“Part of the urge to explore is a desire to become lost.”
The rain has stopped but the day is still damp and cloudy. There is such an after storm stillness that even the leaves aren’t moving. I was on the deck for a bit this morning and was surprised by how warm a morning it is. Today is a free day. I have no lists.
When I was a kid, we roamed a lot on Saturdays. On days like today my sneakers and the bottom part of my dungarees would get soaked. I never cared. The best part of being a kid was needing no sense of style or fashion. Dirt was acceptable. Fields and woods were for exploring, and rain was never a deterrent, at least not misty rain or, as my mother called it, spitting rain. The leaves always glistened when it rained, and I remember slurping rainwater from the leaves when I got thirsty. We wandered far afield usually staying in the woods or along the railroad tracks. Once we found a raft and used it to pole around a pond. The raft was made from an odd combination of wood pieces, and there were holes between the pieces so our feet were always in water. We poled a couple of times around the pond and then put the raft back where we had found it. At the swamp, we jumped across the little canals from one island to another and went as far back as we could until the underbrush was too thick and there were thorns. It was only in the winter that we could follow the swamp to where it ended.
My town had a box factory and two factories which made chemicals and all three of those factories were by the railroad tracks. We used to see the people from the box factory on their breaks. They’d be sitting outside on the steps talking together and smoking cigarettes. The factory was at the end of the tracks near what used to be the station. The windows were too high for us to see what was going on, but there were piles of unfolded boxes stacked on the loading dock. Two railroad cars were always on the tracks across from the factory. They never moved, and I don’t think they were ever used for anything. We couldn’t get into them but we did climb the steps and look wistfully inside.
We were gone all day, but my mother never worried even though she didn’t know where we were. When we were leaving, she’d ask where we were going. We never knew so our answer was always,”Around.”
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
June 14, 2014 at 1:36 pm
We roamed too and usually in the big park nearby. It was more like a huge forest in the middle of teh city and it had a small zoo with mostly nordic wild animals but also cows, goats and horses. But the forest was the place we mostly roamed around in.
Too manby factories in Gothenburg to notice any but we had the harbour, lots of ships comming and going. The America Line had its main port there and it was always fun to see when those ships left. One never knew when a star would follow the ship to the other side of the ocean.
The day became rather wonderful when the wind finally calmed down. I’ve mostly relaxed but I’ve also planted some tiny trees that I one day hope will become big 🙂 But I’ve realised that I don’t have the space for more trees so from now on I’ll sow seeds from bushes 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
June 14, 2014 at 2:11 pm
Christer,
Forests seem to attract kids from all over. You never know what you’ll find. We hd a zoo but it was way at the other end of town. That didn’t stop us-we walked all the way.
My father lived near the port of Boston when he was growing up, and he used to get stamps from the sailors.
I read where you were planting the small trees. I wish them well in the ground. We still have a warm, damp day.
Have a great evening!
June 14, 2014 at 1:49 pm
Like you my friends and I would go exploring on our bikes on Saturday afternoons. In those different and simpler times we would leave the house after watching the Saturday morning cartoons and return in the late afternoon. We would either pack a sandwich or buy some candy along the way. There were no child predators lurking in those days and the neighbors looked after all the kids in the neighborhood. We didn’t have any factories nearby so we missed out on that adventure.
When I moved to Texas in the spring of 1953 my mother bought me dungarees. No one knew what I was talking about since the word dungarees doesn’t exist in the Texas lexicon. In Texas today as in those days we wore Blue Jeans or just Jeans for short. I don’t think the word dungarees even exists in Texas. American English is so very localized. Texans and the rest of the US population are two sets of people separated by a common language. Some other Texas terms that I had to learn early are ‘fixin’. Translation: going to do something soon. ‘I’m fixin to go to work soon.’ Or, ‘apiece’, Translation: ‘It’s down the road apiece’. Or, when asked the distance, ‘not a fur piece.’ We drove down from New York and had already been introduced to ‘Y’all’. Such as ‘Y’all come back now, hear’.
The World Cup of soccer is going on in Brazil and is drawing major yawns from people all over the US. Much of the world refers to the game as Football, or Futbol instead of soccer. However, I read this wonderful article this morning on the origins of the word soccer.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/why-we-call-soccer-soccer/372771/
I’m sure the Brazilians are having a ball playing the game in the middle of their winter.
June 14, 2014 at 2:17 pm
Bob,
Our factories look like regular buildings. You had to know what they made before you’d realize they were factories. I never heard any machinery noise from any of them.
