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Griffin Daily News
June 4, 2000

For the lazy days of summer we are entering, I wish the following:

I wish that every kid could have a branch or creek to dam up and spend hot days swimming and cooling off under the trees. Every parent would take time to take a kid fishing at a local pond to catch little bream barely big enough to get on the hook. All kids and adults could sit around an ice cream churn anxiously awaiting the moment the cold container top is wiped clean of salt and the fantastic tasting sweet treat is scooped into their awaiting bowl.

I wish that everyone could spend time in a corn field, pulling the mature ears and carrying them to the house to shuck and drop in boiling water, then eat them as soon as they are taken out. That every family would load up into a car and drive into the mountains of north Georgia to see the sights, picnic by the road and explore unknown wonders.

I wish that every kid could spend time catching frogs and building sand castles for them. That every kid could spend at least one night collecting fireflies and call them lightning bugs, and put them in Mason jars, and not have to spend money on some fancy store-bought "lantern" to hold them. That every kid could sit beside an ant bed and wonder how they can coordinate their movements without talking to each other.

I wish that everyone could sit around a wooden table under a shade tree in the yard and eat a slice of ice cold watermelon, straight from the refrigerator, so cold it hurts your teeth when you bite it off straight from the rind. That everyone could play in a baseball game with a ball so ragged you wonder how it holds together, and with bats scared from repeated swings - at trees, rocks and other assorted things.

I wish all kids could play a game of hide-and-seek, using trees, bushes, ditches, well houses and other places to hide - without parents having to worry about them. That everyone could take a cold drink out of a machine and sit on a bench in front of the store and feel the wonderful fizz as it goes down a parched throat.

I wish every kid could get on a bicycle and ride to town to get a cold drink - and that every person they saw on the road and in town knew them, their parents, and probably their grand parents. That any kid dared not get into too much trouble because they knew any adult seeing them would act just like their parent and spank them - and they would get another one when they got home.

I wish every kid could catch crawfish in the branch and take them home in a jar, then try to figure out what to do with them without getting pinched. That every kid could sit in a back yard swing and watch squirrels scamper up a tree and birds glide through the air, and wish they could do the same - and wonder why they can't learn how.

I wish every kid could climb trees in their yard and build a tree house that, in their eyes, is better than the most fantastic mansion ever seen. That nails and hammers and boards were always available for any project they wanted to work on, and that an adult would always be there to help them when they needed it.

I wish every kid could find a bird nest, and marvel at the delicate eggs, and wonder how a bird could ever hatch from them. And that every kid would find a baby bird that had fallen from its nest, and worry about it and carefully put it back, and see the mother bird come back and feed it.

I wish every kid could camp in their back yard, putting up a tent that had the smell of years of camping memories. That they could giggle and talk all night, finally going to sleep just before dawn, something each had promised the others not to do. That they could wake up and build a fire and cook breakfast - the most fantastic food ever eaten. It would include eggs burned in some areas and runny in others, toast black on one side and covered with ashes on the other, rubbery bacon and warm milk.

I wish I could be a kid again!

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Till next time, Gone Fission'!

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