Childhood Memories: Day 734: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday

@Zeldacroft

Day 734: 5 Minute Frewrite: Thursday - Prompt: red tongue

Idyllic days of childhood. Filled with so many memories, it's hard to single out just one. The memories that make me laugh as an adult, though, are the ones that seem so childish you wonder what were you thinking. All I know is that the memories that stick out in my mind are the silly things we did to entertain ourselves.

The best time of my childhood was summer. My neighborhood was teeming with kids of all ages. You only had to walk ten steps to find a playmate. Another kid who had your same interests was just waiting for you, or come looking for you. So we created our own small group of friends the same age who lived on our block. We would play all day from sun up to sunset. Funny thing is I don't remember getting tired. Whenever we got a free moment, we'd go looking for our group to play. We divided our days into morning play and afternoon excursions.

In the mornings, we'd play baseball, football, bicycling, hop scotch, jump rope, and jacks (block champ here!). Don't forget the marbles. I had my own bag and sore left thumb. And what would fun be without me and my friend skating with only one skate. Imagine that! Finally, we constructed a swing from rope in which it had a knot on the end. We tied it securely in a tall tree with the help of my older brother. We'd spend a couple hours just swinging back and forth laughing and telling jokes. We called this contraption our "Tarzan" rope. Silly, right; but so much fun. Of course, I had to be the one to swing the highest. I guess my secret is out...I was a full-fledged tomboy, and proud of it!

In the afternoons, we would scurry down the hill on the other side of the neighborhood. Why? Because that's where the berries grew and crawfish lived, near the railroad tracks. With buckets in tow, we picked our berries. Now, time to dip our short poles in the shallow murky water. Hoping to bring up crawfish from the bubbles we saw rising up from the holes, we waited patiently. Our haul for that day would go in the other bucket. What fun we had seeing who could pick the most berries and catch the most crawfish. Of course, all the crawfish was for our moms. And the berries too, but that didn't stop us from eating almost half of them.

Time to head back home. We visited our friends' houses, one by one. Their moms would bake the most delicious sugar cookies. The aroma would float down the street as though calling us to visit that house next. When we arrived at my house, my mom took our buckets. In return she handed us the reward for our day's work.

We grabbed a couple berries. Our mouths wide, we rubbed hard. Then, we'd drink our soda pop slowly. That way, it would last long so we'd have time to run outside and show it off.

"Lemme see," they'd ask. And I would proudly stick it out and show them. "Awe," they'd say, "She got one."

Yes, Indeed! A Red Tongue.