It is so true about American English being localized. If you order a milk shake here, you don’t get ice cream. You have to order a frappe to get ice cream. In Rhode Island you’d have to order a cabinet.
All of your Texas terms are foreign to us here.
I tune in and watch pieces of the games. I will watch the US and Ghana on Monday.
My Colorado family is a soccer family. My nephew got a full division 1 scholarship at Oregon State to play soccer. His high school team was the state champ three years in a row and he was all-state from his sophomore year on.
I was in Brazil in late July, and a sweatshirt was warm enough or even too warm some days. Winter there isn’t at all the same as winter here.
June 14, 2014 at 3:55 pm
I was in São Paulo the second week in July a couple of years ago and you are correct it wasn’t even like Dallas winter. It rained and was cloudy more than cold. It gets dark early in July south of the Equator. Somehow Christmas in summer must be different. Does Santa wear a swim suite and flip flops riding a surf board? 🙂
I have heard of a Frappe for a milkshake, but what’s a milk shake, whipped up milk with syrup? If you order a cabinet does the waiter ask, oak or pine instead of chocolate or vanilla? A lot of Texas terms are just bad pronunciation of bad English. A real Texan would pronounce ‘oil’ as ‘all’ or ‘far’ as ‘fur’. They didn’t find any all on his place’. ‘Thats a fur piece down the road’.
I once was teaching some Italian students who spoke very good English and they didn’t understand my use of the term ‘gotta’ instead of ‘have to’. Even a New Englander like you understands ‘gotta’. Come to think of it it’s Brooklyn Italian when preceded by, ‘Eh use (the Brooklyn version of you all) gotta do it’. 🙂
College level soccer is like tennis or track not big money makers for the schools or the TV networks. If we didn’t have such a large Hispanic population the Dallas our professional soccer team would be lucky to draw anyone. I can’t even remember the name of the team.
I was just amazed that soccer is an English term that is used here, in Australia and New Zealand. Now the Brits have switched to using the term football like their European neighbors.
June 14, 2014 at 4:55 pm
Bob,
If it is Rio, Santa wears a thong and slathers himself with sun tan oil.
Yes, that’s exactly what a milk shake is: milk and flavoring shaken (whipped) together. I have heard people ask where the ice cream was in their milk shake only to hear the answer if you wanted ice cream why didn’t you order a frappe.
I don’t hear gotta a whole lot around here. Have to seems far more prevalent.
The New England Revolution get a good size crowd for their home games, but soccer is far more popular in the West than here. In Colorado more kids play it than any other sport. My nephew’s son started club ball at 7. My nephew started at 5.
That was interesting. It makes sense to differentiate it from American football here.
June 14, 2014 at 6:52 pm
No matter how long flyboyboy has been here in Texas, he’s showing he’s still got some Yankee left in him by not knowing what a milkshake is! It’s not milk and flavoring — it’s ice cream and milk blended into a thick drink (flavor courtesy of the type of ice cream used). I prefer the increasingly difficult-to-find malt. That’s a milkshake with malt powder or malt syrup added. I’m a purist and prefer a vanilla malt…. 3 or 4 scoops of Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream, a couple of heaping tablespoons of Carnation malted milk powder that’s topped with milk and blended to perfection. Of course, in a pinch I’ll settle for chocolate… or strawberry or peach or — heck, who am I kidding? — I’ll settle for just about any of them.
June 14, 2014 at 6:54 pm
that’s “flyboyboB”, of course
June 14, 2014 at 7:26 pm
im6,
We used to be able to get malteds at soda fountains, but there are few of those left. My favorite when I was a kid was a long marble one with metal chairs which spun. It was in Middlesex Drug Store and was the biggest soda fountain in town. I always got vanilla cokes there, and they made them at the fountain.
An ice cream-less milk shake is not a Yankee thing per se but a Massachusetts thing. I always would smile when people would sip their drinks without ice cream and then insist they had gotten the wrong drink. They had asked for a milk shake they’d say. That’s what they got.
June 14, 2014 at 7:34 pm
Depending on the flavor, but most commonly, that’s what we call “chocolate milk” here. I, too, miss those long marble counters and table with marble tops at the local drug stores. I suspect anyone under 50 has no idea what we’re talking about. Might as well be discussing buggy whips!
June 14, 2014 at 7:43 pm
im6,
The milk and flavoring got whipped on that machine with the single silver whipper so it was thick and creamy, not at all like chocolate milk.
We have a summer place which has a small counter. I go there just for the nostalgia!