“Never let unexpected adventures go unexplored.”
The day is dark, and it’s already rained a bit. More is predicted for later, but I won’t complain. There are so many reasons to love a rainy day. It makes its own music. The rat-a-tat of drops falling from the eaves sets the beat. Rain on the windows is the crescendo. I like to close my eyes and listen. A rainy day invites laziness. I can never waste a sunny day sitting inside, but a rainy day is perfect for dawdling. I pored over the papers this morning, even read all the ads. I’m not dressed yet, and my bed is still unmade. I have a new book so I’m thinking my afternoon is already scheduled.
Every April vacation when I was a kid meant outside time, playing and riding bikes. Sometimes it was still cold, but that never mattered. We were free of school for a whole week, a cause for celebration. We never had plans. Life was haphazard. I sometimes think that was the best part of growing up.
Some days we played wiffle ball in the street. We’d use the new ones from our Easter baskets. The bases were rocks or trees or pieces of cardboard. The teams were small. At the most we were five: a pitcher, two infielders and two outfielders. The batter had to throw the ball back to the pitcher. There were three strikes, no balls, and we’d yell at a batter who was taking too long to swing. We’d yell stuff like, “No batter, no batter, ” and the whole team yelled and called a runner out. We’d play until our hands got too cold or we were hungry or it had gotten dark.
We’d ride our bikes all over town. We never had a real destination. We were just out for the ride. The schoolyard parking lot had a steep paved hill, and sometimes we’d head there. It always seemed fun to be at school when it was closed. The golf course wasn’t all that far, and we’d go and look for golf balls in the trees and across the road. We had our whole world to explore and all day to do it.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
April 16, 2010 at 1:26 pm
The wind reached gale here today, but otherwise it was quite nice. W´re going to get much the same weather tomorrow but without the strong winds I hope. Normally I can see a lot of aeroplanes way high up in the sky, but because of the vulcanic eruption on Iceland that spreads vulcanic ash in the air dangerous for the aeroplanes, all aeroports are closed in northern Europe.
We don´t have April vacation over here, we have Easter vacation instead, so it can be almost winter or almost summer during those vacations 🙂 But we did much the same things when I was young. But most times I spend those vacations at my frinds summer house down the coast. For me that was paradise 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
April 16, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Christer,
It has been raw all day. I was so cold I went upstairs and put on socks and flannel pants. My feet are just now starting to thaw.
Planes are grounded here as well. No flights to Northern Europe. That’s tough as lots of people travel next week, the school vacation week.
Sometimes April vacation starts the Monday after Easter, most times it doesn’t. The Monday of vacation week is Patriot’s Day here in Massachusetts. It is also the day of the Boston Marathon.
April 16, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Biking and baseball, wiffle ball, yes but it all got replaced with tennis and basketball when they opened a park adjacent to the old elementary school. The school had acres of hoops, I recall at least 20 and first in our day to have those green half courts. The park had a huge community pool and five tennis courts but even so, it was hard to reserve an hour because adults always got them over kids. I think Summer was the most fun. We didn’t have to go back to school for a long time. Spring was just tempting and was over before it started. Good post today. Rain Rain! I love the rain.
April 16, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Z&Me,
We had a town pool about as far away from my house as you could get and still be in the same town. My school had two sets of hoops in the back, all half court. Two diamonds were on the field at the foot of my street, and tennis courts were just off that field. That was it when I was a kid.
April 16, 2010 at 6:04 pm
We woke up to snow this morning up here in the Upper Valley of NH and it has been a sleety mix all day. Gloomy at best, considering the beautiful 65 degree temps of just yesterday.
Kick ball was our game, but the bases and teams resembled yours in every other way. We played in the road and had a little ditty we would all chant the second we heard the approach of a vehicle. “Car Car C-A-R, stick you head in a jelly jar”. Strikes were overly embarrassing in kick ball- swinging your leg as hard as you could and then MISSING the ball was just to much too take sometimes; I think more time was spent arguing if we would grant the “kicker” a “do-over” if they flubbed than actually playing the game!
~gretchen
April 16, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Gretchen,
It is just so cold here, that raw cold which comes with rain. I couldn’t ge warm so I put on cozies and cranked up the heat for a time. I’m finally defrosting. I don’t miss the sleet you got!
I had to laugh at your ditty. None of them ever made mush sense. “We want a pitcher not a glass of water!”
I played kickball and remember falling in the dirt once a twice when I missed the ball. It was hardly dignified.