one worried about us. We slid down hills coated in dried summer grass, using old cardboard boxes as sleds. We were not allowed to go to the corner store, but snuck in there after collecting pop bottles to cash out for candy.
We were the last generation to truly feel freedom in our childhood. Swinging just one more time on the tire swing in the woods. Wandering alone all over the neighbourhood, in and out of houses.
Returning home with dusty feet, skinned knees, and sap in our hair from climbing trees.
Sleepovers were organized in seconds, no meeting of parents, no cell numbers exchanged, we slept outside under the stars in our backyards.
We roasted hot dogs in fires, fished from community ponds, and learned to swim in public pools. We lived our childhood, every last minute of it was loved.
…until the horn of the night train called us home.
Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams
what a beautiful word smith you are.You painted a beautiful picture with your words,, thankyou for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteSuch a wonderful post, Jen. This was my childhood as well - except it was OK to go to the corner drugstore. We came home covered in dirt & smiles.
ReplyDelete:)
~ Zuzu
I love that quote. How true. And how sad that ours was the last generation to enjoy such carefree (and worry free for our parents) freedom. I grew up in the city and we had a curfew depending on the time of year and daylight but we were free to go to a known friend's house on the next block and played hide and seek at dusk. It was often our mother calling us to come in as the traintrack was farther across town. I remember one night I was sleeping over at my friend's on the next block, really just across the street and got homesick so I just got up and walked home :) in the dark! We also walked 2 blocks to the little store to buy penny candy. :) Thanks for the memories stirred up in my mind today. Pamela
ReplyDeleteThat is an especially suitable quote for your area, with the night train passing through. I wonder if it's a local poet who had his or her words engraved in the stone as an anonymous gift to others who enjoy that path.
ReplyDeleteI played outside until the street lights came on, but my playtime was spent on city streets. Not quite the same.
What a wonderful quote and it does bring back memories. We use to run all over the place when we were young too. Never had a worry. I wish the kids today were able to be as free as we were back then. Now there are too many worries about bad people to let them run. We ran around in the woods play acting and swam in the streams. Swinging on grape vines. Ahhh, the good old days.
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe you used cardboard boxes for sleds! We did too. They are so fast on dried grass. LOL!
Ah, your post takes me back to my childhood. Those were the days indeed! I loved trips to the corner store (probably about 1/2 mile away) we would get our handful of change and spend ages trying to decide over the mint leaves or the jaw breakers.
ReplyDeleteAh yes! I had the luxury of being a city girl and a country girl on summer vacation from school. In my city neighborhood, we'd skate on a huge slate sidewalk around the block, and my mom would whilsle when it was time for supper.
ReplyDeleteIn country,my cousins and I would shimmy down a forest hill side, and pick black raspberrries untill we had our fill, tehn jump in the clear crystal water below. Never a care.
You are an artist of words and memories Jen...I too love that quote as it captures my childhood so poignantly. After our "chores" were done, we were free to roam far and wide. Since I grew up on an 80 acre far, it always meant roaming "far" - through paths we made through the woods, for miles on dusty country roads. We learned to tell time by the sun (funny - kids didn't have watches back then) - when it reached a certain point in the sky (which changed with the seasons), and depending which route you needed to take to get home, you knew when you needed to head out. And we knew our "neighbors'" properties - house, barn, shed, streams, etc. as well as our own - who had newborn kittens; whose bull was not to be trusted; and whose family had enough money to stock Schwan's ice cream bars and popsicles in the their freezer. Thanks for the step back today....I regret today's youth will never experience those joys and life molding lessons....Smiles & Hugs ~ Robin
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post, Jen, and all the comments that followed. I too was from that carefree generation. My best friend had a pond we swam in. She lived 2 miles away, and we would walk to each others houses. All those memories, and such great ones. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteRock engraving. . . a thought for a new art adventure. . . never thought of it before, but I LOVE that rock.
~a
No trains or towns near where I grew up..we could stay out barefoot in the summer until the mosquitoes chased us in for the night.
ReplyDeleteYour childhood sounds ideal..:)
I remember when my child was small she begged to take off her rubbery shoes so she could run barefoot on the beach … I was to worried about her feet being cut by broken shells and glass. Now I think I should have let her run free.
ReplyDeleteA beautifully written post Jen! Your post pulls at my heart strings as much as the quote on the rock did for you. We moved a lot during my childhood... A LOT. But the happiest memories I have are when we stay settled long enough for me to have moments that you described. That's when I felt like a child the most.
ReplyDeleteCindy at Rosehaven Cottage
yes, i remember the carefree years. mine were not quite as adventurous as yours, however, we did build cubbie houses in the bush across the road from my house (the bush now replaced with houses sadly) and there was a wonderful huge old mulberry tree we would eat from and collect leaves for our silkworms each year. and we caught little fish in the creek for our aquarium. those were the days. sadly the way the world has changed, i cannot safely offer my children the same freedom. have a great weekend! Jane x
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written, Jen! And so true. I was able to have the childhood you described and I believe it's what helped me keep my sanity. Being with the elder occupants of what was called home, was, well, let's just say, not pleasant. Although I didn't know it at the time, whiling away the hours outdoors was my therapy. Still is!
ReplyDeleteI love the engraved rock. Kudos to the kindred spirit who put it there! Thank you for posting this!
Such a wonderful discovery on a wonderful day at the shore. I'll be walking the shores in BC in November, we'll be visiting family and new grandson in Sooke.
ReplyDeleteWonderful post! Makes me want to be a kid again. I had a great childhood! Couldn't wait to grow up and now I will be 60 on Oct 23 this Sunday. I want to go back to those days and visit. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteYour post evoked memories of my own childhood, the sounds and scents were within reach! My children are lucky to have the same freedoms, with space to roam they take a little picnic off with them and come home when they are hungry again!
ReplyDeleteJen, That was a simplier sweeter time in life. Gosh it was good. Who ever wore shoes in summer?lol.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memory.Smiles, Susie
Oh Jen this quote brought tears of happiness to my eyes. Yes my childhood was exactly like that. We roamed the streets, woods, creek and everywhere in our neighborhood we could and we never came home until the street lights came on. We had a short time frame once they were coming on...of course my mom rang this enormous bell on the garage to call us to dinner. I grew up in a suburban semi-rural neighborhood housing tract in Northern Indiana and was a tom-boy, dirt caked kid...
ReplyDelete... until the horn of the night train called us home. Absolutley! Love it.
ReplyDeleteHave a beautiful weekend ~
TTFN ~
Hugs,
Marydon
Jen, thank you for this post! Sad but true. My childhood was happy. We could go to the woods to pick up berries, nuts and mushrooms. We could walk to school alone. My boys don't have such freedom, but at least they can ride their bikes and go on the trail...(here comes sad part) within our gated community... They also like to roast marshmallows and watch bats, frogs, squirrels and rabbits. I am glad that I am not a soccer mom and they have time to be on their own (again - within our gated community)...
ReplyDeleteYou brought back all the memories of my carefree childhood! I just went back to Washington State and found the house I grew up in and the woods and neighborhood where we spent endless hours just playing and being kids. It was so fun to remember the "good ole days" when our moms weren't worried about our every move. Definitely slept outside under the stars and didn't come in until we had to. Thanks for the reminder :))
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful quote and reading your post of course brought me back to my childhood.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad that the children of today cannot experience that freedom that most of us took for granted at the time.
Jen - you struck such a nerve (in a good way) with this post. How true this is ... 'carefree', so well said. You've touched every reader and given us so much to smile about. Thanks! :)
ReplyDeleteAs I am reading this a local train is blowing his horn. Eerie.
ReplyDeleteWe would hear the nine o'clock gun and then would usually go home and try to negotiate a little more time.